I cried for that trivial part of me, once so full of color and light—now hollow and dark and empty.

She’d won; it was only by cheating that I’d survived. Tamlin would never be free, and I would perish in the most awful of ways. I couldn’t read—I was an ignorant, human fool. My shortcomings had caught up with me, and this place would become my tomb. I would never paint again; never see the sun again.

“Make the most of your freedom”

In silence, we stared out over the rolling green expanse. The sky shifted into periwinkle, and the clouds filled with pink light. Then, like a shimmering disk too rich and clear to be described, the sun slipped over the horizon and lined everything with gold. It was like seeing the world being born, and we were the sole witnesses.

“Because your human joy fascinates me—the way you experience things, in your life span, so wildly and deeply and all at once, is … entrancing. I’m drawn to it, even when I know I shouldn’t be, even when I try not to be.”

was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world.

“Don’t feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy.”

A whisper of a miserable life—gone, unremembered by anyone whom I’d known or cared for.

land of rolling green hills and lush forests and clear, bottomless lakes.