Nobody on the thrones spoke.
The gatekeeper's great golden eye stayed on them. Its voice had filled the whole heart, and now the quiet after it felt just as large.
Almond was still on the ground with Lily's arms around him. He pushed himself up until he was sitting. It hurt a great deal.
"Ask it," he said.
The gatekeeper was quiet for a moment longer.
"The thing that sat in me asked whether you were worth letting further," it said. "That was never my question. I do not weigh worth. I have watched this layer since before the first kingdom climbed up from the bottom world, and I have never once found a way to weigh it."
"Then what do you ask?" Rudra said.
"Only this," the gatekeeper said. "My door opens one way. What you carry through it, you keep. What you leave on this side, you leave."
The great eye moved slowly over each of them.
"So tell me what you will carry."
Rudra answered first, because he never liked to wait.
