“Why look for answers in a burnt black log when the smoke is now miles away forming circle around the shape of a serpent fighting a swan?”

“As she looked, the smoke puffing out of the chimney stopped curling upward and began to take on the shape of a wavering black question mark.Sebastian laughed. "I think that means, Who's there?"Clary pulled her coat closer around her. "It looks like something out of a fairy tale.""Are you cold?" Sebastian put his arm around her. Immediately the smoke curling from the chimney stopped forming itself into question marks and began puffing out in the shape of lopsided hearts.”

“Today he wore a burnt-orange shirt, black pants, and a tie that looked like a street fight at the south end of the color wheel.”

“The sun burnt everyday. It burnt time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people away, without any help from him.”

“Outlines of dead logs I hauled away remained impressed on the damp earth, scarring the ground with their funereal shapes.”

“He looked at the little maiden, and she looked at him; and he felt that he was melting away, but he still managed to keep himself erect, shouldering his gun bravely. A door was suddenly opened, the draught caught the little dancer and she fluttered like a sylph, straight into the fire, to the soldier, blazed up and was gone! By this time the soldier was reduced to a mere lump, and when the maid took away the ashes next morning she found him, in the shape of a small tin heart. All that was left of the dancer was her spangle, and that was burnt as black as a coal.”