There's more to clothing than just adornment. It does more than merely change how the world perceives us. It changes how we perceive ourselves.

Why is there ever this perverse cruelty in humankind, that makes us hurt most those we love best?

Pain redeems all. It is the awareness of life, a reminder of death.

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.

It's funny, because in deference to conventional wisdom, I spent my struggling writer years trying to suppress my naturally baroque literary voice and write clean, spare prose. I finally gave up and embraced my baroque tendencies when I wrote the Kushiel series.

Stand at the crossroads if you will, but if you'll not choose, I'll move on without you

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.