All the worry people expend over not existing after they die, yet nary a one ever seems to spare a moment to worry about not having existed before th… - Lois McMaster Bujold

Nikys had never believed that clothes made the man, but the lack of them certainly did.

So much of the uncanny—or the holy, for that matter—is inward experience. As such, testimony about it tends to be tainted. People lie. People delude themselves, or others. People are swayed or frightened or convinced they have seen things they have not. People are, frankly, sometimes simply mad.

He lay a long time, cradled in pain. He was not sure how long. The illumination from the force dome was even and shadowless, unchanging. Timeless, like eternity. Hell was eternal, was it not? This place had too damn many congruencies with hell, that was certain.