Status Updates From Where Fae Go to Die (Empire...

Forgot I was reading this book for several weeks. Not sure what that says about it.

“I brought you here to ask a simple question,” she says. “Standing at the highest point in the empire, looking down at all that has been built to contain you, what will you choose to believe about yourself?”

4:14 “The empire tells you that you are small,”“That your only worth lies in your service to power. That the magic in your blood is a defect to be feared and controlled.” “They lie,” Selen says simply. “And the greatest power they hold over you is not their walls or their weapons, but your belief in your own smallness.”

“The empire, with all its might and cruelty, is not an immutable force of nature. It's a mortal creation, sustained by mortal belief. And I could decide to not believe in it.”

“But he wasn't hurting anyone. His magic was for bread.” “It doesn't matter what the magic is for,” she says, brushing my hair back from my face with calloused fingers. “All that matters is who controls it.”

“Perhaps there's a different kind of pragmatism—one that recognizes survival isn't merely about drawing breath, but about preserving what makes that breath meaningful.”