Perhaps family itself, like beauty, is temporary, and no discredit need attach to impermanence.

Yes, I'm nervous. You'll find in time most people are. They simply learn better how to disguise it, and sometimes, if they're wise, how to use their anxiety to serve the public good.

One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her~is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?

...looking at him makes her feel like laughing all over - as if she could laugh not just with her mouth but with her eyes, her heart, her very limbs.

She is no longer I, she is too long ago, she is only she.

Growth and change were viewed as reactions to conditions met

The moon rose, an opalescent goddess tipping light from her harsh maternal scimitar.