Michal

“She pulled the bedclothes up as far as they would go and suppressed a perverse wish to have her old nurse come to chase away the darkness, perverse because she didn't know if she wanted the shadows to be empty or not.”
― Megan Whalen Turner, The Queen of Attolia

“Relius looked away. "He said that you...cried," he said softly.
"But not that he cried as well," said the queen, amused at the memory. "We were very lachrymose... would you like to hear more romance of the evening? He told me the Guard should be reduced by half, and I threw an ink jar at his head."
"Is that when he cried?"
"He ducked," said Attolia dryly.
"I had not pictured you for a fishwife."
"Lo, the transforming power of love.”
― Megan Whalen Turner, The King of Attolia

“...her queen danced like a flame in the wind, and the mercurial king like the weight at the center of the earth...”
― Megan Whalen Turner, The King of Attolia

“Tell me a story then...keep me occupied."
"A story?...What makes you think I can tell a story?"
"Insight," said the king, "Go on.”
― Megan Whalen Turner, The King of Attolia