“Who was it who said that irony is the fundamental operating principle of the universe?” “I believe,” I said… — Matt Hughes

“Then how is it done?”

“By magic, I suppose. How else?”

“That is a foolish and flippant answer,” he said. “‘Oh, it’s magic,’ is not a handy solution to every mystery. I am not the child.”

When the Wheel turns, much that is impossible in the old phase becomes commonplace in the new.

“Could Rievor be hiding himself behind some magical cloak?” I asked my other self.

“No,” he said. “I believe he is exercising that most potent form of invisibility: the one called, ‘not being present at all.’”