There are times when fear is not our enemy. There are times when fear is our truest, sometimes only, friend.

There are times when fear is not our enemy. There are times when fear is our truest, sometimes only, friend.

To show mercy is not naïve. To hold out against the end of hope is not stupidity or madness. It is fundamentally human. Of course... We are all doomed; we are all poisoned from our birth by the rot of stars. That does not mean we should succumb...to the seductive fallacy of despair, the dark tide that would drown us. You may think I'm stupid, you may call me a madman and a fool, but at least I stand upright in a fallen world.

I was woefully ignorant in the social graces. I was being raised, after all, by Pellinore Warthrop.

Do you know how to tell who the enemy is, Cassie?

I don't move. I wait behind my log, terrified. Over the past ten minutes, it's become such a dear friend, I consider naming it: Howard, my pet log.

You are the nest. You are the hatchling. You are the chrysalis. You are the progeny. You are the rot that falls from stars. You may not understand what I mean. You will.