“Endless eons came and went, Olivia. Life grew and multiplied and filled every world. It changed so much that its branches were more distant than ever they had been on that first small home. So distant that they forgot one another a billion times over. You ask for absolution. Know this: every terrible thing you remember is so ancient now that nothing is left of it but stardust. It is so ancient that the only trace it left behind are the memories you carry. As for what you have done on Equus—