Post Your Favorite Quotes/Scenes

Hello Cult of Ravens, I have come to request a boon. Please post your favorite quotes and/or scenes from the book. If you have the specific chapters they’re from, that would be great. If you only have a general idea of when it happened, that’s fine too.

I’m collecting these for potential social media content. Thank you in advance!

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Are you looking for scenes that make sense without the context of the book? That will take some thought. A lot of what I enjoy is the context of who the people are which requires knowing the book…

Also we don’t want spoilers. Just things that catch attention?

Chapter 168.

“Today, we hope to capture the criminal and blood sorceress Siobhan Naught, better known by her alias the Raven Queen…”

Chapter 183.

Siobhan swallowed, her tongue suddenly dry and too thick in her mouth. “Five journals? Are you sure?”

The archaeologist raised an eyebrow. “Five journals, one for each of my fingers. I don’t believe I was going so insane by that point that I would have become confused about something so simple.”

Chapter 184.

I am a changeling like the seasons,
A daughter of shadow and light,
Of Charybdis mists and raven’s flight,
And always I seek after mysteries.

Shadows of the past become shades of the present.
Old scars peel open like doors.
And a hungry sky watches
As I sing the dead to life

As I ornament this veil with thorns,
I shall drink the sea to quench my thirst.
The taste of nothing on my tongue
Will be a knife as sharp as its wielder.

Mark me, scarred and tattered witness of days,
One who weaves the thread that still is woven.
Heed me, one who howls unheard.
I command you. Grant me eyes that see.

Chapter 195.

I value knowledge, freedom, and the right kind of secret. I dislike being hunted, controlled, or vilified.

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I’m not sure which one, but there is a thread where we are talking about our favorite chapters and quotes :slight_smile:

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I am a big fan of some of the wry writing in the capture arc.

Stuff like this from the chapter “A Cloak of Shadows”:

Panting, one said, “The captain is still out in the city with the others. We already set off the alarm and sent a message. There were still some of our men left in the palace, and they should be able to get down here within five minutes.”
“It’s the Raven Queen! We don’t have five minutes!” the previously screaming guard ground out, panting hard.

“Kill them, my queen! Kill them all!” the woman who had been praying to the Raven Queen screamed vengefully.
Though it might not have made it any worse, this did not improve the captives’ situation, as the guards shared wary looks and moved forward together.

And I love the third-party POV, like you get in the Palace and when they escape and are talking outside of Siobhan’s hearing. For example, the letter to the council:

On a cold wind blew strife.
The thief of fire,
Will be a light in the darkness,
A candle against the night,
And will laugh as she feasts.

Save your tears for yesterday.
As you dream of cracked roads,
And tend your garden of sticks.
For madness makes no plans,
And there is but one cure for the living.

A scream into the void echoes.
Black eyes see nothing,
But a fortune of dust,
Empty bellies and sharp teeth,
And payment in bone.

And then this explanation:

They sat in silence for a moment before Kuchen tentatively asked, “What do you think the letter meant?”
Titus stared out of the window unseeingly. “It means, ‘Despair, for you will never win. Spread my fame and cement the futility of your existence in the minds of all those who would bow to you. I name you enemy.’”

Contrast that to S’ explanation, which we got just a few chapter’s earlier:

She had used a free-writing potion to create a cryptic, ominous note for the Edictum Council, another piece of the purposefully sown confusion. Here, too, she wanted to sow confusion and distract the enemy’s attention, and so she repeated some of the words in a philtre-warbled scream that scratched at her throat. “My eyes see nothing but a fortune of dust.”

We know its nonsense, but these really clever characters are left trying to figure out the shape of the hands that made the shadow puppet.

S. is so clever, but she never seems to understand how people are actually reacting to her. Like this bit after Katerin said S. is just a plain old sorcerer:

“I’m pretty sure some of the shadow warrior’s joints bent backward when it was…you know. Crawling inside that man. Which also, just—” He heaved with sudden nausea, holding a hand to his throat. Then he looked to Katerin. “I’m sorry, but if you think the Raven Queen is anything like a run-of-the-mill sorcerer, either she really did descend on that woman tonight and you’ve only ever met her acolyte, or you don’t know her at all.”

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Although the last book does have many of my favorite scenes, the first book had many lines i enjoyed immensely, like chapter 1:

For once, Siobhan felt grateful that the average person was such an imbecile.

And this line makes my really related to both sides of this situation:

“Planes-damned Crown bureaucracy,” the guard said with an awkward laugh. “Always making our jobs harder, am I right?”

It’s like, “Bureaucracy, bureaucracy never changes.”

The side characters have this great dialog:

Siobhan couldn’t resist a slight chuckle. The boy’s portrayal of her escape was much more dramatic than she remembered the actual encounter being. “Maybe this sorcerer was up against less than a full squad of coppers, and maybe she just did some simple magic that interacted well with her surroundings to prevent them from following her. Like an overpowered breeze that kicked sand into their eyes and made them stumble off the side of a ledge.”

Theo frowned at her, then shook his head emphatically. “No, that’s stup—I mean, that’s silly. You totally left out the greater demon. Why would a powerful sorcerer just blow sand in people’s faces? All the stories I’ve heard about her escape were much more…” He trailed off, waving his hands around as he searched for the right word.

“Dramatic?” Dryden offered.

Theo nodded. “Yes. That.”

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“I’m not broke. I’m merely experiencing a temporary inversion in my ratio of income versus expenses."

I am determined to have this on a T-shirt. And a sticker.

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Thank you for these! I suppose scenes that make sense without a lot of context would be best, but I might be able to work with ones that do. :thinking: For example, I have some ideas for how to use that Chapter 168 one you posted if I twist some words or add a bit of context to accompany that quote.

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I’ll take a look for that thread, thanks!

HA! Thank you for reminding me of that “It’s the Raven Queen! We don’t have five minutes!” scene. I liked the idea of using the contrasting misconceptions about Siobhan’s words/actions for content too.

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Oh yes, I love that line :joy: Thank you for reminding me of that. I need to use that one.

I upvote that we need merch of that. I’d like a mug with that too, for tea.

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I want to find good contextless lines, I really do:

Oliver Dryden’s advice on being an imposter:

Be inconspicuous—but noble. Act entitled, but not obnoxious. And remember your name.

Sebastien on being an imposter:

How often have I seen a man walking past and wondered if he was really a magically disguised woman? Never, so calm down.

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There was the insult chapter (42 in the most recent book), which you can pick out some good quotes, but the characters discussed Sebastian’s insults, which almost all were clever and hilarious.

I almost always laugh at the other insults too::

Perhaps, they could comport themselves with the level of class supposedly inherent to their birth and wait their turn patiently.

I can explain it to you, but I cannot understand it for you.

I didn’t mean to offend you. My intention was to insult you without you noticing.

Can’t you see that people are trying to have real thoughts around you? You may not be able to have any of your own, but I assure you the rest of us would appreciate it if you stopped lowering the average intelligence of the room with your deafening presence.

I do regret some of the things I said to them … I came up with better insults while I was walking away.

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This though, might be the funniest line I’ve ever read in a book:

I was thinking so hard I forgot to stand up.

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