Sea of Charms Quotes

“Books aren’t worth more than your life.”
“We will agree to disagree on that.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Ree shook his leaves hard. His branches quivered. "Because that's what stories are! They're supposed to tell you what to do."
Swallowing a smile, Marin shook her head. "Not the best ones. The best ones just sit inside you and make you feel things.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Books are like the sea,” Rijes agreed, “with depths and secrets and currents and moods.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Knowledge is meant to be shared," Kiela said. "Books were never meant to be locked up. Hoarding them, keeping knowledge from people, is the same as hoarding magic. It's wrong."
"You sound like a revolutionary," Dax commented.
Kiela shot him a look.
He held up his hands. "Which is great. They weren't wrong. It's true for music too— it's not meant to be limited to concert halls only attended by the wealthy. It should be spread and shared."
"Exactly," Kiela said, mollified.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“You just didn’t know how to make her happy.” He clapped Iovar on the shoulder. “It’s okay. She’s a symphony, and not everyone understands how special that is.”
Iovar sputtered. “She’s—”
“I know it’s hard to realize the truth, especially for a man like yourself, a man of business, to accept that you will never be what she deserves, to know you’ll never be enough.” Dax then turned to Marin and held out his hand. The bells on his sleeves chimed with the movement. “I don’t know if I can ever be either, but I’m determined to try.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“The unicorns were clearly free to go, yet here they were. Each was more luminous than the last with white hides that were simultaneously every color at once and the absence of all color. Their spiral horns were purest gold, and when one lifted its head to regard them... Marin saw its eyes, as blue as the sea on a perfect summer day. Her knees buckled, and she reached out to steady herself. Dax caught her arm, and she locked her knees, straightening.
"Nice horses," Ree said, with a note of confusion.
"They're unicorns," Dax told him.
"Ahh," Ree said. "Fancy horses?"
They were beings of pure magic given flesh, but sure, call them "fancy horses.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“It was a "look what you missed asshole" kind of dress, and she thought it was lowkey hilarious that her parents had purchased it for her.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Government is full of absurdity,” Rijes said. “It’s its defining feature, regardless of whose government it is.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“She thought the waterfalls sang a little louder at the praise, but it could have been her imagination. The water was tumbling down cliffs of quartz that had been stained over many years by minerals in the water: streaks of rust red and emerald and teal. It reminded Marin of the Painted Pass where she’d first met Perri. She made a mental note to take Dax and Ree there someday. She thought they’d like to see where the story of their little family began.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“One of the paper birds flew into her lap and unfolded. She read the elegant script: Daxicend, Eighth-Level Master Composer. And it had the name of his opus: The Charms of the Sea.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“People who have power are often afraid to lose it, and books are the greatest power— they are the culmination of many lifetimes. They grant access to worlds, dreams, thoughts, and wisdom beyond what a person can possibly experience in the span of their own years. Whoever has books has the power to be greater than themselves, to connect themselves to all who have come before and draw strength from them.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Marin wandered around the shop. It smelled like cheese, of course, but also of spices and nuts. She studied one tray of wrapped cheeses labeled “Chimera cheese— smoky flavor with hints of pepper, crystallized texture, aged six months.” She didn’t know a chimera produced milk. She supposed it had goat parts, so… yeah, she still couldn’t picture it.
Dax asked, “What does unicorn cheese taste like?”
“Would you two like a sample?” the shopkeeper offered. “This one is our famous Aged Averian, made from pure unicorn milk and aged for two years.” She bustled over to a case of cheeses and sliced off two little chunks from an iridescent wheel. When the sunlight hit the cheese, it looked like an opal, filled with a rainbow of moving colors.
Marin took the piece and popped it in her mouth.
“Ooh, what’s it like?” Ree asked.
It tasted like eating sunshine. She closed her eyes and imagined she was on her sailboat, no land in sight, a perfect breeze, a cloudless sky, water all around. That was what it tasted like. She opened her eyes again and looked at Dax.
“It’s musical,” he said, wonder in his voice. “It tastes like the sound of the purest flute.”
“That… doesn’t make much sense,” Ree said.
Marin told him. “It taste like the sea on a perfect day.”
“Ahhh…”
“Brilliant, isn’t it?” the shopkeeper said. “To me, it tastes like an afternoon nap, after you’ve had a bit of cake.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“He’d submerged up to his neck, kneeling on the sandbar. At some point, he must have dunked himself under because his purple hair was damp and clung to his neck and shoulders. Droplets decorated his crystal horns, and they sparkled in the sunlight. He looked like a being out of a storybook, the kind of ethereal creature who granted wishes.
“Command me, Captain,” he said.
Marin firmly controlled her brain away from all the images that conjured up.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“He doesn't have to do anything." She kept her gaze fixed on Dax, as if she could will him to believe her. He shouldn't have to reshape himself to anyone's expectations. "It's your life."
"What do you know, runner?" Reyer scoffed.
