Michelle Sagara West

Stop judging your life only by the failures," he whispered."What should I do?" she whispered. "I'm always going to fail.""We all do," he said softly, his voice closer now. "We all fail. But none of us fail all the time.

What would this have been, if it had more power to give?""This may come as a surprise to you," he replied dryly, "But I am not an Ancient. Nor am I, human philosophy aside, a living construct.""Which means you don't know.""Which means, as you so succinctly put it, I do not know." - Kaylin & Tiamaris

Death was silence, loss, guilt. And anger. But life led that way, anyway. From birth, it was a slow, long march to the grave. Who said that? She couldn__ remember now. But it was true. They were born dying. If they were very lucky, the dying was called aging. They reached toward if as if they were satellites in unstable orbits. And then when they got there, they were just dead. One moment in time separated the living from the ghosts.

In youth,' he said, speaking as if from a great distance, 'we believe, and the death of belief forces us to disavow all belief. But that disavowal, time softens, and if we do not believe, we hope. Belief is easier to kill, somehow, and its death easier to bear.

The truth was only another mask, even if it was the best fit, the closest to skin and all that lay beneath

There wasn't a colloquial phrase, or curse, that went something like, "May your day be full of angry dragons" or, "May every dragon you meet today be pissed off." But, there should have been.

The look he gave her made her turn away for a moment. Sometimes you couldn__ look too closely at another person__ pain.

And I__l stop with the lecture now. I don__ like people much__hey irritate and annoy me. But I__fascinated by them anyway.

Success and failure are two edges of the same blade, two sides of the same coin. To fear one is to forever deny the possibility of the other.

Stay," he said abruptly. "Stay, feed me. Read to me, if you like. Do not talk to me of death. Do not offer me your fear. I have fear of my own to drive me, and if my own fear is not strong enough to keep me from my duty, yours will only grieve me, girl. It will give me guilt and no rest, but it won't preserve my life.

No, time has silverted the dark sheen of her hair, and thickened her body, and lined the corners of her eyes and her lips.He saw in them the hints of the smile he loved, and knew, to be fair, that time had been no kinder to him. Or perhaps, it had been just as kind; for she did not look the part of a young girl, and she was not: she was stronger, wiser, and more just than the fear of youth allowed; she gave him the shelter that he needed, on the rare occasions that that need drove him. She trusted him, always; she looked up to him, still; he strove, in every way, to continue to live up to her expectation. She was the one person in his life he did not wish to disappoint.

Is there anyone__ life story you don__ want to know?___ot really._ His expression was unexpectedly serious. __ecause people make a story of their lives.Gains, losses, tragedy and triumph__ou can tell a lot about someone simply by what they put into eachcategory. You can learn a lot about what you put into each category by your reaction to them. Theyteach you about yourself without ever intending to do it__nd they teach you a lot about life.

Bellusdeo laughed. It was, for a moment, the only sound in the quiet of the fief__ night, and it was warmer and deeper than the lingering night chill. When her laughter faded, she glanced at Kaylin. __ was not like this before. I thought that the Shadows had not touched me._ She lowered her head a moment.Kaylin understood this, as well. __t seems so unfair,_ she finally said.__ife is unfair. Which part of it pains you?___e suffer, and it breaks something. When we win free__y gaining our name, by crossing a bloody bridge__e still live in a cage of scars. If life were fair, we would never have suffered what we suffered at all; having suffered it and survived, we__e still reacting to things that don__ exist anymore.___ut they did.___es. I hate that they still define me._ Voice lower, she said to Bellusdeo, __ want that to change. I don__ know how to change it. But I__ willing to spend the rest of my life trying._ Shaking her head, she forced herself to smile; it was surprisingly easy. There was something about Bellusdeo that she liked. __ome is a strange thing.___hat do you mean?___e lose it, and we think it__ gone forever. That__ how I felt the first time I lost mine. It took me years to understand that I could find__nd make__nother. I couldn__ do it on my own, though; I don__ think__or me__ome exists in isolation.

There were always people who struggled their way to the top of the heap, no matter how much that heap looked like garbage when seen from the outside.

Sanabalis never seemed to eat, and he deflected most of her questions about Dragon cuisine. Then again, he deflected most of her questions about Dragons, period. Which was annoying because he was one, and could in theory be authorative.

Lies were something you told other people to make things easier, somehow - hopefully, for them, but often more selfishly for yourself.