“Your emotions make you human. Even the unpleasant ones have a purpose. Don't lock them away. If you ignore them, they just get louder and angrier.”

“So long as you fight the darkness, you stand in the light.”

“You fool, Helene. When you love, there is always more pain.”

“Mercy is weakness. Offer it to your enemies and you might as well fall upon your own sword.”

“I should just build a bleeding house here," I mutter as I pick myself up off the snow-covered ground. "Maybe get a few chickens. Plant a garden.”

“Perhaps grief is like battle: After experiencing enough of it, your bodys instincts take over. When you see it closing in like a Martial death squad, you harden your insides. You prepare for the ag...”

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what...”

“His pen spoke more to her than he ever did.In the war of words, some are unwritten and some are unspoken.”

“How might I get over this? How would I be able to overlook the way he used to be with me? How could I overlook that his fingers touched my indiscernible soul before it twisted my nipples? How might...”

“Exhaustion is temporary. Pain is temporary. But Helene dying because I didn't find a way to get her back on timethat's permanent.”

“I don't smile at her. It will only scare her. For a female slave, a smile from a Mask is not usually a good thing.”

“Youyou were like me. You were a child. A normal child. And that was taken from you.Does that bother you?Well, it certainly makes you harder to hate.”