It takes a surprising amount of courage to place one's hand into an unseen area when your mind is thinking about vermin.

For all that I have kissed before, I have never felt anything like this. It is as if I have swallowed a tiny piece of the sun, its warmth and light reaching into every corner of my soul and chasing away the shadows. I surrender to that kiss - surrender to the strength and the courage and the sheer goodness of the man.

I bear a deep red stain that runs from my left shoulder down to my right hip, a trail left by the herbwitch's poison that my mother used to try to expel me from her womb.

And so it is with us; we serve as handmaidens to Death. When we are guided by His will, killing is a sacrament.

He does not start guiltily, as he should, but frowns in annoyance. "Who are you?" I slip my hand through the slit of my overskirt, and my fingers close around the hard wood of the crossbow tiller. "Vengeance," I say softly.

There is no shame in scars, Ismae.

Tis Vanth's cage. You can just move it out of the way." "I already have," he grumbles. "With my shin.