More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
July 27 - August 1, 2025
had dreamed of something powerful enough to bring the one most important person in the universe back to me.
I looked at the gold spreading across my palm with renewed horror. This thing—this was the artifact.
Home. I had never thought I would find a home.
But there was so much I couldn’t give them, because half my heart was trapped in a prison hundreds of miles away.
“The wayfinder,” the messenger said. “It has been stolen.”
“Humans absolutely cannot hold that power,” Luia said. “If they get their hands on what it leads to—”
“A key,” Luia said, at last. “A key that leads to manifestations of magic even more powerful than you.”
Death was like a lost lover. We circled each other. I craved more with every brush of its touch. All I wanted was for it to take me to its bed and never let me leave.
What if he didn’t know that I was here, loving him so much I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t live?
It was like I had been alerted to a lost piece of myself, somewhere far beyond this place.
“His heart is what truly lit the fires of war, and the fire burns because of you. The decision was for all of us, yes. But the vengeance? The vengeance is for you.”
“One hundred and eighty thousand days I have been at the mercy of human kings,” I snarled. “And if you think you are any better than any of them, you are a fool.”
Then catch a charter ship to Threll and travel north from there.
Yesyesyesyes
“Wayfinder.” “A wayfinder?” “A tool. A compass. A key that leads to other things.”
I was not made for this.
“How much?” he asked, in Thereni. In Thereni. And I understood him.
Perhaps I didn’t remember these people, but something stronger, deeper, than memory tied me to them.
If I didn’t pay attention to where I was walking, I often found myself wandering closer without noticing until I’d stop and realize that I was close enough to trace the shape of the brown-and-white skin on the back of her neck, and
Still, a stubborn smile tugged at the left side of my mouth.
The Lejaras, the three pools. One that embodies change, one that embodies life, and one that embodies death.”
His fingers rearranged to accommodate mine right away—so fast it surprised me, as if some intuitive response still remained even if his memories of me did not.
someone first tried to grab Tisaanah—perhaps thinking, foolishly, that she was the easiest target. She’d half-gutted the man before I could even turn.
“It was a gift, Max,” she murmured. “A gift to have known you. I hope that you have the most incredible, happy life. I hope you find a future worth forgetting your past. Make it worth it. Find joy. Do you understand?” In this moment,
My arms wrapped around her like the shape of her body was already a homeland I knew by heart.
But you are only one half of a whole. You cannot fly with only one wing.
my ashen son, do you know how much
A realization came to me, one that I had been grappling with for the last ten years. There was no single moment when everything changed. No single before and after. There was just… life. A million decisions and a million consequences.
“Because I realized that, even though I didn’t remember you, I knew you. That sort of thing was bigger than a few memories.”
“You want the truth? The memories are hard, yes. But none of that scared me as much as the prospect of exactly how close I came to never seeing you again. That’s what fucking terrifies me.”
If you ever have to guess what I want, or what is best for me, it is you. Alright? I have made that decision already. I do not make it lightly. Don’t disrespect that by claiming that you know better for me than I do. I have made bad decisions before. But you are not, never have been, and never will be one of them. It is always you.”
We all feel the same things, and we will still die trying to kill each other for it.”
war be damned. I wanted her—needed her—safe with me.
It’s a strange thing, to be proud of your lover as you walk past piles of slumped-over bodies, but I felt it, nonetheless.
The house was ahead of us. It was barely recognizable, a leveled pile of white rubble.
No se pq pero el poder del lejara me hace pensar en las gemaa del infinito
he seemed like he was trying to disguise his weakness. A button of his shirt had fallen open, revealing a glimpse of strange purple bruising before his hand quickly moved to close it.
Me da vibes de Zeryth de lo q le pasó
If Tisaanah was gone, my future would be too.
“And what about you? Why is it unacceptable to feed my vengeance some human bitch’s fingers, but yours can devour an entire race?”
PERIODTTT
“Our people love you, too, but they love you as a figurehead. It’s different to be loved as a person. More valuable than anything.
“Good luck, Tisaanah. Go make this world a little less broken.”
Whatever magic your precious king used to create you, it is just as dark as mine. He and I are the same. The only difference is that he succeeded in creating what I haven’t been able to.”
revealing streaks of darkness, overtaking his flesh like roots.
“That,” Caduan said, far too calmly, “was the work of a Lejara. Creation magic, to be specific.”
I knew it i knew it
There is nothing more dangerous than life that should not exist.”
“Do not fear death, my daughter. We all walk with one foot in each world. There is beauty in impermanence. And what sad lives we would live, if we never loved anything we would lose.”
“You are my home, Max. I never allowed myself to believe I would ever have one. I never allowed myself to think that I could keep one, if I did.
“You cannot possibly understand how much I love you.”
“I give you my soul. It’s not a perfect one. It’s a little messy. You inherit some scars. But… all the good parts are for you. From the minute you showed up at my door, all the good parts were for you.”
We parted, and my wife grinned at me, and I had never so badly wanted to capture a single image and preserve it forever.
Hands reaching into forces that should not be wielded, it had said, and thinning boundaries that should not be torn.
The burning girl was my daughter.
