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“He almost smiled. A ghost. A trick of the light. “So you couldn’t run away again before I said hello.” “Hello,” said Lila. “Hello,” said Kell. “Where have you been?” Lila smirked. “Why, did you miss me?” Kell opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again before finally managing to answer, “Yes.” The word was low, and the sincerity caught her off guard. A blow beneath her ribs. “What,” she fumbled, “the life of a royal no longer to your tastes?” But the truth was, she’d missed him, too. Missed his stubbornness and his moods and his constant frown. Missed his eyes, one crisp blue, the other glossy black. “You look …” he started, then trailed off. “Ridiculous?” “Incredible.”

“Lila had an idea. It was a very stupid idea. But a stupid idea was better than no idea, at least in theory. So she dragged the words into shape and delivered them with her sharpest smile. “Nas,” she said, slowly. “An to eran gast.” No. I am your best thief. She held the captain’s gaze when she said it, her chin high and proud. The others grumbled and growled, but to her they didn’t matter, didn’t exist. The world narrowed to Lila and the captain of the ship. His smile was almost imperceptible. The barest quirk of his lips.”

“You do me too much honor,” she said, smile widening. “And if you were coming to see about that debt,” she went on, eyes bright, “you should know that it has recently been paid.” Kell’s chest tightened. “What? When?” “Indeed,” continued Calla. “Only a few minutes ago.” Kell didn’t even say good-bye. He lunged out of the tent and into the churning market, scanning the currents of people streaming past.”

“She used to hate people like him, people who gave up something good, shucked warm meals and solid roofs as if they didn’t matter. But then Barron died and Lila realized that in a way she’d done the same thing. Run away from what could have been a good life. Or at least a happy one. Because it wasn’t enough to be happy, not for Lila. She wanted more. Wanted an adventure. She used to think that if she stole enough, the want would fade, the hunger would go away, but maybe it wasn’t that simple. Maybe it wasn’t a matter of what she didn’t have, of what she wasn’t, but what she was. Maybe she wasn’t the kind of person who stole to stay alive. Maybe she just did it for the thrill. And that scared her, because it meant she didn’t need to do it, couldn’t justify it, could have stayed at the Stone’s Throw, could have saved Barron’s life.... It was a slippery slope, that kind of thinking, one that ended in a cliff, so Lila backed away.”

“The sun is high, the day hot, and she lays the dress out in the grass to dry, sinks onto the slope besides it in her shift. They sit, side by side in silence, one a ghost of the other. And she realizes, looking down, that this is all she has. A dress. A slip. A pair of stolen shoes. Restless, she takes up a stick and begins to draw absent patterns in the silt along the bank. But every stroke she makes dissolves, the change too quick to be the river's doing. She draws a line, watches it begin to wash away before she even finishes the mark. Tries to write her name, but her hand stills, pinned under the same rock that held her tongue. She carves a deeper line, gouges out the sand, but it makes no difference, soon that groove is gone, too, and an angry sob escapes her throat as she casts the stick away.”

“Her shadow stretches out ahead - too long, its edges already blurring - and small white flowers tumble from her hair, littering the ground like stars. A constellation left in her wake, almost like the one across her cheeks. Seven freckles. One for every love she'd have, that's what Estele had said, when the girl was still young. One for every life she'd lead. One for every god watching over her. Now they mock her, those seven marks. Promises. Lies. She's had no loves, she's lived no lives, she's met no gods, and now she is out of time.”

“He?” asked Victor incredulously. He wasn’t in the mood for God. Not this morning. “According to your thesis,” he said, “an influx of adrenaline and a desire to survive gave you that talent. Not God. This isn’t divinity, Eli. It’s science and chance.” “Maybe to a point, but when I climbed into that water, I put myself in His hands—” “No,” snapped Victor. “You put yourself in mine.”

“You drugged her?" " It was Tieren's order, " said Hastra, chastised. "He said she was mad and stubborn and no use to us dead." (...) "And what do you plan to do when she wakes up back?" Hastra shrank back. "Apologize?" Kell made an exasperated sound as Lila nuzzled - actually nuzzled - his shoulder. "I suggest," he snapped at the young man, "you think of something better. Like an escape route.”

“This was the story of a prince who watched over his city as it slept. Who went on foot, for fear of trampling one of the fallen, who wove his way between the bodies of his people. Some would say he moved in silence, with only the gentle clang of his golden-armored steps echoing like distant bells through the silent street. Some would say he spoke, that even in the far-off darkness, the sleeping heard him whisper, over and over, "You are not alone.”

“There is a saying in the Sanctuary. Is aven stran." "The blessed thread," translated Kell. Hastra nodded eagerly. "Do you know what it means?" His eyes brightened as he spoke. "It's from one of the myths, the Origin of the Mgician. Magic and Man were brothers, you see, only they had nothing in common, for each's strength was the other's weakness. Ando so one day, Magic made a blessed thread, and tied itself to Man, so tightly that the thread cut into their skin... ." Here he turned his hands up, flexing is wrists to show the veins, "and from that day, they shared their best and worst, their strenght and weakness." Something fluttered in Kell's chest. "How does the story end?" he asked. "It doesn't," Hastra said. "Not even if they part?" Hastra shook his head. "There's no 'they' anymore, Master Kell. Magic gave so much to Man, and Man so much to Magic, that their edges blurred, and their threads all tangled, and now they can't be pulled apart. They're bound together, you see, life to life. Halves of a whole. If anyone tried to part them, they'd both unravel." - rhy and kell <3”

“Sixty minutes to an hour. Twenty-four hours to a day. These are mortal measurements, for mortal lives. But when you live forever, time is something far less constant. When you are happy, a decade rushes by. When you are sad, a minute crawls. When you are lonely and afraid, time seems to lose all meaning. Blink, and a year is gone. Blink, and it has only been a night. Only, it is not a life at all. It is a prison sentence.”