Notes on The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

Certain people had what Jean privately thought of as archer’s eyes —a steady coolness, a detached precision. People with eyes like that could sort the world around them into targets, pick their first shot before those nearby even knew the time for talk had passed. Eyes like that had killers behind them

it’s called Endliktgelaben . It’s a High Vadran word. I learned about it when I was studying as an initiate of Aza Guilla. It means, ah, death-love, death-desire. It’s hard to translate. It means you have moods where you absolutely want to destroy yourself . Not as some self-pitying idle notion, either. As a certainty!”