Ashley Shuttleworth > Quotes

“Heroes went through so much hardship. Heroes were the stuff of tragedies.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“The heart does not forget as the mind so easily does.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Do you need to know a person to feel sympathy for them? You’re kind, Arlo, and you feel things deeply. That’s not something to be embarrassed about, you know? There’s a great many people who go their whole lives without every learning to feel that compassion, and it my opinion, it’s better to feel too much of that than to look on at suffering and feel nothing at all.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“She had her morals, the whole one or two of them that stubbornly clung to existence”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“You’re… you’re something else, Arlo Jarsdel. But you’re also weird as fuck.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“And damn, Aurelian loved him. Unfortunately, Vehan loved him too.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“The number one law of the universe is choice, after all — bad things happen to the people who take that option away from you.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Her darkness has made her legend in certain circles.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Bye, Arlo! If you don't call me tonight, I'll just assume you've been murdered, shear off all my hair in mourning, and write lengthy poetry immortalizing that one time you beat me at Mario Kart.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“This boy, whom death loved dearly for his years of worship, for the souls he’d sent like offerings to death’s altar, made him a deal - an offering of his own: immortality for service.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“There was a fine and fragile line between the things that made a person brave and the things that made them fools - so far, she had a sinking suspicion their plan belonged to the latter category.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Wow, good job, Vehan. You broke the murder factory.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“I’m not an alchemist. I don’t practice alchemy. Have you been telling people I do? I’d this payback for the whole ‘I thought you were a murderer’ thing?”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“My dude,” drawled a voice from behind the man. “Methinks the lady doth say fuck off.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Just making conversation! I was only trying to…smooth over the moment. I, uh, remember one Solstice years ago when High Prince Celadon gifted my mother a deck of cards with bizarre animals on the front. He told her they were enchanted, and that all she had to do was throw them while shouting their names and the creature she wished to summon would come to her aid. She spent an entire week trying to summon something called ‘Pikachu’ before someone kindly explained to her what Pokémon cards were, and that they weren’t magic. I’m pretty sure the High Prince has cemented his place on the top of her death list for that, but all the High King did was ground him.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Nope—don’t like that! That’s our fucking cue to energize,” Nausicaä announced with a great deal of false cheer, clapping her hands together. “Gather round, class—field trip is over. Time to leave.”
“You watch Star Trek?”
“Aurelian, this is not the time!”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“She loved reading stories about people taking off on adventures, discovering they were natural leaders born to make a difference in the world, but a hero?
Heroes went through so much hardship.
Heroes were the stuff of tragedies.
They took charge of situations and challenged authority and made decisions not only for themselves but on behalf of other people too. Arlo…Arlo could barely make up her mind about going to school. She was a disappointment in pretty much every area of her life, and she’d only disappoint at this, too, because this… this was more than just poking around for clues to pass of to other, more competent people. This was choosing to be responsible for other people’s lives, to keep them safe, to be their hope. Arlo was firmly an evil extra, a background character, the healer of an adventuring party if anything at all. She simply didn’t have what it took to be anything else, no matter what Fate seemed to think.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“ Psst.” Nausicaä tugged on one of the legs of his pants. “What do your fae eyes see, Legolas?”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Hero or villain… each is more than what it seems, and defined in different ways.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Cruel and Fated Light

