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59403f5
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War is a mass of contradictions and carefully acknowledged truths.
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Michelle Sagara West |
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899825f
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They're humanity writ small, and many of them haven't learned how to hide, how to pretend to know things they don't know, how to doubt the things they want to believe in.
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Michelle Sagara |
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b159794
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They were like gray stone, like the walls of the round room; they gave no impression of life, and they hinted at nothing but surface. His face, pale as ivory, heightened their unusual color; his hair, gray, fell beyond his back. He was not Barrani, but he might as well have been; he was tall, proud and very cold. But his wings crested the rise of drawn hood, and they were white, their pinions folded. Hawklord.
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Michelle Sagara |
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a843db2
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His hair was a dark, dark black--Barrani black--but his build was all wrong for Barrani. He was a shade taller than Teela, and about twice her width. Three times, maybe. His hands were empty; he carried no obvious weapon. Wore no open medallion. The hand that he lifted in ritual greeting, palm out, was smooth and un-adorned.
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Michelle Sagara |
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db918f9
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He wasn't as tall as Tanner, and he wasn't as broad; he had the catlike grace of a young Leontine, and his hair was a burnished copper, something that reddened in caught light. But his eyes were the blue she remembered, cold blue, and if he had new scars--and he did--they hadn't changed his face enough to remove it from her memory.
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Michelle Sagara |
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109cb72
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To try. To live through the horror of failure; to endure the guilt. To try again. To make that choice.
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Michelle Sagara |
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13a5046
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There, in thin blue lines that could be called spidery, was the mark of Lord Nightshade--the
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Michelle Sagara |
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61649c3
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You never wanted to stand out. You never wanted to attract too much attention, because some of that attention would be bad.
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Michelle Sagara |
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5e4eb6b
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need was a funny thing; you were never sure if you had it by the tail or the jaw. Being needed forced her to find strength; being needed too much forced her to confront failure.
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Michelle Sagara |
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66a0670
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She could have written a treatise on the danger of dresses in about thirty seconds, but it wouldn't have been printable.
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Michelle Sagara |
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52ec271
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Kaylin. The shape of a girl on the edge of the long climb into adulthood.
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Michelle Sagara |
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d50c61e
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There were days when boredom--or the possibility that things could get boring--was as much of a gift as life was willing to give.
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Michelle Sagara |
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c0185ba
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Is this some sort of test?" "Indeed. Everything that doesn't kill you is."
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Michelle Sagara |
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92f0fb6
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If she had dreamed of wearing a dress like this, if she had once dreamed of rescue, in the way children do, she'd grown beyond the dream. Or it had grown too small to contain her. It didn't matter.
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Michelle Sagara |
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dff0591
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She studied them all, her eyes tracing thick curves and thin, as if they were a mandala that moved with her, lived in her.
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Michelle Sagara |
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757d342
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event was; she'd witnessed
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Michelle Sagara |
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15e326e
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Corporal, if you would care to accompany us?" "I wouldn't dream of missing it." There were whole days when Kaylin hated Dragons."
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Michelle Sagara |
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10dd43c
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The children watch,' she added softly. As if the children were the keepers of all conscience. And maybe, Kaylin thought, just maybe, they were a good keeper. To protect your children, you struggled with your anger, mastered it. Your struggled to explain away your fear, or theirs. There probably wasn't all that much difference, in the end. You worked hard to be worthy of the trust they so carelessly - and completely - placed in you.
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Michelle Sagara |
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f947fbc
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Because sometimes saying it--where only you can hear it, but forcing yourself to find the actual words--is helpful. Or at least it has been for some of my tenants. Not all of them, of course; all of you are different individuals. But some found it helpful--almost as if saying it out loud was an exorcism. It released the words instead of allowing them to remain trapped in their thoughts, wearing deeper and deeper grooves.
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helen
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Michelle Sagara |
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e397885
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Trust me--you come close to death, you'll remember how you stepped out of its way
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kaylin
marcus
fighting
instincts
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Michelle Sagara |
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9571c0c
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She told him she was fine. Except the words she used were "No. I'm not."
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Michelle Sagara |
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7a63f3e
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So Kaylin, navigating forest, footpaths, and a plague of blood-drinking, buzzing insects, began to make a list. It was, in her mind, titled Things Not to Do if You Want to Have Fun During Your Involuntary Leave of (Probably Unpaid) Absence.
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Michelle Sagara |
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ea98f4f
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Hope was cruel. It could be an act of torture far more profound than despair.
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Michelle Sagara |
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91f1e2c
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If you are always afraid to be known, you will never understand anyone else. If you never understand anyone else, you'll never be a good Hawk. You'll see what others see, or what they want you to see. You won't see what's .
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severn
kaylin
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Michelle Sagara |
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53475e6
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Kaylin's memory was like a kaleidoscope; fractured, but in a way that was arresting, even beautiful, if looked at the right way. As a child, Catti's hair had been bright red, but it had shaded
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Michelle Sagara |
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4efa1dc
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Kaylin's memory was like a kaleidoscope; fractured, but in a way that was arresting, even beautiful, if looked at the right way.
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inspirational
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Michelle Sagara |
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91fdb99
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Power such as mine is only granted for one reason - to protect those with less, against yours." "Power such as yours? Sarillorn, if the power that you wield is too great a responsibility, I will take it from you; you may then have peace, knowing that there is nothing at all that you can do."
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Michelle Sagara West |
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6e586ed
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Why will you not just accept what is? You have done as you will in my domain. I have exacted no price for actions that would be the death of any other." "Why? I am your enemy here!"
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Michelle Sagara West |
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3e0b9db
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Why will you not just accept what is? You have done as you will in my domain. I have exacted no price for actions that would be the death of any other." "Why? I am your enemy here!" "It does little harm."
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Michelle Sagara West |
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e630222
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Dreams are their own knife, Kaylin. Dreams, what-ifs, desires. We all have to have hope.
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hope
severn
kaylin
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Michelle Sagara |
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f325cfb
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Because not all weakness has to be weakness
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the-lord-of-the-west-march
weakness
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Michelle Sagara |
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41275a6
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The past, of course, is a different country; it is occupied, frequently, by regret, and it is ruled by tyrants. They cannot be moved.
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Michelle Sagara |
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d3e7335
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Nightshade--like any living, thinking person--was capable of more than one truth.
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nightshade
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Michelle Sagara |
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250757b
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Communication was often like this, though: stumbling, tripping, getting up again. Moving, however clumsily, forward.
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kaylin
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Michelle Sagara |
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48d1e69
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She had a choice; she had chosen to listen. She had offered, wordless and desperate, to help.
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Michelle Sagara |
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ff58411
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I don't know what's happening--but Spike says things are getting worse. She hesitated.
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Michelle Sagara |
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a7fc56b
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But home, for us, is each other, no matter where we happen to be.
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family
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Michelle Sagara |