|
085f1ba
|
I'm missing something, aren't I?" "Brains", he snapped. "And survival instinct. The Hawklord's been waiting for you for three hours." "Tell him I'm dead." --
|
|
marcus
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
a420c3f
|
Is this some sort of test?" "Everything that doesn't kill you is." "Mind you," he added, "surviving doesn't always mean you passed."
|
|
sanabalis
surviving
test
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
d7ea681
|
There wasn't a colloquial phrase, or curse, that went something like, "May your day be full of angry dragons" or, "May every dragon you meet today be pissed off." But, there should have been."
|
|
fantasy
humor
|
Michelle Sagara |
|
c07ebfb
|
The gods where like the weather; sometimes good, sometimes bad, and either way, always beyond her.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
df93b09
|
Success and failure are two edges of the same blade, two sides of the same coin. To fear one is to forever deny the possibility of the other.
|
|
success
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
efae58a
|
Truth, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
56eecfe
|
It was true: hope could be unkind. You opened yourself up to the worst of wounds because you wanted to believe that something good could finally happen. But if you didn't? You missed this. This intense and prefect moment in which, while the world was almost literally going to hells all around you, hope and reality blended in a single, perfect note.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara |
|
ba79764
|
If life were fair, we would never have suffered what we suffered at all; having suffered it and survived, we're still reacting to things that don't exist anymore.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara |
|
c7008c9
|
Generally, I like to appear smart. I don't admit being stupid when there's any hope I'm not.
|
|
kaylin
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
a345e12
|
Kaylin is not known for her punctuality. She is known, in fact, for her lack--even by those outside of the Hawklord's command.
|
|
tiamaris
punctuality
|
Michelle Sagara |
|
e0cc897
|
I don't understand." The Consort's smile was bitter. "No. No more do I." "I doubt that." "Do you imply that I lie, Lord Kaylin?" "Clumsy of me. I'm not usually that subtle."
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara |
|
9d71e08
|
The look he gave her made her turn away for a moment. Sometimes you couldn't look too closely at another person's pain.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
fb962bf
|
History is not our guide, it is not our friend. It is a passing stranger, one which shadows legend, sprinkling it with the seeds of truth.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
0d0bb94
|
I hate being the only mortal in a gathering full of Immortals who think killing each other cleverly is the height of good manners.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara |
|
334648c
|
You'll be with me, won't you?" "indeed." "Then what could go wrong?" Lord Sanabalis visibly grimaced. "You clearly do not believe in angry gods."
|
|
sanabalis
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
fc543b0
|
Is there anyone's life story you don't want to know?" "Not really." His expression was unexpectedly serious. "Because people make a story of their lives. Gains, losses, tragedy and triumph--you can tell a lot about someone simply by what they put into each category. You can learn a lot about what you put into each category by your reaction to them. They teach you about yourself without ever intending to do it--and they teach you a lot about..
|
|
story
life
rennick
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
ebb6308
|
I don't make the laws, I just enforce them." "Then remind me to introduce a new set of laws, since the ones we have clearly assume a level of common sense that's lacking."
|
|
kaylin-neya
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
8ebb55a
|
i'm never going to understand the Barrani." "You needn't sound so morose, Lord Kaylin. They are unlikely to understand you either." "Yes, but I'm unlikely to try to kill them for fun."
|
|
teela
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
428c360
|
Sanabalis never seemed to eat, and he deflected most of her questions about Dragon cuisine. Then again, he deflected most of her questions about Dragons, period. Which was annoying because he was one, and could in theory be authorative.
|
|
sanabalis
kaylin-neya
teacher
food
students
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
1dba065
|
Lies were something you told other people to make things easier, somehow - hopefully, for them, but often more selfishly for yourself.
|
|
silence
michelle-sagara-west
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
20c25e4
|
Not all of our heartless plans work as we intend; nor do all of our good intentions. We are where we are, and we can rarely predict where we will go, no matter how firm our beliefs.
|
|
teela
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
faf6c48
|
Stop judging your life only by the failures," he whispered. "What should I do?" she whispered. "I'm always going to fail." "We all do," he said softly, his voice closer now. "We all fail. But none of us fail all the time."
|
|
kaylin-neya
severn
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
bbe8ecb
|
You are an... animal? A talking animal?" Without missing a beat, Teela said, "Of course not. She's much, much harder to train."
|
|
teela
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
1d4616e
|
Kill me now." "Nonsense. Dead, you will provide no relief from the interminable boredom." Everyone needed a purpose in life. Kaylin, however, wished fervently for a better one at this moment."
|
|
teela
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
4b2f254
|
Manners,[...] are severely underappreciated in my opinion". "Oh?" "Where practiced well, they remove the probability that someone in my position will be forced to go through the effort of killing someone in yours. Believe that on occasion that much death can become tedious."
