With each step, one of them pulled off an earring or a hair extension or a bow and let it fall to the ground, so that by the time they reached the door they had left a trail of glittering accessories behind them. It looked like a grand parade had passed by, and no one had yet come to sweep up the confetti.

The Codex is our moral code. No one is higher than the law. Those who break the law must be broken.

Now at first you’ll feel a little dizzy, then a little numb, then you won’t feel anything at all.

They all memorized a simple phrase, “Be helpful, be useful, be scarce.

Later, she didn’t remember how she escaped from his grasp, or how she ended up back in her barracks, but at that moment she realized that something had started that night that changed everything.

In all the commotion, no one noticed that Minubar was missing or that Tanner, cynical and thrill- seeking, quick to crack and joke or start a fight, who had befriended Sevara at an early age and protected her until the last, was dead.

All those rhythms, all those songs, all those wonderful glorious magnificent voices inside her began to sing.

She drank the bottle.

No,” Abigail said in a low voice, “but I can save one.

It is time for you to choose, the rope or the spike!

The fuel for a great fire is all round them, ready to consume the evil of Plexus; we just have to wait for the spark.