Chill Quotes

“Her neural pattern must remain intact for the time being, as it was still necessary that she stay herself. Changes to her identity would eventually become inevitable, but those would have to wait until she no longer needed the cloak of who she was.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“And while Nova could spoon-feed it to her, being told something was not the same as understanding it.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“In the long run, he thought, the new, fey Perceval with so many ancient souls behind her eyes might even be a match for Cynric the Sorceress, in wisdom if not in craft.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Gavin was not prey to the irrational hormonal urges of meat-a kindess for which he thanked his makers-but he was not without feelings.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“For all it was the answer he would have expected her to want, it did not seem to satisfy her.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Tristen had been only half kidding. Samael’s expression hinted that the angel had the other half. Tristen guessed that added up to one complete sense of humour between them.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“What cannot be cured must be endured, and Tristen excelled at enduring.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“She was Alasdair Conn’s oldest daughter, the Princess of the Jacob’s Ladder. She was both fierce and beautiful, and why she’d chosen him, he’d never know.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Aefre had been so golden, with her lion-tawny hair and her eagle-tawny gaze. Hazel, he supposed the color was called-but tawny was the right word, for everything about her should defined to terms of predators. Her armour was golden, too, not the gold of metal but the gold of wheat, and so her skin would have been if not for the Exalt stain rendering it a pollen-dusted blue. The sword at her hip gleamed with care and use, and he had wanted to lean over and kiss the stern line between her eyebrows away. But one did not kiss a general before the assembled troops.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Whose judgment do you think he faces, if not his own?”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“My Prince, Gavin thought, I seriously question your judgment.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“You did not love an angel to be safe, or in the interests of survival, or even because you thought the angel might even love you back. You did not love an angel because you thought you could tame an angel, change it, make it safe. You loved an angel because to love an angel was to touch something larger than yourself, and because the process of that touch enlarged you as well.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“It’s about your sister, Chief Engineer.”

“Of course it is,” Caitlin said, rubbing her eyes until she felt the muscles stretch. “Which one, I’m terrified to ask?”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“It was no other than he had expected, but he could play out the game.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Petty vengeance had been well within his father’s capabilities, and using children to control their parents was an established family technique.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“May the enemies you make be interesting ones.”

“My father used to say that.”

“Your father”-the smile made itself patent-“was an interesting enemy.”

“Yes.” Tristen rubbed his fingertips in circles against the heels of his hands, making how armour rasp. “I recall.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Time passed, and given enough time, anyone could make enemies. Even-especially-a Conn.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Mammals, apparently, were pretty funny to a carnivorous plant.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Scripture was comforting, in direct proportion to its bitterness upon the tongue.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“In the house of dust, roll yourself in ashes.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Sliding across the earth, they seemed small-headed, inoffensive, their eyes like black star sapphires suffused with a silvery overlay of light. Tristen only knew the serpents for what they were because, here and there, one reared up and opened its infamous hood like a flower on an arm-thick stem.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“There were times to rise to the bait, and times not to.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“I hope you’ll forgive me for ruining the symmetry of your genocide. I was invested in being discreet.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“For a moment, they sat together, the understanding between them almost big enough to fill that space.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Amazing how one’s organic memory could cling so tightly to the worst moments of a life, and lose everything that surrounded them.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“The structure of the world loomed in the partial visibility overhead, a lattice skeleton swathed erratically with light and darkness, further structures gleaming dully through translucent gas until depth of field rendered it opaque.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Some things he had never managed to become jaded to, and the tenuous beauty of the world was one of those.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“Her headlong rush telegraphed all her youth and incaution.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“As far as Benedick was concerned, cynicism was a toy for children.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill

“I’ve had indications that there are colonies at work in the world that I cannot even locate, let alone control. And some of them are doing damage.”
― Elizabeth Bear, Chill