" What separates us into engineers and robots, puppeteers and puppets, kings and pawns, is not the status we hold at any given time among others - status is irrelevant; it is the level of ever-present awareness we have of a grey-matter tailor's tools [of flattery, persuasion, and cunning.] "

― A.J. Darkholme , Rise of the Morningstar (The Morningstar Chronicles, #1)