The silver flame burned between us, and Sid went still; everything that had come before suddenly seemed meaningless before the glow of this flame.
I looked into his eyes, and I saw that he did not know this flame, but he could tell it was something. A Sovereign does not live for thousands of years without learning to read danger, and his grey eyes narrowed on the flame with such fierce concentration that it made me almost bow my head in shame… I had believed I knew what the thirst for knowledge and the unknown was, but glimpsing the total concentration the Sovereign had devoted to this flame, I thought I could begin to understand how this man, among countless millions, had been able to reach this step.
Forget everything I knew of the loop, and the madness that waited for me in this world. In times like this, I realized that it was a privilege to stand amongst men like this, no matter how evil they were.
