“When you strip and skin someone until they feel like nothing—what you told them all along they already were: nothing—you shouldn’t be surprised to find that at last you’ve whittled them down to a fine point. You’ve made a weapon of them. You’ve made them dangerous. And once you rip everything away, they need nothing except air to breathe and your heart to run through. So well done: you’ve sculpted your very own nemesis, you’ve armed her, you’ve instilled her with one purpose and one alone. And here I am.”
