That makes him laugh again, not a rasping sound now but a knocked-free wild clamor, a hundred bells dropped from a high window, a sound that makes his whole body shake.

He remembers the weight of Kujen anchoring on him, squeezing him out of control of his own unwanted body, how it felt to drown for a few minutes in the vastness of his mind, cold and bright as starlight.

"He was everything."