“Hope not ever to see Heaven. I have come to lead you to theother shore; into eternal darkness; into fire and into ice.”

“Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. ”

“As for the end of the universe…I say let it come as it will, in ice, fire, or darkness. What did the universe ever do for me that I should mind its welfare?”

“You are the Fire Lily", said the Winterking softly. "And I am the Ice King. Does fire melt ice? Or ice melt fire? Or may they come together, fire and ice, neither melted nor quenched?”

“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery.”

“Reverend Father is the only kind man I ever see. When I arrive here I believe it is the place he warns against. The freezing in hell that comes before the everlasting fire where sinners bubble and singe forever. But the ice comes first, he says. And when I see knives of it hanging from the houses and trees and feel the white air burn my face I am certain the fire is coming.”