Julien

“I didn't care for anything. Every feeling washed over me, slipped out of me, as if I was wearing emotions as clothes and I just undressed from all of them, leaving them in a pile somewhere I could never reach again. All my joy, all my love for my work, my pride, everything was gone.
My daughter wasn't with me anymore and without her, the world had no light. No joy. No life.”
― Ioanna Papadopoulou

“I protect myself,” Despoina said, reminding me so much of myself when I was as young as her, right at the cusp of womanhood.
“So did I,” I said to her. “And still, this world broke me and changed me. I had to lose the best parts of me to take back what was mine. And even though I am reunited with my daughter, I will never get back the child that was stolen from me. Persephone might be happy with her position, happy with her husband, and the change that happened, but my Kore is gone. I never got her back. I am learning to accept that, but the pain isn't going to disappear.”
― Ioanna Papadopoulou

“What have you done to yourself?” he asked and took a step back from me.
I could say that he had done that to me. He had been the one to push me to that cave and force me to change, but I didn't. I didn't want to give him that power. I had been the one who changed myself. I had transformed myself, again and again, so I could win this battle and finally stand my ground. My soil.
“Anything necessary to win,” I said.”
― Ioanna Papadopoulou

“Hermes approached me and examined my face. “He is the King of the Sky, of Olympus. He can do whatever he wants,” he whispered.
“Not this,” I said firmly. “And when you go back up to Olympus, tell him that should he not hurry, all of life will be dead and then the strongest God will not be that of the Sky and Olympus, but Hades in his Underworld. And my daughter will be the most powerful Queen.”
― Ioanna Papadopoulou