Because this had always been destiny.
Because once, he too had kept watch through the ages, hoping she would return, hoping they could meet again.
He had succeeded.
But she had failed.
At that moment, Lynn suddenly felt waves of searing pain in his heart. He drew a deep breath, and when he raised his head, his eyes were filled with desolation.
"What about me, then?"
"Who am I?"
Was I, like him, a new individual formed when the Old Shadow of Reincarnation shattered his self and melded the pieces together?
Once again, he recalled the ancient dream that had once haunted him.
Amid the utter devastation of that apocalypse.
He had heard distant weeping.
The old man turned toward him, his gaze deep, his voice hoarse.
"Have you heard the legend of the raven?"
Lynn drew a deep breath. "I have."
It was an ancient legend, a ballad passed down through the rise and fall of civilizations.
[If this winter lasted too long, would you be afraid?]
[If this bitter winter lasted so long that it would never end in your lifetime, would you be frightened?]
[No, I would not.]
[Because no winter lasts forever.]
[Because a raven will always descend quietly on a winter night, then softly depart when it brings us the first breath of warmth.]
Lynn glanced toward the old man.
"It always carries a torch, watching over our years and treating us with tenderness."
He repeated the words of that ballad.
It was as though he had heard that bird's long cry once more.
The old man watched him without speaking for a long time. His grip on his walking stick tightened a little, and at last he said:
"Those ravens are you."
A long silence engulfed that pitch-black ocean.
He began to