Status Updates From Chalice

It's been a while since my last reread. This is probably my favorite novel, and I'm very excited to settle in for a comfy coze with this dear old friend.

I did not expect to like this book so much. I do hope the ending doesn’t let me down.

This is an absolute masterclass on how to do cosy/cottagecore with appropriate stakes

So far this book is like a honey-scented hug

I am blacker than most of the Fire priests, because there was more of me to burn. But perhaps that is also why, even from the third level, I was able to make the attempt to return to the mundane world.And now . . . it is not Fire that is blocking my way back into Willowlands, but it is perhaps Fire that burned me too well;
because I an hollow where I need to be full.

the final sentence.

The rods in the dowser’s hands draw down till they crack, and when the hole is dug the water springs up, but one must still brick in the well or the channel or the pond, or the water will spread itself out and sink back into the earth again and be lost. I do not know how to brick my channel. I feel—I feel as if I am trying to hold back a river with my hands. The Chalice energy is strong and I... am weak and foolish.

The thump was the beating of his heart. (Did priests of Fire still have hearts that beat?) His arms were around her, one round her waist, and the second gently holding her bent head against his chest. She wanted to tell him that she was awake, that he could let her go, that it was very nice of him to warm her like this—it was rather cold to be sleeping outdoors—but it wasn’t necessary. But she found she couldn’t.

And then the dream had shifted again, and she was surrounded by redness and heat. Where was the face of the man she would marry, or some sight of herself standing alone in an embroidered robe carrying a cup? She could see nothing but the peculiar undifferentiated redness. Not quite undifferentiated: there were streaks in it, fluttering, trembling, golden streaks, and a gentle thumping noise near her ear.

I am sorry for tonight, I was clumsy. It should not have been necessary to frighten you.”
“I should not have been frightened,” she said. “You had said you would protect me.
“It is to be an exchange of compliments between us again, I see Therefore I will say that your courage astonished me."
"Courage,..I was too frightened to run away.If there was any safety, it was to stay with you.”

they are stumbling loving fools

A bee could not sting a third-level priest of Earth any more than she could sting a thirty-year-old oak. A bee could not sting a third-level priest of Air any more than she could sting a sunbeam"
“A thirty-year-old oak cannot be transplanted and live; and what happens to the light when a cloud passes in front of the sun? I am still glad you went to Fire.You walk on the earth and you cast a shadow. You are more human

"I do hear our land about some things, and I feel it respond to you—it responds as a frightened horse does to the rein in a kind hand, when the brute that hurt it has gone.
It is skittish and uneasy yet, but it listens to you. It is listening hopefully. There is good heart in our land; it will return to us if it can."

both of them are so confused and unsure and gentle 🥺

I am not strong enough" She had never said this aloud to anyone before—anyone but her bees. “I know too little, and I do not learn fast enough"
“I do not believe that.At least—it would not be if you had a Master you could rely on, who could sustain you as a Master should.”
“I do not believe that I—”
“No,let us not have another exchange of compliments. You have chosen to support me, and I tell you that I support you"

Let’s see if a favourite of mine from my early 20s holds up! (They rarely do)