leia

“explored without that memorial crystal.” He picked up my foot, and he stuck my big toe in his mouth. He groaned and arched his back. “Okay,” I said, jerking back. I jumped from the pool. “Thank you. Let’s get to the healer.” Pater Coal shook his head, as if coming out of a trance. His pupils faded back into color. My head was swimming. Donut’s oak bracelet was a throwaway item we’d looted on the third floor. Katia’s crossbow had been Hekla’s. They weren’t connected... at all. I had a sense the system was pounding a square peg into a round hole, just to make a storyline fit. Or was it? I tried to remember the descriptions of both. Was it possible it had been building this from the beginning? Some massive storyline with a huge payoff?”
― Matt Dinniman, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride