Michal

“Love is hope for other people.”
― Kristin Cashore, Seasparrow

“I remember something else from the time I spent trapped. I remember Bitterblue’s voice, calling down from above. I remember how inconsolable she was, terrified that I was stranded in a place she wouldn’t be able to reach me. And I remember that even in that moment, my own pain began to shift into the wish to comfort her pain.
I lose myself in that wish. I disappear. Suddenly Bitterblue is there, and I am gone. It’s not her fault. It’s my whole thing, right? I disappear from myself. It’s a way of being I got stuck inside, a long time ago.
I’ve been thinking about how to get unstuck. Even if it hurts.”
― Kristin Cashore, Seasparrow

“Why? Why wouldn’t revenge make things better?
I think I saw then the difference between my anger toward my father and my anger toward Kera. It was like watching two icebergs separate, after moving together for a very long time. One was enormous, the size of an island; so enormous that I’d been standing atop it my entire life and never realized it was dragging me away from myself.
The other was a regular iceberg. Not small, because icebergs aren’t small; but not bottomless either. Contained within a definable space. Able to be seen all at once, if I was willing to dive into the cold, and look at it from below.
Was I willing to dive? What would that mean? Could I look at one anger, without being overwhelmed by all the others?
I wonder if angers can connect to each other, if you’re not careful. I wonder if they combine, and feed one another, strengthen each other, make each individual anger bigger than it’s supposed to be?
That seems dangerous. It seems like something to look out for, in a life of perils.”
― Kristin Cashore, Seasparrow

“Our ship is a barque. She’s a lot like a barquentine, but not exactly like. Similar in length to the Monsea, and three-masted, but the foremast and the mainmast carry square-rigged sails and only the aftermost mast is rigged fore-and-aft.
Do I sound more and more like I know what I’m talking about? The front and middle masts carry square sails that drop down from above. The back mast carries triangle sails that we raise from below, with lines I know the names of. And she’s beautiful, she’s so, so completely beautiful with the wind in her sails. She’s tried and true; she has barnacles clinging to her once-crimson hull that’s been burnished by the sun and the sea into something more weathered. Annet bought her from a wine merchant in Monport, on behalf of the queen.
Bitterblue wanted to rename her something boring, but Annet and Navi both cried out in alarm that it was bad luck to rename a ship.
I was relieved, because her name is the Fledgling.
“Silly name for a ship that’s sailed many seas,” said Bitterblue, but I like to imagine a grown bird that’s only just now learning to fly.”
― Kristin Cashore, Seasparrow