Lays of the Hearth-Fire Quote Bot

Victoria Goddard quote bot is now live on Bluesky! bsky.app/profile/victor…

New book! The first adventures of the Red Company ... because even the greatest of folk heroes have to start somewhere. Links below!

“Fair winds and fair seas, and an island full of all you need when you are ready to land.” At the Feet of the Sun

Looks like the Twitter API change has come for us after all. 🙁

“What does it mean, Tovo,” he whispered, “if the tana-tai is lost? What does it mean if no one is willing to hold the fire, pass it on?” Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander

“For a thing to be alive,” Tupaia said, “it must change and grow.” At the Feet of the Sun

“She gave me the beads. My father carved them, when he was still an apprentice to his father, before...My mother was the one to magic them. A gift for me, from—from both of them. And then she told me his name.” At the Feet of the Sun

Fitzroy gave Cliopher a very brilliant look and carefully moved the flower to his right ear. Cliopher felt a wash of some nameless emotion—some indescribable wonder, some intense humility, some astonishing gratitude, some sort of awe. At the Feet of the Sun

There had been a tapestry, you recalled, tribute from Colhélhé. A hand-woven chart of the the full extent of the Empire at its height, beautiful and accurate without being too detailed. Accurate enough, even now, you suspected. A reminder. Petty Treasons

“I can see nothing but darkness...except that there is one tiny white thing...a shell, I think...very far in the distance.” At the Feet of the Sun

He had wanted someone who was his, and who would choose him, as his equal, his match, his outrigger, as so much more than friend. At the Feet of the Sun

I was not supposed to know what a war was like, what it meant to have crops laid waste and houses razed to the ground. I was not supposed to be able to feel the sweat and the blood and the flies. Petty Treasons

“I have never been to the House of Sun. I am Cliopher Mdang of Tahivoa, tanà of Zunidh and Hands of the Emperor, and I will go there and bring you the flame you need.” At the Feet of the Sun

You declared you would no longer be an Emperor, and so they made you a god. Petty Treasons

And the centre of every gaze and every mind and every subtle line, that hundredth and last Emperor of Astandalas whom Cliopher loved. The Hands of the Emperor

Cliopher found his voice. “That was...was...matter for a song.” Fitzroy smiled at him, slow and secret, his delight welling as slowly as the light. “Yes. One day.” “I will help you,” Cliopher promised. At the Feet of the Sun

‘They mean the common and ordinary good of duty honourably fulfilled, of love occasionally accompanied by quarrels, of friendships that will not fail, of a home filled with laughter and music and family.’ The Hands of the Emperor

“There’s no blasphemy in pointing out the truth. It is blindingly obvious. When you want to share some news, it is to him you look—and when he wishes to talk, it is with you.” The Hands of the Emperor

“I chose the latter course, and as a result have had the great pleasure and even greater good fortune of witnessing the development and coming to maturity of perhaps the finest statesman in recorded history.” The Hands of the Emperor