Ink

The guardian of the multiverse, who found the one universe with a single resident, named him, recruited him, and buried him.

What he is

A skeleton carrying colours "like liquid light", with a face of shifting patterns and eyes holding galaxies. He introduces himself as "the best artist in the multiverse, and its guardian too" (ch. 0).

His brush is his whole method. It opens doorways between realities, seals breaches, makes furniture out of nothing, and in battle it strengthens existence itself where it passes (ch. 1).

What he wanted

He came to Zero's universe because the rumours were true: a reality with one resident, who appears nowhere else in the multiverse (ch. 0). He was stretched thin defending too many frontiers, and he asked for help.

He is honest about his limits in a way that surprised Zero: "Creation takes energy, and defense even more so" (ch. 0).

What he taught

Where Edge taught combat and Dream taught emotional currents, Ink taught creation: how to see the worth of even the smallest and strangest universe, and what each one adds that no other does (ch. 1).

At the end

He ordered Zero to stay clear of The End, and Zero disobeyed. Ink reached the remaining fragment first and wept colours over it (ch. 2).

He carried it home, laid it down, said goodbye, and sealed the passage so the new universe could grow undisturbed.

• "You fool. You beautiful, magnificent fool." (ch. 2)
• "I knew that a soul as beautiful as Zero's could birth such art." (ch. 2)

Open questions

• Whether the seal he set has ever been opened, and whether it could be.
• Whether "until we meet again, in forms neither of us can yet imagine" (ch. 2) is a farewell or a promise the saga intends to keep.