Ogień potrzebuje powietrza do życia. Powietrze podsyca ogień, wzmacnia go i sprawia, że płonie jaśniej i goręcej niż wcześniej. Ale zbyt wiele powietrza zupełnie go gasi, podobnie jak zbyt wiele płomieni pochłania całe powietrze. Ich połączenie jest czymś znacznie większym niż każde z osobna, jednocześnie są też równie niebezpieczne dla siebie nawzajem.

He said nothing, but his eyes told her the promise of a world of barely containable desire.

-My Vhalla, my lady, my love - His words smoothed away the rough edges of her heart -You make me do things far more dangerous than dream. You make me hope, you make me want. - He sighed a sound that was part bliss and part pain. - Mother, I have yet to discover if you will be my salvation or my demise.

-Vhalla Yarl, the Windwalker.- Her name on the lips of a stranger made her uneasy, and Vhalla sat back onto her feet to assess him with equal interest. - I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't you.
She laughed bitterly, remembering Elecia's first unappreciative assessment of her months ago. - Sorry to dissapoint.
The man tilted his head. - You show up as if you materialize from the wind itself, to save the life of the crown prince whom you jumped off the side of the Pass in an attempt to save. You're unassuming, you're filthy, and you're soaked in what I can only presume to be the blood of our enemies. - A grin slowly spread across Jax's face, like that of a rabid beast. -Who said anything about being disappointed.

Every chance worth taking will make you a little scared. That means you're taking a risk. And where there is risk, there is reward.

You won't ever have everyone love you, just as you won't have everyone hate you. Find the right people to love you and return the hatred of others with ambivaence or hatred of your own.

-What is this woman to you?
-Vhalla, I need her in so many ways, Mother help me, - Aldrik groaned. - I need her as my redemption, I need her kindness, I need her foregiveness, I need her smiles, I need her humanity, I need her ignorance, I need her innocence, and, yes ... Mother Sun, yes, I need her as a man. - (...)
- You love her.
It was not a question, but Aldrik answered it anyway. - More than I ever thought possible.

-But in the end, while I wish I had done a few things differently ... I wouldn't change all of it.
-And why is that?
-Because I stopped reading and started doing. - Vhalla smiled faintly at the memory of Aldrik's words at their first meeting - I messed up so badly. I didn't love some friends enough. Sometimes I focused on myself more than others. But if I hadn't made those mistakes, I wouldn't be strong enough to look to the future now and not be afraid.

The silence wasn't awkward or stressful; it spoke more eloquently between them than they had ever been able to speak with words.

Return to the life I had? That option left me long ago. (...) If I want a future, I'm going to have to cut it from the hands of fate myself.

-I told you once - Aldrik continued - that I am not a good man.
-You did - Vhalla met his eyes once more.
-That I have never been a good man. - Aldrik took a step forward, moonlight outlining his form in silver. - But I realized that I was only the man I've let myself be. That if I want something beautiful in my life, if I wanted you, I had to make myself a person that could be the soil in which such beauty could take root.

Wiem, że sądzisz, iż cały świat da się umieścić na pergaminie w skórzanej oprawie, i tego właśnie pragniesz. Ale przyszedł mi przykry obowiązek poinformowania cię, że to po prostu nie jest prawdą.

Ponieważ, Vhallo, ty myślisz i patrzysz, ale nigdy nie robisz. Możesz przeczytać wszystkie książki w tej bibliotece i pewnego dnia stać się mądrzejsza niż sam mistrz, a później umrzesz, niczego tak naprawdę nie osiągnąwszy. Będziesz żyła wyłącznie poprzez doświadczenia innych.

-We can make our own way; we always have. - Aldrik cupped her cheek boldly, and Vhalla didn't stop him. - What have we to lose?
-Everything?
-Is that all?

-Fritzangle. - The prince crossed the distance between them, staring down his nose at him. For all Fritz loved Vhalla, he struggled to see what the woman saw in the overbearing and ruthless man. - To threaten me is idiotic. - His voice dropped to an ominous whisper. - To threaten, no, to even suggest something that would harm her, in my presence, is suicidal.

Adulthood just meant finding the variety of crazy that resonated the most with you and doing it until you died or it killed you - whichever came first.

-Prince Aldrik, he told me that you were very bright. That you were suprisingly smart for an apprentice.
-He would phrase it like that, a compliment in an insult.

Arrogance and confidence are not the same, but both will get you killed.

A sorcerer with battle scars, dead friends, and blood on her hands occupied the mirror. The frightened faces of the senators came back to Vhalla with vivid clarity. They were sending her to war, so she would go and become something they had every right to fear.

The time for sadness and pity was over. The girl who had come to the palace at eleven and lived her life in the library was dead; she'd been killed by the Senators whom she'd always been taught were sworn to protect her. The woman sitting in the saddle now had to find a heart of black steel. She had to survive if for no other reason than to spite the world.

This is a bad idea," he laughed.
"You - you will learn this the longer you're around me: I am the queen of bad ideas".

You believe me? - she asked.
I do - the man affirmed with minimal hesitation. -No one in their right mind would admit to being Vhalla Yarl if they weren't actually Vhalla Yarl.

I know - he was half talking to himself - I have been there. It feels like there is no other choice. That the world is too heavy, too horrible to ever lessen. I know that you will hate me, hate us, hate her, for not letting you sit here and die.
But someday, when you are happy and content - and I know you will not believe me when I tell you that you will someday be happy and content again - you will thank us. You will thank us for not letting you leave this mortal coil without a fight because you have more to give.

Listen. They do not see you for what you are. Or perhaps, they see you only for what you are upon the surface. Don't let them define you.

He held her gaze with every bit of adoration the world had been capable of producing.

-We all believe in you two. We are all fighting for you. Do you know why?
She shook her head. She didn't have the faintest idea.
-Because you two represent something, something more than you do individually. You are the impossible dreamers. The two who took on fate to be together. No one believed you could be anything. More than once, you both strove for more, for dreams that you should've never dreamed.
So when you say you fight for peace, people believe it. Because you have cheated death and fate. Compare to that, finding peace will surely be easy.

- I love you, Aldrik. - Vhalla savoured his touch as he palmed her face. - And I fear I always will.
- Ah, Vhalla. - He chuckled, pausing just before his lips came in contact with hers. - That is the one thing I do not fear.

Her lover's eyes searched her desperately. Anger quickly turned into fear that she would agree with Elecia. That she would leave him. Vhalla knew that logic defined it as the "right" choice. But what they were, everything she and Aldrik had ever been, defied logic.

Love was a simple emotion, Vhalla had learned. Once one experienced it, a person understood it, and there was no doubt when one felt it. If there was no doubt, then nothing would ever serve as a substitute.
Vhalla knew she understood love. Love was throwing herself into a sandstorm. Love was braving her darkest fears and battling her demons. Love was a blind dash through a Northern jungle. Love was hopeful words shared across a pillow in the darkness. Love was bravery and - perhaps most importantly - forgiveness.

- I trust you. I trust you, not them. (...)
That was the truth of it. When the cards fell, when all else was taken away, there remained the assumption that the other would be there - that somehow their existence as unit, as force, remained.