Grisette

“I see!" said Ana, nodding. "I just have one more question."
"Of course"
"What color was the clay?"
Farazi blinked, confused. "Clay? What clay?"
"The clay you must have stuck in your eyes and ears," said Ana, grinning, "to remain so amazingly fucking ignorant of everything about you.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup

“What a tool cynicism is to the corrupt, claiming the whole of the creation is broken and fraudulent, and thus we are all excused to indulge in whatever sins we wish—for what’s a little more unfairness, in this unfair world?”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup

“We stood there in contemplative silence. Then two attendants wheeled by a wooden cart, one wheel squeaking wildly. The cart carried a large glass tank, like an aquarium—but as it passed before us, we saw it did not contain any conventional fish. Rather, a massive, rippling, purplish starfish was gripping the bottom of the tank—and growing from its back was a human hand.

The hand’s fingers flexed and twitched very slowly as it passed before us, as if exulting in the flow of the water. It had a feminine look to it. Something delicate in the nails and knuckles.

We watched in silence as the tank went by, the one wheel squeaking in protest.

“Looks like Topirak’s getting a replacement,” said Miljin.

I cleared my throat. “Looks that way, sir,” I said hoarsely.

Miljin waited to speak again until its squeak had long faded. Then he grunted.

“Let’s go check Loveh’s quarters for that fucking coin,” he said, “before someone wheels one of them starfish by with a prick growing from its back, and I faint and crack my head open and wind up in one of these goddamn baths.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup

“Civilization is often a task that is only barely managed. But harden your heart and slow your blood. The towers of justice are built one brick at a time. We have more to build yet.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup