Virginia

“Hasn’t it always been like this?’ asked Charlotte. ‘Haven’t they always been games that empires play with one another?’

‘Maybe,’ answered Lord Ingram. ‘But it can take a queen-and-country sort like me a while to work that out.”
― Sherry Thomas, The Art of Theft

“She pushed a dagger into my hands. "And now you are a man with a knife. Woe to the Empire.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings

“Charlotte exhaled—and wished that she had Bernadine’s distaste for cake. Not always, of course, but for brief and intense spells that made it easier to give up extra servings in times of impending Maximum Tolerable Chins.”
― Sherry Thomas, The Art of Theft

“Nobody’s got that much time. Let’s just say that back in the day, me and a nephew of mine used to run around the Capital with this low-ranked priest of Thaena and a fresh-off-the-farm kid from Marakor, who only barely just qualified as being a wizard.” He smiled, looking off into the distance. “Those were some days.” “Is that—is that supposed to mean something to me?” Doc shrugged. “Only as much as that low-ranked priest of Thaena ended up becoming High Lord Therin of House D’Mon, the fresh-faced farm kid became Emperor Sandus, and my nephew Qoran clawed his way into the High General’s chair. Me? I opened a bar.”
― Jenn Lyons, The Ruin of Kings