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You are Tarisai Kunleo. And no one you love will ever die again.
‘Do not ask how many people you will save,’ ” I said. “‘Ask, To what world will you save them?’
“When Tar forgets to raise her mental shields at night, her dreams about Sanjeet do not usually involve clothes.”
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
“Tarisai, ma cherie . . . you cannot hide forever. You have been very helpful lately, though. Did you ever find my coneflower seeds?”
OHHHH FRANCE
Torchlight glimmered on her peach silk hanfu—the flowing robes of her home realm—and pearl ornaments dangling in her hair.
Asia??? Maybe Japan???
“The only difference between a murderer and a hero is who tells the story.”
Ohhhh she gOt a point
If he wanted, Sanjeet could sense the physical weakness in anyone, and to avoid the temptation of control, he had taken to cloistering himself whenever he felt angry, helpless, or both.
NOOOOO I LOVE HIM
After all”—she winked at me—“tonight’s about falling in love.”
Good line
Fear is a tool. So I only smiled, attempting to look aloof and serene. Let them be a little afraid.
Do i smell moral ambiguity
send it as a mass hallucination into the brows of every guest at my table: the massacre at Ebujo, with visions of bodies littering the temple floor, ripped apart by vengeful creatures from the Underworld.
Why whyy whyyyy
That’s Da Seo, Ai Ling Ray-spoke. The princess’s consort. Lady Da Seo lost her arms intercepting an attempt on Min Ja’s life several years ago. Afterward, Min Ja named Da Seo her equal. The Songlander court has tried to pressure Min Ja into producing an heir with a man. But she refuses. Where the princess goes, Da Seo goes.
That means theyre fucking gay. Good for them
But it won’t be my mother inside your head, Little Empress.” Min Ja flashed a mirthless smile. “It will be me.”
May i have you hand in marriage pls
“We were going to wait to announce it. But we should tell them, Ommah.”
Korea????
“If I join your council, will you require me to wed you?” If I had been allowed to drink my palm wine, I would have choked on it. “Wed—me?” I gasped. “I . . . of course not!”
SHE IS SO FUCKING GAY OMGGGGGGGGGG
“Anointed Ones swear fealty to their Raybearer, no? In mind and in body. But some of us already have spouses. Concubines.” She gestured to the retinue of pretty young men who sat around her. “Do you expect us to forsake them for you?”
THESE PPL ARE STRaight UP GOALS
“I look forward to falling in love with all of you.”
Damn me. I love him
Women together, we are . . . ” Queen Beatrix gestured airily around the table, though her fan stopped on me. “Irrational. Emotional. I can’t imagine ruling an empire with a woman. Let alone having one in my thoughts.”
WOw
And I’ve had girls in my head for years.
A little gay but ok
I forgot to tell you, Ai Ling Ray-spoke gayly. Beatrix is one of those ladies. You know—the ones who think it’s sexy to have an inferiority complex.
I CACKLED HERE
King Nadrej of Biraslov
Russia
King Uxmal of Quetzala agreed, stroking jade crystal gages that hung low in each of his ears. Embedded crystals of turquoise and pyrite flashed in his teeth.
South America???
Min Ja, Uriyah, Helius, Sadhika, Ji Huan, Nadrej, Edwynn of Mewe, Danai, Kwasi of Nyamba, and Uxmal. Zuri threw in his kola nut with a flourish and a wink.
Tar's council of 12
“It’s everywhere,” Umansa confirmed. “Alagbatos are awakening all across Aritsar, threatening crucial raw materials.”
Bitch why????
My pulse began to race. Five or six months? My council siblings had never separated for that long. Not ever. What if something happened to us?
Is this a death flag?
They . . . were excited to leave. All of them. My family wanted to flee the safety of our home. They were eager to face danger, eager to leave me.
My family missed the love-starved girl from Swana. The one who worshipped her friends, and whose anger could be cooled with a kiss. They missed the tree in its gilded pot. The girl so afraid of herself, and so grateful for a family, the world could burn to ash, and she would smile and call it paradise.
“It’s said that abiku consume lost souls. Defile, reshape them until what’s left are creatures between death and resurrection. Beings that can appear as both spirit and flesh, known for mixing lies with the truth. Tar . . . you’re being haunted by ojiji.”
Ours, they sang in wordless harmony. Tar is ours, and Tar is enough.
YALL R So cUTE
“If there’s anything I’ve learned from having eleven partners bonded to me for life,” he said gently, “it’s that there are all kinds of love, Tar. You talk about things with Kirah that you never share with Jeet. And you have—things—with Jeet . . . that you’ll never have with me. And that’s fine. We’re the only Raybearers on earth. What we have is . .
She’s pretty sure there are others like me. Some who can’t stand sex, some who like it but don’t feel drawn to anyone, and others who just . . . feel nothing.” He shrugged. “I’m the first kind. And I don’t know how to change.”
