WHY WE LOVE CARDAN GREENBRIAR: quotes:
“ Bold of You to assume I know what I’m doing.”
“ Cardan doesn’t add that he laughs when he is nervous.”
“I’m nervous. I smile a lot when I’m nervous. I can’t help it. “
“We’re all trapped in cages, little sprite. How can I free you when I can’t even free myself? “
“I am certain you are about to enlighten me”
“I have many other, even worse, qualities.”
“How ought I know? You do whatever it is mortals do in your land.”
“I was reading, not sulking. But I am happy enough to be distracted. May I carry your basket?”
“This is most certainly not the story you told me when I was nine”
“I would have my room. Perhaps you two might take whatever this is elsewhere.”
“Stop telling me who I am. I am tired of your stories.”
“But if you regret it, do not think that you will be able to call me back to your side like some forgotten plaything you mislaid for a while.”
“I am nothing, if not dramatic.”
“If he thought I was bad, I would be so much worse.”
“My sweet villain.”
“My darling god.”
“My sweet nemesis.”
“Lessons are suspended for the afternoon, by royal whim”
“Which one? Which mortal girl?”
“Your pardon. Might you have some means by which I can navigate your land?”
“Let me tell you a story…Once upon a time, there was a boy with a clever tongue. Perhaps he had reasons to be awful, perhaps he was born bad, but no matter . None of it gave him much pleasure, so he went to the woods and begged a troll woman to turn his heart to stone. He was angry. And a fool. Thereafter he could neither pleasure nor pain, not fear nor hope. At first, it seemed like the blessing he had supposed it would be. But as the evening came, the boy was aware of the strangeness of feeling nothing at all. He had begged for the heart of stone, but for the first time, he felt the weight of it in his chest. He wondered if he ought to be afraid of what was to come. He wondered if there was something profoundly wrong with him that he could not. Though his heart was as hard and cold as ever, he wondered what he would feel if it were not.”
“You don’t think monster girls and wicked boys deserve love?”
“Everyone finds different lessons in stories, I suppose, but here’s one: Having a heart is terrible, but you need one anyway. It doesn’t matter if the boy with the heart of stone was the villain. It doesn’t matter if he got what he deserved. No one’s heart has to remain stone.”
“And you think it was sunrise I was waiting for and not my queen? Do you not hear her footfalls? She has never quite managed the trick of hiding them as well as one of the Folk. Surely you’ve heard of her, Jude Duarte, who defeated the redcap Grima Mog, who brought the Court of Teeth to their knees? She’s forever getting me out of scrapes. Truly, I don’t know what I would do without her.”
“You didn’t hear the story I told. A shame. It featured a handsome boy with a heart of stone and a natural aptitude for villainy. Everything you could like.”
“There is one thing I did like about playing the hero. The only good bit. And that was not having to be terrified for you.”
“So long as you’re begging”
“I am no murderer.”
“Never is like Forever.”
“Time to change partners. Oh, did I steal your line?”
„ Ruling is like wine. It brings out the worst in anyone who takes too deep a draught, yet we all want a taste.”
“But then it is my nature to only wants things I cannot have.”
“Locke hasn’t gotten around to seducing me yet, if that’s what you’re asking. I suppose, I should be insulted.“
“Most of all, I hate you because I think of you. Often. It’s disgusting, and I can’t stop.”
“Do not expect others to share my depraved tastes.”
“And to Jude, who gave me a gift tonight. One that I plan to repay in kind.”
“I am the Corn King, after all, to be sacrificed so little Oak can take my place in the spring.”
“You ought not to be here tonight, little ant. Go back to the palace.”
“ You believe I planned your humiliation? Me? That sounds like work.”
“Kiss me again, Kiss me until I am sick of it.”
“If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.”
“It seems I have a singular taste for women who threaten me.”
“The three of you have one solution to every problem. Murder. No key fits every lock.”
“Yes, my great villain, my darling god. I will be as sober as a stone carving, just as soon as I can”
“Marry me, Become the Queen of Elfhame.”
“I exile Jude Duarte to the mortal world. Until and unless she is pardoned by the crown, let her not step one foot in Faerie or forfeit her life.”
"I urge you: Come be angry at nearer distance.”
“Come home. Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must. Just come home.”
“Above me is the same silvery moon that shines down on you. Looking at it makes me recall the glint of your blade pressed against my throat and other romantic moments.”
„ As you wish. Then I suppose I will have to examine you alone in my chambers.”
„Do not touch her.”
“She is my wife, The rightful High Queen of Elfhame. And most definitely not in exile.”
“Although I am wearing the cloak Mother Marrow made me, the one that will turn any blade, I still promise to run, tail between my legs. And since I have a tail, that should be amusing for everyone. Are you satisfied?”
"I assume you weren’t actually trying to shoot me, since the note was in your handwriting.”
„It was terrifying, watching you fall. I mean, you’re generally terrifying, but I am unused to fearing for you. And then was furious. I am not sure I have ever been that angry before.”
"Not you, You never break.”
„Pardoned by the crown. Meaning by The King Of Faerie. Or its queen. You could have returned anytime you wanted.”
„There was a prophecy given when I was born. Usually Baphen is uselessly vague, but in this case, he made it clear that should I rule, I would make a very poor king. The destruction of the crown, the ruination of the throne- a lot of dramatic language. (..) I never minded being a minor villain, but it’s possible I might have grown into something else, a High King as monstrous as Dain. And if I did- if I fulfilled that prophecy- I ought to be stopped. And I believe that you would stop me.”
“Would you like me to inform the Council that you will see them another time? It will be a novelty to have me make your excuses.”
"No, no, enough. It’s all too tedious to explain. I declare this meeting at an end. Leave us. I tire of the lot of you.”
„This is my room, and that’s my wife.”
„Unlike Locke, I never thought love was a game"
”To you, I offer honey wine and the hospitality of my table. But to traitors and oath breakers, I offer my queen’s hospitality instead. The hospitality of knives.”
“You looked like a knight in a story tonight. Possibly a filthy story.”
„Mock me all you like. Whatever I imagined then, now it is I who would beg and grovel for a kind word from your lips. By you, I am forever undone.”
“No, What YOU want.”
"My sweet nemesis, how glad I am that you returned.”
“It’s you I love, I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours. You probably guessed as much, but just in case you didn’t.”
“A King is not his crown.”
“ I am the High King, and I do not forfeit that title to you, not for a sword or a show or my pride. It is worth more than any of those things. Besides which, two rulers stand before you. And even had you cut me down, one would remain.”
"But vows should never be to a crown. They should be to a ruler. And they should be of your own free will. I am your king, and beside me stands my queen. But it is your choice whether or not to follow us. Your will shall be your own.”
„I haven’t worn anything in days, I don’t see why I ought to start now.”
"Tomorrow, Or the next day. Or perhaps next week.” And with that, he rises, takes a long drink from his goblet, sets it down on the table, and walk to where I sit. ”Will you dance?”
"You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear those words, You don’t want me dead.”
„You need not say it out of pity, or because I was under a curse. I have asked you to lie to me in the past, in this very room, but I would beg you not to lie now.“
„Because I am clever and funny, You didn’t mention my handsomeness.”
„It was like being trapped in the dark. I was alone, any my instinct was to lash out. I was perhaps not entirely an animal, but neither was I myself. I could not reason. There were only feelings- hatred and terror and the desire to destroy. And you. I knew little else, but I always knew you.”
"He ought to have paid you in gold.”
“And scheming great schemes.”
