Sunbringer Quotes

“People like me don't change the world. We just survive it.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Nothing was more frightening than a smart woman with a vendetta and a plan.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Knowledge can bring pain in place of ignorance, terror in place of hope'

- Telle”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“As he ascended, he looked down, and saw a sea of colour. Not just the city, its tiles and goods, its flags and clothes, but the people. They busied their streets with the radiance of their feelings in all possible hues; love and anger, fear and hope, for each a different gleam, a different meaning. Each street was a river of beauty and light, some clashed, in conflict, some radiated in harmony, like flame. So much feeling, so much potential, so much faith to give. To give to him. No wonder humans made gods: everything they desired and feared just spilled out of them, staining everything they touched.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“I like it here, said Skedi quietly. So many secrets, so many interpretations. So many little lies. Inara looked around and breathed in the scent of paper, bark, wood and parchment. Like a thousand autumns packed into the curving room. So many truths too, she said. Some truths are too bright to look at directly, that is why they couch them in paper.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“All that mattered was the story. The myths that made gods, brought them to life in their shrines. Stories bind hope and love to make it faith.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“I will always be in your debt. If I am anyone’s knight now, I am yours. Your protector, your brother, uncle, father, villain. Whatever you need me to be, I’ll be it.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Pain could kill a person. That was what his mothers had told him. Exhaustion, grief, injury, heartbreak, betrayal. One needle to the heart could be healed, but a hundred would stop it beating.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Knowledge can bring pain in place of ignorance, terror in place of hope. Whatever place your strength has come from, it is still yours. You choose what to do with it.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Some truths are too bright to look at directly, that is why they couch them in paper.'

- Scian”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“It was like walking through spiderwebs of hurt; intricate and clinging.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Some things are done out of love.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Kissen sometimes wondered about animals and gods, whether horses could love a deity. Certainly, there were gods of cattle, gods of wild things, gods of birds. Were they shaped by humans alone, or did animals also pray for love and safety?”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Skedi flicked his wings uncertainly and felt his damaged one ache. That was what made him bow his head and accept her gift. Inara tied it around his right antler, wrapping the blue thread round and round. As she did so, Skedi felt its colours come into him; her love of her mother, her grief, her thanks to Skedi. They brightened his fur, brought him energy, strength. The ache fled from his wings, the fatigue from his body. It filled him up, brimful, and he knew for a moment what it felt like to be a true god.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Why does it always come to this?’ she said. ‘That power changes, and knowledge burns?”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“And we will kill gods.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“A sacrifice is not a loss.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Save one ... Save the king who would be a god. Fight fire with fire.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“If you look at me too closely you'll go blind.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“The king is no master here.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“strength is strength, but information is the lever.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“If we commit to violence, when will it stop?’ ‘If we do not,’ countered Elo, ‘will anything change?”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“You always tried to fix everything in silence. You have a voice now, Telle. Use it.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“But she had never felt fear like this, fear that the world was bigger than she was, and far out of her control.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“She was a godkiller still, after all.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Shrine-breaker, prayer-queller, briddite-wielder.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Were gods and humans just as bad as each other?”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Kissen tightened her hand on Inara’s shoulder. “I’ll show you why, Inara. Why I’ve been trying to get back to you, all this time. I need you to know before you kill him.” Kissen did look as if she had dragged herself through fire and mud; her cheeks had peeled with frostbite, her hand was clutched to her chest, her leg warped and broken. “I’m with you. I swear I’m on your side.”
“Don’t listen to that woman, Inara,” said Lessa suddenly, strongly. “She’s mad, and dangerous. Come away from danger.”
Inara swallowed. Her mother was alive, her mother had not burned. She trembled. So much of her heart wanted to run into Lessa’s arms and tell her everything that had happened. But all that had happened had been without her mother. Inara had been abandoned and alone, while her mother was alive and well. In command.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Please,” said Kissen. She had a knife in her other hand, but she held it by the blade. It had silver-grey stones that flickered. “Do you still have Aan’s gift?”
Inara blinked, surprised. “Y-yes.”
No lie, no connivance, no flicker. Kissen releasing her emotions was releasing vulnerability to the gods, to the world, to her.
“Inara Craier,” said Lessa strongly. “Listen to me, not her.”
Inara ignored her. “Take it,” she said to Kissen. “It’s around my neck.”
“Inara?” Lessa’s tone was both a question and a reprimand, she took another step forward, but Elo moved to guard her and Kissen, lifting his stolen knife. With her as well, her knight and protector.
“Stay back, Mother,” commanded Inara, and Lessa stopped on the tiles. Inara didn’t look back. “I mourned for you,” she said instead.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer

“Inara looked at the man she hated, dying on the floor, utterly at her mercy, the god caught in the cage of his chest. But Kissen had never lied to her, or asked her for anything without reason. Kissen had stayed with her, to help her, when she had been abandoned and alone.
Not for Aan, not for her mother, but for Kissen, Inara released Hestra, and she brightened in Arren’s chest.”
― Hannah Kaner, Sunbringer