Oooooo interesting
The assassin had fooled Bunmi by knowing the correct all-clear signals, which suggested help from within the Imperial Guard. But the crown’s forces were famously difficult to corrupt. Warriors who exposed traitors were awarded with cattle fields and a noble title, the latter of which no amount of money could buy. Bribes, then, were unlikely to sway a Guard warrior . . . unless they had no need of a title. Unless, I concluded, the traitor was already a noble.
Ohohoh
Inside it glistened a putrid yellow stone, stained with blood. At the sight of it, a memory ticked in my thoughts—the glittering green gem in Melu’s cuff—the one my mother had used to enslave him. Ai Ling recoiled at the sight of it, stroking her chin in the sign of the Pelican. “Is that—is that Pale Arts?” Bunmi nodded grimly. “My warriors found this stone embedded in the assassin’s neck. It’s a practice called ibaje. Underworld artifacts bind the user to a task, give resistance to death, and bestow them with certain abilities. That explains, I imagine, why the assassin’s arrows rarely
...more
GIRL WTF???: KINDA COOL
Only one guild of assassins is depraved enough to carry them: the Jujoka.”
“Someone within the guard—likely the child of a noble—must have provided the assassin tonight’s passcodes and given him access to the rooftop,” Bunmi agreed. “But we don’t know who.”
I generally avoided thinking of my journey to the Underworld, letting the new alagbato crisis, as well as the task of anointing my own council, distract me.
So much is going in wtf
“People are dying right now,” Sanjeet said, in a voice so calm it felt cruel. “Good people. Innocent. Children you’ll never even know existed, gasping their last breath in ditches all over Aritsar. And you’ll never save them all, Tar. Whether you ride across lodestones, or make the nobles want to kill you, or hurl yourself into the Oruku Breach.”
Every time these two have a scene together i start crying because wtf theyre all so good and emotional
“Why doesn’t anyone care?” I blurted. “Why is everyone so at peace with how things have always been? Children are dead, for Am’s sake! Thousands of Redemptors who will never come back. And it isn’t just Songland suffering. It’s our people too; toiling, dying in mills and mines for generations of a greedy few. And we’re just supposed to . . . what? Sit back and—” “Let it happen?” Sanjeet finished bluntly. “Yes! Sometimes! Tar . .
AAAAAAAAAAAAASSSAAASAAAAAAAAAXVCVJKF HOLY
No human being should be reduced to a function. The day we do that—it’s the beginning of the end.”
This is getting to Artoria levels of martyrdom
The only thing more powerful than a wish is a purpose.
“I once promised,” he said, “that I would never ask you to be less than who you are. But if you set yourself on fire to warm a frozen world, I will not stand by and watch you burn.”
STARTED CRYING HERE
Now, Tari-darling, Ai Ling Ray-spoke. Are you ready to show that queen your skeletons?
Wow Ai Ling is bad ass holy fuck
In finale, a dancer leaned over each of my brothers for a kiss . . .” Min Ja’s voice shook, but her gaze was coldly peaceful. “. . . and slit his throat. They stole Da Seo’s words, and so I took their voices as payment. They bled and died before my entire court—and no one ever threatened Da Seo or my throne again.”
MIN JA GIRL BOSSES SO FUCKING HARD HOLY SHIT
You don’t get to choose why people love you. But what you do with the love you receive . . . that’s a choice you make every day.”
“It means,” she said, “that not all of us get to be noble. We don’t all get to be the selfless heroine, flitting gracefully through life, adored by all. Some of us get our hands dirty. Some of us . . .” Her voice hitched. “Have scars.” “Min Ja,” Da Seo intoned, a gentle reprimand. Min Ja colored and sucked in a breath. When she released it, her voice was as calm and cool as ever. “Forgive me, Little Empress. That was unfair. I suppose you can’t help being a saint, any more than I can help being a viper.” “I’m not a saint, Your Majesty.”
MIN JAAAAAAAAAAAA
You could be the heroine you were born to be. The one I know you are.”
A deconstruction of the heroine trope?????
Of course Dayo wouldn’t understand. No one would. Those who fought for justice were always alone—the ghosts who haunted me had made that clear.
“Mother,” I gasped. “You . . . you were one of hers.”
OMFGGGGGGGGGGGG???????
“You don’t love me,” I croaked, my shock giving way to rage. “All this time—all you saw was an extension of my mother. You love an idea of me.”
I NEED TO LAY DOWN HOLY
“I do care,” I told them, out loud. “I want justice—for you. For everyone. But I have to find a balance. It isn’t enough to pay for past abuses. I have to find a future to live for too.”
MY BABY GIRLLLLLL
Do not confuse guilt with conviction. Guilt is self-centered, and leads only to destructive obsession. But conviction brings balance—a sense of purpose beyond oneself.
