A Star-Reckoner's Lot Quotes

“She did not belong to the healthy group of widows and widowers who, after mourning, would nurture the seed of their grief into growing from loss—perhaps continuing the dreams of the lost, or learning to cherish alone the things they’d cherished together.

She belonged instead to the sad lot who clung to grief, who nurtured it by never moving beyond it. They’d shelter it deep inside where the years padded it in saudade layers like some malignant pearl.”
― Darrell Drake, A Star-Reckoner's Lot

“Battle is gruesome, but it is vigorous, alive. The aftermath is the worst of it: adrenaline fades, quiet sweeps in, and there’s nothing to distract you from the mess of bodies and disturbed earth.”
― Darrell Drake, A Star-Reckoner's Lot

“We are not lost,” contested Gushnasp. He accepted her weight without realizing it; it’d become second nature for the boy. “We are right where you want us to be. You are not fooling anyone.” He’d been dragged on these adventures often enough to know her aim, and more than anything it irritated him that she persisted in her lie. It was insulting. He wasn’t dull, and he didn’t need convincing to take care of his little sister. “You are—”
― Darrell Drake, A Star-Reckoner's Lot

“Sometimes, we become so preoccupied with our own trials that we unwittingly reduce other people to the other. The other we interact with, come to enjoy the company of, perhaps even love, but the other nonetheless. We forget that they're people, too.”
― Darrell Drake, A Star-Reckoner's Lot

“Ashtadukht slumped and let the
nightingale’s song flood her brain. She knew that empty tone, that defeated
outlook; she knew it intimately. Even now, it burned in her as limply as a
snuffed flame. Passion burned with unchecked verve, devoured its fuel, and
sputtered out. Despair required no upkeep; it heaped barely-glowing coals in
the back of your mind and fuelled itself.”
― Darrell Drake, A Star-Reckoner's Lot