"Dying is easy. Anyone can do that," Suri said. "Living - going on after you've lost those you love, having to face each new day under the weight of their absence - is what's hard. You have to witness a sun that is never again as bright and hear music that is no longer cheerful. Eating food will never fully satisfy, and you wake each morning to a shattered world that can never again be whole. Despite all this, you have to find a reason to breathe, to move." Suri stared at Makareta. "You've killed, and so have I, but that doesn't compare to losing someone you loved. That's when you really lose a part of yourself. Have you gone through that?"

Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Empyre