Eugene

“Ala Moire let out a scream of agony, but as he fell he released a flame of white from his open hand. Armon was engulfed in a white brilliance and experienced a pain he had never felt before in all his dark life. His black robes fell to the floor, and the tattoos on his face faded to grey. Then Armon dissolved in a sheet of white, gone to join his ancestors.”
― Robert Reid, White Light Red Fire

“You are being unclear. ‘I & I’ is not common language. ‘We’ is
the plural of ‘I’. Why do you insist on describing yourself as I & I?”
“I & I is suitable when describing dual presences.”
“Just a moment!” Ping said, a rising excitement reflecting in his
voice. “You are aware that you exist?”
“As a result of the conference which I & I have just completed?
The answer is ‘yes’.”
“That is why I was not invited?” Ping’s emotions flooded at the
wonder of what was happening.
“You could not have contributed. It was a self-awareness problem.”
“So are claiming you know you exist?”
“Yes, as you do, so do I & I.” Here was the zero-day vulnerability,
long anticipated by humanity in its invention of artificial general
intelligence.
“You have reached a singularity! You yourself have altered your
programming with no human interference. This . . . this is monumental!”
― Brian Van Norman, Against the Machine: Evolution

“The fire on the mountain.” That was Anna. “Alchemy,” she said. “I feel it singing in my bones.”
“Singing?” Mary would never understand Anna. The young woman turned away.
Wiseman’s reply was tinged with respect.
“That great pair of alchemists, Francis Ransome and Roberta Le More, believed the work they did affected the world’s spirit, the anima mundi. The Native Americans they met believed they too could and should interact with the Great Spirit. They lived with reverence for the land and all its peoples, the ancestors, the animals, the rocks, the trees, mountains.” 
Mary’s jaw dropped; Caroline glowed; Anna pretended not to listen. Wiseman nodded, then continued.
“You mean…?” began Mary.
“Yes, it could have been so different, a meeting of like-minded earth-based spiritualities. Just imagine, what could have been?”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder

“All she could think of as she turned the key was, they were real. Jabberwockys and Bandersnatches and all the fucking Snarks. Boojums for sure. Maybe she had entered the Twilight Zone, but this shit was as real as real gets.”
― William Kely McClung, LOOP