Erica

“Vakul is also a common Kwen word for a valley or depression where a river might flow. There is no river there now, but there might have been once, and there might be one day again. All living creatures have in them some good, some bad, and a lot of vakul. But vakul can’t be all you are if you expect the love of your gods and fellow mortals. A ravine won’t water crops or quench the dying. At some point, there has to be a river, or what good can you really claim? If the man of good intentions never manifests a river, only calamity, should he not go to hell?”
― M.L. Wang, Blood Over Bright Haven

“I don't know about the moral arc of the universe, but our arcs sure as hell don't bend towards justice. Unless we change them. Unless we grab our narratives by the ear and drag them kicking and screaming towards better endings. Maybe the universe doesn't naturally bend toward justice either; maybe it's only the weight of hands and hearts pulling it true, inch by stubborn inch.”
― Alix E. Harrow, A Spindle Splintered

“But that is the nature of grammar—it is always tense, like an instrument, aching for release, longing to transform present into past into future, is into was into will.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The River Has Roots

“You're all so far gone that you can't tell a human soul from food for your ambitions.”
― M.L. Wang, Blood Over Bright Haven