With A Tangled Skein Quotes
"Some rivers are harder to cross than others, and some boats smaller. These are not easy times, my daughter, for Ireland or the world."
"Let him be a match for some little snippet his own age! I absolutely refuse to put up with this indignity!"
"Wealth is not to be sneered at, and neither is aristocracy. You could have had a very easy life, or a very noble one."
"Why can't I have a handsome, virile man of twenty-five or so?"
"If I were a tree, I would not like it any, either."
"I want to waltz in the wetlands, a place where nature gets by And I ... will cry . . . will cry when the wetlands are dry."
"Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove."
"But could youth last and love still breed, Had joys no date nor age no need, Then those delights my mind might move To live with thee, and be thy love."
"Shall we see?" the Prof inquired, as if unconcerned. "Good- a drop remains. We shall invoke the water magic."
"Move back, give room," the Prof warned. "We do not want to interfere with the re-creation."
"So this is your 'no reason,'" the Prof murmured, glancing at the youths.
"You had cause, and you did not kill anyone," the Prof agreed. "I commend you on your discretion."
"There is nothing to forgive," he said gently. "You have always been perfect, Niobe."
"I'll cry, I'll cry when the wetlands are dry," she agreed, smiling.
"I just don't have the time!" he exclaimed, frustrated.
"No, no," she reassured him immediately. "It wasn't you! I had a bad dream."
"It would, I regret to say, be kinder to let him die."
"They merely dulled the cutting edge of her sorrow, but did not-could not- should not!-provide happiness in its stead."
"I have no idea what I can do to justify my survival. But for his sake I will carry on, raise our son, and seek my retribution against Satan."
"May you have joy in Heaven, my bonnie boy," she whispered. "May I join you there-when my business here is done."
"He was the one with all the promise," she agreed. "Cedric was worth two of me."
"She kept herself'busy-but though she had lived mostly alone for two years while Cedric was in college, this wasn't the same. That had been temporary; this was permanent."
"The ultimate worker of thread! The ultimate weaver of tapestries."
"Evil is everywhere, to greater or lesser degree, except perhaps in God, who is, frankly, naive in this matter."
"All of mortal existence is merely the proving ground for the classification of souls, which is one reason why eternal mortal life cannot be permitted: it would clog the Tapestry and interfere with its function."
"The Incarnations do have lusts! They indulge them on occasion with mortals, but this is problematical."
"God and Satan made a Covenant of old that neither would interfere with the operations of mortal humanity."
"We are not antagonists; we are the several Aspects of the job."
"The novelty is gone, and novelty is chronically in short supply in Purgatory."
"I mean, even the sexiest and most accommodating young woman... palls after a few years or decades."
"She's a good one to visit-don't I know!-but not to stay with."
"But that was a ruse, to shift the blame to Me."
"Satan has poisoned your mind. You must cleanse it yourself."
"They conveyed to your innocent bonnie boy that you were the target, thus very cleverly tricking him into doing exactly what they wanted."
"Each to possess the most beautiful woman of her generation, who will bear him the most talented daughter of her type."
"Both daughters to stand athwart the tangled skein, and one may marry Death and the other Evil."
"But first we must hash this out. You must know the truth before you act, lest Satan lead you to tragedy."
"She was not a plaything of Fate; she had free will, and she could leave this position if she wanted to."
"She was a different person, now, with new and different commitments."
"The Tapestry would not be right if the threads were too loose or tight, or crossed each other in the wrong places."
"They agreed that woman's way was more sensible, but on occasion man's way had merit, and it was possible for the two to relate."
"No complexities of meeting were necessary, as this was not a person Satan opposed; Niobe had been a special case."
"It would make as much sense for an individual soldier in battle to break ranks and demand of the general why he should be subjected to this danger."
"Satan had tried to talk her into leaving. He wouldn't have bothered if she were not destined to cause him some grief."
"She did not love this man-but neither had she loved Cedric, at first. The lesson was there."
"The problem was, she didn't see how. Satan had no Tapestry; she could not mess up his threads."
"The following day he phoned Pace, and later that week they had a reunion."
"He could take a pebble from the shore of a lake and cause it to glow or make a sound."
"Suddenly hunting lost its appeal, not only in the local wetlands, but in all wetlands and most of the remaining wilderness of the world."
"Junior made an A for the project, and the construction industry filed a lawsuit against the college."
"It was evident that he no longer credited the prophecies."
"But of course a man could not be judged by his private entertainments; it was his performance in office that counted."
