the thesis for the locked tomb series is that to love and to have been loved is to change and to have been changed, fundamentally, forever, and nothing can take that from you. that love is transformative. that love survives within those that have loved and have been loved. that love perseveres. that love matters. that life is too short and love is too long. that love is an indelible weight that you carry with you forever, for better or worse. that love transcends your body and your soul. that love and freedom doesn’t coexist. that love is a terrifying mutual ownership, and by having a part of someone in you, and a part of you in them, you are forever tied. that to devote yourself to another person may lead to your destruction, but you do it anyway because life without love is only a shell of itself. that devotion is violent, and we are all its casualties in the end. that love is a force of nature, and it is the one thing humanity has always known, and will always know, how to do. that even when it doesn’t change anything, you just cant help but love anyway — and that changes everything. that love is horrifying and it can consume you but nothing is more important than love.