Laia Quotes

“There are two kinds of guilt. The kind that's a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It's damaged but it's there. Don't let them take it from you.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“As long as there is life, there is hope.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Laia and Helene: They’re so different. I like that Laia says things I don’t expect, that she speaks almost formally, as if she’s telling a story. I like that she defied my mother to go to the Moon Festival, whereas Helene always obeys the Commandant. Laia is the wild dance of a Tribal campfire, while Helene is the cold blue of an alchemist’s flame.

But why am I even comparing them? I’ve know Laia a few days and Helene all my life. Helene’s no passing attraction. She’s family. More than that. She’s part of me.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You—you 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.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“She chuckles again. “Because sane plans never work, girl,” she says. “Only the mad ones do.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“Thank you, Soul Catcher.”
“Elias,” he says after a moment, the slightest bit of warmth entering those cold gray eyes. “From you I prefer Elias.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“Fight back, Laia. For Darin. For Izzi. For every Scholar this beast has abused. Fight. A scream bursts from me, and I claw at Marcus’s face, but a punch to my stomach takes the wind out of my lungs. I double over, retching, and his knee comer up into my forehead. The hallway spins, and I drop to my knees. Then I hear him laughting, a sadistic chuckle that stokes my defiance.

Sluggishly, I throw myself at his legs. It won’t be like before, like during the raid when I let that Mask drag me about my own house like some dead thing.

This time, I’ll fight. Tooth and nail, I’ll fight.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“The tapping grows insistent, and I turn, intending to tell off the Cadet. Instead, I'm faced with a slave-girl looking up at me through impossibly long eyelashes. A heated, visceral shock flares through me at the clarity of her dark gold eyes. For a second, I forget my name.
I've never seen her before, because if I had, I'd remember. Despite the heavy silver cuffs and high, painful-looking bun that mark all of Blackcliff's drudges, nothing about her says slave. Her black dress fits her like a glove, sliding over every curve in a way that makes more than one head turn. Her full lips and fine, straight nose would be the envy of most girls, Scholar or not. I stare at her, realize I'm staring, tell myself to stop staring, and then keep staring. My breath falters, and my body, traitor that is, tugs me forward until there are only inches between us.

“Asp-aspirant Veturius.”

It's the way she says my name—like it's something to fear—that brings me back to myself. Pull it together, Veturius. I step away, appalled at myself when I see the terror in her eyes.

“What is it?” I ask calmly.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I have survived this feeling before, and I will survive it again. In this fiery hellscape of a world, this mess of blood and madness, justice exists only for those who take it. I'll be damned if I'm not one of them.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“Are the Trials starting?” The girl claps her hands over her mouth. “I'm sorry,” she whispers. “I—”

“It's all right.” 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. “I'm actually wondering the same thing. What's your name?”

“S-slave-Girl.” Of course. My mother would already have scourged her name out of existence.

“Right. You work for the Commandant?” I want her to say no. I want her to say that my mother roped her into this. I want her to say she's assigned to the kitchens or infirmary, where slaves aren't scarred or missing body parts.

But the girl nods in response to my question. Don't let my mother break you, I think. The girl meets my eyes, and there is that feeling again, low and hot and consuming. Don't be weak. Fight. Escape.

A gust of wind whips a strand free from her bun and across her cheekbone. Defiance flashes across her face as she holds my gaze, and for a second, I see my own desire for freedom mirrored, intensified in her eyes. It's something I've never detected in the eyes of a fellow student, let alone a Scholar slave. For one strange moment, I feel less alone.

But then she looks down, and I wonder at my own naiveté. She can't fight. She can't scape. Not from Blackcliff. I smile joylessly; in this, at least, the slave and I are more similar than she'll ever know.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You’re sure this is what you want?” I search her eyes for doubt, fear, uncertainty, but all I see is that fire. Ten hells
“I’m sure”
“Then I’ll find a way”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“Si tienes amor, no necesitas nada más; y si no lo tienes, no importa demasiado qué más tengas”
― Laia Soler, Los días que nos separan

“After I pull my eyes away from her, I realize that I'm not the only one dumbstruck. Many of the young men around me sneak glances at her. She doesn't seem to notice, which, of course, makes her all the more intriguing.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“When did you start here?” I ask her.

“Three days ago. Sir. Aspirant. Um—” She wrings her hands.

“Veturius is fine.”

She walks carefully, gingerly—the Commandant must have whipped her recently. And yet she doesn't hunch or shuffle like the others slaves. The straight-backed grace with which she moves tells her story better than words. She'd been a freewoman before this—I'd bet my scims on it. And she has no idea how pretty she is—or what kind of problems her beauty will cause for her at a place like Blackcliff. The wind pulls at her hair again, and I catch her scent—like fruit and sugar.

“Can I give you some advice?”

Her head flies up like a scared animal's. At least she's wary. “Right now you...” Will grab the attention of every male in a square mile. “Stand out,” I finish. “It's hot, but you should wear a hood or a cloak—something to help you blend in.”

She nods, but her eyes are suspicious. She wraps her arms around herself and drops back a little. I don't speak to her again.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“I have defied him and survived him again and again. He has tried to hurt me. But I will not allow myself to be hurt. He has tried to break me but I will not be dictated to by a man so afraid to fight the jinn that he must criticise a woman to make himself feel bigger.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“I don’t look at the wound. I don’t need to. I watched the Commandant as she carved it into me, a thick-lined, precise K stretching from my collarbone to the skin over my heart. She branded me. Marked me as her property. It’s a scar I’ll carry to the grave.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Where there is life, Nan used to say, there is hope.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“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.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“There will be so much more in between. So much uncertainty. I don't know if we'll survive the catacombs, let alone the rest of it. But it doesn't matter. For now, these steps are enough. These first few precious steps into darkness. Into the unknown. Into freedom.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“A veces,escapar de lo desconocido es el camino más fácil, aunque termine siendo el más largo y sinuoso.”
― Laia Soler, Los días que nos separan

“I turn to look into my brother's eyes. For a long moment, all we can do is take in each other's faces.
"Look at you, little sister, " Darin finally whispers. His smile is the sun rising after the longest, darkest night. "Look at you.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“Tell us a story. Something scary.” She shivers in anticipation, and Cook makes a strange sound that could be a laugh or a groan. “Life isn’t scary enough for you, girl?”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Cook’s voice is nothing like a Tribal Kehanni’s: It is stern where a tale-spinner’s would be gentle, all edges where a tale-spinner’s would be mellow and curved.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes