Aster

“And if you’ll let me, I’ll just put a little poison in her tea,” Mei was saying to Hugo as they entered the kitchen. Apollo sat next to her, ear flopped over as he looked between the two of them. “Not enough to kill her, but still enough for it to be considered a felony for which I’ll absolutely accept jail time. It’s a win-win situation.” Hugo looked horrified. “You can’t ruin tea like that. Every cup is special and putting poison in it would ruin the flavor.”
― T.J. Klune, Under the Whispering Door

“Hadia looked confused. “Then why are we going to the basement?” “Because that’s where the library is located.” “Right. And we’re going to the library because…?” Fatma fixed her best blank look. “Because it has all the books.”
― P. Djèlí Clark, A Master of Djinn

“It’s the reward of old age,” Avasarala said. “You live long enough, and you can watch everything you worked for become irrelevant.” “You’re not selling it,” Drummer said. “Fuck you, then. Die young. See if I care.”
― James S.A. Corey, Persepolis Rising

“It was the single central argument that the universe had made to her through her whole life, and she was only now seeing it clearly: Wars never ended because one side was defeated. They ended because the enemies were reconciled. Anything else was just a postponement of the next round of violence.”
― James S.A. Corey, Tiamat's Wrath