How we cite our quotes: (Story.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The Fire took in souls and made them new, and Yama sleeved them into new bodies as he saw fit. Estella might be reborn as a tigress or a river dolphin or an ibex that could balance on tiptoe on a mountaintop. Or she might be born as a woman again, perhaps one who could have love all her life instead of only the memory of it. (2.11.9)
Estella isn't too worried about going into the Fire and losing all her memories of this lifetime. She's lived them for long enough, and she would like to start over again as something or someone else altogether.
Quote #8
Mab blinked. She stared at Esmé. She was still wild-eyed but the savagery slowly left her face and her fingers loosened on Esmé's shoulder and chin. Her chest heaving, she whispered thickly, "Esmé? Is it really only you? Are you certain?" (3.1.19)
Esmé is totally freaked out by the fact that Mab is treating her like she's someone else—like she's an imposter. But Mab knows that the Druj can enter into human bodies and take them over, and she's terrified that it's happened to Esmé.
Quote #9
From her earliest awareness, Mab understood that she was not Druj. She didn't have blue eyes and cold skin. She couldn't shift shape or fly, or slip suddenly invisible. She didn't know what she was, but she guessed she must be animal, like one of the cats that were everywhere in Tajbel, or like the forest creatures […]. (3.6.12)
Growing up as a pet that's kept in an actual cage makes it hard for Mab to exercise her individuality. In fact, she doesn't even know what kind of being she is—all she knows is that she's not a Druj like her captors.