“Pelimburg is a city of rain and mist and spray. It’s supposed to be my home, but a lifetime lived in my mother’s cage of a mansion means that I barely know it. I’ve only ever seen the city from the confines of a carriage; now I breathe deep, tasting how different the air is, how sweet the drops feel on my tongue. Up on the hillside, the rain seems bitter and darker.”

“...I lost my illusions in a black rain of bitterness - now what do you see in my eyes? How can you still love me? How can I be tender? ...”

“It's raining in my heart, like it's raining in the city. What is this sadness that pierces my heart?”

“From twelve stories up it was easy to be fooled by the city's rain-swept beauty, by the millions of lights twinkling in the night. But all I had to do was turn my head to see the truth: a child-whore asleep in her hospital bed. It could rain forever and the city would never be clean.”

“RainSoft rain, summer rainWhispers from bushes, whispers from trees.Oh, how lovely and full of blessingTo dream and be satisfied.I was so long in the outer brightness,I am not used to this upheaval:Being at home in my own soul,Never to be led elsewhere.I want nothing, I long for nothing,I hum gently the sounds of childhood,And I reach home astoundedIn the warm beauty of dreams.Heart, how torn you are,How blessed to plow down blindly,To think nothing, to know nothing,Only to breathe, only to feel.”

“I feel like I’m holding my breath all the time, never knowing when my lungs will just give up. The air we’re supposed to breathe is up above – I can feel it.”