Wandfasted Quotes

“It’s hard, isn’t it?” he asks, his own voice breaking. “To have a mind that strays outside the lines?” I”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“You know, you might try being positive once in a while.” Vale’s eyes flare. “I’m too educated to be positive.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“We've both moved through insurmountable odds, and yet here we are, improbably alive. Sipping cocoa.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“But I won’t slaughter our enemies’ children. Burn their villages. Do to their families what they did to us. There are orders I will not follow, Tessla.” His brow tenses. “I want our people to be safe. But I refuse to become as monstrous as the Kelts and the Urisk.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Forget everything in the whole world and drown in his fire.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“I take a deep, shuddering breath. Kind, foolish Jules. I touch his face. His jutting cheekbone. His infinitely intelligent eyes. “You can’t marry me, Jules,” I tell him, my mouth trembling. “I’m not a Kelt.” His expression turns fierce. “I don’t care! When have I ever cared?” “I will always be Gardnerian.” “Then be Gardnerian,” he stubbornly returns. “We’ll make a life in Verpacia. And when things calm down, we can wandfast if it’s possible. I don’t care. I’d bind myself to you.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Then the air around us goes quiet again, and we rise, trembling, to our feet. My heart lurches as I take in the sight before us. There’s a whole host of dragons in the air now, soldiers astride them as they wing their way north. They’re like a flat, black swarm of mammoth insects, screeching at each other, wings whooshing. The brilliant orange sunset silhouettes their evil forms.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Your ambitions far outweigh both your beauty and your charm.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“I thought that was the worst it could get. Until they sent the dragons.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“You can buy anything you like.” “A horde of dragons?” I cheekily inquire, happiness unexpectedly blossoming inside me. Vale laughs. “Of course.” He beams at me, a defiant fire lighting his eyes. “And a wand to go with them.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Go ahead, then,” I taunt back. “Get me a wand. I might strike you down if you irritate me.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Vale coughs out a laugh. “You could try. I like to spar with the outrageously overconfident. I’ve a lot of practice with that.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Wandfasted. Forever. Final as death.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“I wish there were no races,” he ground out, glowering at the horizon, his voice low with frustration. “Just all of us the same.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Gardnerian magic runs along affinity lines—fire, water, air, earth and light. I have mostly fire. Lots of it.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“And he’s made the very bad decision to be friends with me.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Lower River, low-class peasants. Fain is still smiling wide at me, smug as a contented cat. There’s an anticipatory gleam in his eye, and I realize that he’s waiting for my thanks. “I’m leaving,” I tell him succinctly. “Thank you for your assistance, but I need to find my family.” I pin Fain with a polite but level stare, my heart pounding out my hurt. “And I wouldn’t want to sully your tent further with my rustic, peasant ways.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“And I do, in fact, know how to read.” I look to Fain. “Are you familiar with The Realm Apothecarium?” “Y-yes, of course,” Fain stammers, nodding disjointedly. “That’s the premier guild text.” He gives a nervous titter and shakes his head. “I’ve a hard time making heads or tails of the bulk of it.” “I’ve worked every tonic in there to at least one-eighth capacity using substandard, cheap ingredients,” I state flatly. Fain blinks at me. “That’s, er, impressive.” “And Principia Mathematica. Have you studied that?” Fain laughs. “Of course I’ve worked out most of the sets. Almost to the end...” “I finished it two years ago.” Fain stares at me, silent. I turn to face Vale. He’s gone very quiet and still, but I can sense the unsettled heat churning behind his fiery gaze. “How about you, Vale? Have you worked through it?” I purposely address him informally, even though it’s considered disrespectful. I mean to insult him, and he knows it. He narrows white-hot eyes on me, his words clipped. “It was a bit beyond me.” Fain blows out a deep breath and shakes his head. I turn back to Fain. “Vale and his sister think that because I’m poor, I can’t appreciate fine things. That I’m illiterate.” I pause, looking them both over boldly. “I can see that things won’t be that different here in some ways. My family and I are still poor. Still viewed as lower class. But that’s fine. No one is trying to kill us, and I can make a better life for us. I’m an apothecary. A good one. We’ll find our way among the lower classes.” My eyes flick toward Vale, whose storming gaze is hot on mine, and I hold his gaze with searing defiance before returning to Fain. “I won’t ask you to suffer my presence any longer than is necessary, Mage Quillen. I’ve polluted your dwelling long enough.