How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She started up it, and soon found herself wondering whether there wasn't a stair because it was not in the nature of the cliff to carve itself so, but it was doing what it could to help, all the same. There was always something to climb, provided she trusted it. (11.51)
Against all odds, Tilja has found her way to Faheel's island and is climbing the cliffs to reach him. She needs to find a way to climb up them, but despite the unlikelihood of such things happening, there are footholds that appear just as she needs them.
Quote #2
Tilja felt an extraordinary impulse to interfere. What possible harm would it have done to leave Faheel for a moment, step across the room, pluck the dice out of the air—her touch moving them into the flow of time—and lay them down as triple sizes on the floor for the men to find when they were woken? Only the urgency of what they were doing stopped her. (12.25)
When she finds the frozen men in the middle of playing a dice game, Tilja is tempted to play God and give them good fortune. She's got power over these soldiers, and wants to do something good for them—Tilja has the ability to be Fate, rather than act as an instrument of Fate, which is extremely tempting. It's a nice change for a girl whose entire life has been set out for her so far.
Quote #3
Only on the long descent to Songisu did it cross Tilja's mind that the Ropemaker, after all, hadn't been waiting for them in the hills. She felt strangely unworried about this. Of course there was still time. Though she hadn't known it, he had been with them on their way south, in the shape of one animal or another, all the way across these northern plains, ever since they had landed from their raft. He would be waiting for them there. (16.44)
Once again, Tilja has a strange feeling that everything's going to be okay. The Ropemaker hasn't caught up to the group yet, as Faheel had promised. They still have time to rendezvous with the Ropemaker and give him the ring, though. Til's guided by some higher force—let's call it fate.