Fans of Incarcercon and Sapphique

Evian nodded and turned away, but before he had taken two steps she forced the words out. “Wait. One thing.”

The peach silk shimmered. A butterfly fluttered at his shoulder, curious.

“My father. What about my father?”

In the beautiful blue sky a flutter of pigeons rose from one of the Palace’s thousand towers. Evian did not turn and his voice was so quiet she barely heard it. “He is dangerous. He is implicated.”

“Don’t hurt him.”

“Claudia …”

“Don’t.” She clenched her fists. “He is not to be killed. Promise me now. Swear. Or I go to the Queen this minute and tell her everything.”

That made him turn, startled. “You wouldn’t…”

“You don’t know me.”

Iron-cold she faced him. Only her stubbornness would keep a knife out of her father’s heart. She knew he was her enemy, her subtle foe, her cold opponent over the chessboard. But he was still her father.

—

a conversation between Evian and Claudia Arlexa
Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron

(via worthies)

The world is a chessboard, Madam, on which we play out our ploys and follies. You are the Queen, of course. Your moves are the strongest. For myself I claim only to be a knight, advancing in a crooked progress. Do we move ourselves, do you think, or does a great gloved hand place us on our squares?

—

private letter; the Warden of Incarceron to Queen Sia

(via worthies)

And with her instinct for weakness, Sia said, “I do hope you aren’t waiting for Master Jared, Claudia.”

Claudia’s head shot up. “Why? Where is he?”

Sia rose and shrugged her small shoulders. “At the Academy, I believe. But I have heard rumors that he is in poor health.” She smiled icily. “Very poor.”

Claudia came forward till she was gripping the cold stones of the battlement. “If anything happens to Jared,” she hissed, “if you so much as touch a hair of his head I swear I’ll kill you myself before the Steel Wolves even get close.

—

Sapphique

(via concertoinc4)

All my years to this moment
All my roads to this wall.
All my words to this silence
All my pride to this fall.

— Catherine Fisher, Incarceron

I won’t go. I am not a brave man, I understand that. Confrontation disturbs me; one look from your father and I’m chilled to the bone, Sapient or not. But they can’t make me leave you, Claudia.

— Jared Sapiens

There was a man and his name was Sapphique. Where he came from is a mystery. Some say he was born of the Prison, grown from its stored components. Some say he came from Outside, because he alone of men returned there. Some say he was not a man at all, but a creature from those shining sparks lunatics see in dreams and name the stars.
Some say he was a liar and a fool.

—

Legends of Sapphique, Incarceron

(via nothingiswrongwithdreamin)

Or is it that man contains within himself the seeds of evil? That even if he is placed in a paradise perfectly formed for him he will poison it, slowly, with his own jealousies and desires?

—

Incarceron

(via rumcat)

And she saw, faint and far, the candlepoints of flame in the cottages of the poor, the hovels where the Prison’s wrath and fury had brought no change.

‘Those are the stars too,’ Finn said quietly.

—

Sapphique, by Catherine Fisher.

(via tofixtheshadows)

Underground, the stars are legend.

—

Catherine Fisher

(via ne0n-ruby)

The dove will rise above destruction.
With a white rose in her beak.
Over storm
Over tempest.
Over time and the ages.
And the petals will fall to the ground like snow.

—

Sapphique’s Prophecy of the World’s End

(Sapphique by Catherine Fisher)