“What are you doing?" Seth asked Sarah, startling her. "Recording the atmospheric readings," the redhead replied, without turning her head. "Really?" Seth asked, and Sarah could feel the smile that came with the question, without seeing it. "Why is this surprising? You know I always record the atmospheric readings at this time of day?" Sarah asked, finally turning around. "I don't know, I thought you'd have delegated this to one of your students by now. Besides, nobody had a moment's peace since the preparations for the blessed event started, I'm just so relieved to see someone live a normal life for a change," Seth replied. "Define normal life, what's normal about being here? We move time-space slices across the universe!”

“What are you doing?" Seth asked, staring in disbelief at sister Felix, who apparently spent several hours trying to put together a puzzle of sorts from left over pieces of gauze featuring every shade of purple, from lavender to violet. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear you were putting together a quilt!" "I am," sister Felix replied, concentrating on the floral pattern she was working on. It featured several mixed posies of sweet violets and irises, with lilac blossoms scattered in the spaces between them.”

“Sister Therese, can we count on you to perform at the joyous celebration? The wisps seem to be fascinated with music, especially vocal music. I often wonder if this isn’t the only reason they agreed to communicate with us. That and the immortals’ nagging, those Purple chatter boxes can talk you to death when they want something,” Lily asked, skipping the introductory chit-chat. “I was planning on it, of course. Do you have anything specific in mind?” Therese answered. “Purple wrote a story for Lelia. Can you take a look at it?” Lily handed the sister the score, without waiting for agreement.”