The life we’ve been leading couldn’t last forever. It’s a wonder it lasted as long as it did. - Jack Vance

My great pleasure is creation—of this I never tire. Some of my guests have complained of a gentle melancholy which hangs in the air; I agree that the mood exists. The explanation, I believe, arises from the fugacity of beauty, the tragic pavanne to which all of us step.

“Anacho, my friend,” said Reith, “you have a great deal to learn. The process will come as an appalling shock to you.”

He used a name for himself, true, but we played at Romance, and this is a game where truth is a bagatelle.