Your skull in gold will be more valuable than others, being solid all through. — Tim Powers

All wrong. The words seemed in this moment to describe Hale’s whole life.

He remembered his dismay at finding himself committed to a hand of cards without having honestly looked at the stakes, fourteen years ago. Had he been doing it again? But if the stakes were too frightening to consider, and the game was already lost, what value could there be in clear comprehension?

Let us quickly be finished with the business of dying, to save the trouble of making dinner.