I communed with the benefactor again, and he showed me a gilded city all my own, folded in emerald fire. A kingly crown studded with unknowable wisdom. Unblinking eyes that gaze everywhere at once. This is who I will become.
“Of flesh you will escape, and so the price of flesh you must pay. Be it yours or another’s,” he said. What a small bargain for such a grand destiny.
