There was no reason he needed to help this nearly dead Josenjing, more of a vermin than a person. - P11
Sometimes the human heart was like a dark forest, and even a man as rational as Yamada had mysteries within. - P11
THE DAWN CAME without a sunrise, and illumined by the cinereal light the woods materialized around them once more. - P12
He pointed at a tree that was still swinging slightly, shedding snow as fine and white as sea spray. - P15
The two men couldn’t have been more different: one, dressed in a warm officer’s outfit and a fur-trimmed hat, handsome and lithe and bursting with energy even after three hard days in the forest; and the other, shorter man, sharp cheekbones casting dark shadows on his face, hair with more gray than black, looking as ancient, weathered, and bony as a rock. - P17
The less he could be certain of Nam’s safety, the longer this attachment would last. - P20
Yamada ran his finger along its side, where his name was engraved. Then he pulled away with the rest of the officers; and now that Nam’s fate was decided, at least temporarily, no one paid him any mind as he limped away on his own. - P20
Had they been alone, she would have poured out salty diatribes about women who made their keep between their legs. - P26
She had a matte, smooth skin with a candle-wax yellow tinge. Her eyes were small but very bright under a pair of fluffy eyebrows like black feathers. By looking very closely, one could see that her left iris was positioned ever so slightly off-center, pointing outward—a fishlike tendency. Her lips were round and red, even without rouge. Her smile—twinkly, with an undertone of mischief—would have been considered charming had it not framed a few undeniably crooked upper teeth. There were other peculiarities to her physique that a more exceptional girl certainly would not have had. All told, Jade was the kind of young girl who stood exactly at the midpoint between plain and pretty. She hadn’t minded, since her mother was suspicious of beauty in general. - P27
Luna was unmistakably her mother’s daughter. She resembled Silver the way the moon’s reflection on the river mirrored its source. - P30
They were the perfect complements, because Jade liked to think endlessly and Lotus liked to talk constantly, and between the two the right balance was struck. - P32
Sometimes these passions were consummated; other times they tragically went on their whole lives burning with longing. - P33
THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY TURN OF EVENTS BEGAN WITH A DROP OF a pin, an aberration stealing by no more dramatically than a stray dog. - P41
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