#stone sky

Alabaster pauses. "Did you like being in the Fulcrum so much?"

"For all those who have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question"

Thinking abt the state of the world and all I can think abt rn is Essun at the end of stone sky. All of that hardship. All of that pain. All of that loss. Being asked what she wants after seeing the worst the world has to offer and still choosing to find joy and deciding to fight to make the world a better place.

“When a slave rebels, it is nothing much to the people who read about it later. Just thin words on thinner paper, worn finer by the friction of history. "So you were slaves? So what?" They whisper, like it's nothing. But to the people who live through a slave rebellion, both those who take their dominance for granted, until it comes for them in the dark, and those who would see the world burn before enduring one moment longer in their place.  That is not a metaphor, Essun. Not hyperbole. I did watch the world burn. Say nothing to me of innocent bystanders, unearned suffering, heartless vengeance. When a comm builds atop a fault line, do you blame its walls when they inevitably crush the people inside? No; you blame whoever was stupid enough to think they could defy the laws of nature forever. Well, some worlds are built on a fault line of pain, held up by nightmares. Don’t lament when those worlds fall. Rage that they were built doomed in the first place

"Say nothing to me of innocent bystanders, unearned suffering, heartless vengeance. When a ...(town)... builds atop a fault line, do you blame its walls when they inevitably crush the people inside? No; you blame whoever was stupid enough to think they could defy the laws of nature forever. Well, some worlds are built on a fault line of pain, held up by nightmares. Don’t lament when those worlds fall. Rage that they were built doomed in the first place."

She is such a good child at her core. Don't be angry with her, she can only make choices within the limited set of her experiences. And it isn't her fault that so many of those experiences have been terrible. Marvel instead at how easily she loves, how thoroughly. Love enough to change the world.