Michal

“I remember something else from the time I spent trapped. I remember Bitterblue’s voice, calling down from above. I remember how inconsolable she was, terrified that I was stranded in a place she wouldn’t be able to reach me. And I remember that even in that moment, my own pain began to shift into the wish to comfort her pain.
I lose myself in that wish. I disappear. Suddenly Bitterblue is there, and I am gone. It’s not her fault. It’s my whole thing, right? I disappear from myself. It’s a way of being I got stuck inside, a long time ago.
I’ve been thinking about how to get unstuck. Even if it hurts.”
― Kristin Cashore, Seasparrow

“Our ship is a barque. She’s a lot like a barquentine, but not exactly like. Similar in length to the Monsea, and three-masted, but the foremast and the mainmast carry square-rigged sails and only the aftermost mast is rigged fore-and-aft.
Do I sound more and more like I know what I’m talking about? The front and middle masts carry square sails that drop down from above. The back mast carries triangle sails that we raise from below, with lines I know the names of. And she’s beautiful, she’s so, so completely beautiful with the wind in her sails. She’s tried and true; she has barnacles clinging to her once-crimson hull that’s been burnished by the sun and the sea into something more weathered. Annet bought her from a wine merchant in Monport, on behalf of the queen.
Bitterblue wanted to rename her something boring, but Annet and Navi both cried out in alarm that it was bad luck to rename a ship.
I was relieved, because her name is the Fledgling.
“Silly name for a ship that’s sailed many seas,” said Bitterblue, but I like to imagine a grown bird that’s only just now learning to fly.”
― Kristin Cashore, Seasparrow

“ It’s like I’m drowning. The sadness is too great.
Girl breathing, said Hope.
She’d startled me. Dripping with snot and tears, I stared at her over my figurines. Are you listening to my thoughts, Hope?
Girl told them to me. Girl isn’t drowning. Girl breathing.
I feel like I’m drowning.
Girl’s lungs full of air. Expanding.
I took a long, deep breath, paying attention to my lungs filling with air.
See? she said. Hope right.”
― Kristin Cashore, Seasparrow

“I can't say if you're a good person or not. But the more I know of you, the more I understand that the world keeps making you choose between survival and martyrdom. No one should fault you for wanting to live.”
― Margaret Owen, Little Thieves