by Michelle Belanger

We are the many-born. We are the immortal. We have been known by many names throughout the ages, though few have understood the truth of our existence.

Endlessly, we die and are reborn, changed yet unchanging throughout the ages. We move from lifetime to lifetime, taking up bodies as garments.

We are watchers and we are wanderers.

We seek knowledge and understanding above all.

Long ago we strove the sunder the life of our body from our roving minds, for it grounded us. It held us back. It bound us to a single span of days. Through a ritual of death and rebirth, we severed our living ties and gained immortality.

Now we are freed of the life of the body, but we are irrevocably tied to the life we cut away. It sustains us and empowers us.

We thirst for life and we feed upon it.

It is our greatest weakness and our greatest prize.

Next: II. Beginnings