But I had seen my subjects enticed by systems like these, and I knew the cost. If I accepted the ledger’s invitation, I—the sovereign I! this I, me!—would be fried. And if by some chance I wasn’t; if I could somehow hold on to myself in the flood: it would still wash away any sense of a story. I would no longer care about the fate of one creature, not even one like Ariel de la Sauvage, brave, curious, morbid, and more.
