He didn't think he was edging into dementia. He suspected he was edging into sanity, the long way around. The hard way. - Lois McMaster Bujold

We see the world not as it is, but as we are. ~ Dag Redwing Hickory Bluefield

I’ve always thought—tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune. Do you understand what I’m saying?

The deadly weapon seemed unnaturally light and easy in his hand. Something that lethal should have more heft, like a broadsword. Wrong, for murder to be so potentially effortless—one ought to at least have to grunt for it.