Her expression betrays no smugness, but Ness nods, and points to a line halfway down the first page: she anticipated this, too.
"And yet Tav had his for little more than a year, and he disappeared. Other Rifters have had theirs for less than a year, and disappeared."
And before Stephen can retort, she points to the line below that.
"Whether or not you consider that death, or merely passing on to some other existential state, is immaterial. If I return to FaerΓ»n, I'm still dead. If the energy that makes me me reabsorbs into the Fade, I'm functionally dead. There's no way of knowing I won't reincarnate, or pass onto some kind of divine plane of reward and/or punishment if I were to die in the usual fashion; not being certain, we err on the side of staying alive for as long as is naturalβby limiting risk factors."
Her hands return to their position behind her back, and she tilts her head, waiting for Stephen to rebut again.
no subject
"And yet Tav had his for little more than a year, and he disappeared. Other Rifters have had theirs for less than a year, and disappeared."
And before Stephen can retort, she points to the line below that.
"Whether or not you consider that death, or merely passing on to some other existential state, is immaterial. If I return to FaerΓ»n, I'm still dead. If the energy that makes me me reabsorbs into the Fade, I'm functionally dead. There's no way of knowing I won't reincarnate, or pass onto some kind of divine plane of reward and/or punishment if I were to die in the usual fashion; not being certain, we err on the side of staying alive for as long as is naturalβby limiting risk factors."
Her hands return to their position behind her back, and she tilts her head, waiting for Stephen to rebut again.