yet the world between them was wide. - Philip José Farmer

Shadows would be moving inside shadows; daggers would be unsheathed; the air would get gray and chill with stealth and intrigue; blood would spurt. And the sleeping would do well to stir.

Okay," she said, "I'll listen to the wise. Are you wise?"
"Wise enough," he said, "and mighty experienced, which is the same thing if you're not too stupid.

As for paranoia, anyone who has the imagination to postulate all possibilities is automatically a paranoiac.