Star rounded on the seer Elegy and snarled, "If you can foresee the future, then why did you not stop me from doing this? Why did you not tell me this was all in vain?"

Elegy looked on, emotionless. "I have told you before, I can not see the future. I can only see the patterns and guess at what they are telling me. In every small sign, in every small motion today, I glimpse what may or may not be tomorrow. Look, Star. Look at the pattern."

Star looked at the cave wall, at the dripping blood on the rocky face. He saw the pattern. The pattern in the shape of a tree. What had been there all along, hidden until he had known to look for it.

Star lowered his head in despair.

***********

I sometimes feel a bit cynical about the concept of "the sanctity of life." Not to say that life is meaningless and trite by any means, but I tend to scoff at the idea that, in every single circumstance, it should be protected at all costs. Everything that lives will die. Everything that dies will contribute to those who live. Death does not exist without life. Life does not exist without death.

In this way, the Tree of Life is also the Tree of Death.

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Star and artwork are © *MoonsongWolf