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Title: A Gathering of Shadows Authors: V. E. Schwab Category:supplementals Number of Highlights: 29 Date: 2026-02-08 Last Highlighted: **
Highlights
People survived by being cautious, but they got ahead by being bold.
âEveryone thinks I have a death wish, you know? But I donât want to dieâdying is easy. No, I want to live, but getting close to death is the only way to feel alive. And once you do, it makes you realize that everything you were doing before wasnât actually living. It was just making do. Call me crazy, but I think we do the best living when the stakes are high.â
Tags:death
âStrength and weakness are tangled things,â the Aven Essen had said. âThey look so much alike, we often confuse them, the way we confuse magic and power.â
Tags:magic,perspective,power,strength,weakness
âBut no afterlife,â grumbled the king. âNo eternal soul? Itâs unnatural.â âOn the contrary,â said Kell. âIt is the most natural thing in the world. Nature is made of cycles, and we are made of nature. What is unnatural is believing in an infallible man and a nice place waiting in the sky.â
Run away from what could have been a good life. Or at least a happy one. Because it wasnât enough to be happy, not for Lila. She wanted more. Wanted an adventure.
Tags:adventure
Magic and magician must between them balance. Magic itself is chaos. The magician must be calm. A fractured self is a poor vessel for power, spilling power without focus or measure from every crack.
The truth was, Lila understood why Alucard did it. Why he traded safety and boredom for adventure. She didnât know what it felt like to be safe, and sheâd never had the luxury of being bored, but it was like sheâd once told Kell. People either stole to stay alive or to feel alive. She had to imagine that they ran away for the same reasons.
âI honestly donât know whether to be impressed or unnerved.â Lila straightened. âThe two arenât mutually exclusive.â
âPolitics is a dance until the moment it becomes a war. And we control the music.â
My greatest fear in life isnât dying. Itâs being the source of someone elseâs suffering.
Tags:death
People always said that waiting was the worst part, and Lila agreed. So much so, in fact, that she rarely waited for anything. Waiting left too much room for questions, for doubt.
Tags:waiting
Magic is tangled, so you must be smooth. Magic is wild, so you must be tame. Magic is chaos, so you must be calm.
âThe thing about freedom, Kell? It doesnât come naturally. Almost no one has it handed to them. Iâm free because I fought for it. Youâre supposed to be the most powerful magician in all the worlds. If you donât want to be here, then go.â
Tags:freedom
âI always thought being an Antari meant you didnât need to practice, that it all cameââhe gestured absentlyâânaturally.â âThe ability comes naturally,â replied Kell. âThe proficiency takes work.
Tags:ability,favorite,practice,proficiency
There used to be all kinds of aven. Ones who could master all the elements. Ones who could only master one, but were so powerful, they could change the tides, or the wind, or the seasons. Ones who could hear what magic had to say. Aven isnât just one thing, because magic isnât just one thing. Itâs everything, old and new and always changing.
Tags:magic
Kell would say it was impossible. What a useless word, in a world with magic.
Lila had never really bought into fate, but like most people who disavowed religion, she could summon a measure of belief when it was necessary.
Tags:religion
âLook, everyone talks about the unknown like itâs some big scary thing, but itâs the familiar thatâs always bothered me. Itâs heavy, builds up around you like rocks, until itâs walls and a ceiling and a cell.â
Tags:familiar,uncertainty
âIt doesnât bother you, that everyone believes different things?â âWhy should it?â he asked. âWe all believe the same thing really, we simply give it different names. Hardly a crime.â
Tags:perspective
âThe ability comes naturally,â replied Kell. âThe proficiency takes work. Just as I explained during every one of your lessons.â
âIâve found that watching is the quickest way to learn, and the safest way to stay alive.â
âChaos needs order. Magic needs moderation. Itâs like a fire. It doesnât have self-control. It feeds off whatever you give it, and if you give it too much, it burns and burns until thereâs nothing left.
âIâll bring it all back,â said Lila, getting to her feet. âI have no use for a dress like this beyond tonight.â âMost women believe that a dress need only matter for one night.â
âBecause too little of something is just as dangerous as too much.â
They crashed into each other as if propelled by gravity, and he didnât know which of them was the object and which the earth, only that they were colliding.
Wasnât magic supposed to be the thing in all things? If that was true, then it wasnât about moving the water, it was about moving the magic.
âPlease tell me this is easier to take off than it was to put on.â Calla raised a brow. âYou do not think Master Kell knows how?â
Rhy held Kellâs pain in his hands, while Kell held Rhyâs life in his.
âIâve seen people sin in the name of god, and in the name of magic. People misuse their higher powers, no matter what form they take.â