Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.

That’s what a map is, you know. Just a memory.

Woman! Come out! I have—" She looked down at the bloodless grass, embarrassed. "I have come to rescue you," she finally said, as if admitting that she were covered in boils.

You are going to break your promise. I understand. And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart, so that I will not hate you.

Koschei, Koschei,” she whispered. “What would I have been if I had never seen the birds? I am no one; I am nothing. I am a blank paper on which you and your magic wrote a girl. Just the kind of girl you wanted, all hungry and hurt and needing. A machine for loving you. Nothing in me was not made by you.

This is what comes of having a heart, even a very small and young one. It causes no end of trouble, and that’s the truth.

I perceive that you have a cruel heart, my child. It lies within your breast like a smoldering blade, hissing steam at me.