Quoted By:
"Sorry?"
"When you were comparing it to Horse Face's blood. You said there were asterisks."
"Hmm. Yes." Maybe he pushes his glasses up on purpose, to look cooler, not because they keep falling off his nose. Should you ask? You're sure you could imagine smaller glasses for him. "The example I provided, while a useful tool for understanding, doesn't completely reflect reality. Please don't be frightened by what I'm about to say. It's not as radical as it sounds."
Oh, God. "What?"
"Injecting the blood of a human or animal doesn't <span class="mu-i">make</span> you that human or animal, under ordinary circumstances. More than the sum of their parts, like I said. Strictly speaking, for the Wyrm, this is not true. The Wyrm... does not have parts. It could be thought of, on a metaphysical level, er, as one extremely large, potent, recursive Law. It is self-defining, or self-descriptive, or self-explanatory. It is [WYRM]. That's it. Therefore, while human or animal blood contains a melange of Laws, the Wyrm's blood must, definitionally, contain one Law: [WYRM]. And the Law, if you could read it, would say: I am, or this is, the Wyrm. Are you keeping up?"
When you set Richard on fire, you didn't think you were setting yourself up for the mother of all boring lectures, but here you are. No turning back now. "I think so?"
"Yes. So, Charlie. You have, essentially, diluted Wyrm-blood in your body, and when I say in your body, I mean it's at least loosely integrated with your essential being, which is to say your strings. Meaning that you bear the Law [WYRM] inside of you, meaning that you <span class="mu-i">are,</span> presently, metaphysically, and definitionally, the Wyrm."
You look at him for a long time. "But I'm not."
"Yes. Thank you for keeping your reaction to a minimum. The fact is, this is on a metaphysical level, and a weak level at that. Remember the dilution. On a practical level, in the physical realm, you are of course nothing like the Wyrm. You are more like, ah, er... see, snakes also possess a single law. I think I mentioned that. [SNAKE]. Do you know what law this key possesses?" Oh, he's brought the key back out.
"...[OPEN]?"
"Good memory, Charlie. Yes, it has [OPEN]. It has a number of Laws, actually, and among that number—" He traces the groove. "—is [SNAKE]. Now, before a snake came from this key, it wasn't a snake in any physical way. It had the image of a snake, but no snake. But bearing that image, and thus that Law, was enough to, er, grant it the metaphysical potential to become a snake. It's the same with you. You are not, in any meaningful way, the Wyrm. But you are [WYRM], and thus the Wyrm, eh..."
"It could hatch from me," you say stonily.
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