“I would not dareConsole you if I could. What can be said,Except that suffering is exact, but whereDesire takes charge, readings will grow erratic?”

“I know exactly what I would do with immortality: I would read every book in the library.”

“I should start charging uncomfortable thoughts rent. Except what would they pay me in? Probably something even worse.”

“Every single pleasure I can imagine or have experienced is more delightful, more of a pleasure, if you take it in small sips, if you take your time. Reading is not an exception.”

“What do you believe?I believe that the last and the first suffer equally. Pari passu.Equally?It is not alone in the dark of death that all souls are one soul.Of what would you repent?Nothing.Nothing?One thing. I spoke with bitterness about my life and I said that I would take my own part against the slander of oblivion and against the monstrous facelessness of it and that I would stand a stone in the very void where all would read my name. Of that vanity I recant all.”

“He's putting a lot of cards down on the table," Trey said thoughtfully, taking a step forward. "And Matthias is never one to share something for free if he could charge for it.""And you're not normally one to think for himself," Matthias said pleasantly. "I suppose we're all growing as people.”