Referred swallowed hard. “The elder used to tell stories of dark places in dark times,” she said, picking the needle through with black nails, “when the winters were endless and the sun fell cold across the land. When beasts far worse than the crags prowled the shadows. And there were no humans. Only Karin and the night. We knew the bitter sting of winter’s breath, and it never ended as it ends now. We called it ISARA on Evil. A Time of Darkness.

— Ash Gray

Return me safely to my home,” the princess said, “and I shall reward you with your weight in eggs.” Loren snorted derisively. “You’re joking, right?” The woman’s eyes flitted in embarrassment. “Now wait a minute,” said Perianths. “We’re talkin’ eggs here. What sort of eggs? Ostrich eggs?” Referred made an impatient noise. “HEL! She doesn’t have any eggs! Unless they’re hidden in a very. . . Delicate place.” Referred grinned at the princess. “Tell me your eggs are hidden where I think they’re hidden.

— Ash Gray

Right now, all she knew was that she had the potential to love him greatly and fiercely, and she wanted to do so and nothing else very much and for many years.

— Ash Gray

Ring laughed softly at Lisa’s deadpan joke, but she halted when she noticed the back of Lisa’s neck: the factory number had been shaved away, roughly and angrily. Frowning in confusion, Ring gently rubbed her fingers over the scrape, and Lisa flinched as if it hurt.“If someone saw this, you could be scrapped,” Riggs aid anxiously. “I know,” was the soft reply. “I believe freedom is worth that risk.

— Ash Gray

Rita shrugged. “I wouldn’t hold it against ya, kid. You’re asking if you should choose war or love. Hate is easy, everybody does it. But most people go their entire lives without really loving. Mira’s going to tell you that you can’t love her because she’s confirm, but if it’s really love. . . You won’t be able to help yourself.” Rita smiled and went out.

— Ash Gray

Shadow mane sighed as well. We had better do what this Topaz commands. Unicorns are jerks when they don’t get their way.:

— Ash Gray

She snuggled close, nuzzling her hair beneath his chin. “Never leave me,” she whispered back. The siren chuckled sadly, the sound vibrating up through his chest and pleasantly against her ear. “But I must return to the sea sometimes, or I will die.” He sighed. “Some part of me believes it would be a good death.

— Ash Gray

Slowly rising from the fire, she went down to the shore, and not wanting to frighten him off again, she squatted on a rock above the water, looking down at him where he sat on the wet sand with his long blue-green tail disappearing into the lapping waves. He shyly offered the bag up to her, which had been woven of seaweed, and she took it with a whispered thanks and opened it, staring in delight and surprise at the sheer amount of oysters that were inside. The siren made a trilling noise and whispered, “I-I hope it is well enough. I do not know what land women eat.

— Ash Gray

Some of them are much,” said Rita, nimbly picking her high heels through the steaming pools of red goo and severed, wriggling limbs. She was splattered with blood and grinning as she came to them, but she frowned to see the utter bafflement on Rose’s face. “Hey, snap out of it. Haven’t you seen much before?” She kicked a man’s severed head, and Rose gasped when his face slid off, revealing a skull of gleaming silver metal. Rose shook her head. “Much are illegal. The government s-said they feared a robot war!” she insisted, turning to follow as Rita limped past her. Zita laughed dryly, folding up her rifle and tucking it under her skirt. “Is it so hard to imagine your government lied? Governments tend to do that.

— Ash Gray

Spent my whole life,” Organic went on, staring miserably into her drink, “thinkin’ that out there somewhere was ah woman who would love me incredibly, and I would love her incredibly. Like ah fire consumin’ the very air. Then I meet her, and she leaves me.” Organic snapped her fingers lazily. “Just like that.

— Ash Gray