Legacy!
The word carried weight that exceeded its simple syllables, encompassing all that beings hoped to leave behind when existence finally forgot to include them in its calculations.
Some legacies were grand…monuments to achievement that stood as testimony long after their creators had dissolved into constituent particles.
Others were modest…a recipe passed down, a story remembered, a kindness that rippled forward through generations who never knew its source.
Consider the father who spent decades accumulating wealth, building an empire of gold and influence, only to leave his million-dollar legacy to a son whose primary talent was transforming assets into regrets.
The old man spun in his grave…metaphorically, since graves were more suggestion than requirement at certain levels of existence, watching his life's work become someone else's cautionary tale about the importance of teaching values alongside vault combinations.
