Rachel L. Schade

No words would ever be more powerful than the presence of a friend.

What good are words if no one believes them?

No matter what, I would never let the people who wanted me to break see how much damage they had inflicted.

We are the Dragon-Hearted.

Sometimes Truth cannot be silenced.

The courage to live brings its own rewards.

I'd never known that I could feel this broken and whole at once.

Love does not always end well.

The pages afforded glimpses into my soul where I'd hidden it, behind masks of paper and ink.

I know it is difficult to believe in your own courage or fortitude when everything inside of you feels weak and shattered. But do not believe what you feel. You will not be easily broken.

What else has kept any of us going, but love of someone or the memory of that love?

There is never a guarantee of survival, no matter your strength or skill or wit. There is only the day you are conceived and the day you die, and all else is a series of moments you either embrace or endure.

We weren__ that different after all, our souls laden with the same ache of loss, our hearts bursting with the same longing to save what remained of all we loved.

We will not die cornered and cowering in the ruins of a dead city.

And when hope returns to us, it will be with a passion and power to match every ounce of this crushing despair and pain, every fiery shred of determination that carried us when hope failed. It will claim us with a courage that will make the goddess herself quake and doubt herself.