Attrition Quotes

“Please. Don’t try and play games with me. It’s belittling. I’m not stupid — I can spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing when I see one - and your claws are showing.” -Enoch Michelson”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“It’s difficult to explain…you see, I have met her, and so I know that same powerful aspect in her eyes that Racath saw that night. But it is not easily put into words, not so easily described to someone who hasn’t seen it. It was just…something.
Liken it to meeting a star. You do not know the star, have never spoken to it before, nor have you ever picked it out of the sparkle of its sisters in the night sky. But the star knows you. It has spent your whole life watching you from the sky. You can keep no secrets from it. It knows every thought in your mind, every move you have ever made, every flaw you have hidden, every pain you have felt. Like the millennia it spent before you were born were years in waiting. Waiting for you and only you, like you are what gives it purpose. Like watching over you is the dedication of its entire life. So it knows you better than you know yourself.
And while the star is bright, a twinkling gem that brims with youth and beauty, there is an intangible wisdom to it. It is undeniably experienced. But not old. It may have lived for a thousand of years before you were born, counting every second until you were brought into the world. But, for a star, a thousand years is still very, very young. Young enough to kiss.
That feeling, that meeting with a star, is what pierced Racath’s heart when Nelle looked into his eyes. She was starlight, nightfire on an ebon velvet sky. Rapture.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Oh, God in heaven, kill me now…” Rachel groaned. “I hate going to see Mrak. I always feel awkward going back to Velik Tor. After being a Scorpion for so long, after everything Oron’s told us about Mrak’s past…” she shook her head darkly. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist the temptation to perforate his bowels.”
Notak looked back down at the letter. “Post script,” he read aloud. “Rachel, please leave Mrak alive and unharmed. We still need him, unfortunately, no matter how tempting it is to perforate his bowels.”
“You made that up, he did not say that!”
Notak handed her the letter, pointing. “Right there at the bottom.”
Rachel squinted at the writing. “Faul.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“I do not believe that the Duke will find those terms acceptable. Might I convince you to reconsider—”
“Dear God, go faul yourself, you self-important gecko!”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Racath’s eyebrows drew together. “Terms?”
“Yes, terms,” Briz’nar replied, a forked tongue dancing behind its sharkish teeth. “Conditions for the riots to cease. The rabble must have some sort of price if they are sending one of your kind to do the bargaining. What is it, then? Coin? Food? Perhaps a much needed bath?” Some of the Arkûl chuckled.
Racath rolled his eyes. “I’m not here to negotiate with anyone!” he answered incredulously. “The only terms I have are that you die, this Bridge is destroyed, and the Dominion never even thinks about looking at the Burrows ever again.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“I am here on behalf of the people of the west. I speak for the Burrows.”
“Ohh,” the Demon said, mockery dripping from the word. It made an exaggerated bow, its movements smooth as flowing magma. “An emissary! How quaint. I would expect introductions are in order, then. I am called Briz’nar, Greater Demon, Hand to the Duke of Milonok, and Commander of the Guard.”
“That’s delightful,” Racath scowled. “You can call me Azrael.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“You had your chance. But that’s over now. No more antidotes. No more schedules. No more sickly-sweet order. No more cheating death. Your time has come, Felsted, and I am your angel. Follow me into the dark.” - Racath Thanjel”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“No.” The word shattered Felsted’s question like an ugly, stained-glass window. “I chose poison because you deserved it. Because I wanted to watch you wriggle while the fear turns your brain to paste. That fear of death that drove you to the Demons door? I wanted to watch it betray you and eat you from the inside you. This is what comes of people like you, Felsted. I will not abide the folly of your peers’ betrayal. By every drop of blood on my hands, I swear that every single one of you who turned to the Dominion — for power, money, fear, I don’t care — will wither, break, and die. Azrael is coming for you and your friends, Felsted. The angel of death is here.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“The truth is in your actions. The guilt is in your eyes. You have lived in sin for far too long. Tonight, I come in judgment.” - Racath Thanjel”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Azrael’s hand is on your shoulder, Human. I am here for your soul." - Racath Thanjel”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“If he’d judged Felsted correctly, he was the kind of man who checked all the locks in his house every night. Twice. Probably for fun.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Genshwin?” Jax called after him. “A moment, if you please?”
Racath looked back over his shoulder at the Duke.
“I’d like your name, if you’d be so kind.”
Beneath his hood, Racath smirked, then continued toward the tunnel. “I told you,” he called over his shoulder. “My name is Death.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“An upright spine is more valuable to me than favor.” - Racath Thanjel”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Don’t take it personally. I don’t bow, as a rule.” - Racath Thanjel”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Death. How may I be of service this evening?” - Racath Thanjel”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“If you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do than watch you die.” - Rachel Vaveran”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“I am owed a debt of Human blood. Your share is overdue. God made me your creditor, Hammon. You are mine to do with as I please. Tonight, I am judge. I am jury. I am executioner.” - Rachel Vaveran”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“P-please…I beg you, don’t do this…you c-can’t, you can’t do this to me…”
“Yes, I can.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Rachel gestured toward the city beyond the alley. “The people out there? Humans who spend every day under the Demons’ heels? They’ve given their share. They’ve made up for the blood of my kin with their sweat and their agony. Their debt is paid.
“But you,” she pointed a damning finger down at him. “You have given nothing. You’ve shed no blood, and you’ve suffered no pain. Your debt is unpaid, Hammon. I am here for compensation.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“I owe nothing to anyone, I swear it! Who hired you? I can pay, just tell me who hired—”
“God hired me!” Rachel’s rebuke was like the crack of a toxic whip. Like poisoned thunder. “Humanity owes my kind a debt of flesh for every drop of blood we shed for you. For every one of us that died to save you.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“The Arkûl don’t come down this road, Human. No one does. There’s no one to hear you scream. No one except for me.” - Rachel Vaveran”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“All the blood drained from Hammon’s face. “No…”
“Yes.”
“But…that’s not possible….” Hammon’s voice was weak, and he sounded like he was talking more to himself than to Rachel. “It can’t be…I thought they were all—”
“Dead?” Rachel’s eyes flashed with ire so cold it could have frozen the ocean. “Do I look dead to you?”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Whistling. The Human was whistling to himself, off-key and wretched. Whistling! Like he hadn’t a care or a clue about the poverty and decay around him. Like he was above it all. Like nothing was wrong with the world.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“She was always like that — it’s what I remember most about her. There was always something…wrong with Rachel. She was always permeated with some terrible resentment, like a cloak she wore around herself. In a way, it was fascinating. Beautiful…but terrifying. Make no mistake: I have seen greater power than hers, before and since. But hers…hers was different. And I feel no shame in admitting that I was always afraid of Rachel Vaveran.

