Shanker Quotes & Sayings

Granted, Mr. Kent was also making somewhat of a spectacle of himself, tasting an unfamiliar pastry and attempting to get its name and ingredients from the poor vendor. Mr. Braddock wore a pained expression, trying to divert Mr. Kent, and Miss Chen seemed to be pretending she had no connection to either of them. — Tarun Shanker

It was a strange feeling, to want to throw something at him and protect him from dangerous flying objects at the same time. — Tarun Shanker

I am so glad you decided on the cream silk for the evening, Miss Wyndham," she said.
"Thank you, Lady Atherton." It was an absolutely beautiful gown, a pearly cream that glowed whenever light hit it.
"Such a talented modiste, Mrs. Valant. She hides your figure remarkably well," she added, making me wish to smack her with my overly beaded reticule. — Tarun Shanker

Perhaps, there is no such person who can be called truly free, but only those who can be deemed so by comparison. — Ashim Shanker

I warn you, sir, I am more than skilled in deadly combat," I said, hoping that was something someone more than skilled in deadly combat might say. — Tarun Shanker

The teachers unions are the clearest example of a group that has lost its way. Whenever anyone dares to offer a new idea, the unions protest the loudest. Their attitude was memorably expressed by a longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers: He said, quote, 'When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of children.' — Albert Shanker

As the late earl said, 'The early bird catches birds of a like feather,'" she said.
I nodded, not even trying to understand how that would work. At the very least, the combination of proverbs made it somewhat original. — Tarun Shanker

He had given himself over to endless wanderings, a life of migration from life-to-life, albeit not necessarily a set of migrations one must view as physical, but rather a set of migrations between circumstances, a set of migrations where the players surrounding him were just as likely to move as he, but nonetheless, a set of migrations calling forth a life unalterable only by its lack of permanence. Along with this came the slow, but dawning realization that he had relinquished his claim over those new memories he could have created alongside the friends and relatives closest to him; and that he had, furthermore, ceased to exist in such people's minds, except as a faint and indistinct silhouette of what he had once been, situated seamlessly against the vivid and oddly memorable backdrops of spaces and moments which shall never be again. — Ashim Shanker

Erudition is the crude residue of wilted harvests; wit: the meddlesome weed that wilts them. — Ashim Shanker

My breath returned as I observed my escort. He was wearing the same black coat and trousers from the evening of Sir Winston's ball. No strange clothes, altered features, or even a false mustache. He cared not one whit about his reputation. "Fine disguise," I said. — Tarun Shanker

All high mathematics serves to do is to beget higher mathematics. — Ashim Shanker

But this time I was the one cut off as he gave a curt bow and turned, striding down the corridor toward the gardens and, I hoped, off a nearby cliff. Good riddance. — Tarun Shanker

The key is that unless there is accountability, we will never get the right system. As long as there are no consequences if kids or adults don't perform, as long as the discussion is not about education and student outcomes, then we're playing a game as to who has the power. — Albert Shanker

Is your power still working?" I asked Mr. Kent.
"I don't know. Do you find me handsome?" Mr. Kent returned.
"Yes," I replied, following it with a growl.
"Everything is clearly in order here," Mr. Kent said. — Tarun Shanker

You play at altruism, Miss Wyndham, but the truth is that you decided your sister was more important than my brother. What you don't understand is that you don't just 'help people.' Any choice to help someone, hurts someone else. You want to help Britain? Then take from Egypt. You want to heal someone? Then you leave someone else in pain, waiting. You want to save your sister? Then you kill my brother. — Tarun Shanker

Perhaps he anticipated our anticipation of his anticipation . . . — Tarun Shanker

Damn them both! Mr. Kent here while he was supposed to be helping me - much like he accused Mr. Braddock of earlier! And Mr. Braddock pretending to be concerned about my reputation, kissing me in a brothel, and then suggesting that I forced him? Ridiculous. — Tarun Shanker

I was tired of rewriting my opinion of the Society. I was tired of wondering what Rose would wish me to do. I was tired of constantly wondering if I had made the right choice, if I even had a choice, or if I was being manipulated at every turn. — Tarun Shanker

Stop being tall. Put your head down. — Tarun Shanker

Of what use was memory anyway than as a template for one's most reassuring self-deceptions! — Ashim Shanker

