Naomi Novik Quote

Our people were alone here a long time, she said, and I wondered, what was long to a tree? A thousand years, two thousand, ten? Endless generations, the roots growing deeper every one. We began to gorget how to be people. We dwindled away little by little. When the sorcerer-king came with his people, my sister let them come into the valley. She thought they could be renewed, and teach them in turn; we could give each other life. But they were afraid. They wanted to live, they wanted to grow stronger, but they didn't want to change. They learned the wrong things.