There are things that drift away
Like our endless numbered days
- "Passing Afternoon", Iron & Wine

Nief lived in fear of his sixteenth birthday, because that was when the War would close its jaws around him. He was not afraid of dying, but of pain; and more than the wounds of body, however gruesome, he feared the wounds of the soul, that might haunt him even into his next life and the next. This was why he flung himself before the cart, and why, when the Blast came, he prayed that the waters of forgetfulness would scour his soul clean and grant him release.

Yet he survived the Blast, the War, and what came after; and when he finally faced Death again, he had begun to sing a different tune. He prayed then, with fervent bitterness, to never forget, and hoped that this life would haunt him forever.

The Lady saw fit to grant his wish. Then he remembered everything, and he would never be young again.