Was anyone unclothed?" Mr. Kent said sarcastically, clearly not expecting an affirmative answer.
However.
"A bit," my uncooperative mouth responded and I tried to cover it with a yelp. This was absurd. Both of them were absurd, tonight was absurd, and I was, assuredly, absurd. — Tarun Shanker

Obligation is a more effective weapon against the Will than any penalty, threat or act of force. — Ashim Shanker

Calling him a rover is putting it nicely. Baker is a dog when it comes to women, a real libertine type. There isn't a brothel in Elsace that hasn't seen his face. You know they named the Wastrel after him? Started out as a joke after he got his first shanker, but now that he's pissing needles, it's not as funny as it used to be. — Meg Merriet

He may actually have been existing in the past and approximating a conceivable future, which brought even the assumption of his immediate perceptions as being in the present into doubt. And thus, he couldn't - beyond a hint of skepticism - say that he truly existed right now and in this moment, but instead it seemed more rational to assume that he simply existed and nothing more. — Ashim Shanker

A warm, ragged breath disturbed the hairs on my forehead, and my blood began pricking as I realized where exactly I had retreated: right into Mr. Braddock, our strange connection humming through the hairsbreadth of distance between our bodies, our faces. I froze, forcing myself to stop shoving against him further. Before I understood anything, a rough, large hand brushed my chin, my face tipped upwards, and his mouth caught mine, and suddenly my entire body was on fire. Whatever odd sensation had thrummed between us before was just the stroke of a violin bow to this clash of an orchestra. I felt the world pass between our lips, tasting champagne, hunger, and something indefinably darker, while his hand ignited sparks down my cheek to the nape of my neck. He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer, forcing that elusive essence to run deeper than my skin, deeper than my veins, until my very bones vibrated. — Tarun Shanker

Writing creatively is a process of self-consumption that requires one to dive deeply inside of oneself with no guarantee of reemergence. — Ashim Shanker

Waiting by this staircase was Mr. Kent, who managed to both grimace at his stepmother and smile brightly at Laura. — Tarun Shanker

And I'm truly sorry about last night with Mr. Edwards." She sniffled. "Hang Mr. Edwards. After what he said yesterday, I've already added his to the lists of houses to be set ablaze. — Tarun Shanker

Miss Wyndham feigned an illness, sneaked out of the house, and walked the London streets unaccompanied for most of the night. At the very least, I'd say she's a better influence on Miss Kent than Lady Kent is. — Tarun Shanker

Finally our eyes held each other.
Don't kiss him.
"I was worried," he said, slowly pulling himself off the bed frame, leaning forward. His face was so close to mine in the quiet morning. My heart faltered once before catching a new rhythm, faster than before. Sebastian's dark hair had never looked so careless and my fingers itched to return to the inky strands. His eyes were the softest mossy green, and I was sure that all his usual awkward reserve had melted in this strange dawn. When I realized that his eyes were glued to my lips, I instinctively parted them, sucking in a fast breath.
Don't you dare kiss him, Evelyn.
He was so close I could have counted the strands of gold that gleamed in the green of his eyes. I could have shifted forward one breath and his lips would be on mine. I was dizzy, lost in the world that existed here between us. — Tarun Shanker

Rose.It was her. Not some copy, not some actress. I knew it with every beat of my frantic heart. Then terror filled her eyes.

"Evelyn," she gasped. "He's in here - "

A hand appeared out of the shadows and clamped over her mouth. And she vanished. — Tarun Shanker

I need you to be my foil!" she wailed. "I need someone to disagree with him, so I can agree with him and support him like a good wife should! Please, Evelyn! I cannot become a ruined spinster! — Tarun Shanker

Time is a strange storyteller. It writes, erases and rewrites endlessly. Things change, places and people become unrecognizable, but stories are repeated endlessly — Vandana Shanker

Doubt has become the veritable wellspring of my creative process and my philosophic explorations. It has equipped me with the temerity and wherewithal to question certain truths deemed 'fundamental' by my betters. Defiance has made me stubborn - possibly even arrogant - enough to shrug off rejection and all fears thereof, no matter how lacerating to the self-esteem these could be. It has given me the will to seek only to satisfy myself. — Ashim Shanker

