Sometimes, Skorous," Draco said, "you are a fool." "Sometimes I am not alone in that. - Tanith Lee

I had a rare wine in my blood. Expiation was over, guilt washed out, terror canceled.

The dark storyteller did not look about. He said: “You have presumed the gods value man so much that they will hurry to his rescue. I think you misjudge the gods.”
“And you,” declared the philosopher sternly, “suggest that they are merely as stones.”
“There, I admit, I have maligned them. For if you strike a stone, it may disgorge a stream of water, or a precious jewel. Or you may build a house from it, or scratch words on its surface with a knife. Stones can be serviceable to men.”

There were clouds like sharks with open jaws in the sky that morning.