27. Epilogue
Linorra watched a small whiff of smoke escape Syndeth’s nostrils and knew that he was very serious. “What do you mean by belong?” she asked.
“Just what I said,” he answered. “Belong.”
It’s strange to think back on those first months in Jorin’s farmhouse and recall how they ended so abruptly. At the time, I thought of myself as oppressed. Hunted, even. In reality, those were the best days of my life. Ward was safe. Everything with Aaron was so pure and uncomplicated.
I was still innocent.
There’s a reason why they say reservoirs aren’t just something you have, but something you fundamentally are. I didn’t realize until much later that because a reservoir is attached to the soul, maybe even located inside the soul, when you absorb someone else’s, you rip off and integrate a tiny piece of their spirit as well. It’s like mixing reservoirs, but in reverse and to the benefit, or in my case detriment, of one person. It has been one of the biggest regrets of my seemingly endless existence.
In retrospect, things didn’t really start to go downhill until after I absorbed Axel’s reservoir. His soul was an unwholesome thing, and I gobbled it up like a vampire. That is, essentially, what absorbers are. We’re vampires. Once you taste the blood, you are well and truly turned.
Zig often laments that he didn’t meet me until after I consumed Axel because he could have warned me that you must be exceedingly selective about who you absorb. I know, I haven’t gotten to Zig yet. I will. He’s important.
I wonder how different my life would be if he’d found me before Aaron. Then again, Violet never would have let that happen. She always cared more about saving the people she loved than saving the universe. That’s one of the few things we always agreed on.
After all, would it be so bad if the fragments of creation collapsed back into the Oneness? If that meant the end of the universe, so be it. Of course, that’s what Anick’s been trying to tell me for the last thousand years. He is, I admit, the most persuasive man I know.