✩ Yaz ✩

“I was the Maiden, the Chosen … I wasn’t Poppy but a shadow of a person who wasn’t allowed to experience, need, live, or want.”
― Jennifer L. Armentrout, From Blood and Ash

“I did not know I was lonely, she thought, until I was no longer alone.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“All my life,” she said, “I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me. Please. Please let me help you.”
― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale

“Gwyn whispered, "I am the rock against which the surf crashes." Nesta straightened at the words, as if they were a prayer and a summons. Gwyn lifted the blade. "Nothing can break me."

Cassian's throat tightened, and even from across the ring he could see Nesta's eyes gleaming with pride and pain.

Emerie said, "Nothing can break us ."

The world seemed to pause at the words. As if it had been following one path and now branched off in another direction. In a hundred years, a thousand, this moment would still be etched in his mind. That he would tell his children, his grandchildren, Right then and there. That was when it all changed.

Azriel went wholly still, as if he, too, had felt the shift. As if he, too, were aware that far larger forces peered into that training ring as Gwyn moved.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A ​Court of Silver Flames