She turned her head and smiled, sharklike, all teeth and no light in her eyes. "I know that there's a sea serpent twice the size of this dock who considers Dax his friend. And I know that the only creature that can go head-to-head with a sea serpent and have a prayer of winning is a kraken. And I know that you, musician"—she put as much derision into the word as she could— "are not a kraken.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Books are the greatest power - they are the culmination of many lifetimes. They grant access to worlds, dreams, thoughts, and wisdom beyond what a person can possibly experience in the span of their own years.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“And that’s when you fell in love with her, and swore to sail with her until the islands are reclaimed by the sea and stars fall into the waves.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“The Great Library of Alyssium was always her favorite sight in the city. Many stories tall with multiple wings, multiple towers, and multiple spires, it was a work of art made of carved stone and bejeweled with stained glass windows. Where the conservatory was a sugar-spun cake, the library was a jeweler’s masterwork.
Each spire’s windows represented a different time of day: the eastern spire was the pink and lemon of dawn, and the colors cycled from there, through midday blue and white to the rich hues of sunset, all the way through the blue-black velvet of midnight in the southernmost spire.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Ahead, on the dock, she saw a flock of winged cats clustered around a figure: a man, skinny and tall, with startlingly purple hair and two crystalline horns that curled into spirals like the spires of the conservatory itself. She couldn’t help but notice, not for the first time, that he was stunningly handsome, in a carefully curated work-of-art kind of way. Dax was as delicate as the roses that bloomed on the stone latticework, as precisely perfect as the mosaics, and as ethereal as the flute music that drifted down the staircase behind him. He looked as if he’d never faced wind peppered with sand and salt, as if the sun had never dared burn his skin, as if he’d never been touched by the world and certainly never been hurt by it. It made her want to wrap him in soft cotton and hold him close, which was a patently absurd way to feel about a grown man who neither needed nor had asked for her coddling.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Wind whistled in her ears and pulled at the silver ribbon in her hair but didn’t loosen it. She’d experimented a lot with the best knot for her hair ribbon and was rather proud of this one. It would stay.
Ahead, she spotted the eastern gate to Alyssium. It was an archway of carved marble, decorated with the shapes of sea creatures. From a distance, she could see only the carving of a kraken with its tentacles wrapped around the arch, but closer, she spotted images of sea serpents, merhorses, mermaids, dolphins, sharks, schools of fish, lobsters, crabs, and coral, as well as hints of rarer animals: the seal cats of the northeast, the snake squid of the deeper regions, the deer of the kelp forest, and the flower fish of the Anjanaz Reef who bloomed only in moonlight.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Ahead, she spotted the eastern gate to Alyssium. It was an archway of carved marble, decorated with the shapes of sea creatures. From a distance, she could see only the carving of a kraken with its tentacles wrapped around the arch, but closer, she spotted images of sea serpents, merhorses, mermaids, dolphins, sharks, schools of fish, lobsters, crabs, and coral, as well as hints of rarer animals: the seal cats of the northeast, the snake squid of the deeper regions, the deer of the keel forest, and the flower fish of the Anjanaz Reef who bloomed only in moonlight.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“When he was still with her two days later, she gave him a name: Perri.
And when the people on the docks she visited asked how she’d befriended a sea serpent, she told them the truth: “I didn’t. He befriended me.” All she’d done was save his life, which didn’t seem nearly as impressive a feat as becoming her friend.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Settling in, Marin sailed away from the painted cliffs and the twin islands of the lovers. The wind was strong and steady, and the sun was warm on her silvery arms and cheeks. It caressed her as if welcoming her back from the rainbow shadows of the Painted Pass.
In the distance, she spotted a herd of merhorses. She watched them crest with the waves, sea spray flying from their manes as their tails propelled them through the water. It wasn’t every day one got to see a sea serpent, much less rescue one. She’d treasure this memory.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Beside her, the sea serpent trumpeted back. He dove through the waves like a dolphin breaching, and his iridescent scales glistened in the sun. Back in the water, his wounds were washed clean, and she could see they hadn’t been deep— scrapes from his attempts to free himself from the rocks. Not much worse than her knee.
“You’re welcome,” she called, “and thank you!”
She had no idea how intelligent sea serpents were, but the ride out from between the cliffs had to have been intentional. She’d saved him, so he returned the favor. “We’re even now!” Marin waved to him.
He propelled himself out of the water and arched in the air like a rainbow, before diving back between the waves. It was such a magnificent sight that she forgot to breathe, only remembering when his tail disappeared beneath the surface of the sea.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Such blue eyes, as deep a blue as the ocean when the moon shone on it.
She knew what he saw: a wooden boat with silver sails that he could crush if he could reach it, piloted by a fragile human with silvery skin that matched her sails and white-and-black-striped hair tied back with a silver ribbon. She must look to him like salvation. Or lunch.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms

“Countless tales and songs had been written about the cliffs of Iro and Nane: they'd been painted by two lovers, one who lived on one island and one on another. Their parents had forbidden them to marry, and so they painted their love in the colors of sunrise and sunset. Discovering this, their families had tried to wash the paint away, but the very rocks had been stained by the two artists' love and, regardless of how hard their relatives scrubbed and chipped at the stone, the colors didn't fade, until at last, both families relented and allowed the two to marry. To this day, no wind or rain or sea could dim the colors.
Granted, there was also the more prosaic explanation- it was just minerals in the rocks acting as a natural dye. But Marin liked the love story better. If she was never going to have her own great love- and she was done with ever wanting that- then she'd treasure the fictional ones even more.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms