The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance Trilogy, #1)

by N.K. Jemisin

I AM NOT AS I ONCE WAS. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore. I must try to remember.

There were three gods once. Only three, I mean. Now there are dozens, perhaps hundreds. They breed like rabbits.

It is not safe to hate the Arameri. Instead we hate their weapons, because weapons do not care.

We can never be gods, after all—but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.

I recoiled, and it took me another few seconds to speak through my revulsion. “Wh-whose eyes were they?” “What?” “The eyes, the eyes. Where did they come from?” The servant stared at me as if I’d asked where the moon had come from. “I don’t know, my lady,” she said after a flustered pause. “I could inquire, if you like.”

Legends say his tears are the rain that sometimes falls while the sun still shines. (I have never believed this legend, because it would mean Itempas cries rather frequently.)

The bathroom was not dark because of the glowing walls, but darkness took many forms. I closed my eyes and spoke to the blackness beneath my lids.

The Nightlord cannot be controlled, child. He can only be unleashed. And you asked him not to kill.

“You are the stubbornest, most infuriating mortal I’ve ever had to put up with!” “Thank you,” I called back.

“I’m tired of being what everyone else has made me,” I said. “I want to be myself.” “Don’t be a child.” I looked up, startled and angry, though of course there was nothing to see. “What?” “You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that and be done; I tire of your whining.”

“Love can level the ground between mortals and gods, Yeine. It’s something we’ve learned to respect.”

I can ponder for an eternity. I am dead. I have all the time I want. But I was never very patient.

“Wh—what in every god’s name—” His mouth worked. He stared. “Not every god,” I said. And because I was still me after all, I leaned down to smile in his face. “Just me.”