Quote by Sara Raasch

“So it stunned Briar silent when Köning handed her a list that had been decided on by all the vassals, debated over in a prior meeting and compiled so they agreed on her best qualities. Self-assured Thoughtful Passionate Envisions a peaceful future for the empire And the one that set her mind spinning, dazed: Fearless She looked up at the vassals. "Truly?" Köning, already shuffling through a stack of parchment for his next set of notes, half looked at her. "Which one, Your Majesty?" All of them. They saw her this way? They barely knew her. They had only seen her in passing these few weeks, had only interacted with her on the periphery. So were these attributes truly hers, or were they things her vassals hoped she could emulate? Fauna, who hovered just behind Briar's chair, placed a hand on her shoulder. "You have displayed all these traits in your time here, Rose," she whispered softly. "They honor you by recognizing what you are." She used the name that Briar's aunts had called her by. That only Briar's aunts had called her by. Briar Rose had been her full name, but Frieda had thought Briar sounded more interesting, thorny and sharp, and so Briar had acquiesced to being Briar because she had been about six and had wanted so desperately to be interesting. But she realized, hearing Fauna say Rose now, that the split of who she was had happened even earlier than she had realized. As a child, she had been Briar to some and Rose to her aunts and Briar Rose to even more--- Had there ever been a time in her life when she had simply existed? Briar sat down the paper with her best qualities, eyes blurring as she read it over, and over. Were these the traits of Briar? Or of Aurora? Which would best win empress?”

Quote by Sara Raasch