Some saw stars, it seemed, and some saw the spaces between them. - Lois McMaster Bujold

Your father calls you to his court. You need not pack. You go garbed in glorious raiment. He waits eagerly by his palace doors to welcome you, and has prepared a place at the high table, by his side, in the company of the great-souled, honored, and best-beloved.

No fear trembled his voice. Well, she reflected, perhaps he was not old enough yet to have really come to believe in death after life.

“I was just a little taken aback. That—that wasn’t the proposition I was expecting, is all. Excuse me. I fear I am become incurably low-minded.”
“You can’t help that, I’m sure,” Ethan said tolerantly. “Being female, and all that.”