“The hole where my heart had finally grown back after the loss of my parents was returning because of the very person who had filled the void”

“Later that evening, back at the airship, I cut a hole in a ribbon Beryl had given me and attached the cuff link, before tying it around my neck.Symbols are powerful.When he saw this, my father finally decided to ask after the extent of my loss. "I feel," he said, glancing across the rain-speckled deck of the ship, "like I have lost a on." His hand was trembling, a it always had whenever he admitted to great emotion. "I take it that you'd grown fond of him as well? He was such a noble young man.""Something like that," I confessed brokenly/”

“I take a deep breath. It doesn’t begin to fill the void in my chest, a void that’s been present since Saturday morning, a painful hollow reminder of my loss.”

“The idea behind both concepts is that there must be an accounting, a ledger in the hearts and histories of a family. As if accepting a sum or taking a life will fill the void of the loss of a loved one.""It can't fill the void, but it can make things even," Adam said."No. It does not. What you get is a deficit of two.""Then both are at an equal loss." Adam took a deep drag on his beer."And how does this loss serve the memory of the loved one?""It doesn't ... [v]engeance is selfish," Adam continued. "I've never tried to hide that.""Ah," Philip said. "Now we get to the heart of it. Adam, here is my question for you. Would you trade your claim to vengeance to set your brother free?"Talia watched the muscle twitch in Adam's jaw. It was a hard question, an impossible, painful question, especially after learning that Jacob had chosen his current state. Jacob had chosen to take the lives of his parents. He had reduced Adam's world to a haunted hotel with a group of mad scientists. Maybe she should say something. Change the subject.Seen any naked pictures of me today?”

“Like a lot of once devout people who have lost their faith, I had holes the size of heaven and hell in my head and in my heart.”

“I had nothing to feel guilty about. I had no one to answer to. I could look back upon my short life with Scott and I could smile. My youth and my happiness, I had once thought bitterly, had been taken from me prematurely, and without anything to fill the void left by their absence. But they were being reclaimed, fought for, declared the property of someone who was brave enough to suffer me, to try and understand me.”