The Atlas Paradox

Aviditas. Appetite. Aviditas vitae, the wanting to live. The hunger for it, which drove everything. Nico knew it to exist because he had seen Reina create it. He knew it to be powerful because he believed Tristan to be correct. He now believed the desire to live to be more than philosophy, more than psychology, but rather, a primordial principle of physics.

t I used to not believe that,” Reina continued. “I believed the universe was completely random, and that’s what eluded us. Because we all want to believe we are fundamental in some way. We are our own myths, our own legends. We give things reason. We are reasonable creatures and so everything must have its place, its purpose—but we are also egotistical creatures, and so we give ourselves reasons that don’t exist.”

information could have killed Libby. Not actually, of course. But in some life-changing, destructive way, possession of an answer would have killed the spark of her that kept her going, moved her forward