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Quote by Alexandra Monir

“But no matter what they did, the sultan always used their time together to share with her the business of running the kingdom, the rewards and judgements he'd handed down during the week. It occurred to Jasmine now, as she awoke on her first Friday without him, that he had been preparing her. Every time he'd told her the reasons for one decision or another, whether he'd said yes or no to a subject's plea, he was giving Jasmine a road map to follow when it was her turn to rule. He believed I could do it. And if he believed... then so do I.”

Quote by Alexandra Monir

Book:Realm of Wonders
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Realm of Wonders

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Alexandra Monir

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“Outside the closed doors to the throne room, Sharif the high elder waited, holding a kaftan robe of red silk and velvet in one hand and a long spear nearly twice his height in the other. Jasmine's heart beat faster as she recognized the gold trim and signature jewels lining the robe, the ancient craftsmanship of the spear. These had belonged to Cyrus the Great, the first ruler of the empire. And in mere moments, she would be the first woman to feel them against her skin. Nadia untied Jasmine's peacock cape while the high elder held out the red robe. "Today you shed the persona of Jasmine, the princess," he said, "and step into the skin of a sultana." Jasmine took a deep breath, slipping her arms into the preserved silk. The material was more fragile than anything she'd worn before, and she was conscious that one wrong step, one tear of the fabric, would be rip through history. Yet she felt stronger in the cape too, as though Cyrus were transferring his power through it to her. When Sharif handed her Cyrus's spear, she could barely contain her awe.”

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Book:Realm of Wonders
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“Jasmine dressed carefully the next morning, choosing her clothes like they were her armor. She paired a regal purple waistcoat and blouse with matching wide-legged trousers gathered at the ankle and bordered in gold thread, while Nadia dressed her hair with a diamond-studded tiara inherited from Jasmine's mother. As she surveyed herself in front of the mirror, the ensemble had just the effect she'd hoped for. There was nothing delicate about Princess Jasmine today. She looked the picture of power. Now it was time for her to claim it.”

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“Out of all the palace's awe-inspiring interiors, the Round Library had always been Jasmine's favorite. A marble floor painted with a lotus-flower motif gave way to three tiers of balconies lined with books, stretching up to an arched ceiling where a bronze chandelier flooded the circular space with candlelight. Bound books had still been a novelty when the sultan was young, but in the intervening years, he'd amassed a collection of nearly three thousand titles from across the East. This was where Jasmine had come to fill in the gaps in her knowledge while her nonroyal peers were sent off to school. It was thanks to the books in this room that she'd learned to read and write in Greek and Latin along with Persian and Arabic, that she could look at an astrolabe and point out the different planets in the universe. It was where she'd fallen in love with studying maps and imagining other lands, far from here”

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Book:Realm of Wonders
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“Jasmine ran her hand along the knife's cool, smooth edge. She had never been allowed to so much as touch weaponry before, but with the blade in her hands, she felt instantly less vulnerable. The three of them spent the better part of an hour up on the roof, with Malik teaching Jasmine the basics of knife skills and defense techniques while Aladdin played the role of opponent. She was clumsy at first, but before long she was unsheathing the blade from her cloak and pointing it up to Aladdin's chin in two seconds flat, while using her other arm as a shield. "Well done, Princess," he said in her ear. "You're a quick study," Malik agreed, and Jasmine flushed with pride.”

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“That which is above is from what which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above. A casual reader could have easily interpreted the line to mean that the sun and moon and earth are all connected. But when she read it, all Jasmine could think of was... another world. A world beyond this one. Especially when later sections of the text described the principles of turning base metals into gold and predicted the future creation of an "Elixir of Life"--- immortality--- Jasmine knew her father's interest in this book ran far deeper than mere curiosity. She could feel it.”

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“That's when she saw the black ink strokes, underlining four words of the poem: Door. Veil. Thee. Me. And in a flash, the code to the sultan's combination lockbox flew into her mind. D V J S. Door. Veil. Jasmine. Sultan... or sultana. Even though the meaning was still opaque, even though she still hadn't the slightest clue which door or veil her father was trying to draw her toward, something lifted in her chest as she looked at the words. Hope. He was still talking to her, communicating with her, even from another plane. "As above, so below," she whispered.”

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