People want things to be real. If you give them an excuse, they'll believe you. - Robin Sloan

Well, you know our saying: It's not over until you hold the book's ashes in your hands, weeping at the years you've lost.
I did not know we had that saying, sir.

The nature of immortality is a mystery,' he says, speaking so softly that we have to lean closer to hear.' But everything I know of writing and reading tells me that this is true. I have felt it in these shelves and in others.

Corvina’s got it wrong. Penumbra’s schemes didn’t fail because he’s a hopeless crackpot. If Corvina’s right, it means nobody should ever try anything new and risky. Maybe Penumbra’s schemes failed because he didn’t have enough help. Maybe he didn’t have a Mat or a Neel, an Ashley or a Kat — until now.