Extraits

“Your error is fundamental to the human psyche: you have allowed yourself to believe that others are mechanisms, static and solvable, whereas you are an agent.”

“I have committed a terrible crime. So terrible that I feel I can do anything, commit any sin, betray any trust, because no matter what ruin I make of myself, it cannot be worse than what I have already done.”

“Go, then. Learn all their secrets. Cover yourself in them. You will return with a steel mask instead of a face.”

“You are noble and I am not. I am unbound by noble law. We respect each other, now, and so you will not believe I am capable of this.

But I am.”

“The Masquerade had taught her all the names of sin. But her parents taught her first.

And she knew in her heart, in the habits of her eyes and thoughts, what she was.”

“If the Masquerade could not be stopped by spear or treaty, she would change it from within.”

“I used to wonder if you were a monster. Now I know the answer. If you want power in this world, power enough to change it, it seems you have to be.”

“I am a part of this, but I do not have to love it. I only have to play my role. Survive long enough to gather power. Gather enough power to make a difference.”

“Better a woman of divided loyalties than one of no loyalty at all. Better a reluctant traitor than the terror of a true sociopath.”

“That old sick joy, her first and favorite drug. Control.”