What made you think this was a good idea?"
Captain Goode shifted uncomfortably. "Mr. Kent, this is a breach of our - "
But Laura was still talking. "You did!" Laura whined. "When you were making the list of your favorite things about Evelyn, you said you admired her ability to sneak out!"
"Kit, you know not to listen to me!" Mr. Kent scolded. "I taught you better than that. — Tarun Shanker

A bracing wind swirls about the boy and alights gently upon his shoulder to gape frightfully at droplets of fate joined infirmly to a sweep of atmospheric and lunar forces far beyond their capabilities to resist. He takes a long, deep breath of air - cleansed through its migration - and he closes his eyes.
Scattered waves roll back in to the sea. — Ashim Shanker

Why are you here?" he asked, staring around me at Mr. Kent.
Mr. Kent laughed uncomfortably. "Why does anyone go to a gambling house?"
"To gamble," Sebastian answered.
"To find information for our plan," I muttered, Mr. Kent's power inadvertently affecting me as well.
"What plan?" Sebastian asked.
I glared at Mr. Kent. "Nothing, nothing at all."
"No one seems to understand what a rhetorical question is these days," Mr. Kent said to the skies. — Tarun Shanker

All the ending does is ruin perfectly good suspense," he said with a wink and headed for the door. — Tarun Shanker

Etchings endure,
But not in Sand
Meanings Collide
To Unresolved Fragments
Codes fizzle to Static
They are not lost
But Unheard
Never lost
Fading slowly to Silence
By infinite degrees — Ashim Shanker

Why, Miss Wyndham," Mr. Kent replied, looking as chaste and good as a debutante at her presentation to the Queen. "I think we can all agree it's fair to punish these guilty people feigning innocence every day of their lives, all while helping a wrongfully accused innocent. I would certainly never ask you, but I suspect you agree."

"You cannot simply blackmail people into liking me! — Tarun Shanker

Thank you for saving my life," Mr. Braddock said stonily, his eyes unbearably sad. "I will not forget it."
"And I will send you daily reminders to make sure," Mr. Kent replied. — Tarun Shanker

You know I find surprises vulgar," Lady Kent said, waving her hand dismissively and shifting her gaze to me. "You are acquainted with Miss Madeline Verinder, I presume?"

"Good evening, Miss Verinder," I said, exchanging curtsies with the sweetest, gentlest, most accomplished, and most amiable girl in all of London. At least that is what I had continually repeated to myself the past season, so I wouldn't slap her by sheer reflex whenever she entered my conversations with Mr. Kent and turned them into competitions for his attention. — Tarun Shanker

All events of the past withered to mere skeletons, veined and fleshed of fancy. — Ashim Shanker

When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children. — Albert Shanker

You've come all the way from London just for a joke, then?" I asked. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"No, no, my reason is of much greater importance. The entire city is in chaos. Buildings collapsing, streets flooding, the population plague-stricken, the Thames ablaze. But it was when an orphan boy I rescued from the rubble asked me, with his dying breath, 'Why did this all have to happen, sir? Why did Miss Wyndham leave?' that I solemnly promised to bring you back and restore peace. — Tarun Shanker

The temporal heart resonates at whispers
From a Truth overarching
Of whose countenance
Timeless Intellect yearns vainly to fathom — Ashim Shanker

Well, when one door closes, another slightly more inconvenient, out-of-the-way one opens. Let's be off, shall we? — Tarun Shanker

Mr. Kent raised his brows. "What are they asking?"
"For me to heal a little girl."
"My God, the brutes, the monsters," he mocked. — Tarun Shanker

Laura, that dress is not suitable for today, I'm afraid. It's only a small dinner party," I said, hastily stuffing it into the abyss of her wardrobe in exchange for a simple, undecorated blue dress, which would, as Laura passionately claimed, "accentuate her sapphire orbs so Mr. Edwards could not look away." I sincerely hoped she meant her eyes. — Tarun Shanker

Our cab set off down the crowded Victoria Street toward the heart of the city, trundling past drab buildings and gray street corners at an agonizingly slow speed rivaling that of a dying cow. To make the trip even more enjoyable, pungent city scents seeped through the hansom doors - strangely enough also reminding me of a dying cow. — Tarun Shanker

Good Lord. His appearance was nearly a caricature of the dark and brooding hero from every gothic novel. — Tarun Shanker

