Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards.

It's an ancient and honorable term for the final step in any engineering project. Turn it on, see if it smokes.

Not that I haven't leaped up into the blinding light of competence now and then. It's sustaining the altitude that defeats me.

War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.

My dinner party,' Miles grated. 'It's just breaking up.' And sinking. All souls feared lost.

One corner of his mouth crooked up, then the quirk vanished in a thoughtful pursing of his lips. "He's bisexual, you know." He took a delicate sip of his wine. "Was bisexual," she corrected absently, looking fondly across the room. "Now he's monogamous." Vordarian choked, sputtering.

Adulthood isn't an award they'll give you for being a good child. You can waste years, trying to get someone to give that respect to you, as though it were a sort of promotion or raise in pay. If only you do enough, if only you are good enough. No. You have to just take it. Give it to yourself, I suppose. Say, I'm sorry you feel like that and walk away. But that's hard