Aly

“Just because something has always been done does not mean that is ought to be done.”
― Samantha Shannon, The Priory of the Orange Tree

“Mathinna remembered what her mother had said about thinking of yourself as the thread of a necklace, the people and places you treasure as the shells. Maybe Wanganip and Hazel were saying the same thing: that if you love something it stays with you, even after it's gone.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“She felt her fear unspooling like a tight fist opening. It was as if she'd been standing on a precipice and suddenly tipped forward. There was no point in feeling afraid. She was already falling, falling through the air, and her future, whatever it held, was rushing up to meet her.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles

“She remembered something her father had told her as he knelt at the hearth one evening, building a fire. Holding up the cut end of a log, he showed her the rings inside, explaining that each one marked a year. Some were wider than others, depending on the weather, he said; they were lighter in winter and darker in summer. All of them fused together to give the tree its solid core.
Maybe humans are like that, she thought. Maybe the moments that meant something to you and the people you've loved over the years are the rings Maybe what you thought you'd lost is still there, inside of you, giving you strength.”
― Christina Baker Kline, The Exiles