I came across this interesting bit as I was researching the legendary character Barek Union. At first, I didn't understand its significance to his own corpus, but now I do. It is fascinating, made more so by the fact that even now, even after all that has been revealed, there are some things still concealed behind the veil.

"All living creatures, whether in the hallowed marches, the mortal world, or the Stagnant Lands, are made up of the same material, save one. For all save this exception, the soul is a thing of pieces coming together on the most fundamental level to create a being. On the one hand is the flesh, the form, the body. Counter to this is the spirit, the specter, the ghost. Binding these two inconsistent materials is the creature's fundamental essence, its instinct. All creatures seem to succumb to this creation save one, the dragon.

"Sources as varied as ancient scriptures and modern wizards' notes suggest, no demand that the dragon is a creature unlike any other because it has no spirit, or rather, its spirit is indiscernable from its body. This of course speaks to their vast, legendary power. Clearly they are creatures from outside, from elsewhere."

I came across an interesting comment while preparing the manuscripts of "Surety." There was a note in the margins that read, "The character lives in the margins of his duty." I found this a fascinating analysis. The character Achim is, I think, like many of us. So much of what people see in us, define us as, or remember us for is simply us doing our duty. Duty is like a sick cow. We need to see to it. We can't afford to ignore it. Somehow, our livelihoods depend on it, and yet it draws us away from our lives on a whim. In a way, we all live in the margins of our lives. The text is our duty, the margins is where we live.