-The Penitent God”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“All that was left now was for him to get out, and for Rachel to kill Hammon.
She would have fun with that, Notak was sure of it. He was glad to let her have that little savage pleasure. He had no objection with her taking the blood onto her hands this time. Or any time. There was always plenty of blood to go around. And he didn’t want any more of it than was absolutely necessary.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Mother of heaven…” Rachel breathed as she crouched next to Notak in the darkness of their roost across the street. “You said this place was guarded, not that it was entrenched. Faul, that’s not a warehouse, that’s a garrison that likes to hold crates in its spare time!”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Don’t make fun,” Alexis scolded. “The Stinger’s design was piss before I came along. I turned it into a work of art, and by my good right hand, I plan to keep improving it until the day I die. Shut up and appreciate me.” -Alexis Vylis”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“He and Alexis had met on his first day in Velik Tor. He had been eleven, she ten. They had bonded almost instantly, and had been like brother and sister ever since. They were, after all, the only family they really had.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“Someone’s life is always in danger. That’s the nature of tyranny." -Mrak”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance

“They were silent for a second. The whispers of the candlelight were the only sounds, and the light outside the window began to fade to night. After a moment, Rachel opened her eyes back up and looked down at her chest, lips pursed.
“Do I really have small breasts?”
Notak seemed to freeze solid in his chair. Stiffly, he turned his piercing blue eyes onto Rachel, his face intensely blank. “I do not how to answer that.”
She frowned at him. “Yeah, you probably aren’t the best person to ask…” she said, almost to herself.
“Indeed,” Notak said dubiously. “Do I even want to know what prompted such a question?”
Rachel shrugged and put her head back again. “No, not really.”
“I shall not ask, then.”
― S.G. Night, Attrition: the First Act of Penance