Forged Destiny [Book 2: Ch. 12; Book 4: Ch. 13; Book 9: Ch. 19]

"Queen of the Grimm!" Merlot interrupted.

[...]

"I do so dislike interruptions," Salem said. "You were the one to summon me, then? I do sense the miasma of suffering that pervades your soul. It is intertwined with that of another." Her eyes shifted to the female corpse still upon the altar. Glenn's face was still frozen in shock. Merlot laughed.

—Forged Destiny [Book 2: Ch. 12]



"A wish is freely given. A pact is an agreement of a contract, and contracts require… payment. I grant boons, you might call them wishes. In return, I receive something of equal value. It is an exchange."

"A soul?"

She rolled her eyes. "What use would I have of your pathetic souls? Do you imagine I have a place to barter them, a collection for my home? Please, do not think of yourselves so highly."

—Forged Destiny [Book 4: Ch. 13]




Swordmaster burned above me. The pain in my head returned, not pain from the knowledge filtering in as I'd first thought, but pain from my own body rejecting me. I was quite literally fighting two identities at once, and like a body rejecting an organ, my soul was split.

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 19]