“Their faces were zealously blank, their eyes filled with bland fire.”

“They say that your eyes contain fire, that your face fills with light.”

“And no power on earth could tell whether their blankly indifferent eyes were shutters protecting hidden treasures at the bottom of shafts no longer to be mined, or were merely gaping holes of the parasite's emptiness never to be filled.”

“Griffin? You . . . okay?”His face still blank, he looked over at me. His pale eyes were wider than I’d ever seen. “That . . . was . . . the most . . . disgusting thing . . . I’ve ever seen.”My fear vanished. She was okay. I patted his knee and his expression changed. Peace filled his face. “And the most incredible.”

“I could see my face, crying, in her blank eye.”

“These emotional cues were distracting. I was used to arguing with scientists who would explain with perfectly bland faces why you were wrong and stupid.”