author and triathleteDialog in Mira, Mirror
Dialog can be used for the following purposes:
1. To tell you more about a character.
On page 20:
"Change my face? So that no one could recognize me?" she asked eagerly.
"Your father, you mean?" I asked.
"Her eyes grew round with wonder, as if I had shown her the most magnificent magic, instead of simple deductive skills. Who else would have hurt her, so that she learned to walk in a crouch? Who else would have taught her to speak in a near-whisper at all times? And who but the man who reigned at home would have forced her from it?
But perhaps I guessed too well. She turned suspicious in a moment. "If you know of my father, then how do I know he did not send you here himself?" she demanded.
2. To heighten tension.
On page 8:
"Do you see this?" My sister held in her hand a mirror the size and shape of a face.
I came close enough to see the warmth in the polished glass. It was not a large mirror, however.
"It is as beautful as you are," I said, at last.
"Take hold of it. Feel its power." She thrust the mirror at me.
I saw no reason not to do as she asked. It was only after I thouched the whorled wood against my skin, sensed the magic, bitter and smelling of old smoke, of death, that I began to feel a hint of fear.
"I told you I had plans for you, Mira." Her voice was soft and delicate, but I felt like the bird squirming above the fire as it burned to death to five her power. But why?
What had I ever done to deserve this?
"I have been waiting for the right mirror. A queen's mirror."
What queen?
3. To show a connection between characters.
On page 6:
"Then we will be sisters, you and I."
"Sisters?" I hardly dared say it, for fear I had mistaken her.
I had not.
"I will be the older, wiser sister,"she said.
The beautiful sister, I thought.
"You will be the younger sister, eager to assist me, eager to learn and to grow."
4. To reveal the truth.
On page 311:
"You!" he said. "You are the wtich who killed my brothers, aren't you? The witch who destroyed my face and nearly destroyed my chance for happiness in this life."
5. To surprise the character or the reader.
On page 86-7:
"You remind me of my father, as well," she said.
Minitz made a sound of surprise. He had straightened himself rather abruptly and was now staring at the girl who had been his daughter. "Oh? And what was your father like?"
All my senses shouted danger at me. What was she doing?
"He was a shrewd bargainer," said Talia. "But he never loved money as much as he loved me."
Minitz laughed, not lightly. "No father could. A daughter is as precious a gift as any man could wish. Eh?"
Nudged, Ivana looked up. "Some men prefer sons," she said.
But Merchant Minitz only laughed heartiful. "Ha! Only a fool would trade a daughter for a son."
"My father said much the same thing," Talia put in. There was a long pause afterward, and I felt there was import in it, but I did not understand what. "And yet--" Talia's voice trailed off, wistful and hopeful at once.
"And yet?" Merchant Minitz echoed.
Taila shrugged. "He wished to marry me away. To a man I had never met, but whom my father thought a good match for me."
6. To show conflict.
On page 36-7:
"Go home, is that what you mean? Go back to my father?" She was overwrought.
"No, not back to your father." I let the words float between us, like magic untaken from a dead body.
"But once you have a new face, there is no reason you must remain a peasant."
"What else would I be?" asked Ivana. [. . . .]
A merchant's wagon had been overtaken by bandits here, I told Ivana. It had been pushed off the road. The goods had been taken, the merchant and his passengers, as well. Perhaps his daughter.
"Oh, we must find her," said Ivana. She stood up in one swift movement. "She will need help."
"No!" Finding the real merchant's daughter was the last thing we needed.
"But why? Do you think she will punish me? She will think I helped the robbers. But I did not. You know I did not."
"You do not understand," I said. "You will be the merchant's daughter."
"Me? How?" She thought for a moment. "Do you mean you will change me to look like her? What does she look like? Have you seen her?" She turned around, as if looking for the body.
"No," I said. "Ivana, listen carefully. I do not need to change your face for you to pretend to be her."
7. To give exposition or back story about the world.
On page 3:
"If you are near a creature as it dies," she said, "you can take its magic for your own.
But if you want true power, you must take a vibrant life and all its pain."
I didn't trust her. She was only an apprentice, after all. I looked back and saw the corner of the hut against the strees.
How long until Zerba would appear to teach me real magic?
On page 58:
"It is time," I said.
"Time for what?" She was clutching Talia's borrowed cloak tightly.
"For the change."
"Now? But we're safe here, aren't we? Isn't that why you brought me to them?" She stared at the girl across the room.
"Ivana." I made it very simple again. "I will make your face into hers," I said.
On page 130-1:
"I mean only a few differences, here and there. Mkae your cheeks glow, heighten the blue in your eyes, define the chin. . . It would be the same face, only better."
"Mmm," she said.
"Many of the noble ladies do the same thing, but without magic," I went on. I remembered this from the days of the queen.
She had often seen women with false color on their faces. . . .
"They do?"
"And why not?" I asked, thinking of the duke. "Their husbands will want them to look their best on every occasion."
Ivana took another moment, but by then I knew I had her. I was not surprised when she nodded and held herself still once more. "All right," she said. "You may do it."
I let the silence fill her with desire. Then I told her, "Ah. There's the problem. You see, I used the last of my magic on your hands. I haven't any more."
"Oh." Ivana let me drop to the bed.
"But if you got more magic for me . . ."
10. To answer questions.
On page 114:
"You are wondering what it is I have to gain in losing my father, my home, my name, and my very face to you. Well, it is simple enough. I love Blenin." She waited for Ivana to make a comment, but she said nothing.
"The duke is a good catch. He has a fine reputation and his letters are well written, but I do not burn for him. Can you understand what that it, to love someone and to know that you cannot have him? No, I can see you do not."
11. To make the reader dislike a character without having to make the judgment for them.
On page 10:
"Mira, dio not be angry with me. I wanted to keep you by my side forever. We are sisters, you see." I had never thought it terrible before, but it was then.
"And in a way, what I have given you is a great gift. The gift of eternal life. Now we will never be parted.
You can never leave me. And I, of course, would never leave you." She put her hand to the wood that surrounded me
and stroked it gently