Preaching to the choir. Think of what little patience I have as your virginity. You always thought it would be there until that night when you were feeling down, and your pal, Kevin, who just wanted to be friends, he dropped by and he brought a copy of 'About Last Night' and a four-pack of Bartles & Jaymes. And... It was gone for ever. Just like my patience is now.

But influence is largely a matter of patience, I have found. Once I had served the sorcerer's purpose, he threw me out of his house to die. I resolved to live to spite him. I begged. I sold what pans of my body remained to me. I became an excellent thief, and soon learned that the contents of a man's letters are more valuable than the contents of ms purse Step by step. one distasteful task after another, I made my way from the shims of Myr to the Small Council chamber Influence grows like a weed. I tended mine patiently until its tendrils reached from the Red Keep all the way across to the far side of the world, where I managed to wrap them around something very special.