That was magic for you, right? The thing about magic, the real kind: it didn’t make excuses, and it was never… — Lev Grossman

She was starting to suspect that facing up to the nightmare of the past is what gives you the power to build your future.

Heads turned. This was gossip of the very first water—pure pharmaceutical-grade gossip.

One of the secrets Martin must have learned down below the Northern Marsh was how not to care about some things, and there was power in that, the power to live as though his actions had no consequences. It fell to us to witness the consequences, and they were ugly.