The wages of courage is death, lad, but it’s the wages of everything else, too. - Tim Powers

By the dim yellow glow of the overhead bulb, Lepidopt stared at the bomb and the time machine, and he tried to imagine what might go wrong.

He always had to use holy water—real holy water, from gallon jugs he filled from the silver urn at St. Anne’s—but though it impressed the customers, all he could see that it actually did was get stuff wet.

There's something you should know about me."
"What's that?"
"I don't know, but you should know it.