If you thought better of me, you would not be so surprised

We speak of stories ending, when in truth it is we who end. The stories go on and on.

I know what you are. I've always known from the beginning, Kushiel's Chosen. It is folly, to make claim on one whom the gods have marked for their own. And unlike the others, I am no fool, to grasp at that which burns to the touch. What you have given..." she raised one hand, palm upward, the garnet seal dangling at her wrist, "... I hold in an open hand.

And having once chosen, never to seek to return to the crossroads of that decision-for even if one chooses wrongly, the choice cannot be unmade.

The pain of the flesh is naught to that of the heart

Pain obliterates everything else. In pain, there is only the eternal present.

There is no folly like the folly of the wise.