I met one (that is, a dragon) once," Irene said. "What did you talk about?" "He complimented me on my literary taste." Kai blinked. "Doesn't sound li… - Genevieve Cogman

My brother and I used to live in Rome," she invented.
"Rome." The other woman turned up her nose a little. "Well, I suppose people have to live somewhere.

And, really, Erda had put the basic problem in a nutshell. Everyone here viewed damage to their own particular interest as more significant than damage to anyone else’s. Whatever the scale of the damage.

The room on the other side was elegant and gracious, even in the moonlight that slanted in through the long rectangular windows. It breathed with the scent of old books and wax polish: the dark volumes that filled the shelves promised countless secrets, and Irene itched just to reach out and touch them.