[ TT ] Two people , entwined by fate . Together they embarked the journey of heroes , where through loss and gain they grew wise and powerful . Years later , they are on the opposite sides of war .

`` Why, Atrexus? Why?'' The man looked lost, his green eyes looking at the old man he had spent so many years traveling with. `` Why would you do this? You threaten the very world. Your armies of the dead kill all with a touch, and then your army swells. You ’ ve already destroyed an entire nation. Why do you threaten us all?'' 
 
 `` No, Stephen. I do not threaten. I promise. I will destroy it. I will reduce it all to slag and rubble. We have failed. The great noble experiment that was man is a failure. All that remains is death. We've walked the same worlds, seen the same futures. We both seen that no matter what we do, the magics that we have unleashed will lead to the destruction of all that we hold dear. We have done this, not I. We have begun the awakening of the world serpent, and a thousand years from now, this very globe will be shattered upon his waking. I'll destroy it all first. I ’ ll lull the beast back to sleep with a thousand years of silence. I'd rather be a villain than a well-meaning fool.'' 
 
 `` Ca n't you see how impossible this all is? We might have woken the Wurm, but we have a thousand years to prepare for his arrival. The future is not set. Mayhaps a child will be born who can reset the Harp, or a musician talented enough to play a new melody upon it. It need not end now. Send your shades back to sleep. Your army of undeath will not kill us all. I wo n't let you.'' 
 
 `` Now, that almost sounded like a threat. We delved too deeply, pursued knowledge too strongly. We bent the flow of the Well of Time. If I could go back, I'd kill us in our sleep, but I have to settle for silencing the world, and hoping that it ’ s enough to lull the beast back to sleep. Maybe the next species that rises will do better than us. Man has failed. We failed man.'' 
 
 `` No, we did n't fail man. The magics we brought back cured most incurable diseases, allowed for near instantaneous travel between cities and insured that no blight would ever infect crops. War is an afterthought, and has been for 3 full generations. We are revered and in time, my friend, we can solve this like you and I have solved death for ourselves.'' 
 
 `` Yes, we made marvels. Portals and gimmicks to amuse a crowd. And as for us, have we truly conquered death? And now, with no idea of what war is, that crowd has gathered, mobilized against me. They turn easily, old friend. They always will.'' 
 
 They turned on you because you turned on them. You called them a cancer on the world, needing to be excised from its skin. You gathered an army of the dead to threaten their very lives, and I asked for volunteers to be armored in protective magics and armed with enchanted blades to stand against you because I hoped you'd see reason. Killing us all might not save the earth. Leaving us alive might not kill it. Let us see what the future holds together.'' 
 “ Together. No. There is no more together for us. There can not be. We are two opposed forces trying to achieve the same end in different means. You wish to ascend mankind to where we might re-achieve what was lost, and put the beast back to slumber. I wish to be sure of it by making sure he has no reason to awaken. Your path places mine in jeopardy as man becomes louder and more populous. My path requires the death of most of humanity. Your path almost certainly leads to the destruction of all. We ’ ve walked those futures as ghosts, seen the shattered remnants of humanity ’ s attempt to ascend in the face of eldritch horror. It doesn ’ t end well. We two are too few to placate the Wurm, and I grow weary of attempting. ” 
 “ And what of the wonders we have seen while traveling together? Of the fields of Merrilor, where the waves in the grass looked perfectly like waves upon the ocean, or of our sojourns among the worlds-not-yet-fallen, where we learned the intricacies of geometric magics and how to capture a moment permanently in a fold of space, of how to keep time in a bottle. Is that the world we met Oriana? I never can- “ 
 
 “ Stop! ” The old man ’ s voice thundered from him, and the great battlefield outside the tent, with its serried ranks of men and its legions of glowing green phantoms all ceased to move for a second. “ Never. Mention. That. Name. Again. ” His glare smoldered, and the table under his hand was reduced to ash in an instant. 
 
 “ Why? You threaten humanity with extinction and want me to not mention the best part of life you ever experienced? You ’ ve forgotten much, old man. Mankind is meant to love, to learn, to grieve and grow. Don ’ t let your sadness sweep us all away. Your grief at her death should not blind you to- “ 
 
 The old man held up a hand. “ No. That ’ s not why I don ’ t want her mentioned. I know I live with grief in a way that I shouldn ’ t, that I should have been able to come to terms with her loss over the last few centuries, but I can ’ t. The reason I ask for you to not mention her name is that it reminds me very seriously that it is her death that will awaken the Wurm. A death I could not prevent, even though I am the master of death. I could not forestall the one death I wanted to, and now I have doomed the multiverse. “ 
 “ Her death does not mean that the Wurm will awaken, Atrexus. You know that. In some worlds, the Wurm awoke and she was the one that fought it, and in some, she was its summoner. The future is in flux. Give me my thousand years, send your spirits back to their rest, and find a new path, old man. The only sure path is not guaranteed. We can find a new one. ” 
 `` You have always been an idealist, and I the pragmatist.'' The old man stood, the joints in his frame cracking as he stretched. He leaned heavily on his staff. `` The future is always in flux. A thousand different endings to every conversation. I am to be the villain here. The world will remember me as an evil. Just remember that we both have bloodied hands, Stephen. When you think back to today, and investigate my claims, you'll wonder if I might have been on the right track. When you look back through the Well, and you see what I witnessed there, you might even understand. But I'll leave you to ponder this: the one thing you have n't figured out is why you have n't aged in a hundred years and why I have. When you do figure that out, you'll understand why I was ready to end it all today. Goodbye, Stephen. We wo n't meet again.'' 
 
 With that, the older man gestured sharply, and a bright green flash burst through the tent. When the afterimages cleared from Stephen's eyes, he saw the trademark burn scar in the earth of a portal spell. He lifted his own hand t follow him with his own portal, but then he looked carefully at the destination chosen by Atrexus. `` That clever old man. He did n't go somewhere in space. He went forward in time. But it appears he left the physical coordinates undefined.'' Stephen felt a shiver run across his spine. The old man had teleported himself to everywhere and nowhere at once. He was gone. 
 
 Stephen exited the tent to a great cheer. The army of free men he had raised to oppose Atrexus's army of the dead was cheering. They had witnessed his fell army dissolve, and the great portentous cloud began to dissipate. Sunlight fell in among the ranks of the men, and Stephen felt uplifted. He had done it. He had faced down the dark wizard Atrexus and convinced him to abandon his genocidal plan. And yet, something he had said, was it about the Well? Or was it the remark about aging that needled him? It did n't matter. He had a thousand years to plan and plot for a way to stop the Wurm. Genocide could not have been the only option. Could it? 
 
 Wait. Did he say he ’ d been grieving for centuries? That was impossible unless... Oh no. 

