Ignore you, sweetheart? I think it would be easier to stop breathing."
-Vasili

She had simply shed the mantle of slavery as easily as she had worn it, making him realize that she had never really worn it at all.

Do for yourself, for no one else will.

Now that's the sort of love Richard had always been looking for, enduring, defying obstacles, reciprocated.

Defeat held no honor.

Biding time is easy -- and gets you nowhere.