Erica

“She fixed her mind on stone in the soles of her feet and on the song of the mountains, and kept going”
― Tamora Pierce, Battle Magic

“Transformation is not accomplished by tentative wading at the edge.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

“She must bring her song to the stone heights, to the dwellers inside. They would take her in, their sister of the mountains. They would bring her home.”
― Tamora Pierce, Battle Magic

“I never cared for poetry," I said.
"Your loss," Sim said absently as he turned a few pages. "Eld Vintic poetry's thunderous. It pounds at you."
"What's the meter like?"I asked, curious despite myself.
"I don't know anything about meter," Simmon said distractedly he ran his finger down the page in front of him. "It's like this:

"Sought we the Scrivani word-work of Surthur
Long-lost in ledger all hope forgotten
Yet fast-found for friendship fair the book-bringer
Hot comes the huntress Fela, flushed with finding
Breathless her breast her high blood rising
To ripen the red-cheek rouge-bloom of beauty.

"That sort of thing," Simmon said absently, his eyes still scanning the pages in front of him.
I saw Fela turn her head to look at Simmon, almost as if she were surprised to see him sitting there.
No, it was almost s if up until that point, he'd just been occupying space around her, like a piece of furniture. But this time when she looked at him, she took all of him in. His sandy hair, the line of his jaw, the span of his shoulders beneath his shirt. This time when she looked, she actually *saw* him.
Let me say this. It was worth the whole awful , irritating time spent searching the Archives just to watch that moment happen. It was worth blood and the fear of death to see her fall in love with him. Just a little. Just the first faint breath of love, so light she probably didn't notice it herself. It wasn't dramatic, like some bolt of lightning with a crack of thunder following. It was more like when flint strikes steel and the spark fades almost fast for you to see. But still, you know it's there, down where you can't see, kindling.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear