Once they were librarians, but that is a subject they will only discuss if heavily intoxicated.

He remembers when he was very small his mother once said she wished happiness and adventure for him. If this does not count as adventure, he is not sure what does.

And then he tells her stories. Myths he learned from his instructor. Fantasies he created himself, inspired by bits and pieces of others read in archaic books with crackling spines.

Why haven’t you asked me how I do my tricks?” Celia asks, once they have reached the point where she is certain he is not simply being polite about the matter. “Because I do not wish to know,” he says. “I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better remain in the dark.

Her father picks different names for her as they change locales, but he uses Miranda often, presumably because he knows how much it annoys her.

They say it's darkest before the dawn, but it also tend to be quietest, and the quiet lets you hear yourself better.

I'm kind of big on performance in general. I like the sort of entertainment where you can go in and be fully immersed in it.