Dlwlrma’s Reviews > Where the Dark Stands Still > Status Update

You are not a monster, Liska Radost. You are sunlight, and you breathe life into everything you touch."

She wraps her arms around her torso. I'm not brave enough for that.
You are so very brave, Liska, he says. 'Braver than you know. Infuriatingly so, in fact. Just look at what you've done to me - turned me soft despite all my grand efforts to resist your relentless charm.'

I love them so much I am already mourning the book ending 🫠

There is a thing we do, the Leszy says, where we rearrange ourselves, cutting off pieces here and there to fit a mould that was never meant for us. I he tosses the berry, catches it - 'I know something of that. But becoming the Driada's warden taught me one thing: if the world has not prepared a place for you, you must take up a hammer and chisel and carve one out for yourself!

'He does not deserve you, Liska Radost.?
Nor I him, she replies. 'But nothing is ever equal with humans, really - we give and we take, the scales ever tipping. That's just the way of it. I am what he has, and he is what I have - there's no point keeping score.'

They are so pretty

AHHHHH!!! wdym farewell for a while they were about to kiss i am screaming WTHHHH

“Somehow, his teasing manages to comfort her. She feels known for the slightest of moments, shorter than the fall of a raindrop or the chirp of a songbird. It's unsettling to realize that he might understand her better than anyone has before. More than Mama, more than Tata, more even than Marysienka.”

🫠

women are inherently more powerful in magic.
Men could have never stayed in power if they allowed us to thrive. So they spread rumours and refused to take us on as apprentices. I ought to have taken Orlica's crown for myself and put an end to all their idiocy. Probably could have prevented a few wars while I was at it.'

PERIOD!

Remember what you did last time? her mind whispers. If you free it, you will truly become a monster.
'Fine,' Liska hisses, blood leaking down her arm. "Then let me be a monster.'

Mah girllllllll

These two are making me tear up

She reaches out and puts her hand over his.
He twitches, as if her touch is lightning, as if he expects to burst aflame. When she looks up, his eyes are wide and bewildered.
'You've endured so much for us, Liska whispers.
'It's my duty,' he says.
"Thank you.' She holds his hand until his shoulders loosen, until he knows she means it.
The way he looks at her, it is as if she has spoken absolution to a man condemned.