#cashoreedit

But also in the Dells lived colorful, astonishing creatures that the Dellian people called monsters. It was their unusual coloration that identified them as monsters, because in every other physical particular they were like normal Dellian animals. The had the shape of Dellian horses, Dellian turtles, mountain lions, raptors, dragonflies, bears; but they were ranges of fuchsia, turquoise, bronze, iridescent green. A dappled grey horse in the dells was a horse. A sunset orange horse was a monster.

“I want to have the heart and mind of a queen,” she whispered. “I want it more than anything. But I’m only pretending. I can’t find the feeling of it inside me.” Fire considered her quietly. You want me to look for it inside you. “I just want to know,” Bitterblue said. “If it’s there, it would be a great comfort for me to know.” Fire said, I can tell you already that it’s there.

Brigan did terrible things. [...] But he chose to, so that he might stop other people from using power in even worse ways. His power was his burden. He accepted it. And he was nothing like his father. Neither were Garan and Clara; neither, really, was Nash. Not all sons were like their fathers. A son chose the man he would be. Not all daughters were like their fathers. A daughter monster chose the monster she would be.

“Truths are dangerous,” he said. “Then why are you writing them in a book?” “To catch them between the pages," said Teddy, "and trap them before they disappear.” “If they're dangerous, why not let them disappear?” “Because when truths disappear, they leave behind blank spaces, and that is also dangerous.”

Bitterblue: A Novel in Five Parts

“You’ve saved many lives with your Grace.” She shook her head. “Not as many as I’ve hurt.” “Possibly. But you have the rest of your life to tip the balance. You’ll live long.” The rest of her life to tip the balance. Katsa peeled the flesh of another fish away from its bones. She broke the flaky meat apart and ate it, and thought about that, smiling. 

“Lady Katsa, is it?" "Yes, Lord Prince." "I've heard you have one eye green as the Middluns grasses, and the other eye blue as the sky." "Yes, Lord Prince." "I've heard you can kill a man with the nail of your smallest finger." She smiled. "Yes, Lord Prince." "Does it make it easier?" "I don't understand you." "To have beautiful eyes. Does it lighten the burden of your Grace, to know you have beautiful eyes?”

Fire sat unbreathing. A life that was an apology for the life of his father: It was a notion she could understand, beyond words and thought. She understood it the way she understood music.