It would be both foolish and cumbersome to continue our everyday existences in bliss without first denying to ourselves, for the sake of excusing our own repugnance, the inherent cruelty from which modern civilization was conceived ... And there can be no other path by which a fiercely competitive, yet social species, as humanity, can afford its members the level of safety, prosperity and stability - such that we enjoy now - without its initial pangs of cannibalism, brutality, dominance and cruelty to forge the foundations, very much like the lava which formed the ground upon which we now stand. Lava still erupts from the core. Brutality, Dominance, and Cruelty similarly erupt from ours; and they are no less prevalent now than in early human history. — Ashim Shanker

I would rather die having spoken in my way, than live having spoken in yours — Albert Shanker

Strike, meanwhile, had seen just enough of Robin to be shocked by her appearance. He had never seen her face so pale, nor her eyes so puffy and bloodshot. Even as he sat down at his desk, eager to hear what information on Whittaker Shanker had brought to his office, the thought crossed his mind: What's the bastard done to her? And for a fraction of a second, before fixing all his attention on Shanker, Strike imagined punching Matthew and enjoying it. — Robert Galbraith

Laura shook her head, fresh tears streaming down her face. "Even Nick won't try to convince Mama! I refuse to talk to him." I shook my head, trying to shut my trunk. Overloaded, it wouldn't close.

"Don't do that - he's your brother."

"And I hate him. I hate everyone! I just want to run away from home . . . or set it on fire. Or set Miss Verinder's house on fire! Oooh, we should do that, Evelyn! — Tarun Shanker

You are right about one thing, Mr. Kent. I don't need a hero," I said in a firm, even voice. "But I could never love a man who would not be my ally. — Tarun Shanker

The ... act of surrender - or devotion, as the case may be - was, to him, a kind of lifeline for those who sought a quick answer and didn't want to stick around long enough to see their doubt through to its ultimate conclusion. A conclusion, which, of itself, was a bittersweet paradox - for how could doubt simply cease to exist by any stretch of the imagination? Doubt was, nonetheless - from his own perspective - the only inclusive insight into the nature of a Truth exclusive of conditions. — Ashim Shanker

It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It's no surprise that our school system doesn't improve: It more resembles the communist economy than our own market economy. — Albert Shanker

Comfort ... was the key ingredient to making the prisoner crave the prison. — Ashim Shanker

I'm sorry that I couldn't bring my extensive mask collection to London in my trunk. I had to make do. And you said nothing about my dress."

"That should have been self-evident. Instead of blending in, you will be the center of attention."

"Well, it can't be changed now. Do you want to pull out your copy of She Walks in Beauty and spend the next hour acting moody? — Tarun Shanker

Never miss an opportunity to be truly and deeply humiliated! The shame will carve you down to an individual of exquisite layering, and in the process, etch within you the arcs of exceptional narrative. — Ashim Shanker

Elegance is the perfect disguise for our violent nature - a mask so convincing that we often fool ourselves the moment we don it. — Ashim Shanker

Kenny Shanker burns with boppish abandon. — Bill Milkowski

Indeed, as my dear husband used to say, 'the apparel oft proclaims the man,'" Lady Atherton said.
Ah yes, wise words from the late Earl of Atherton, William Shakespeare. — Tarun Shanker

Was the man cleverer than he looked or just crazier? The line separating the two seemed rather thin — Tarun Shanker

Miss Wyndham, I know you're not pleased with the shocking things you've discovered lately, and I know you'll think even worse of me when I tell you of the things I did before we met. But everything I - "

"Sir, you are a liar and a cheat!" a customer bellowed at the shiner behind us.

Mr. Kent glanced over his shoulder and attempted to ignore the yells. "Everything I do is to - "

"These shoes are still soiled! The mud is right there! Return my money, sir!" the customer yelled again. Mr. Kent bristled and spun around to the shoe shiner.

"Sir, are you wrong in this matter?"

"N-no," the shoe shiner stammered.

"I'm trying to be fair." Mr. Kent turned to the customer. "Are you wrong?"

"Yes, of course I am," he said, his face flushing.

