Kerr

“Feltock bit the inside of his cheek. Then he said, ‘And you think you remember everyone who was there that day?’
I thought about it for a moment. ‘Not everyone, ’I replied. Feltock was looking at me intently, trying to see if I knew, if I did remember. More trouble than it will be worth, I thought, but I was a little drunk and a little tired so I said, ‘But since you’re asking, yes, General Feltock, I remember you.’
Feltock’s eyes went wide for a moment, but then he gave a bitter laugh. ‘Not “General”, ’he said. ‘Not for a few years now. ’We drank some more in silence. ‘So,’he said, uncrossing his legs with a crack. ‘Are you gonna come for me next, boy?’
I sighed. ‘No.’
‘Why not? I was there, wasn’t I? I was one of those what took down your King, wasn’t I? So what’s the difference between me and Lynniac?’
‘You didn’t laugh. ’He just looked at me for a while and then said, ‘Huh’. Then he stood up and started walking back to the wagons.
‘Why “Captain”Feltock?’ I asked when he was a few paces away. ‘Why aren’t you a general any more?’
Feltock turned and gave me a sour grin. He tossed the rest of his wineskin back to me.
‘Because, boy, when they put the King’s head on that pole, I forgot to laugh.”
― Sebastien de Castell, Traitor's Blade

“He wants to know why my marks aren’t better. Why I don’t speak fluent French. Why I can’t kill a fully grown man with a nutcracker.”
― Gail Carriger, Manners & Mutiny

“I rolled my eyes at Kest. We'd heard this lecture many times before, but Trin hadn't, so she stepped right into it.
"Is it really so hard?" She asked
"My dear, not one man in a hundred can be a proper archer. And not one in ten thousand can become a master."
"And you are one? A master archer, i mean?"
Brasti smiled and contemplated the nails of his right hand. "One might fairly say so, i believe."
"One says so frequently," I observed.”
― Sebastien de Castell, Traitor's Blade

“Everything went great right up to the explosion.”
― Andy Weir, The Martian