Colleen Chen

Some of the pain released, and love filled the cleared space, uniting, magnetizing more self-love to it.

She would have found it peaceful and relaxing here, but in every town they traveled through, people radiated anxiety under uneasy masks of optimism. Their dependency on magic had made them nearly helpless now that everything magical was corrupted.

It is nearly impossible to feel anything negative in here. Because you__e really connected, to everything, here_ but it__ only meant to be a temporary sanctuary, a place to remember yourself. In time you__l want your negative thoughts, your emotional baggage back, and you__l have hopefully bolstered yourself enough with the Sanctum__ reminder of your Source that you can come out with fresh perspective. When you__e had enough of it, you__l know, and then come and join us outside.

She__ never spoken to anyone before of this business of being seen, loved for who she was; to have it voiced by this man she__ just met sent chills down her spine.

There is too much emphasis on being positive, to the detriment of being real.

Happily-ever-after monogamy has been reinforced so steadily in literature that we tend to feel like failures when we don__ achieve that in reality.

For everything about him fitting her fantasy image of what she wanted, she still didn__ feel seen by him_and that made her all the more aware that maybe her fantasy wasn__ what she wanted at all.

Nim looked aghast. __f course not. Do you think my future wife would be a servant? No__t__ Number Seven of the wives. Her name is Begonia.___h, no, Nim,_ Vesper said. __ou can__ fall for one of the wives! She__ married. And to the king, no less. That__ illegal. Maybe it shouldn__ be, but you__l still probably be arrested if anyone finds out__r worse.___ knew you__ say that,_ Nim said, turning away. __ou__e such a prude, Vesper. Love is above things like rules. And the king has so many wives and mistresses__e doesn__ even remember all of them.

To him, she was one of the few girls who was nice to him, the stodgy son of a poor alcoholic shoemaker with such little status that he seemed unlikely to even get one wife, let alone the three or more that designated a man of standing.

Vesper felt herself turning red with humiliation. Then she looked at Allegra__eally looked at her. Maybe she__ had such a problem with people not seeing her because she wasn__ seeing them. Did Allegra__ mask of rage hide pain and doubt that anyone would ever truly love her? She thought that it just might. Vesper didn__ quite feel compassion, but she no longer took Allegra__ behavior personally.

Part of her exulted that he__ asked her, out of everyone in the coach, this question; he must think her intelligent. The rest of her, though, wanted to slap herself for disproving his thought. Here was her opportunity to have her fantasy of a deep philosophical conversation come true with Garth, and all she could say was well, not really. Idiot!

The nobles had made reading unpopular, as it showed that one couldn__ afford to buy spells or magical devices, since one had to get knowledge to do things the ordinary way; even if this view held little logic, the king himself was known to insult readers as __ookfaces_ or __nable to think for themselves, so they need to spout what others have said,_ and these opinions became popular, as did most views expressed by the king or his son.

Souls aren__ discrete units _ or even units at all. They__e more like reflections of consciousness in a fractured mirror.

Souls are simply aspects of ego splintered off from Mae and Jin, the two original gods. They began with no ego at all, you know. But as they gained awareness of themselves, each affirmation of something they were created a denial of something they weren__. This created a polarity, a split between themselves and something that became a new __oul___n un-being that gave that shadow voice. One god, declaring himself to be good and denying that he was evil, split into two parts__ne good and one evil__ecause each god is both good and evil. Each part, as it gained awareness of itself and declared itself this or that but denied that it was the shadow of each new identification, split into more and more pieces__reating an exponential birth of new souls.

Have you heard of the Children of Mae?___he cult?_ She knew of a religious group whose members went door to door, preaching the benefits of self-discipline__bstinence, celibacy or monogamy, vegetarianism__retty much anything fun was prohibited. They had never come to Vesper__ house because her father was a butcher and probably pretty low on their list of possible converts.

Then you shouldn__ be worried about him being with me. You can have him back when I__ done with him.

He hasn__ really seen you, not as you want to be seen, but he__ starting to, a little.

Oh,_ she breathed. __ow silly I__e been.___ow silly we__e all been,_ said another of the wives. __e shouldn__ be fighting each other. Our problems don__ lie in any of the relationships we have with each other.___he problem is our entire social system,_ chimed in another.