Snow fell over THE Keepers of Existence, and Noah sensed every flake of it.
His authority stretched out with the Long Night over this region now, across the Keepers' frozen gardens and their silent halls and their spiral palace, out over every place the blizzard touched. It felt like having a second pair of hands, very large and very cold, resting lightly over a whole Legacy.
He sat back on his new throne and looked at what lay in his palm.
It was the Caretaker's Shard of IT.
He turned it over between his fingers. It was small and bright and warm, and when he let it go, it stayed in the air and drifted in a slow circle around his hand, then around his wrist, then out around the still gold-blue film of his Shinjitsu and the compact, glowing weight of his Dreams, orbiting him like a tiny sun around a larger one.
He watched it go around once, twice, three times.
The decision came quickly.
Then he caught it out of the air, tossed it into his mouth, and swallowed!
HUUM!
