Genevieve Cogman

“Life was much easier before I had to worry about everyone else worrying,” Irene muttered.

“It’s called growing up, dear. It comes with staying alive.”

“Nothing lasts,” he said, his voice guttural with age and remembered pain. “Neither knowledge, nor skill, nor family, nor the bond between master and student. In another thousand years I will be gone. And in time you both will pass as well, and this place will be dust. For all that we pride ourselves on our power and our length of years, Prince Kai, ultimately dragons too are as fleeting as fireflies. There was a time when we never existed; there will also come a time when nobody will remember us. War changes to peace. But, ultimately, peace collapses into war and the cycle continues.”

“I’ve told you before, sir, you will be remembered as long as my fathers kingdom lasts.” Shan Yuan spoke with affection, clearly repeating an old reassurance.

“That’s not as reassuring as you might think.”

You must surely know by now, Winters, that a leader’s authority is limited to giving her followers orders that they will actually obey.

We shouldn’t be playing politics. We should be focusing on what’s important.

Don’t you realize you have a responsibility to other people to look after yourself?

“Are there other Librarian ghosts here?” she asked.

“Ghosts? Yes, I suppose that’s the best word for it. Collections of memories, maybe. We are all the sum of our memories, after all.”

“You mean me entering the Library may have destroyed the universe?” Catherine asked

“You don’t need to sound quite so impressed by it,” Irene chided. “It’s not something you want on your yearly performance review.”

First things first. Get the facts, then decide what to do next. And hope that there is a next.

Irene didn’t need Vale’s deductive skills to tell her she was in trouble. But there was something liberating about this. She was surrounded by known enemies, not politics. And she didn’t have anyone to worry about—apart from herself.

The problem with paranoia was that if you let it rule all your decisions, then you would miss some perfectly good opportunities.

Blind faith is just another word for slavery.

Sometimes the obvious answer is the true answer.