How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
And then, this she offered to me, my one truth: "Our language," she said, "is not spoken, but sung… Not simply words… and grammar… but melody. It was hard… thus… to learn English… this language of wood. For the people of your nation, Octavian, all speech is song. We watched each other's eyes. We were as strangers, in that moment—as intimate as strangers—for strangers know more of us, and can judge of us more without reproach than ever those we love. (2.31.49-50)
Cassiopeia's on the verge of death, and in this last moment, she gives him the one thing Octavian has been asking from her: some knowledge, some clue, about his homeland and people. Why, then, this whole thing about being as "intimate as strangers"? It's a tough moment. Is he trying to say that he doesn't love her like family because he sees her as a stranger? Or is he trying to say that he's learned to let her go—as a stranger who no longer judges her?