Star Mother Quotes
"I thought making love to the Sun was the most unbearable pain I would ever experience. Giving birth to His child was far worse."
"When one grows up so close to beauty, it is easy to dismiss."
"I knew how to make Caen love me more than any other, without breaking his spirit, without dishonoring my family. The problem was, I would have to die for it."
"Why should three hearts break, when it was needed of only one?"
"Once a woman left to be a star mother, she always returned nine months later, her body cold but strewn with heavenly treasures, a smile on her face."
"I had always been different from my sisters. To me, rules were things to be bent and tried, if they detracted from happiness—mine or others', it didn't matter."
"The trick to the forest was this: so long as you could see the spire of the cathedral, you would never get lost."
"I hoped she would visit Caen first and foremost."
"The Sun would not court me—I was a mere mortal."
"I had thought myself alone before, while surrounded by family, but I had never known true loneliness until I became a star mother."
"I wouldn’t be able to bring her along next time. The consequences hurt too much. But little did I know then how true that statement would be, or how wide our separation would become."
"I gave her space, always greeted her when she arrived and thanked her when she left."
"You think the universe wants to conjure you a tub?"
"If mortals were mice, then godlings were dogs, and demigods were bears."
"I am your mother. And I love you. Never forget it."
"Never, throughout all the chords of time, has a mortal withstood the birth of a star."
"I wish to speak with you further, but this problem must be seen to immediately."
"Seven hundred years? I’ve been gone seven hundred years?"
"Don't worry, Ceris. We'll see to it you have everything you need."
"I had hoped for a bag in which to carry supplies."
"Despite all the charity offered to me, I was a prisoner."
"I had sacrificed myself for the good of those whom I loved."
"The scriptures had promised I would be immortalized in song."
"I glanced at the amber stripe of the holy ring on my finger."
"Once I ran away, I could never, ever come back."
"I ate some of my pillaged cheese to keep up my strength."
"I threw myself onto the ground, picking up the things they’d thrown in their haste."
"I woke slowly, groggily, my body sore and stiff."
"The most valuable item I’d brought with me was the compass."
"The water rippled as though a stone had been tossed into it."
"Starlight burns within you. But your shell is still mortal."
"Take care, Star Mother. Use your light well."
"I wondered how many, for I might find dozens of Parroses across generations."
"I was thrilled he had managed to find buyers for my things."
"They are marks of your journey and your sacrifice."
"The moon, too, is scarred. But she is beautiful."
"You will meet those who do not agree with you."
"I may be the mother of a star, but I am still mortal."
"You will be long-lived, like the godlings. The starlight will make it so."
"I had always been a fanciful person, much to my parents’ chagrin."
"I wasn’t sure if there were new predators to be watchful of."
"All life has a name, even if it is an unkind one."
"It was the most at peace I had felt since returning home."
"I had found some spring tubers along our way."
"Preparing animals for meals was something I had done often."
"Like someone had stabbed me with a knife and cut me open head to hip."
"There is always strength in pain. It’s small and it’s hidden, but it’s always there."
"Our souls are like blisters. The irritant, the hardship, the pain, will make your skin tougher. Stronger."
"Time is constant, Ceris. I cannot travel it, even with My power. It is against the law."
"I could carry a tune, but her voice was angelic."
"Needlework seems one of the dullest. That is why I asked why it is your preference."
"I did what I had to to get us away. It’s over now."
"My domain is not linked to any location. It is me. Myself."
"There are laws not of this universe that are broken every day, with much more far-reaching consequences."
"Stars power the great things of the universe, and great things power other things. It is a never-ending cycle."
"Always care for those weaker than you. You pass."
"It isn’t a bad thing, to seek hope when you cannot find it within yourself."
"I was created in war. The feud between the Sun and the moon is everlasting, nearly as old as they are. I am one of the moon’s scars."
"I will watch over you always and burn in your heart."
"I do not want to hurt them. It would do no good, fighting them."
"Immortals do not need sleep, and so We do not dream."
"To have hope, to be happy, you must love what’s around you."
"I don’t know if I want a life that doesn’t have you in it."
"You are the only one who has ever cared for me."
"Those who haven’t are fools. You are kind and true, Ristriel, and noble and loyal and everything good."
"Thank you," in the most sincere, featherlight manner I had ever heard.
"Time is like music. Imagine the keys of a harpsichord, or the strings of a harp, only they play ever higher and ever lower, never ceasing."
"I have lost so much of it already, Ceris. Even if I could give it to you, I wouldn’t be able to send you back."
"I didn’t want to be worshiped. I did not want to speak of Agradaise."
"I wished I had never visited Agradaise’s coffin. I would rather have ignorance in peace than this confusion. This ache."
"I realized in that moment that what I wanted more than anything was to have him by my side."
"What better place to hide a creature of the moon than at the Sun’s own house?"
"Safe beneath the cathedral, tucked away from the war, sleep weighed me down like lead."
"I forgive you, so wake up. Please? You did it. I’m safe. We all are. Just don’t leave."
"We were so close. So close! The Losoko Canyons, at Ristriel’s speed, were only an hour away."
"You have taught me what it is to love, Ceris. So long have I watched it from the skies, but I never understood it until now. It is truth, it is promise, and it is sacrifice."
"I will serve half his time. If it appeases the universe, let him start before I do and finish first, too. But I claim three hundred and fifty years of my own. Surely this is just enough for a creature wrongfully imprisoned!"