Lianna had been quiet, composed and unhurried, and when she finally spoke, her voice was even and gave away nothing.
"Both of them are describing the hammer," she said. "Neither is describing the nail. To illustrate this, let me tell you about some Infinite Lifeforms I came across, a long time ago, in a domain that no longer exists."
She paused, the dark-haired Sword choosing her words.
"They had built themselves into something they believed was eternal. Layers of Infinity, civilizations stacked on civilizations, a structure so deep they had forgotten it had ever been assembled at all. They thought of themselves as permanent. As foundational. As the kind of thing existence is built on rather than the kind of thing existence builds. And when Destruere reached them, it reminded them."
