The Oldest Dance Quotes

“Kusha felt a tinge of pride, exponentially multiplied by her Low-Grade inferiority complex, reading this footnote. It worsened when ads started coming up on her HOME page after reading it. The ads had horrible titles:

Dream Youth For The Low Grades.
Alternate Longevity.
A Secret Pleasurable Way To Youth.
Get Your Dream Citizenship With Pleasing Pleasure Contract.

The last one is for non-citizens, of course. At least, she’s a citizen. But when Kusha discovered how many unevolved men and women enter such contracts just for citizenship, it made her face crease. As if she’d caught a nasty smell. For a moment, she even thought, she hated every High Grade in the world, including everyone in her adoptive family. Right now, standing in front of Meera, the hatred swells.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“If his first impression weren’t ninety percent pre-constructed by the entrance, he would think that it was a nice, comfortable place to live in.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Maroc Metz—as usual in his tailcoat, rimless glasses, gloved hands, and neatly brushed black hair—welcomes the Mesmerizer with boiling-hot tea—Earl Grey, raspberry flavor. He drinks a third of it in one gulp, its heat boosting his prana. The boiling-hot tea doesn’t make him blink away from the Devil’s Book.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“It's a laughable lock—one that you would use only to guard a graveyard. Not that anyone would trouble themselves invading a timber hut in a mangrove forest farther away from the Bay of Bengal. Still, how can someone live with a lock like that? Made of ancient iron, reeking of rust. It would need a primordial key to be twisted and turned, going through several moments of mechanical trouble until the old lock opens. Good luck if you can do that without breaking the key.

Oh! The key … Well, the owner of the hut has left the key right beside the lock, including instructions. The Monk, Yuan Yagmur—revealing his muscled arms from under his wide, dark shawl—takes the note (the one with instructions):

Please, scan your CRAB first before touching the key. For your own safety.
From what, you ask? It’s a surprise.
Enter without scanning if you want to find out.
—Mee-Hae Ra

”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“A herd of deer catches the Monk’s attention. They are running. He senses the fear in them. Soon, the largest cat in this forest takes one of them: it runs, grabs a neck, halts, and mauls; then it kills. A predator wins. Always.

The herd of deer accepts it. Mourning a while, they go back to grazing. Perhaps they even think, this time too, it wasn’t me. Not yet.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“You need to control your thoughts, Ra.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“She’s rethinking her reasons to make it believable to herself first. Otherwise, it’d be a lie, and as a Grade A, she mustn’t lie.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Sometimes, I wonder if he is behind it, too. Or maybe I’m thinking too much.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Sweetie, you are doing it again,” Meera says. “Is there anything on your face?”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“No loose strands of hair are annoying her that she’d need to touch her face. At least, not during dancing.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Well, nearly flawless.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Only her toes touch the ground to kick off and defeat gravity for one moment, until she drops back to the floor on just her toes, making it a flawless leaping-footwork of Bharatanatyam—a traditional dance.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“The herd of deer accepts it. Mourning a while, they go back to grazing. Perhaps they even think, this time too, it wasn’t me. Not yet.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“He saw what that man has become in their recent meeting.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“It’s too dangerous for her to step into this. Is he making a mistake bringing her? What if that monster harms her?”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“He remembers the thirty-seven beasts in his forest that turned stone-hard and dead.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“My nightmares are out of control. The thoughts during my dreams,” Mee-Hae says, leaning against his chest.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“And much of her energy gets drained in cell-building, in self-healing.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Even though her strong prana heals it at the same rate, constant damage and regeneration is happening inside her.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“You’re still depending on healing pills?” he says in questioning tone.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“He never wants to answer it if he doesn’t need to. So, this time, he visibly avoids her question.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“I have to stop him,” the Monk says.
“Am I the bait?”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“You are wrong, Yuan,” Mee-Hae says, half-worried and half-angry, her voice suddenly quivering. “He wanted to make you work. With or without him.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Just answer a question, Yuan. Did he put you onto this?”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“Things look familiar: the high shelves full of books, jars of green tea, dried flowers—also for tea, big rocks, and crystals that emit strong prana and light. The light trapped inside the crystals makes them brighter, stunning against the dark background of the wooden floor and ceiling.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“The Monk remembers taking this photo himself. Sometimes, he wonders if it’s his fault that that man lost his last threads of humanity.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“And there rests him—the Mesmerizer, frozen in one of his rarest smiles, right beside Mee-Hae. His hair is a darker shade of blond in the photos, as it was back then, and his eyes blue like the clearest sky.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“He feels a tiny spark of emotion, seeing his own photo here, right in the middle of the war and the friendship zone—if there’s any zoning at all among the chaotically placed frames, that is.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“The largest wall in the living room is full of framed photos, depicting stories of war, peace, friendship, and love—everything in the last six decades displayed on a single wall.”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance

“The lights glow, sensing a human presence. “Welcome home!”
― Misba, The Oldest Dance