“You don't like Blue, do you?""No," Mira said, caught off guard by the change of subject."I was worried he was doing his knight-in-tarnished-armor thing and it was winning you over.”

“And your police are like our police in the Realm?' Blue said. 'They flog you if you do something wrong and cut off your hand if you’re caught stealing?'No, they don’t do that, Henry said uncertainly. Why not? It’s pretty silly not to, isn’t it?' Blue said.”

“They said, "You have a blue guitar, you do not play things as they are." The man replied, "Things as they are are changed upon the blue guitar.”

“Are you crazy?" I said."Crazy about you.""Patch!""Don't worry, we've got time.""How do you know?"He staggered back a step, with his hand over his heart. "Your lack of faith hurts.”

“Mira, I'm about to be naked," Blue said as he whipped off his belt and tossed it on the floor. "So watch out. Well, in my underwear.""I've seen you in your bathing suit," Mira said. "It's the same thing.""It is not the same thing," Blue said. "When it's accompanied by seventies porn music, it's an X-rated strip show." Blue yanked off his shirt. "Freddie, you're kind of slow on the uptake. Eine kleine porn music, please."Freddie scrunched his forehead in distaste. "I don't want to plug my guitar in just so I can play some bow-chicka-wow-wow accompaniment to your strip show.Mira laughed. "Bow-chicka-what was that, Freddie?”

“Freddie dropped down beside them, distressed. "Let go of her, Blue; that looks really bad.""Feel free to stop him," Mira said, "instead of frowning at me like a sad puppy.""Hey!" Freddie said, looking like a sadder puppy."I'm not going to molest you," Blue said."You're molesting my wrist," Mira said. "I don't want you touching me.""I didn't want you to knee me in the lungs, so I guess we're even.”