Chapter 14First Interlude
Warmth and cold hold no meaning. Limbs weightless,
no brow to furrow. Hunger and thirst are no longer my companions. Never again will I taste spice on my tongue, nor can water irrigate my flesh. Just empty being. No pleasure to seek, no pain to avoid. Nothing remains of my form but illusion, a waiflike imitation of life. Little more than a shadow cast by my mind.
Is this what it’s like for the gods when they pass into the realm of the One? That cannot be, for the gods have power. Here, caught between vitality and the void, we have nothing. I might have doubted my own existence. Yet I do not need senses to feel. And, oh, I feel.
I do not recall dying any more than going to sleep at night. The moment is broken like shards of an urn. A burning doll, coarse grain
