Atharva Shah

“There is, in the act of destruction, a beauty which we try to deny, and a joy which we cannot. Children build to knock down, and though we may grow around it, that need runs in us, deeper than our blood. Violence is the language of destruction, flesh so often the subject, fragile, easy to break beyond repair, precious: what else would we burn to make the world take note”
― Mark Lawrence, Red Sister

“To call something a lie, child, is an unhelpful characterization.' The abbess drew a deep breath, labouring up the slope.'Words are steps along a path: the important thing is to get where you're going. You can play by all manner of rules, step-on-a-crack-break-your-back, but you'll get there quicker if you pick the most certain route.”
― Mark Lawrence, Red Sister

“Hers the stillness of the forest, rooted restlessness, oak-slow, pine-quick, a seething patience. Hers the stillness of ice walls that face the sea, clear and deep, blue secrets held cold against the truth of the world, a patience of aeons stacked against a sudden fall. Hers the stillness of a sorrow-born babe unmoving in its crib. And of the mother, frozen in her discovery, fleeting and forever.”
― Mark Lawrence, Red Sister

“The Ancestor directs us to follow the tenets of our faith and the church is our armour. I saw the common law fail and I have replaced it with the church law. We here, in this hall, are bound by duty and by faith to show that as sons and daughters of the Ancestor we cannot be bought and sold. Ancestral law is gold to the base metal of common law. We lead where others fall. I saved a child who will serve the Ancestor well, but more than that I struck a blow for the ideals that are written in the Ancestor's own book. If we return Nona to this false justice that blow of mine will not strike against corruption but against the foundations of the church itself.”
― Mark Lawrence, Red Sister