20. Good Luck, Queen-Remember to Open the Door!

Boom

Violent, muffled blasts continuously shattered and burst through Zereth Mortis's Song of Creation.

The explosions had surpassed the interference of the Song of Creation's static. They rang out directly from the Sepulcher of the First Ones, signaling that Zereth Mortis's "heart" was collapsing into ruin.

The astral mage and the Nether-Stalker stood atop the black spire of the Creation Platform. Having completed their respective tasks, they were free of all burdens and took the time to admire the spectacular sight of the Creator's land being destroyed forever.

Though it was hardly some one-of-a-kind "glorious achievement," and everything that had occurred in Zereth Mortis was destined to remain unknown to anyone but them, Medivh and the Nether-Stalker would never forget what they had witnessed today for the rest of their lives.

The feeling of possessing an unspeakable, unshareable "common secret" was intoxicating. It also gave the astral mage and the Nether-Stalker a uniquely masculine understanding between old comrades.

There was a saying about the four strongest bonds in life, but the shared experience this journey through Zereth Mortis had given the two of them was beyond comparison to such mundane things.

"Tell me."

Leaning on the Supreme Caretaker's Staff in its hand, the Nether-Stalker softly asked:

"If you had stood beneath the First Ones' Grand Design, would you have destroyed it as decisively as Diakum did, rather than trying to use it?"

"I wouldn't have."

Medivh neither concealed his answer nor hesitated.

Watching the floating islands of the Sepulcher of the First Ones collapse, disintegrate, and perish in the distance, he said:

"I don't possess his lofty personal morality or his almost exaggerated self-restraint. If such an opportunity had been placed before me, I would not have hesitated for even a moment.

I would have used it!

If it could