Ash Gray

My child will bear those scars forever,_ Tilv said angrily. __nd if he isn__ a fool, perhaps your child will learn from them,_ Neferre returned calmly.

Yes. The elven magi are very old, but not old enough to remember that all of this has happened before._ Parmida frowned. __ust how old are you?___ am older than a thousand of your suns,_ the unicorn answered._. . . and that means?

:No,: Wareska said at once, :we should go back.: She heard the horse laugh softly into her mind. :Wareska,: he said in amusement, :it is not like you to ever look back.::I look back when sense dictates.::It is hard for horses to look back. We don__ really have shoulders. I guess we look back over our butt?:

As if the president gives a crap about demons and what they go through just because her father__ got horns?_ Morganith returned. __he never opens her coward mouth about the quiet oppression the demons -- your people -- face every single day --!_ __ur people,_ Hari calmly corrected. __o,_ said Morganith at once. __alflings have never been anyone__ people.

You must be a rich human,_ went on Holonie. __ou could have come here with bodyguards, dogs, something. But you came here alone. Very risky. Nearly insane. Completely stupid.__lbryn laughed his flat, humorless laugh. __hanks?

Is there n-nothing you can do?_ Parmida asked, wiping her tears away with the heel of her hand. The unicorn laughed softly. __he asks for a boon after shooting me in the ass.

Morganith snorted and didn__ lower her weapon. __ne girl can cause alotta trouble, Hari. You and I are proofa that.

Rigg laughed softly at Lisa__ deadpan joke, but she halted when she noticed the back of Lisa__ neck: the factory number had been shaved away, roughly and angrily. Frowning in confusion, Rigg gently rubbed her fingers over the scrape, and Lisa flinched as if it hurt.__f someone saw this, you could be scrapped,_ Rigg said anxiously. __ know,_ was the soft reply. __ believe freedom is worth that risk.

Yet while Owllwin was arrogant, he was also humble enough to admit when he had made a mistake. Perhaps it was his sheer clumsiness that kept him so humble: the first time he spoke to Cricket was in the great dining hall, and he brought down six tables five minutes after.

You said the d-word,_ Owllwin said regretfully. __ didn__ think you would, or I woulda warned ya.__ . . . the d-word?_ Cricket repeated in confusion.__eah . . ._ Owllwin paused as if he was glancing around, then he whispered through the wall, __ragon._ Cricket blinked. __hy can__ I say that?

Owllwin was easiest the most contrary person Cricket had ever known. He was arrogant but humble, cowardly but brave, foolish but wise. He was funny, but sometimes she caught him crying when he was off on his own. It were as if he pushed himself to be a better person in spite of himself, in spite of his own failings, and Cricket secretly admired the fact: not many people were willing to admit they had faults in the first place.

I__ a dot in the grand scheme of things. I don__ matter, not even to the other dots.

I know nothing of magick,_ the naked man said to the raven, __xcept what you told me._ He laughed sadly. __nd I barely remember that. I tend to drift off when you ramble.

:I am Topaz,: the unicorn on the hill haughtily announced, :and this is my vale.: :I was not aware unicorns could own vales,: Wareska linked. The unicorn stiffened, and even from this distance, Wareska could see her bright, golden eyes narrow dangerously. :Now you know,: she said with quiet menace.

Shadowmane sighed as well. :We had better do what this Topaz commands. Unicorns are jerks when they don__ get their way.:

For elves, sex was two souls finding each other in the dark.

Slowly rising from the fire, she went down to the shore, and not wanting to frighten him off again, she squatted on a rock above the water, looking down at him where he sat on the wet sand with his long blue-green tail disappearing into the lapping waves. He shyly offered the bag up to her, which had been woven of seaweed, and she took it with a whispered thanks and opened it, staring in delight and surprise at the sheer amount of oysters that were inside. The siren made a trilling noise and whispered, __-I hope it is well enough. I do not know what land women eat.

Right now, all she knew was that she had the potential to love him greatly and fiercely, and she wanted to do so and nothing else very much and for many years.