“But everything had changed, and I was becoming more and more of who I really was, and less of this person I had thought I wanted to be.”

“But I had become a different person. One who looked at things in a new way. I appreciated life a whole lot more than I had last year.”

“Once you want something, everything changes. Now I want everything. More and more and more.”

“I had some ambition. I meant everything to be different with me. I thought I had more strength and mastery. But the most terrible obstacles are such as nobody can see except oneself.”

“That day had changed him. It had changed the entire village. Shaken by the death of a boy they had loved, each person had found ways to be more worthy of the sacrifice he had made. They had become kinder, more careful, more attentive to one another.”

“A silent challenge passed between the powerful men, to be interrupted by the Queen, who spoke but one word-the Cokyrian commander's name. He looked to her more quickly than I would have believed possible, and his demeaner changed along with his focus, becoming softer, more cooperative... Perhaps she had more influence than I thought.”