"Then avoid stepping in the mud, shut up, and be on your way! I am trying to convince a girl to love me! — Tarun Shanker

There is no more reason to pay for private education than there is to pay for a private swimming pool for those who do not use public facilities. — Albert Shanker

I asked Tuffins to put him in the garden, bring tea, and make sure no one disturbed us. I couldn't keep Mr. Braddock inside when I planned on shouting the roof down. — Tarun Shanker

You were right, this is absolutely dismal," he said.

"Don't be so quick to judge," I replied. "Here comes the exciting part, where we continue to twirl in the exact same manner as before." Mr. Kent scoffed.

"Would you like to reverse our direction? Knock a few couples down?"

"But then there'll be nowhere to dance, with bodies all over the floor."

"My God, you are impossible to please. — Tarun Shanker

Evelyn, please, you have no idea how much I regret that day."
"I think I have some idea."
"I have thought every day about you - your loss. And every day, I only saw how I would make things worse if I were here."
"And I only thought of ways you would have made it better. — Tarun Shanker

As far as I know, Gwyneth Paltrow has not compared herself to me today, so I've decided that I will not compare myself to her. — Wendy Shanker

And then I noticed the small cake that still sat uneaten next to him. And another in front of his mother. That was the last straw. I fully disliked them. How dare they leave perfectly good cake untouched? — Tarun Shanker

Miss Wyndham, welcome. Shall I send for your luggage?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you, Tuffins. How have you been? I hope I haven't come at a bad time."

"There is never a bad time for your visits," he replied. As welcoming as I remember. I suspected his fondness for me stemmed from the fact that I was one of the few people who never made a request for "muffins" and snickered at the horrendous rhyme. — Tarun Shanker

No, the true face is wretchedly simple and empty. The absolute joy in life, in friendship, in love, is learning about a person, deciphering them, taking each and every mask off to find a new one, waiting to be explored and understood. — Tarun Shanker

Unable to break the tenacious grip, Claude spun around and forced Mr. Braddock backward, slamming him hard into the walls, crashing into bookcases, and finally, in a desperate move, throwing himself out the street window. A shrill, useless scream escaped from my throat as the glass shattered and the cold London air rushed in. The pair disappeared out the window. There was the briefest silence, a thud, and a rattling. — Tarun Shanker

Lately, in order to win you over, I've been finding myself thinking, What would Mr. Braddock do in this situation? And it took me far too long to realize what that meant: I wanted to tell you that I would not be interfering anymore. I don't pretend to understand why it is that you would want to be with him, but even someone without my superior detective skills would notice how you gravitate toward each other. — Tarun Shanker

As teachers, we must constantly try to improve schools and we must keep working at changing and experimenting and trying until we have developed ways of reaching every child. — Albert Shanker

He's a boy," the merchant replied bluntly. He held out his hand to denote height. "Like a man, but smaller. — Tarun Shanker

The room boasted many luxurious perks: a narrow bed, a rotted writing table, a stained wall, and a warped looking glass dangling on a rusty hook. I wondered if Mr. Kent recommended this hellish place so I would hurry back to his home. — Tarun Shanker

How did you get in?"
He glowered at me and blushed in the early light. "It's - it's unimportant."
"Sebastian."
"Hmm?"
"Please, please tell me you didn't scale the walls and climb in through my window."
He glared harder.
"If you don't wish me to think of you as some kind of tragic Gothic figure, you really must stop acting like one. — Tarun Shanker

Bunnu was no amateur when it came to escape. And even in his drowsiest moments, he understood implicitly that to forget his circumstances, even for a short while, meant first to forget himself. Who he was and why he was - to strip it all bare and start from scratch, as it were. In his nearly 250 years of life and, now, as an old emaciated man completely estranged from his family and closest friends - albeit more by circumstance than by choice - he understood the importance of this process and revered it, for there were far greater things to be done and achieved in the dark, uncertain areas of existence than in those circumscribed - and thereby strained - by comprehensibility. — Ashim Shanker

It seemed a ruse that fear of death should be the sole motivation for living and, yet, to quell this fear made the prospect of living itself seem all the more absurd; to extend this further, the notion of living one's life for the purposes of pondering the absurdity of living was an even greater absurdity in and of itself, which thus, by reductio ad absurdum, rendered the fear of death a necessary function of life and any lack thereof, a trifling matter rooted in self-inflicted incoherence. — Ashim Shanker

School disruption comes from those children who have given up hope. — Albert Shanker

