Yanik

“A pair of minstrels stood beneath them on a ramshackle stage, puffing air into homemade woodwinds. There had been four of them once, but the war had taken two, including the singer. The two remaining had not learned enough about music to compensate the losses, and so they merely played the same parts they had always had, harmonies without melody, and the music wandered anxiously through the air like a lost child.”
― Eric Fenstermaker, The Reaping

“You are sure of your path," Cohmac had said to Reath on that same day when Reath had asked him to be his master.
And he had felt so sure then, and that sureness had been a blessing after so much chaos and confusion. But it turned out paths only revealed themselves one step at a time, and Reath was ready to for another step.”
― Daniel José Older, Midnight Horizon

“During the months of winter and spring King Casmir looked only twice at the infant princess, in each case, standing back in cool disinterest. She had thwarted his royal will by coming female into the world. He could not immediately punish her for the act, no more could he extend the full beneficence of his favor.
Sollace grew sulky because Casmir was displeased and, with a set petulant flourishes, banished the child from her sight.
Ehirme, a raw-boned peasant girl, and nice to under-gardener, had lost her own infant son to the yellow bloat. With an amplitude of both milk and solitude she be came Suldron's wet-nurse”
― Jack Vance, Suldrun's Garden

“You could not solve those problems individually. It was ridiculous to even try.
What you could do, however, was make the various people of this high era of the Galactic Republic see one another as people. As brothers and sisters and cousins and friends, or if nothing else, just as colleagues in a shared goal of building a galaxy that welcomed all, heard all, and did its best to avoid hurting anyone. Truly tried its best.

If you could make that happen, then problems didn't have to be solved. Many would solve themselves, because people believed in the Republic more than they believed in their own goals, and would be open to that magical word--compromise.”
― Charles Soule, Light of the Jedi