Chap­ter XIV begins on July 30, 1714, mark­ing a piv­otal moment in Addie LaRue’s life as she leaves behind her quaint vil­lage of Vil­lon-sur-Sarthe in France, step­ping into the unknown. For the first time in years, she embarks on a jour­ney that will car­ry her beyond the famil­iar land­scapes of her child­hood, into the bustling city of Le Mans, a walled city far removed from the secu­ri­ty of her known world. This is not just a phys­i­cal jour­ney, but also one that will test her very exis­tence, forc­ing her to con­front the lim­i­ta­tions and strange nature of the curse she bears. Dressed in mis­matched attire, includ­ing boots that are too large for her, Addie embarks on the jour­ney on foot, her shoes stuffed with socks to try to ease the dis­com­fort, an unre­mark­able solu­tion that high­lights her con­stant strug­gle to main­tain some sem­blance of con­trol in an uncon­trol­lable exis­tence. Each step tak­en, how­ev­er, is not just a pas­sage of dis­tance but a reflec­tion of the bur­dens she car­ries, both phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al.

As she trudges along, her body begins to suf­fer under the oppres­sive weight of exhaus­tion. The heat of the sun bears down on her, exac­er­bat­ing her fatigue, while blis­ters form from the ill-fit­ting boots, a con­stant reminder of the dis­com­fort that accom­pa­nies her jour­ney. But even in this phys­i­cal suf­fer­ing, Addie finds small moments of relief, like a brief stop in an orchard where she eats fruit, quench­ing her thirst and hunger momen­tar­i­ly. These fleet­ing moments are her only solace, yet they do lit­tle to ease the deep­er hunger she feels—a hunger not just for food, but for some­thing more, some­thing mean­ing­ful that she can­not seem to grasp, despite cen­turies of wan­der­ing the earth.

As the day tran­si­tions into night, and the harsh light of the sun gives way to the cool calm of twi­light, Addie’s reflec­tions begin to deep­en. Her body, though bat­tered from the jour­ney, reveals an unnerv­ing anomaly—her feet, despite the expect­ed wear and tear, remain unmarked, unmarred by blis­ters or sun­burn. This strange obser­va­tion gives rise to a deep­er under­stand­ing of the unnat­ur­al nature of her exis­tence. She real­izes that her curse, the immor­tal­i­ty that she has unwill­ing­ly accept­ed, is more than just an end­less life—it is a con­tin­u­ous expe­ri­ence devoid of last­ing con­nec­tions or the abil­i­ty to leave any mark on the world. With this real­iza­tion, Addie reflects on the true cost of her pact and the real­i­ty of her exis­tence: a life lived in per­pet­u­al iso­la­tion, con­stant­ly evad­ing death, yet devoid of any last­ing lega­cy.

As Addie walks through the dim­ming streets of Le Mans, she begins to think about her past choic­es and the peo­ple who have shaped her exis­tence. She recalls Estele, the per­son who first intro­duced her to the gods and who helped her under­stand the pow­er she was about to invoke. Estele’s words echo in her mind, as Addie reflects on the free­dom she sought when she made her fate­ful pact with the dark­ness. But the free­dom she gained is not the free­dom she imagined—she is bound to a life of iso­la­tion, cut off from human con­nec­tion and unable to form mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships.

As she walks, her thoughts turn to the ques­tion of identity—who is she real­ly in this world that doesn’t remem­ber her, that nev­er acknowl­edges her pres­ence in any last­ing way? Is she defined by the expe­ri­ences she’s had, the peo­ple she’s met, or is she sim­ply a shad­ow pass­ing through the world, leav­ing no trace behind? This pro­found sense of loss and dis­con­nec­tion fills Addie’s heart, and as she moves through the streets of Le Mans, she can­not help but won­der whether she will ever find a place where she tru­ly belongs. The city, once a place filled with pos­si­bil­i­ties, now seems dis­tant and alien to her, much like the rest of the world she wan­ders through.

Yet, despite the crush­ing lone­li­ness, Addie’s resilience begins to shine through. She is deter­mined to con­tin­ue her jour­ney, to keep mov­ing, to keep expe­ri­enc­ing the world in her own way, even if she can­not leave a last­ing impres­sion on it. The city may have changed, but so has she. Her iden­ti­ty may be flu­id, but her resolve is unshak­en. With each step, she reaf­firms her com­mit­ment to her own exis­tence, even if that exis­tence is marked by soli­tude and the inabil­i­ty to make last­ing con­nec­tions. In this moment of self-aware­ness, Addie begins to under­stand that the true essence of her jour­ney is not about chang­ing the world, but about learn­ing to live with­in it on her own terms, nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of her exis­tence with strength and deter­mi­na­tion.

As the chap­ter draws to a close, Addie’s under­stand­ing of her­self deep­ens. She rec­og­nizes that she is not mere­ly a vic­tim of her curse, but also a sur­vivor, some­one who has man­aged to carve out a place for her­self in a world that con­stant­ly for­gets her. The jour­ney through Le Mans, while phys­i­cal­ly exhaust­ing and emo­tion­al­ly tax­ing, serves as a cat­a­lyst for this new under­stand­ing. It is a reminder that even in the face of seem­ing­ly insur­mount­able odds, there is strength to be found in resilience, and in the qui­et accep­tance of who she is, despite the flaws and lim­i­ta­tions imposed on her. The jour­ney is not over, but it has already trans­formed Addie in ways that she can­not ful­ly com­pre­hend, and the road ahead is filled with pos­si­bil­i­ties, how­ev­er fleet­ing they may be.