She perched on her windowsill, gazing at the lurid sun soaking into the Caldera, trying to appreciate it even though she couldn’t have it. Why did she always feel she had to do something in the face of beauty?

Try, reach, want, and you may fall. But even if you do, you might be okay anyway. If you don't try, you save nothing, because you might as well be dead.

Their friendship was only one aspect of their lives but it seemed to give meaning to all the others.

Age is not so much a feature of your character, as the spot where you stand for a pretty fleeting time on the arc of your life.

How terrible would it be to just wait there pathetically alone for him never to show up?" Eudoxia's expression grew more serious. "That's what you're doing anyway, my dear.

There was a moment in between, a moment flung free in the midst of the transition, when he made contact. That was the moment she would dwell on.

She must have sensed she never really had him. That was a sadness of hers, he knew.