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“pause, tent flap in hand, and turn back to them. “And just so you both know, I’ve read Aughnot and Ellerson and studied a fair bit of the history of the Realm. And I can read simple Alfsigr. All self-taught.” Fain stares at me in rapt amazement. His eyes flick toward Vale. “I told you, you should fast to her,” he murmurs. I blow out a contemptuous breath and eye Vale with disgust. “You must be joking,” I tell Fain. “Vale can’t even manage advanced mathematics. I’d never fast to him. He’s far too ignorant.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“It’s like he goes out of his way to be just like the Urisk. The Kelts. It’s...it’s not right. We’re supposed to be the Righteous Ones. The Beacon of Hope for a dark world.” “Spoken with the idealism of a man who has studied far too much scripture and exactly no history whatsoever,” Vale says, leveling a piercing gaze at Fain. “Gardnerians with overwhelming power will do exactly what any race does with overwhelming power. Abuse it.” Fain narrows his eyes at Vale. “Your cynicism borders on blasphemy.” Vale drops his forehead in his hand and massages it, shaking his head. “For the life of me, Fain, I cannot understand your attachment to this inflexible religion of ours. Frankly, it makes me question your intelligence.” He straightens and gestures toward Fain’s drink, perched neatly in his elegant fingers. “You’re a walking contradiction.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“Tessla? Are you all right?” “He’s sick,” I choke out, the floodgates suddenly flung wide open, a storm of emotion coursing through me. “Wren’s sick. He’s been sick a long time.” “I know,” Vale says. He sets the cat down and looks at me closely. “The Red Grippe. I left orders for my family’s physician to tend to him. Fain will make sure he’s given Obsythian tonic this week.” All the blood drains from my face, and I stagger down until I’m sitting on the floor. He’ll be cured of it. Just like that. He’ll live. “Tessla?” I bring my hand to my eyes, overtaken by a staggering relief. “Oh, Ancient One. Vale. Thank you so much. Oh, Ancient One. Thank you.” “We’re fasted, Tessla,” he says, his voice low and gentle, tinged with confusion. “Of course I’d do anything for you.” His noble sentiment and kindness send shockwaves through me. I cry hot tears of overwhelming gratitude into my hand.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“I stare at him, feeling as if I’m caught in a surreal scene. The son of the Black Witch, as wildly intimidating in appearance as his mother, with soaking wet tendrils of black hair spiked and flopping unevenly all over his head, using his overwhelming Level Five demon-slaying powers...to make me tea. It’s so...bizarrely domestic.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“When they painted Heretics on our barn and set fire to it, I thought that was the worst it could get. Until they sent the dragons. But they didn’t count on us having dragons of our own. And they certainly didn’t count on Her. Our Great Mage. The Bringer of Fire. The Storm of Death. The Crow Sorceress. Our Deliverance. The Black Witch.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“I am Gardnerian. As such, I’m barely tolerated here, stranded in a sea of Kelts, allowed to exist only because my aptitude for healing brews is considered useful in this tiny, remote village. It would be easier, perhaps, if my appearance didn’t set me apart so much. My forest-green eyes and dark hair might seem unremarkable, but the black tunic and long skirt I wear, paired with a silver Erthia orb necklace, mark me as one of the First Children. And the way my skin shimmers a faint emerald in the dark—perhaps the most undeniable sign of all—makes it impossible for me to hide what I am. A Gardnerian Mage. Hated by all but my own people.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted

“He’s quite lovely. But...a tad inflexible in his views. Life doesn’t flow in such rigid lines, my dear, as much as we might like it to.”
― Laurie Forest, Wandfasted