There would be a price... But if you were worried about the price, then why were you in the shop?

Demons were like genies or philosophy professors - if you didn't word things exactly right, they delighted in giving you absolutely accurate and completely misleading answers.

Oh. I see. People don't want to see what can't possibly exist.

The thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football.

This was not a fairy-tale castle and there was no such thing as a fairy-tale ending, but sometimes you could threaten to kick the handsome prince in the ham-and-eggs.

This time it had been magic. And it didn't stop being magic just because you found out how it was done.

Things like crowns had a troublesome effect on clever folk; it was best to leave all the reigning to the kind of people whose eyebrows met in the middle when they tried to think. In a funny sort of way, they were much better at it.