Grisette

“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

“That’s the problem with figuring shit out—eventually you run into someone who’d prefer all their shit remained thoroughly unfigured.”
― Robert Jackson Bennett, The Tainted Cup

“Your Highness, I told you many times...one cannot be protected from their fate,” Pathil observed in a calm tone. “She would not remember, if she did not belong with him.”
― Astrid Jane Ray, The Queen of Aessarion

“A mad urge came over Henry; the urge to barge upstairs to Mr and Mrs Mifford's bedchamber and inform them that he was taking their eldest daughter for his bride. They could ride to London overnight; secure a special license from the Archbishop, and be married by noon, he thought wildly. Mr Mifford might put up some sort of protest, but his wife would probably pack dry biscuits for their journey and wave them on their way.”
― Claudia Stone, A Death, a Duke and Miss Mifford