36. Precious Treasure
Sometimes, it was unbearable: Its weight pressing down upon his fleshless finger, Its presence gnawing at his consciousness. The invisibility It gave him rarely felt like the magic trick, the clever feat, that it should have; he felt transparent only because the item he bore overshadowed him- yet somehow this became safety.
The closer his ties to It became, the more he learned he could forget; the more mastery It gained of him, the more he lost himself, morphing into nothing but a shadow possessed by the Ring. Even this, though, was precious to him. Nonentity is far easier to bear than remorse.