“The big guy was spinning a pyramid-shaped weight on the end of a long chain. At the other end of the chain was a machete-sized knife mounted on a metal shaft. Also—What the fuck? At first Erwin refused to believe what his eyes were telling him, but the guy was, in fact, wearing a tutu. Hmm, Erwin thought. There’s something you don’t see every day.”

“Steve’s head was encased in a sphere of boiling energy—yellow-orange, just like the former sun. His connection to the plane of joy was very strong. If anything, he would burn even brighter than had Mithraganhi. She might have to fold space a little so that he didn’t cook Mercury to a cinder. She untied one of Steve’s shoelaces and, using it as a leash, carried him through the great hall, up the stairs to the jade platform under the universe.”

“That’s where David is now.” She smiled. “That moment when he feels it in his stomach and the soles of his feet. ‘Wazin nyata’ — the moment when the last hope dies.”