[SWE] The Core and the Voice

108 To go on is to go through. At last, even the seer is cremated. Each seed loves the dark for the light it promises. The call is given and immediately I set off. I know what this means. It is what I have waited for for centuries now. My legs cannot move fast enough and for the first time in eons I feel joy. It feels almost tangible in my chest as I take the winding stairs two at a time. Even as the muscles begin to tempt me to yield to my fatigue I do not. I press onward. Upward. As I enter the room and take in the sight, I gasp. It is an entirely human thing to do given that I have not needed to breathe in several hundred years, and yet I am rocked back down to my foundation. To my humanity. To see her like that. "After all this time—" I say, stepping forward, edging a hand out towards the sphere. "—to finally be in your presence."