What on earth is his hold over you? Did he threaten you? Beat you up? You know, I could help if he injured you - "

"Dearie, we owe 'im our lives." I gaped at them, certain I was mishearing. Perhaps they owed him their wives? Knives? — Tarun Shanker

It's almost indecent," Mr. Kent said with a sigh.
"What is?"
"The way you look at each other. — Tarun Shanker

While overseeing tonight's dinner party, I finally found myself in the presence of Mr. Edwards's famed wit when he asked me whether I had visited the zoo to see the puffins. Somehow Miss Wyndham was the one forced to leave the house. — Tarun Shanker

The arrow of time obscures memory of both past and future circumstance with innumerable fallacies, the least trivial of which is perception. — Ashim Shanker

Yes, I know that. And you shall always have my friendship as well. But I do not wish to press anyone into loving me. The person who loves me will see me for who I am, good and bad, and say, Yes, that's the handsome gentleman I have been hoping to meet all along, that handsome, charming, witty, disarming, genius, remarkable, dashing - "
"Mr. Kent."
"See? That is not going to be you, Ev - Miss Wyndham. Which is why I will leave you to the most ridiculous man in London - who is made much less ridiculous by you. Indeed, I might even say he is tolerable. — Tarun Shanker

He remembered a version of himself untrammeled by expectation, unimpeded by Ego. He had suffered in the many years since then, seeking to return to that original self, if, in fact, it ever existed. And yet, he was helpless but to regard that unmistakable fear that gripped him in his dream as a sign that his unevenness lent him now to utter incongruity with this specter of past. — Ashim Shanker

I would do terrible things for the ones I love, Miss Wyndham. — Tarun Shanker

What I never quite understand about the Season, though, is why does anyone want to get married? It seems to me very much like a slightly more pleasant prison, except the guard never changes. — Tarun Shanker

Each form is inadequate, like a graft to be rejected by its intractable and unrelenting host and thus can only serve a brief and momentary purpose coherent to a context rooted in contiguous reason. This unbridled brash Spirit is, to itself, burdensome, yet dynamic, for it sees no flaw in working within the confines of a closed system to achieve ends that extend beyond it. This Spirit is, in fact, self-deceptive for to achieve such ends, it becomes necessary to bound manipulable fragments of the Self with a twine by which these parts can be joined indissolubly and maneuvered adroitly with the skill of a marionettist. — Ashim Shanker

I glanced at Robert, who looked at Rose, who looked back at Robert. Well, odd one out, then. Maybe he would propose if I disappeared.

"Oh look! Upholstery," I declared, feigning fascination with a side chair in the corner of the room. — Tarun Shanker

My, my, it's a surprise to see Mr. Braddock here," Mr. Kent said, a hint of acrimony lacing his voice. "Yes, it is." He leaned in confidentially. "Perhaps he's come to apologize. Or maybe that also needs to be done in his bedroom."

I strained to keep a whisper. "You know very well why I was in his bedroom! He was injured, and I needed to check on him."

"No one is going to make an exception for that where your reputation is concerned."

"I had other concerns at the time."

He put his hand on his chest. "I'm feeling quite injured myself. Perhaps we might - "

"Mr. Kent! This is not an appropriate place for that kind of talk!"

"Very well," he said. "If you wish to speak about it somewhere much more inappropriate, just say the word. — Tarun Shanker

Miss Wyndham, when I first met you in London, I thought you the most intelligent and the strongest girl I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. She would never moon after some mopey, dark boy. She would look for the man that challenged her, amused her, and made her sparkle and enjoy life. — Tarun Shanker

Only you, Sebastian! Only you would get a mortal injury in a lady's bedroom! — Tarun Shanker

I sighed, leaning against the carriage seat. Perhaps I should take out a full-page advertisement that read: TO SEBASTIAN BRADDOCK: COME BACK, YOU BROODING FOOL. — Tarun Shanker

We should return to the docks," Miss Grey suggested. "Perhaps they will be waiting there." Sure enough, she was correct - or at least, half correct. Mr. Kent was leaning on a splintery post by the Aurora, shaking his head as we approached.

"It took you three far too long to return here," he said. "Did you not learn that universal tenet as a child? If you ever lose track of your mother, go back to the last place you shared, no other. It's not terribly complicated. — Tarun Shanker