I examined the portraits nearest to me but couldn't get past the sensation that here was the same man over and over, crouched in old boxes, readying … - Helen Oyeyemi

In Narnia a girl might ring a bell in a deserted temple and feel the chime in her eyes, pure as the freeze that forces tears. Then when the sound dies out, the White Witch wakes. It was like, I want to touch you, and I can touch you, now what next, a dagger?

"Wuraola sounded like another person. Not her at all. Should she answer to this name, and by doing so steal the identity of someone who belonged here?” (Part 1, Chapter 4, Page 28)

She encouraged herself to see her very small presence in the world as a good thing, a power, something that a hero might possess.