“Not much to be on top of if the world is really going to fall apart. I get wanting glory and all but he’s going to end up the king of smoldering ashes and not much else. I know he doesn’t believe it but it’s obvious by now that this year is going a bit .... off script. Sxicq is evidence enough.”

Luka sighs, exasperated just thinking about trying to tell the Protector any of that.

“What happens if someone else dies?” He asks. “We’ve been so careful and we lost Seth anyway. I’m afraid it will happen again.”