Pudding Guns!

And it makes him all the more aware that he needs to be careful about exactly what kind of smile is on his own face, diverting. "You two haven't been hearing any interesting rumors lately, have you? Not necessarily donut-related."

"What're your favorite kinds?"

“ This isn’t food, it’s a war crime! “ “ If there’s one thing I’ve learned, Jello is inevitable. “ “ Just like my relationships, candy is unhealthy. “ “ I’m a bit scared. “ “ Your time has come! “ “ Are you a sorcerer? “ “ There shouldn’t be 8 to 10 cups of anything! “ “  This is ridiculous! “ ” From my personal experience, depression and ice cream are a match made in heaven. “ “ How am I supposed to survive the apocalypse if I can’t survive oats? “ “ Sweetie, this needs a lot of things. ” “ It’s an interesting idea because it’s awful. “ “ It tastes like an identity crisis on a plate. “ “ We meet again. : “ What’s the point?! “ “ What have you perfected?! GARBAGE?! “ “ If I cut off my feet, do we still have to do this? “ “ There are too many things happening. “ “ Looks good, but looks can be deceiving. “ “ I wouldn’t mind it in a coal mine, but in a coal mine I am not. “ “ I’ll take a divorce. “ “ …Do you think it could hear me? “ “ Any less and it might gain consciousness. ” “ What’s scary is it isn’t terrible. “ “ French Revolution your pineapple! “ “ We don’t know what it is either! “ “ Remember kids, the main ingredient in pie crust is self-doubt. “ “ Here come the tears. Like my mom after a glass of wine. “ “ Honey that ship has sailed. “ “ It tastes good but it feels like a preexisting condition. “ “ They have this for breakfast. Now that’s what you call bravery. ” “ You’re gonna die here! Yes! “ “ Add one very lonely egg. “ “ What exactly are we trying to raise up? Hope? “ “ What is with dead people and their obsession with lard?! “ “ No officer, there’s no shell in there.” [Pulls out egg shell from bowl]  “ So far so good!” [30 seconds later] “I take it back. “ “ Bake to my liking? Sweetie none of this is to my liking. ” “ Don’t come back! “ “ It came back…” “ This is what I’d imagine a toiletbrush to taste like.” “ Oh I just know this is going to be awful…” “ Disgusting wasn’t enough for you? “ “ Call the U.N. ! “ “…You’re a piece of work. “ “ I should have gone to church. “

❛  i busy my hands in the hope of distracting my mind.  ❜ ❛  perhaps there can be no thanks nor any blame, but only recognition of the forces that brought us & bound us to our inevitable fates.  ❜ ❛  i am always above you. you will do everything i want you to do. you will do everything i tell you to do. do you understand that ?  ❜ ❛  if you go out of the door or the window, if you even open the door or the window, i will know it. & i will beat you to death. do you understand that ?  ❜ ❛  she hates me now. she told me i had no loyalty, nor courage.  ❜ ❛  if they were coming back, i think they’d be here by now.  ❜ ❛  just because a man can do a thing does not mean he should do a thing.  ❜ ❛  perhaps my trade does not allow me so many niceties of conscience as yours.  ❜ ❛  i know what you’re trying to do. you’re trying to get me drunk, so i can’t keep you out.  ❜ ❛  i killed them the same way they had killed my king. without a chance of fighting back, without a moment of mercy.  ❜ ❛  you said i would be the death of kings, if i did not learn to leave things alone.  ❜ ❛  he never needed a reason to kill them. he needed only to run out of reasons to keep them alive, & you had no control over that.  ❜ ❛  we never spoke about it. i refused to think about it. but no man could have come through that unchanged.  ❜ ❛  a nightmare, that was all. sorry. i was still dreaming, just a nightmare.  ❜ ❛  we’ve no money to buy more supplies, & nothing left to sell off.  ❜ ❛  there’s game in plenty to be had. if we can’t feed ourselves up here, we deserve to starve.  ❜ ❛  i’d seen what they’d done to you. i didn’t think you could live through that.  ❜ ❛  i thought we had lost you. i thought we’d done something worse than let you die.  ❜ ❛  you leave behind a life, with what, the clothes on your back & an earring ? & you say there’s nothing there you’d wish brought to you. does that not strike you as strange ?  ❜ ❛  sometimes a man doesn’t know how badly he’s hurt until someone else probes the wound.  ❜ ❛  i’m done with it. i haven’t the spine for it.  ❜ ❛  they left you nothing, not even a roof over your head, those kings you were sworn to.  ❜ ❛  why do you always stand me up again, for them to knock down ?  ❜ ❛  you don’t see, you can’t know. you can’t even imagine what you’ve taken away from me.  ❜ ❛  all with the best of intentions, always believing you were doing what was right, no matter how it hurt me. but who gave you that right over me ? who decreed you could do this to me ?  ❜ ❛  all your life, you’ve been looking after someone else, putting someone else first, sacrificing any kind of normal life for someone else’s benefit. loyal as a hound. is that a life ?  ❜ ❛  i don’t want to owe you anymore. i don’t want to owe anyone anything.  ❜ ❛  you came back with an … anger. like a challenge to the world at large, to kill you if it could.  ❜ ❛  when were you calm & thoughtful, when were you merry with your friends, when were you ever simply at peace ?  ❜ ❛  if you weren’t challenging your enemies, you were driving away your friends.  ❜ ❛  for a long time now, nothing i’ve done has pleased you. or anyone. i can’t seem to make a good decision lately.  ❜ ❛  over & over & over again, you forget your place !  ❜ ❛  you’ll get no assignment from me, nor will you be privy to my plans any longer. those days are over.  ❜ ❛  i love you, [ name. ] i don’t withdraw that from you. but you’re dangerous.  ❜ ❛  you ask me that question, but you already know you won’t like my answer.  ❜ ❛  go comb your hair. you look like a wild man.  ❜ ❛  it’s over. that life is over, let it go.  ❜ ❛  have you ever considered what it would do to me if you died ?  ❜ ❛  i’m going to kill all of them, for all they did to me, & all they took from me.  ❜ ❛  i have never known a life so simple. i have finally made peace with myself.  ❜ ❛  i’ll do you no harm, only let me be gone. i’m nothing to you. i’ll never trouble you again.  ❜ ❛  this is what they were trying to warn me about, all those years. i did just what they had always feared i would do.  ❜ ❛  time is a thing that men made up to bother themselves with.  ❜ ❛  they believe me dead. they will not be lying in wait to ambush a dead man.  ❜ ❛  you must be more careful. you will draw down trouble on yourself.  ❜ ❛  we know only that the sole cure is a merciful death.  ❜ ❛  once i had a love that i had believed would carry me through anything. they have taken that from me. now i nurture a hatred fully as strong.  ❜ ❛  i shall not be long. i just want to go listen to them talk for a bit, to find out what is happening.  ❜ ❛  shame to the lord that takes minstrels’ songs, & leaves their throats dry from the singing of it.  ❜ ❛  some would say it is a perversion, a twisted indulgence of spirit by which men gain knowledge of the lives & tongues of beasts, eventually to become little more than beasts themselves.  ❜ ❛  i hate everything about your decision, except that it has saved your life.  ❜ ❛  it’s a lonely thing, to wake up in the night & be afraid.  ❜ ❛  i know of nothing that can stand between a person & the dreams that come at night.  ❜ ❛  i lost someone i cared for. i’ve no heart to put another in their place.  ❜ ❛  i have looked into the heart of my enemy. i still cannot comprehend him.  ❜ ❛  [ name ], this is a danger to both of us. go back. go back now.  ❜ ❛  you’re old for it, but you could be taught to sing.  ❜ ❛  what can you owe to a woman who left you ? unless you gave her cause to leave you ?  ❜ ❛  nothing challenges my curiosity quite as much as a man who blushes.  ❜ ❛  i would love to know what you were thinking that brought the blood to your face like that.  ❜ ❛  i wonder if there is any way to live amongst other people & refuse to be harnessed by their expectations & dependencies.  ❜ ❛  wait, wait ! i am not ready for this, i do not know if i will fight or run or simply faint where i stand.  ❜ ❛  what kind of man are you ? what kind of a man can do a thing like that ?  ❜ ❛  i can care for my hurts myself, thank you all the same. small thanks to you i am alive at all.  ❜ ❛  dead men’s money to ease your conscience ?  ❜ ❛  i have found you neither stupid nor craven, [ name ], so i must assume you are ignorant.  ❜ ❛  what use to you this strength you have never learned to master ?  ❜ ❛  no man wishes to be ill remembered in the tellings of minstrels & scribes, or worse yet, not remembered at all. ❜ ❛  yesterday was an ugly day. i would not base any life decision on it.  ❜ ❛  whatever it is, [ name ], i think time will make it better. it does most things, you know.  ❜ ❛  don’t make them mad. they’ll let you off with a beating, if no - one makes them angry. make them angry, & they’ll kill you.  ❜ ❛  too often you have taken injuries on my behalf. what right do i have to ask that of you ?  ❜ ❛  old blood does not turn on old blood.  ❜ ❛  i believe that you sought me that day, & that i called out for you. though neither of us knew at the time what we were seeking.  ❜ ❛  stay with me a bit. i’ll teach you what you need to know. but you won’t learn it in an hour or a day. it’s going to take months. perhaps years.  ❜ ❛  isn’t that like a woman ! knows you for five minutes, & already matching you up for marriage ?  ❜ ❛  if you bay out all your plans & grievances to the night moon, you cannot be astonished that others know of them.  ❜ ❛  do you think they will suffer me to remain here & learn more to use against them ?  ❜ ❛  i believe in what you go to do. i wish you success, & would aid you if i could.  ❜ ❛  if you think the king has a grip on us here, wait until you get to where folk believe he has a right to it.  ❜ ❛  they would not scruple to use them against you. give them up, to protect them.  ❜ ❛  i don’t think, truly, that i am better than any beast. though, as you say, i am smarter than some.  ❜ ❛  what right in there in letting such ugliness shape your life ?  ❜ ❛  what kind of a moron, i ask myself, tries to walk through an unfamiliar swamp in the dark ?  ❜ ❛  not even the drunkest sailor i have ever known would so profane a wedding feast.  ❜ ❛  i think perhaps i have overstayed my welcome.  ❜ ❛  so insidiously gentle a touch you have, that one can scarcely feel when you are using it.  ❜ ❛  it is good to know well a man you are going to kill; it is not good to understand him.  ❜ ❛  it is said that when two men meet there to resolve a question with their fists, the gods themselves witness it & see that justice does not go awry.  ❜ ❛  i assure you that i have come only to see the wonders i have so often heard of in tales.  ❜ ❛  to me, the wonder of the song is not a harp that would play by itself, but a minstrel who would find a woman’s body, & be inspired to make a harp of her breastbone.  ❜ ❛  i’ve lost my way in this great maze of a house.  ❜ ❛  did you think with the merrymaking going on, you could just slip about & fill your pockets with whatever you found, thief ?  ❜ ❛  to hear you talk, you would think you are the only one who has made any sacrifices.  ❜ ❛  i shan’t attack you. it would be a shame to spring such a trap as this on one such as you, & have you die before you appreciated the fullness of your failure.  ❜ ❛  you would have been a worthy opponent, save that in your conceit you always underestimated me.  ❜ ❛  just me, [ name. ] got to borrow a horse, or they’ll kill me. again.  ❜ ❛  it was a gift from a friend. it’s not a thing i’d part with for silver.  ❜ ❛  i wonder if anyone, anywhere, gets to live the life he wants.  ❜ ❛  how could you die & leave me like this ?  ❜ ❛  it wasn’t supposed to be this way, you were supposed to come after me, you were supposed to find me so i could forgive you.  ❜ ❛  it’s going to be alright. it’s supposed to be like this. i think.  ❜ ❛  better not to ask than to ask & be refused.  ❜ ❛  as beautiful as you are, what would you have to cry about ?  ❜ ❛  i would not let so small a thing as my death come between us.  ❜ ❛  oh, take care of them, see they come to no harm, guard them as if they were your own, until i can come to them.  ❜ ❛  somehow, i am going to make my name, going to witness some great event & make a song about it that will be sung down the years.  ❜ ❛  he’s ruined my face.  ❜ ❛  skin as fair as yours doesn’t scar all that easily. even if it leaves a mark, it won’t be large.  ❜ ❛  he’s an awful man. i hate him ! i’d run away if i could.  ❜ ❛  sometimes, it only makes one more lonely to know that somewhere else, one’s friends & family are well.  ❜ ❛  there’s no sense in thinking of what’s far away & what you haven’t got. it will only make you unhappy. be content with what you can have now.  ❜ ❛  let me show you all i can do for you.  ❜ ❛  why worry about a thing that may never come to pass ?  ❜ ❛  i only meant to be kind to you, nothing more.  ❜ ❛  i’d rather witness history than make it.  ❜ ❛  i’ve no wish to hear more of your ghost tales before i seek my blankets tonight.  ❜ ❛  don’t make mock of me. i won’t be made fun of.  ❜ ❛  is this some sort of revenge ? are you angry because i wouldn’t bed you ?  ❜ ❛  how can you look at yourself & think anyone would want you for your own sake ?  ❜ ❛  endure. live, & see what chances are offered you.  ❜ ❛  once you’ve poisoned a man, you might as well rob him as well.  ❜ ❛  honour no longer seems to have much to do with my life.  ❜ ❛  even after the sound of his weeping became too soft to hear, even after he died, i heard it still inside my mind. sometimes i still can.  ❜ ❛  i was worried. you said you’d be back yesterday.  ❜ ❛  yes, there is to be a dinner this evening, a most lavish affair, my dear, only the very finest of folk to be invited.  ❜ ❛  was i the king, i’d find a better made man to advise me.  ❜ ❛  it is all i have left of them. pain, & a dream of revenge.  ❜ ❛  i’ve no songs for you right now, but i’ve got tidings that would interest you.  ❜ ❛  you’ve nothing to fear from me, i assure you. on the contrary, it is i who place myself at risk in seeking you out.  ❜ ❛  & now that you have found me, what do you want of me ? a bribe for your silence ?  ❜ ❛  you might thank me for making it a bit less likely that folk would recognize you on the street.  ❜ ❛  as alone as you are, [ name ], you had better decide to trust someone.  ❜ ❛  it is expected of minstrels that they will consort with outlaws & rebels as well as nobles & merchants.  ❜ ❛  you look different today, & it’s not just the haircut. you’ve made up your mind about something.  ❜ ❛  we have been given poor directions. come, let us take ourselves back to town & try again.  ❜ ❛  hush. i’m the one taking the risks, so i’ll be the one to say what i will or will not do.  ❜ ❛  have you never bargained before in your life ? you give too much, too fast.  ❜ ❛  i know what i have & i know what it’s worth. it’s worth whatever trouble you’d have to go through for us.  ❜ ❛  i don’t like changes, especially not at the last minute. changes say you weren’t really ready in the first place, & now you’re even less ready.  ❜ ❛  this whole trip was a bad idea, & no good is going to come of it, i can see that right now.  ❜ ❛  i am glad you are here. but i still don’t understand why you came back to me.  ❜ ❛  i wish it were otherwise. i wish there were some way i could free you of this. but i do not even know how to free myself.  ❜ ❛  not knowing how you are bound, i do not know how to loose you.  ❜ ❛  i will have for us a life of our own. we shall win it together.  ❜ ❛  you have never been able to grasp the difference between fear & respect. you have no belief in a man’s respect for you unless it is tainted with fear.  ❜ ❛  i believed them dead once before, & my trust in the word of others nearly got me killed. this time i will see them, see them hacked in pieces before i rest.  ❜ ❛  this was no show of force or temper. this was a display of purest vindictiveness.  ❜ ❛  these are the only tasks i have given you; why cannot you do them ?  ❜ ❛  you appear at the junctures of history & shape it. some say you come to set history on its proper course.  ❜ ❛  the same wars are fought, the same plagues descend, the same folk, good or evil, rise to power. humanity is trapped on that wheel, doomed endlessly to repeat the mistakes we have already made. unless someone comes to change it.  ❜ ❛  think how often you have wished to have more time for something, or wished you could go back a day & do something differently. when humanity is freed of time, old wrongs can be corrected before they are done.  ❜ ❛  you are alone on your quest. do not others agree with you ?  ❜ ❛  who are all these people & why have you brought them here ? what good is a bolthole if half the countryside knows of it ?  ❜ ❛  it is one thing to be willing to die for another. it is another to sacrifice the living of one’s life for another.  ❜ ❛  i have no desire to be a hero. only to do what i must to be free to live my own life.  ❜ ❛  to me it seems as if every step i take carries me deeper into a mire, & the more i struggle, the more firmly i embed myself.  ❜ ❛  so i shall follow you, for great events seem to happen in your wake.  ❜ ❛  time doesn’t stop for me just because you’re gone.  ❜ ❛  tell me who you are, i want you for myself.  ❜ ❛  if they love you that much, would they begrudge you an added bit of warmth & comfort on such a cold night ?  ❜ ❛  i think you have finally begun to respect me as i deserve.  ❜ ❛  he is not a deity to offer thanks to, but a god to swear by. the only blessing he sends his worshippers are storms & hardships to make them strong.  ❜ ❛  the small folk of a land can only be oppressed so long before they rise up in their own defence.  ❜ ❛  that’s a vicious herb for a young man to be using.  ❜ ❛  it may dull the pain of a headache, but it dulls the mind as well. i’d be wary of it, were i you.  ❜ ❛  i have trusted, & it has brought me what it always has.  ❜ ❛  i am not a fool. i know far more of what goes on than you think i do.  ❜ ❛  if you give me any trouble at all, i shall have you killed.  ❜ ❛  you believe even one of these peasants’ lives to be worth the equal of yours ? ❜ ❛  we’ve come a long way from where we began, haven’t we ?  ❜ ❛  i will guard my position against anything that threatens it, guard it savagely.  ❜ ❛  i need no one to speak for me, my lord, nor am i any man’s servant.  ❜ ❛  as prisons go, this is the nicest one i’ve ever been in.  ❜ ❛  why are you not to speak to me ?  ❜ ❛  can you at least tell me what you know about what’s to come of me ?  ❜ ❛  knowing the prince is not the same as liking him.  ❜ ❛  i won’t be the one to die for letting you go free.  ❜ ❛  i learned long ago not to blame myself for evil done to me.  ❜ ❛  break it off, you fool, do not risk me for your vengeance !  ❜ ❛  i have given them a reason to fear me. now they will never rest until they’ve destroyed me.  ❜ ❛  i have the grace to be ashamed of that thought. i also know that shame will not keep me from doing it.  ❜ ❛  fate has made me a killer, a liar, & a thief, & the harder i try to avoid these roles, the more firmly i am pushed into them.  ❜ ❛  i love you. but i do not wish to be you.  ❜ ❛  you might have knocked. even one such as i occasionally has other guests.  ❜ ❛  all of that is blood ? how do you yet live ?  ❜ ❛  what has become of me, that i did not even know you though i carried you in my arms ?  ❜ ❛  when i recall how beautiful you were …  ❜ ❛  i should have listened to my dreams. over & over, i dreamed you were coming.  ❜ ❛  these are words i have hungered to hear. i must know everything.  ❜ ❛  there was a naiveté to you that none of the ugliness could stain, as if you never truly believed in evil. it was what i liked best about you.  ❜ ❛  we will have to take up those lives, as little as we care for them, & fulfill all fate has decreed for us.  ❜ ❛  if there must be another my fate is twined around, i am glad it is you.  ❜ ❛  i’d have come to see you before, but i was turned away at the door.   ❜ ❛  i trusted you ! i trusted you with my secrets, & you have betrayed me. what a fool i’ve been !  ❜ ❛  you know what such tidings mean to me. why ? why lie to me ?  ❜ ❛  would you have let them be used, as we have been used ?  ❜ ❛  there is no end ! that duty will hound me into death.  ❜ ❛  i’m sorry. i have never been what you thought i was. never.  ❜ ❛  you may leave. unfortunately, i still live here.  ❜ ❛  i suppose you feel you cannot trust me anymore. not that i blame you.  ❜ ❛  everyone hates me now. for the secrets i kept, for all the ways i failed them.  ❜ ❛  sometimes all the choices are poor ones, [ name ], & still a man must choose.  ❜ ❛  i do not tease you to be cruel. i tease you as i tease everyone.  ❜ ❛  you can be quite charming, when you have the time.  ❜ ❛  i can always tell when you are wearied, you ask the most inane questions.  ❜ ❛  the plans will be made, the arrangements undertaken, & then they will tell me what they wish me to do, & i will do it. has not that always been my function ?  ❜ ❛  i had been so sure that despite all you had endured, your heart was true.  ❜ ❛  you thought you knew me so well, you thought you had crafted such a tool as could not defy your purpose.  ❜ ❛  no - one can force me to fulfill any such prophecies !  ❜ ❛  i don’t think there is anything more frightening than to encounter the true will for self - destruction.  ❜ ❛  someone has to do it. for a time, i hoped it would not be me.  ❜ ❛  i am so tired of doubts & guilts, so weary of duties & debts.  ❜ ❛  she takes my simple dismissal of her as an insult, & strives to make of it some lack or fault in me.  ❜ ❛  for too long i put my faith in believing that things would turn out as they should. i will not fall prey to those expectations again.  ❜ ❛  poison & knives. this is what you think of me. this is still how you see me. death is all you can imagine for me.  ❜ ❛  you can’t see that isn’t who i am any longer, you can’t forgive me for wanting a life of my own !  ❜ ❛  new boots ? as little as you venture outside, i would scarcely think you need them.  ❜ ❛  i expect to die on the journey, if it’s any comfort to you.  ❜ ❛  these questions so frighten me that i have almost no desire to pursue the answers, save that if i do not, another may.  ❜ ❛  you have always been far stronger than i in matters of skill or stubbornness.  ❜ ❛  i cannot change my attitude about duty & sacrifice than i could change the blood & bones of my body. it is who i am.  ❜ ❛  i can’t live on your kindness forever. i’ve got to get on with my life. somehow i just can’t think how to begin, just now.  ❜ ❛  she pines for me, she yearns for me in the depths of her soul, but knows not how to express it, poor thing.  ❜ ❛  it has been so long since your tongue has had an edge to it, it’s almost a relief to hear you mock me.  ❜ ❛  you absolutely reek of omens & portents & prophecies coming into focus.  ❜ ❛  are you sure you want to know ? the last time we made such a trade, when i gave you the secret you’d bargained for, you found you did not want it.  ❜ ❛  all these years & you never even knew ? never even suspected ?  ❜ ❛  to bear my sorrow is one thing. to bring sorrow to you is another.  ❜ ❛  i’ve a serious question to ponder. i’ll not find the answer to this in your bed.  ❜ ❛  they’ll already be in place, their plot already in motion. what am i to do ?  ❜ ❛  i begin to fear, [ name. ] forces pull at you, taking you to places i cannot follow.  ❜ ❛  i would not use you so harshly, were the need not so great.  ❜ ❛  look behind you, [ name. ] you have left a trail of blood & mayhem.  ❜ ❛  they’ve no cover worth mentioning, & they aren’t expecting an attack. if i’m lucky, i can kill one before they know i’m even around.  ❜ ❛  in the end, it was simple. ugly mindless slaughter, but simple.  ❜ ❛  i just wish that i could simply sleep for a time. alone in my mind, dreaming my own dreams, without fearing where i’ll go or who might attack me.  ❜ ❛  there is no sense in trying to play that game with the past. here is where we are today, & we can only make our moves from here.  ❜ ❛  when my prophecies were different from what they had planned, they were not pleased with me.  ❜ ❛  did you see my crown ? wasn’t it magnificent ?  ❜ ❛  it is not that i wish to keep secrets, but these secrets defy telling in mere words.  ❜ ❛  i do not ask that you court her, only that you do not let her be rent with jealousy.  ❜ ❛  you think that everything in the world, no matter how private, should be a topic for discussion.  ❜ ❛  admit it. you asked that question with never a thought as to whether it would hurt my vanity.  ❜ ❛  you know i love you. after all that has been between us, how can you even ask ?  ❜ ❛  the words popped into my head & i said them. i often say things i have not well considered.  ❜ ❛  i have come to understand that you do not live by the same rules that i do.  ❜ ❛  why should not i take my pick of what i can have ?  ❜ ❛  by your love you are betrayed, & your love betrayed also.  ❜ ❛  let us not think of tomorrows that may never come.  ❜ ❛  oh, i like not this place. i like it not at all.  ❜ ❛  perhaps i learned by listening instead of asking personal questions all the time.  ❜ ❛  the gods mercy, tell me you are lying, please !  ❜ ❛  it had never occurred to me, somehow, that you could be wrong or mistaken.  ❜ ❛  some tale - tellers speak of bargains struck with ancient demons of the earth.  ❜ ❛  you heed no - one’s rebukes, nor do you recall that silence can be a virtue !  ❜ ❛  it irritates me beyond words that you can go so abruptly from serious words to some kind of knavery.  ❜ ❛  prophets are not always right. did they say, for certain, that they had seen your death ?  ❜ ❛  i fear my death, but fearing it will not stop it. so i make what provisions i can.  ❜ ❛  even as i appreciate the artistry of what has been done, i am not sure i approve it.  ❜ ❛  my hands & arms are covered with magic. i do not know what would happen to you, were i to touch you.  ❜ ❛   is your tongue hinged in the middle, so that it flaps at both ends ? ❜ ❛  you have no idea of how to be careful. you won’t know you’ve lost your way until you’re gone.  ❜ ❛  this conversation goes in circles. i am tired of riddles & guesses & beliefs. i want to know what is real.  ❜ ❛  i have tried so hard to forget it. if i touch those memories at all, they seethe & burn within me like a poison i cannot be rid of.  ❜ ❛  they ascribe to you every evil ambition they can imagine.  ❜ ❛  you would not ask that, if you knew what you were asking.  ❜ ❛  it is not enough that i am trapped here in misery forever, alone & cut off from all i once loved ?  ❜ ❛  ignorance is always the excuse used by the cruelly curious.  ❜ ❛  i’m blundering in the dark, hurting everyone i care about in the process.  ❜ ❛  i am saying what i know, regardless of how others may come to think of me.  ❜ ❛  i would have forgiven you. i would never have wished this on you.  ❜ ❛  i think your heart eats itself hollow with jealousy.  ❜ ❛  stay away from me, [ name. ] for all our sakes.  ❜ ❛  do you speak truth, or do you simply seek to save your skin ?  ❜ ❛  she draws you to her now, & you think you go out of pity. but she will take from you whatever she needs to rise, even if it is your whole life.  ❜ ❛  you are young, & lovely. so full of spirit. you deserve better.  ❜ ❛  for all your quick tongue, you have a soft nature.  ❜ ❛  you know you will just say the wrong thing, so why don’t you be quiet for a time ?  ❜ ❛  no matter what you do here now, you are defeated. i win.  ❜ ❛  i shall be a hero. no - one will oppose me then.  ❜ ❛  they are jealous, always jealous, & they will turn on you.  ❜ ❛  you have no concept of governing a kingdom, only of wearing a crown & doing what you wish !  ❜ ❛  it is, after all, a time for heroes & all sorts of marvelous things to occur.  ❜ ❛  when you come, you bring me news. i do not know that i always welcome it.  ❜ ❛  i think i will always miss you.  ❜ ❛  i think i will rise on the morrow, & find some new meaning to my life.  ❜

Everything feels just a little more right than it had before with Milly here, but at the same time... "It's nice to meet you! I hope you haven't heard too much about-- Anything." Okay, that's suspicious in a whole different way.

He looks less sad now, Milly notes. That's good.

" Dinner  ?  no  ,  not  yet  actually  ,   but  I  could  spare  a  second  if  you're  able  to  tell  me  what  you  &&  Meryl  are  doing  all  the  way  out  here  ! "

"She really wants to find him."