Illa

“I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but mine.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“I never wanted him to feel the way I had as a child," said Baghra. "So I taught him that he had no equal, that he was destined to bow to no man. I wanted him to be hard, to be strong. I taught him the lesson my mother and father taught me: to rely on no one. That love - fragile and fickle and raw - was nothing compared to power. He was a brilliant boy. He learned too well.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising

“Somehow, we'll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages

“Aleksander," I whispered. A boy's name, given up. Almost forgotten.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising