So maybe it was just as well that my companion was more like Mulder. A coked-out Mulder with a lot of weapons, who knew that the monsters under the bed were real and would gut you.

Then you must be willing to fight," Mircea responded. "Life is not a gift, Raphael; it's a challenge. Rise to it!

Then why are you getting dressed?” “Maybe I don’t like being the only naked one in the room,” I said sarcastically. And immediately regretted it. “That is easily remedied,” he told me, and pulled off his sweater.

He had the look of an atheist who’d just had a visit from God: stunned, disbelieving and faintly ill.

Come and take your seat, Lady Dorina.

War mages ordered, threatened and bitched. They didn't deal.

There are things we want, and things we may have.... Sanity lies in knowing the difference.