Alice

“This whole time in the palace, I may have been occupied with my own survival, but that did not mean I didn’t think of them often. I missed home with a terrible, constant ache—an ache that was not noticed when there were more pressing pains, but when everything was calm again, on a day like this one, it was there waiting for me.”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“You saw what those thousands of people did in front of my father. All the fanfare, all the ceremony—the charade, the theater—I can’t stand it. I loathe to think of people pretending they mourn me when they do not, or praising me when they detest me, or remembering me as kind when I was wicked. I cannot bear the thought of anyone offering to go echo-step with me when they do not mean it.' His voice wavered with real emotion, real fear. 'Wei—if I die tomorrow, I beg of you, don’t let them make a spectacle of me in my death. I wish to die quietly, just as I am.”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“I was ashamed at how thrilled I felt. For the first time, instead of cowering from my monster, I was walking at its side. For the first time, when it opened its foul, bloodthirsty jaws, it would not be to bite me but someone else.”
― Shen Tao, The Poet Empress

“Was I so wrong to treasure humans? she wondered. Will they always leave me alone in the dark?
She swore to never care for humans again, to never lend them her heart, never try to save them from themselves. But still, she tasted their tears like the salt of the sea, felt the ache of their pain deep in her bones, cried for them as she wished someone would cry for her, even once. She did not know if she would ever find the love that humans held for only each other, but she would continue searching until the end of time.”
― Kylie Lee Baker, Japanese Gothic