He’d expected torture. He hadn’t expected surgery. - Ian Tregillis

Such were the brittle threads of a relationship built not on trust but on a slurry of fear, mutual codependence, and self-interest.

Only a fool wasted energy on things he could not control.

Well," he said, "you must be feeling very proud of yourself right now."\n"It occurs to me that I might be an underappreciated genius." She paused to clutch the mast again during a particularly hard gust. "But I'll tell you something. It's not so wonderful, learning you were right all along to suspect the world is conspiring against you.