“When all she’d wanted was someone to understand why she was upset, when all she’d needed was their sympathy— a freaking hug, damn it, would have gone a long way—the people she’d once thought loved her had only turned their backs and branded her a monster.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“I'm no hero! Just because I'm not running around turning kids to stone doesn't mean I'm a fine upstanding citizen like Red and Prince Charming here, and... I don't know, what fairy-tale character do you want to be, Aurelian?"
Aurelian cut her a deadly glare.
"And fucking Grumpy.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Well, if one of us assholes is going to play you’re stunningly attractive defender, like hell I’m going to let it be fucking Thranduil over there.”
Arlo laughed despite herself. “I think of the two of you, you’re the one most like Thranduil.”
“You’re right. He’s nowhere near fabulous enough. He can be my slightly inferior but equally arrogant son, Legolas.”
“I’ll let you be the one to tell him the good news.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“The flare of Arlo’s anger was a familiar thing by now.
She wanted to say something. She always wanted to say something whenever people like Malachite said such terribly rude things to her and others around her, but the words would never leave her tongue. Every time she felt them bubbling up inside her, those good intentions turned to cowardice and were swallowed once more by nerves.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“For a moment, the fog remained unmoved. It sat around, swirling in place, very clearly listening but showing no sign of offering answers. Then, just as Nausicaä began to contemplate conjuring a few more fireballs, the fog began to thin. Little by little it drained from the air until, finally, all that was left was a vaguely damp, translucent haze.
She could only stare at what was revealed.
“Huh,” she breathed when speech at last overcame her surprise. “This is…new.”
It wasn’t just the changelings that had gathered. They were present, of course—one mere step away. Nausicaä briefly took in the unmistakable pale green tint of his fawn-brown skin and the snaking twists of ivy that grew from the sharp flares of his little shoulders.
But there were others.
There were so many others. In all of Nausicaä’s very long life, she had never encountered so many of magic’s children in one place. The crowd of them stretched far in almost every direction, faces of all shapes and sizes peeking out of the foliage and trees. There were centaurs, goblins, brownies, imps and sprites. There were redcaps, with their crimson-stained hats and vicious scythes, which glinted in the moonlight. There were kelpies dripping sodden weeds, lilies strangled in their manes. Littered throughout the branches above were crows that weren’t really crows at all, but sluagh—wandering souls of the violent dead who preyed on those soon to die.
There were larger things too. Unnameable things. Things that had undoubtedly been calling this forest their home long before Nausicaä had ever been born. She narrowed her eyes at the distance—something massive as a mobile hill stood still as silence too far away for mortal eyes to see. Their form was not unlike an overlarge, poisonous tree frog, all vibrant blues and yellows and greens, a crown of velvet antlers on their head and hundreds of glittering black eyes on their face. A freaking Forest Guardian, she would hazard a guess, not that she’d ever seen one to say for sure.
“Uh…okay, well, weird time to have a company meeting, but you do you, I guess. I’m going to…go. Gar, maybe it’s best you stick with these guys until I square things up with my Reaper. Thanks for lifting the fog, forest brats! Good luck with…whatever this is. May the force be with you.” She turned back around. There weren’t any faeries in front of her, either—just trees and misty gloom and a darkness unnatural even for this time of night.
And, of course, the glass-chime tinkling of magic, which now sounded to her a bit distressed.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“Impossible.
It couldn’t be that simple.
After years of tears and stress and anxiety, of pushing and pushing and pushing herself to be better, and hopelessness when she wasn’t. After a lifetime of magic that just wouldn’t come, it couldn’t be this easy.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“I EXPELL YOU! I EXPELL YOU FROM MY FAVOR! I EXPELL YOU FROM MY HEART! I EXPELL YOU, AND I WILL NEVER LOVE YOU AGAIN FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO ME”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“ What I want is for you to be my Hollow Star.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“…those criminally expensive medications that forced him to choose between mental health and things like electricity.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“What sets them apart from you, do you think? What makes them think they’re better?”
“Wealth.”
Hero’s reply was immediate—sour—almost before he could think what to say. It made the Hunter creak out a laugh. “Oh?”
“Power, favor, beauty— wealth is more than money, but they’ve certainly got that too. They’re worth more, and so they are more.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Dark and Hollow Star

“She’d shifted her arms to circle Nausicaä’s neck and held tight to keep from slipping, as if Nausicaä would ever let her fall.”
― Ashley Shuttleworth, A Cruel and Fated Light