Dasha

“But in all fairness, when I first met you, I thought you were-"
"A dried-up old stick of a Cassiline Brother," he finished, shooting me an amused glance. "I remember. I remember it very well."
"No." I gave his hair a sharp tug and smiled at him. "That was before I met you. Once I did, I thought you were a smug, self-satisfied young prig of a Cassiline Brother."
He laughed at that, a real laugh. "You were right. I was."
"No, I was wrong. The man I thought you were would have given up and died of humiliation in Gunter's kennels. You kept fighting, and stayed true to yourself.”
― Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Dart

“You have stood at the crossroads and chosen, and like Cassiel, you will ever stand at the crossroads and choose, choose again and again, the path of the Companion.”
― Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Dart

“By your left hand, I’d say you’d had a sweet and true love in your short life. A love that ended only in your death. Yet here in your right hand, I see a love that wends its way in and out of your many years. That faithful heart has been absent for a time, but soon to return to you again.”
― Robin Hobb, Fool's Errand

“But though they receive no worship, it’s the maintenance folk who keep the Empire going. Someone, after all, must do the undignified labor to keep the grand works of our era from tumbling down.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup