We have all done what we have deemed best for ourselves or our purpose. I've made it explicit, this is an arrangement. We all stand to benefit, most of the time.

As for my personal past or affiliation, they are irrelevant. Ellethia is doomed. Worse... Ellethia is already gone. And with it, an entire civilization that deserved so much better. I have tried over the years to tell myself that the root of the trouble was Matthias. That we were... condemned because of the great and unavoidable misfortune of his singular existence.

The truth is, if not for Matthias, it would have been someone else. We were too close to Taravast. Our eyes only ever stared at the sun. Hasty, obsessive, unrelenting. Matthias spoke the words, or embraced the beast, or cut the pact, or whatever it is, frankly, that he did.

But he wasn't necessarily the worst of life's abominations. He was just first in line.