I had to give myself up to you for your lifetime. What is faith when you feel you’ve lost something forever? I had to have you – someone I could lose forever.

I guess I should have said that you’re a tragic loss because your brains were yours and yours alone. You were the one who could pull the sword out of the stone. And you gave it all up.

Xas reappeared and showed every sign of winding himself around Sobran permanently, like -Sobran complained – some parasitic vine.

I don’t know what God intends, or what qualifies Him to forgive me,′ Sobran said.

He said, ‘Don’t mind what happened to me. Don’t be angry. I’m a frail creature with certain crude reflexes.

She said to him, ‘You might melt.’ And he said, “If I melt, you can make me again.

The thought of flight has melted me, I am less solid than liquid, then I’m going up and going invisible like steam.

Happiness had never been like this before. Now it came like sun showers, the sun and the rain together. Happiness was happier than it had been – sharp, piercing, and snatched, like a breath while swimming in surf.

Xas put his face close to Sobran's and said, soft and succinct, "Listen, and take this in. The terms of the pact are this: 'Xas shall go freely. God shall have his pains and Lucifer his pleasures.' So, if you please yourself and me the way you want, Sobran, you will be pleasing the devil. And I will not give you to him.

Xas reappeared and showed every sign of winding himself around Sobran permanently, like -Sobran complained - some parasitic vine.