Jenn Lyons > Quotes

“She pushed a dagger into my hands. "And now you are a man with a knife. Woe to the Empire.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“Sometimes the things that protect us are the same things that limit our freedoms.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“Big waves start from small ripples. Avalanches begin with a single pebble.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“Demons and monsters are obvious; we'll always band together to fight them off. But real evil, insidious evil, is what lets us just walk away from another person's pain and say well, that's none of my business.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“Problems are opportunities with thorns attached”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“You showed up in the Land of Peace not too long after I did. And for five hundred years, give or take, you never spoke. Not a single word. Not to anyone. You just stared off into nothing, like for you the Land of Peace was anything but. And the gods didn't expect you to volunteer. I remember the shock on their faces when you did. One of them asked you why you wanted to go back and you said-- "
He gestured toward me, inviting me to finish the sentence.
My throat tried to close on me, but I still managed the words. "Because I can."
"Because you can. And that was the moment I knew--" He stopped himself.
"Yeah? Knew what?"
He didn't answer for a long beat. The silence started to loom when he finally spoke, "Knew I couldn't let you get one up on me, obviously," Teraeth said, looking away.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“He still looked at me like I was every sunrise the world had ever seen.”
― Jenn Lyons, The House of Always

“Don't insult me by suggesting that the only way I'd be welcome in your bed is by removing all rivals.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“But know this - even though I have lived a life as full of thin, small regrets as a cherry blossom is full of petals in the spring, this will be my largest: that I could not be with you, right then, to share the space between never and always while waiting for the sun to rise.”
― Jenn Lyons, The House of Always

“There’s a prophecy. Actually no, it’s more like a thousand prophecies. It’s the collected rantings of a thousand people, the demons possessing them, and whole orders of scholars have spent centuries trying to pull any kind of coherent meaning from them. Relos Var and his lord, Duke Kaen of Yor, believe the prophecies refer to an end time, a great cataclysm, when a single man of vast evil will rise up. The ‘Hellwarrior’ will conquer the Manol, strip the vané of our immortality, kill the Emperor, destroy the Empire of Quur, and free the demons. In his right hand he will hold Urthaenriel, and with his left, he will crush the world and remake it as he desires.” Teraeth sipped at his cup. “Presumably by wiping away the old gods and replacing them with himself, as is tradition.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“I’ll have you know I am repressed. Shy and repressed. Also, I’m not ready for that kind of commitment. I mean, if I sleep with the entire Black Brotherhood, I just know I’ll feel awkward waking up next to them the next morning. Will they still respect me? What if they want me to meet their mother?” I paused. “Oh hell. I’ve already met their Mother.” Tyentso chuckled. “Bet they dump you the next morning and never write.” “I should be so lucky.” I grinned. “Personally, I kind of think they’d get obsessive and clingy when I tell them I want to see other cults too.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“We're here to pull you out of the water, so there's no reason to be afraid."
"I'm not afraid!" Janel yelled down.
I took a deep breath. "Of course you're not."
Teraeth cupped his hands over his mouth and made chicken clucking sounds.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Memory of Souls

“Nobody’s got that much time. Let’s just say that back in the day, me and a nephew of mine used to run around the Capital with this low-ranked priest of Thaena and a fresh-off-the-farm kid from Marakor, who only barely just qualified as being a wizard.” He smiled, looking off into the distance. “Those were some days.” “Is that—is that supposed to mean something to me?” Doc shrugged. “Only as much as that low-ranked priest of Thaena ended up becoming High Lord Therin of House D’Mon, the fresh-faced farm kid became Emperor Sandus, and my nephew Qoran clawed his way into the High General’s chair. Me? I opened a bar.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“If you hear my dying screams, avenge me."

Star shrugged. "Not sure how. You're the one with the fancy sword.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Name of All Things

“Thurvishar concentrated as he cast the spell.
Nothing happened.
"This isn't funny anymore." Thurvishar looked utterly offended. "I'm actually good at this, you realize.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Memory of Souls

“Except real evil isn't a demon or a rogue wizard. Real evil is an empire like Quur, a society that feeds on its poor and its oppressed like a mother eating her own children.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“It felt like nighttime. It felt like those early-morning hours when inhibitions hide and the surreal gossamer of if-onlys and possibility--so clumsy and fragile by daylight--transform into action. We do things at night we would never dream of doing when the sun is watching.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Memory of Souls

“Therin narrowed his eyes at Doc. "Tell me you're not impersonating Qoran."
"Okay, I'm not impersonating Qoran. Any other lies you'd like to her? I've got plenty. Here's a fun one: our sons are absolutely, definitely not in love with each other.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Memory of Souls

“How easy is it to convince ourselves we’re infallible, that our way and point of view are the only ones that matter. Oh, it is the easiest trap, and it always comes loaded with the most effective bait, our own desperate need for self-worth.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Name of All Things

“.” She took”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“A long story had been carved down the street, filled with figures engaged in combat. Eight people, four men and four women, gathered around a glowing crystal that threw off rays of light. Another eight figures, the same figures, followed, but each one was holding a symbol: a skull, a coin, a sword, cloth, an orb, a wheel, a stream, a leaf, and a star. I stepped farther down the street and traced out more patterns: the eight figures fighting monsters with the heads of bulls or hands like talons, creatures with serpent tails instead of legs and tentacles instead of arms. Then another scene, where just one of the eight, the one with the star symbol, left the battle escorted by a ninth person. Another ring of eight people followed, each one carrying a crystal, this time with the star-symbol man at their center. The ninth man was there too, only he held a sword. The next image showed the ninth man plunging that sword through the man with the star symbol.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“There’s no curse worse than a granted wish,”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“It turned out choices could linger like a wound, reminding a person every waking second of their consequences. Choices were ghosts; they haunted.”
― Jenn Lyons, The House of Always

“Monster is such an easily digestible idea. Horrible, evil to its core, irredeemable. If I'm a monster, then anyone who opposes me is by logical deduction a hero, yes? It's not that simple. Sometimes everyone is wrong and you must decide whose wrongness is more acceptable.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Name of All Things

“Am I a prisoner here?’
She coked her head and looked at me. ‘You’re on a tropical island a thousand miles from the nearest village. How well can you swim?’
‘A prisoner then.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“When Darzin had said his father was meeting with Butterbelly, Kihrin assumed that meant Darzin’s father was the other person who had been present for the demon summoning. If Dead Man wasn’t Pretty Boy’s father, who was he? Therin D’Mon put down his pen.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“If he didn’t like his situation, he changed it, and if he couldn’t change it, he didn’t let it gnaw at him.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“She moved with beautiful grace, as if violence were a dance she had practiced since childhood.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“pretended I hadn’t heard him. “You’re not here as a favor to Therin or Khaemezra. You’re here because I’m descended from Terindel. Not from you, technically, as you aren’t in Terindel’s original body anymore. But I’m guessing—” I made a moue. “What was your daughter’s name? Valrashar? I’m guessing she ended up being sold as a slave. She was supposed to be executed along with your wife, Valathea, but someone decided to make a little metal on the side and she ended up being owned by the D’Mons, where she gave birth to Pedron and Tishar. Am I close?”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“And then there was the food: saffron-laced butter rice, cooked in a rose-shaped copper pan until seared with a perfect crust, decanted right at the table, and drizzled with a tart cherry sauce; sorshi balls—coconut, cherimoya, and sugar apple—dusted with different-colored powdered sugars; hot-spiced dakerra, served a perfect medium rare, along with herbed sag bread for rolls; and, to crown it all, a delicate kevra sorbet.”
― Jenn Lyons, The House of Always