Starflower Quotes

“Her eyes pleaded with him to understand, to try. Under that gaze, Eanrin had no option but to sit and stare at the scribbles in the dust, stare with all the intensity a cat can muster. His pupils dilated until the golden irises were like rings of eclipsed sunfire. Imraldera watched him, chewing her bottom lip and waiting.
At last the cat lashed his tail and raised his whiskered face to her. "I'm sorry, my girl. It looks to me like the Greater Stick Bug pursues the Lesser Stick Bug over the back of a giant alligator. Can't make a thing of it otherwise.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“A true name is a powerful thing. Dangerous. Many go through life asleep inside, because no one has ever called their true name. And so, they think themselves safe.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“Please tell me you haven't given yourself to Hri Sora."
She shook her head.
"Is that no, you have, or no, you haven't? Dragon's teeth!" Eanrin ran his hand down his face.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“Oh, woe is me, I am undone, In sweet affliction lying! For my labor's scarce begun, And leaves me sorely sighing After the maiden I adore, Bravely marching to Death's door....”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“Lumé's crown and scepter! I never thought I'd see the day when your voice would give me joy!"
There was a long pause. Then, "Dragon-eaten vipors. For a moment, I thought that was real. Ah well. . ."
"No! Glomar!" Eanrin shouted. "Glomar, you blundering oaf of a badger-man, stay where you are!"
"That was more like. Is that you there, cat?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“I am afraid." Eanrin shuddered as he saw now the deepest secret of his soul. The secret he had kept hidden even from himself all the long ages of his existence. "I don't want to love. I will be hurt if I do."
"You were born in fear, Eanrin. But my love casts out fear.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“Lumé's crown and scepter! I never thought I'd see the day when your voice would give me joy!"
There was a long pause. Then, "Dragon-eaten vapors. For a moment, I thought that was real. Ah well. . ."
"No! Glomar!" Eanrin shouted. "Glomar, you blundering oaf of a badger-man, stay where you are!"
"That was more like. Is that you there, cat?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“A silver lantern sat before Eanrin, there in the depths of the pit. It was small and delicately wrought, and in its heart glowed a light more potent, more beautiful, more colorful than starlight.
Eanrin recognized it at once: Akilun's lantern, the fabled Asha. A gift from beyond the Final Water, crafted in the realm of the Farthest Shore. Akilun himself had died grasping it in his hands.
"And so I might die," Eanrin whispered. "So I might lose myself.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“What are their rights?" he asked at last. He could scarcely hear himself speak. But whoever stood beside him in the dark seemed to have no difficulty.
"To choose their own paths," it replied. "To live their lives without obligation. To be gods of their own worlds."
Once more Eanrin considered. Then he asked, "Why are their voices so small?"
"Because I have given them what they demanded. I have allotted them worlds in which they may reign divine. And those worlds are small."
"How small?"
"Very small.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“Hri Sora stood transfixed upon her roof, watching the scene being played out on the streets of Etalpalli. She could not believe her eyes. The fire in he breast flared in her fury at such a picture of tenderness enacted in this place of death. She gnashed her teeth and tore at her own hair, leaving lines of blood streaming through the lank strands.
"I must be mistaken!" she raged. "How can a woman of the Land be. . . be compassionate to one of them? The little monsters! The little fiends! They have his eyes, yet she stretches out her hand to them?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“Ugh. Reeeeowl." He swore in cat and Faerie tongue and set to grooming his bedraggled tail. "My coat is ruined. My life is over.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“It was all the fault of the Hound. They said, when once you saw him, your life was forever changed.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower

“The shape was that of a hound with a coat of white-gold luster... the eyes shone with an angelic light, or one of a higher order still. Unhurried, he approached the girl and looked down upon her sorry state. He saw the Path she had walked and would later walk again. He saw how the twisting and winding of this Path would baffle her. The shining one bent his head and placed a kiss on the girl's forehead. Then he turned and loped into the forest, vanishing as though he had never been.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Starflower