Nikolai

“Alas for us all! And for all that walk the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to find and lose,”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“Everyone has some kind of debt. Such is life. Debts and liabilities, obligations, gratitude, payments, doing something for someone. Or perhaps for ourselves? For in fact we are always paying ourselves back and not someone else. Each time we are indebted we pay off the debt to ourselves. In each of us lies a creditor and a debtor at once and the art is for the reckoning to tally inside us. We enter the world as a minute part of the life we are given, and from then on we are ever paying off debts, To ourselves. For ourselves. In order for the final reckoning to tally.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Baptism of Fire

“We all just want to be people, and none of us know what that really means.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Borne

“We’ll do a bit of reconnaissance. If it’s safe, I’ll make a call like a sparrow hawk.’ ‘Like a sparrow hawk?’ said Munro Bruys, anxiously moving his chin. ‘Since when did you know anything about mimicking bird calls, Zoltan?’ ‘That’s the whole point. If you hear a strange, unrecognisable sound, you’ll know it’s me.”
― Andrzej Sapkowski, Baptism of Fire