I wouldn't destroy an entire house to destroy one man. But I would destroy a man to destroy a house. - Megan Whalen Turner

The king, the master of the fates of men, before their eyes was reduced to a man, very young himself, and in love.

"You said I should do something." Eugenides smiled in the dark, twisting the knife of his revenge a little deeper into the magus.
"I did?"
"As you were leaving, after your extremely edifying visit in the spring. You said ‘You could still do something.’ Your exact words."
"I meant talk your queen into surrendering, not destroy our navy in its own harbor!" the magus shouted.

We invoke the Great Goddess in our hour of need for her wisdom and her mercy," Teleus said in the demotic.
"Ere translates as love, a rather ruthless love, not mercy, Teleus. The Great Goddess of Eddis not known for her mercy.