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
aac4791
|
What would this have been, if it had more power to give?" "This may come as a surprise to you," he replied dryly, "But I am not an Ancient. Nor am I, human philosophy aside, a living construct." "Which means you don't know." "Which means, as you so succinctly put it, I do not know." - Kaylin & Tiamaris" --
|
|
magic
tiamaris
kaylin-neya
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
e316960
|
Can you hold off on the whole war thing until after I'm dead?
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
04e6b3d
|
Teela turned to Severn. "I'm having trouble remembering why I haven't strangled her yet." Severn shrugged. "I have that problem myself some days. At the moment, though, the only betting pool in the office seems to be on the Sergeant." "Ha-ha." Kaylin said with a distinct lack of cheer. And then, because she was a fiefling, "What odds?" He cuffed the top of her head."
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
e0b21bb
|
When you have all eternity, the word hurry is relative." "And the guards, being mortal, have less of it, and their version of slugglish doesn't approach your version of fast?" "Something very like that."
|
|
sanabalis
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
a31ff8e
|
At the very least, if I have not - yet- chosen to end your life, I refuse to allow any of my kin to forever deprive me of my prerogative to do so.
|
|
kaylin-neya
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
a1d1773
|
No...if the world demanded their deaths in return for safety, she would have watched it burn.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
eeb8e07
|
And I'll stop with the lecture now. I don't like people much--they irritate and annoy me. But I'm fascinated by them anyway.
|
|
story
people
rennick
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
7a233c7
|
I'm sworn to uphold his laws. Saying that you killed someone because they annoyed you isn't codified as acceptable, by those laws, anywhere I'm aware of." "You are clearly not looking carefully enough."
|
|
sanabalis
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
468a3f7
|
What did she say?' 'She made her displeasure with his existence clear.' 'That's it?' 'She made some claims about how she was going to alleviate her displeasure.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
6058fa7
|
If she fails to wake, I will kill him. I will not kill him quickly.
|
|
west-march
|
Michelle Sagara |
|
d10ab4e
|
Bellusdeo laughed. It was, for a moment, the only sound in the quiet of the fief's night, and it was warmer and deeper than the lingering night chill. When her laughter faded, she glanced at Kaylin. "I was not like this before. I thought that the Shadows had not touched me." She lowered her head a moment. Kaylin understood this, as well. "It seems so unfair," she finally said. "Life is unfair. Which part of it pains you?" "We suffer, and it..
|
|
kaylin-neya
family-values
home
survival
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
a8a3c7e
|
Death was silence, loss, guilt. And anger. But life led that way, anyway. From birth, it was a slow, long march to the grave. Who said that? She couldn't remember now. But it was true. They were born dying. If they were very lucky, the dying was called aging. They reached toward if as if they were satellites in unstable orbits. And then when they got there, they were just dead. One moment in time separated the living from the ghosts.
|
|
silence
loss
death
guilt
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
e06e491
|
She had managed to go almost three weeks without being late. Admittedly on two of those days she'd perambulated around the office like someone doing a good imitation of the walking dead - but she'd been timely walking dead, damn it.
|
|
on-time
tiered
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
cb4af4f
|
Stay," he said abruptly. "Stay, feed me. Read to me, if you like. Do not talk to me of death. Do not offer me your fear. I have fear of my own to drive me, and if my own fear is not strong enough to keep me from my duty, yours will only grieve me, girl. It will give me guilt and no rest, but it won't preserve my life."
|
|
fear
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
c681275
|
There were always people who struggled their way to the top of the heap, no matter how much that heap looked like garbage when seen from the outside.
|
|
politics
power
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
351a8d7
|
It's always easier,' he offered at last, 'when you feel these things yourself; seeing them in other people reveals just how ugly they are.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
ea9e832
|
Chase stretched. "I'll give you the week." And he held up his pinky. Eric grimaced. He HATED this part. "Shake on it, pinky shake, or we don't have a deal." "You're an asshole," Eric told him. "Pretty much." He waited until Eric did, in fact, lock pinkies with him."
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara West |
|
9d63fdd
|
Ignorance and stupidity are not the same. Remember that. Ignorance can always be alleviated.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara |
|
0763242
|
She'd learned early that if she couldn't be on time to save her life, she'd better cultivate the unseemly art of groveling.
|
|
|
Michelle Sagara |