"What are you reading for?" "I blinked, glancing up from the illuminated pages. Dior was siting croslegged, slurping her soup and watching me across the flames. don't think I've ever been asked that question," I realized. "What I'm reading, certainly. Never what I'm reading for. You don't like books?"
"She shrugged, shovelling in another mouthful. "Never saw much use for them." "Not much "I sputtered, outraged on behalf of every scribe, librarian, and bookshop owner in the imperium. "They've a thousand fucking uses, girl!
"Name one. Aside from reading," she added as I opened my mouth to quip.
"Aright." I started counting off on my fingers. "You can light them on fire. Throw them at people. Light them on fire, then throw them at people, particularly if those people are the sort of bucktoothed shitwits who don't like books." Dior rolled her eyes as I pulled the tome up in front of my face "They can serve as a brilliant disguise." I balanced the book on my head. "Fashionable headwear." I slipped it under my backside. "Portable furniture." I tore off a page corner and pushed it into my mouth, chewing loudly. "Good source of roughage."
"Fine, fine," she sighed. "They've their uses."
P.48
"The right book is worth a hundred blades." "All I'm saying is a book won't cut your next purse or steal your next supper."
"But they might teach you a better way to do both." My voice turned serious, then, all jest vanishing. "A life without books is a life not lived, Dior. There's a magik like no other to be found in them. To open a book is to open a door to another place, another time, another mind. And usually, made- moiselle, it's a mind far sharper than your own."
P.49
'She looked up into my eyes, and I saw that old spark kindling in hers. "The road is black ahead," I told her. "And it's hard to keep walking when you can't see the ground beneath your feet. But that's what courage is. The will to keep walking in the darkness. To believe the end is just beyond your outstretched hand, rather than a million miles away. And while some might falter, some might fail, some might curl up like babes rather than walk on through that lonely night, you are not that girl."
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