Art of Quoting

“I can’t believe it,” I said, picking up another volume and staring at the textual salad of symbols.” “The clomping of my feet climbing up the steps reminded me of the poverty of sensation we endured here. ” “Anticipation is a gift. Perhaps there is none greater. Anticipation is born of hope. Indeed it is hope’s finest expression. In hope’s loss, however, is the greatest despair.” “The hope of a human relationship no longer carries any depth or weight for me, and all meaning has faded long ago into an endless grey nothingness. ” “Finite does not mean much if you can’t tell any practical difference between it and infinite.”

I bought you something ma’am. A gift - Din Moodies! Mood Grafts! And are they… - Ana The Hallucinogenic ones. The ones you’re always asking about. I had to visit a very dodgy shop in Talagray to get them… - Din Perhaps an odd way to begin my duties as your formal assistant—breaking the law before I even start. -Din

Sen sez imperiya. The Empire is strong because it recognizes the value in all our people. Including you, Dinios Kol. And when the Empire is weak, it is often because a powerful few have denied us the abundance of our people.

Well, now I do wonder if you should be my assistant. But not for your dishonesty, Din. Rather, because you apparently think me a fucking idiot! - Ana I…I beg your par— Din Ridiculous boy! Absurd child! Do you really not understand that I knew you cheated? That I’ve known all this time? You…What? Truly? - Din Din! Is it not safe to say that you have just witnessed me formulating answers to some very complex problems? Ones far more complicated than the mystifying puzzle of “How did this young man who was so shit at his exams suddenly score so well?” - Ana

We are of the clan of the Hazas. And we shall not be spoken to in such a manner by anyone. - Axiom Vashta leaned forward from the bench. And I am the seneschal of Talagray. I hold in my hands the heart of the Empire, of which your clan is but a part. And if you wish to ever rejoin your clan, you will all be quiet. - Vashta

Ch 33: I kept staring at his tears. Watched how they gathered at his chin, growing into a pregnant pink drop, before tumbling off into the leaves. Ch 37: The silence stretched on, and on; and Ana allowed it to swell, waiting for the perfect time to puncture it.

"I see!" said Ana, nodding. "I just have one more question." "Of course." "What color was the clay?" Fayazi blinked, confused. "Clay? What clay?" "The clay you must have stuck in your eyes and ears," said Ana, grinning, "to remain so amazingly fucking ignorant of everything about you."

Good. And there’s nothing else you haven’t told me yet, is there? You don’t have some other magic reagents key that might open…hell, I don’t know, the emperor’s undergarment drawer? - Vastha There was an awkward silence. I glanced back at Miljin, who looked on, uncomprehending. “Well…” said Ana. "You don’t,"  Vashta said flatly. I’m afraid we do, ma’am. We have found a second key. - Ana “I was joking!” cried Vashta. “I’ll joke no more, if the gods shall hear them as wishes and make them true!”

I haven’t tasted such a fine bit of weed in ages. Where did you get this? - Strovi From Miljin. Or, really, from a Signum Vartas, who happily volunteered his pipe after Miljin, ah, threatened castration and disembowelment. - Din

How queer it suddenly felt: I’d been a model officer for almost all my career, but I had to join the Iudex to become a true criminal.

First you want me to run off on our own investigation now you want me to fabricate a murder scene? - Din Oh, it’s not too much fabrication. I’m not asking you to fucking kill someone, or something! Consider it simply a very unusual method of submitting evidence to the investigation. - Ana

“We need plotters. Like your Ana. Even if she has pissed off a lot of powerful people. - Miljin She has? - Din Oh, yes. That’s the problem with figuring shit out eventually you run into someone who’d prefer all their shit remained thoroughly unfigured. - Miljin

"This is Din. My assistant investigator." All eyes moved to me, then flicked up and down, taking in my height. "He’s new and big, and I think he lost his sense of humor in some tragic accident..."

Or a piece of one, a bone or a segment of chitin? - Ana I shook my head. Din, I am blindfolded, so if you’ve nodded your head, I’ve no fucking idea. - Ana

I see, ma’am. I was just wondering if that was why you’d asked me to bring Gennadios. - Din Oh, partially. I didn’t really need her to confirm my hunch. I mostly wanted you to bring her so I could fuck up her day. She sounded like such an awful turd. - Ana

But really, for your first murder investigation, you did phenomenal—walking up to a Haza estate and interrogating each witness is not something many people would have managed so well. - Ana "Thank you, ma’am," I said, pleased. In fact, Din, I’d say you have the exact right appetite for bland, bloody-minded drudgery that makes an assistant investigator excel. "Thank you, ma’am," I said, far less pleased.

Is it possible for you to say a sentence that is more than ten words in length, Din? - Ana Could, ma’am. - Din I do so admire how you can be a flippant shit with a mere handful of syllables. Quite a talent. - Ana