"Are you going to hit me again? I'm only telling you what I've been told, which is what you wanted to hear, right?" Luka says, turning his nose up at Gyre.

He clears his throat.

"Anyway, I've heard some of that. Some from him -- some from the Wizard. The Protector isn't big on the juicy details, unfortunately. He told me both he and the Wizard hail from the same planet, and that theirs was the first to be destroyed. That they're scientists of sorts, working to find an answer to all of this. But when they moved to save our planet, they got bound to it. That must be the spell you're talking about."

"He thinks they're going to burn themselves out, eventually, and that's why he doesn't want to end the cycle." Luka searches his thoughts. "I can't just blindly trust the Wizard. What makes you so sure about her? Did she promise everything you could want?"