Rai (is hard to please)’s Reviews > Vespertine > Status Update

“You aren’t a good person, but I think you could be if you tried. So perhaps you should try.”

“I don’t want to do it, which in my experience is the surest sign that I need to.”

“You’ll find out soon enough that the trappings of high office exist for no reason at all except to keep people from being too effective at their jobs, which is a great inconvenience for the Clerisy.”

subtweet

“They were our friends.”
“Then does that mean we’re—”
“You had better not push it, nun. I can possess you whenever I want. I could do far worse than make you murder someone. I could make you try on hats.”

“Something occurred to me that I had never considered before. If the Lady was playing a game, a great game, a game of life and death, then who was Her opponent?”

(2/2)

At that, an emotion close to anger prickled hot across my skin. My chest ached. It wasn’t fair of him to make me feel sorry for him. He didn’t deserve my pity. “Stop dying,” I told him.
A faint smile touched his lips. “Is that all?” he asked softly.

(1/2)

“Have I been praying to you? Is that why you’re here?”
“This isn’t a dream.” My throat was dry. “You’re awake.”
His eyes narrowed, struggling to bring me into focus. “No,” he decided. “The real Artemisia wouldn’t be here.”

“Perhaps the decisions that shaped the course of history weren’t made in scenes worthy of stories and tapestries, but in ordinary places like these, driven by desperation and doubt.”

“We regarded each other at an impasse, and the world fell away in a weightless plunge as I realized that looking into her face was like gazing into a mirror. We both believed the other misguided for trusting a revenant—both thought the Lady meant us to ally ourselves with our own. One of us was right, the other wrong. A warped reflection in a glass.”

“What do you plan on doing next? Killing all the humans in Loraille? Then you’ll just be alone. You’ll have made the world your reliquary.”
“Be careful, nun,” the revenant warned.

Someone 👏 finally 👏 said 👏 it