"Every time an evil power-wielder was ousted, another developed."
"No one was supposed to die at that wedding; Satan interfered by sending his demon to-"
"But she was physically the type of woman the senator did not openly affront."
"Just a little shape-changing. I'm the woman who warned you before."
"Take warning!" Niobe cried. "Get off the road before the assassin spies you!"
"I don't care much about you personally," Niobe said. "But you are one of the better men in the bad mess that politics is today and you may have a considerable future, so I don't want an evil force to take you out."
"The most you can lose is one tryst! The alternative will cost you your life!"
"These show evil. There's hardly any evil in you; you're just as lovely through these lenses as you are without them."
"It's not safe for you afoot either, Senator! That demon will be back, and-"
"It doesn't care if it dies; it's already dead, though the living man it possesses isn't."
"I became an Aspect of Fate," she said. "An Incarnation. They are physically frozen; they are Incarnations of Immortality-for-awhile."
"With magic, anything is possible," he said cheerfully.
"I don't think I'm going to be lonely anymore. But let's not act precipitously."
"I am Fate," she said slowly. "A prophecy is a signal of Fate."
"Love is one of my Aspects," Gaea admitted. "I knew your heart and his. I only facilitated what was inevitable."
"There are currents of destiny that perhaps only God comprehends," he said.
"If you are exchanging your office in a few minutes, you can do it with one of these. She, at least, can be spared."
"Freedom is the most precious thing man can grasp, and its price is commensurate."
"When you have something you would die to protect, it ceases to be a matter of courage."
"You just know what you have to do and you can't afford fear."
"Life is like that too; the unreal can be as important as the real, and sometimes it becomes real."
"A mine can't explode when it has already been exploded."
"To be an Immortal-there was no mortal experience to match it!"
"An Aspect of Fate cannot be deceived by fool's gold!"
"If you have doubts about anything, check with me or another Incarnation, and we'll try to help."
"All the Incarnations are living people, frozen at the ages when they assumed their offices. We are the temporary Immortals."
"No person or creature can harm me, not even Satan himself, as long as I am careful."
"If the Devil wants it done, let him get someone else to do his dirty work!"
"Let's try it anyway," Atropos said. "He's a man, and you're one good-looking young woman. He'll listen. What've we got to lose?"
"This is America! Women are independent, not the playthings of men!"
"Who are you?" "I-I am a supernatural creature," Clotho said. "That is why I could not-"
"Someone will come to offer you something, for a service-" "He already has."
"It is Satan making the offer. He means to bomb the United Nations-"
"I am Japanese-but liberated. I-I left my family because I-would not follow the medieval ways."
"What you perceived was only four, old canine," Satan said. He gestured, and the image of a computer screen appeared in the air beside him. On it were the four names. "You supposed that was the real presentation."
"The penalty of being a novice," Niobe muttered. "Had you realized how many there were," Satan said, "you would have known that individual effort would never work."
"You're not stupid, merely inexperienced," Satan said. "The stupidity was in your predecessor trio, who allowed a change of all Three Aspects in the same week. I had really expected better from them."
"Sometimes what seems good turns out evil in the long run, like the Catholic Inquisition or the Nazi SS cadre. Sometimes what seems evil turns out good, like the Black Plague."
"It alleviated the European population pressure, decimated the labor force, and so paved the way for the end of the feudal system," Satan said. "You can't keep workers in peonage when there are so few that their value is great."
"Inconsequential to you; important to Me. This woman is to go into politics soon. I would prefer to have one of My own in the office she seeks. Most politicians are corrupt anyway, so it hardly matters to you."
"I promise never to harm the girl whose thread you change," Satan said magnanimously.
"That is true. I am the Father of Lies," he agreed with pride. "But My word is sacred when properly given."
"An oath between Incarnations," Niobe said. "Sealed in blood. You will spare the UN and respect the life of that woman, and I will adjust the thread of the life of the darker-haired descendent of Niobe Kaftan so that she never enters politics."
"Sometimes the Father of Deceit is hoist with his own petard. I congratulate you, Niobe, on an excellent counterploy."
"God," Atropos said. There it was. God honored the Covenant by not interfering in the affairs of mortals, while Satan chronically cheated.
"We'll never know, for sure," Clotho said. With that, Niobe had to be satisfied.
"Blundering through by blind chance simply wasn't going to accomplish that."
"She needed to expunge two illusions for every thread, instead of the other way around."