“Stop, Morgian. Your wiles cannot avail you now.’ He turned to the High King and said, ‘The hurt this woman has done me, I readily forgive. It is for the harm that she has caused others that she is to be judged.”

“What harm has he ever done to you?''You know what harm he's done me. He offended me with his terrible taste.”

“She told me she has her eye on me, so I said, And what do you have your other eye on?”

“Sentry: King, may I speak?Creon: Your very voice distresses me.Sentry: Are you sure that it is my voice, and not your conscience?Creon: By God, he wants to analyze me now!Sentry: It is not what I say, but what has been done, that hurts you.Creon: You talk too much.”

“She reached for his wrist, clutched it. “How do I look?”“Hurt. Pained. Destroyed.”“If I could look into your eyes, what would I see in them, Iain?”“Devastation. Shame for what I was. Hatred for the vanity and arrogance of my youth. A love for you that has never, ever died, but has only grown and matured, and become all-consuming. Tears,” he said, and pressed his face to hers so she could “see” them. “Because I know it is truly over now that the truth is out, and I don’t know how I’m going to live without you. Forgive me,” he whispered, then stole a kiss from her lips. “Forgive me, and the boy I was, and the man I turned out to be.”

“She cannot chain my soul.Yes, she could hurt me. She'd already done so. But what was one more beating? A flogging, even? I would bleed, or not. Scar, or not. Live, or not. But she could no longer harm Ruth, and she could not hurt my soul, not unless I gave it to her.This was a new notion to me and a curious one.”