Epilogue

• 05:33:28 Laerryn, almost falling, you see Loquatius, Patia, your best friend to your side. You see, lying beside each other, Zerxus and Nydas. Standing in the center of the room, still fighting with every breath, is Cerrit. All of you feel (heavy impact) as the city settles, it’s energy restored from what you saved from the Tree of Names. You touch your hands, this thing you made, this dream.
  Are you the woman who doomed the world or are you the woman who saved it?
  Are all of you the heroes that you strove to be, or the villains that, from time to time, you might’ve been afraid you were becoming?
  In a world with this much power, what can be said to be the difference?
  Far away the Eldritch Battery, with the names of the Emperor and Empress, alights. Lime green energy rushing through the city. As the city docks atop Cathmoira, the sun threatening to rise above the horizon, the energy rushes into the ground, their names inscribed, to break the ancient wards, to release the Primordials, a Colossus of Fire, a Titan of Earth, to join The Betrayers and bring eternal torment to Exandria.
  That is what was foretold. If the Primordials joined, all would be lost.
  Dying from his injuries, but smiling because he completed his last instructions, Calum Staffwright connected the broken battery back to the Etheric Net and put it online for you. It is nice, perhaps, to know that a woman of your singular genius was not completely alone.
  The energy rushes into the earth, connected to the Leywright, and swirls, preparing to summon them back into Exandria. And instead, the Leywright crafts a path away from this world.
  You made your choice.
  Safety for Avalir and Cathmoira, and the lands of Domunas, or certainty that Exandria in some form would survive the coming Calamity.
  As the magic flows, the Taxmen suddenly stop, and you hear a voice coming through them from the Lord of Hells.
  “What?! What have you done?”
  Energy erupts, the ground shakes, and the leyline angles up into the heavens. You hear the ground trembling.

“No! No! Nooo!..Well, if Domunas is the smile of Exandria, then let’s shatter her teeth!”

• […]
  In these final moments, there are many things that you do not see, but it would be right for you to know. A ship of sorcerous children: a young Triton girl, a little dragon sorceror boy, and a man whose hat has been freshly de-candled fly from the city of Avalir.
  I don’t know how to describe what Exandria would have lose. Instead, all of those children with all of the magic within them, are taken away.
  For Nydas and Zerxus, as you lay dying, Zerxus, you feel release… The last thing you see, as your body begins to immolate and burn, going to the place were Vespin went, is a griffon made of stars, called back to its feather, bearing on its back a young boy holding a journal. The griffon climbs and climbs, racing against the dawn and the griffon opens a door to a sea of stars. Elias leaps into the arms of Evandrin, reunited. You see the face of your husband and your son, and across endless realms you hear Evandrin’s voice, “I know what you gave. You found a path beyond the stars. I do not know whence the gods came from, but i know that you found it in your heard. I promised you, Zerxus, I will find that place. I will find the secret of how these worlds were made, and I will come and find you and bring you home.”
• 05:45:15 Young Nydas:“Brother! It’s important to dream!”
  Brennan:“When you think of the future and what people will say of this time, do you think anyone will talk about how beautiful your dream was?”
  Lou:“No. But that’s all right, because it was real for us. (Aabria breaks) For those who survived, they will remember, and it will inspire them to dream of things far greater.”
• 05:49:07 “Dad? Dad, it’s Maya. I’ve got some kind of orb…”
  “Wingspan? This is Cleareye. (Wrayne, Cerrit’s wife)”
  “I hear you Cleareye.”
  “What’s happening?”
  “You sound so afraid, don’t be…”
  “Darling, we are in Gwessar…”
• 05:54:22 Romantic L&Q Moment Laerryn and Loquatius renew their marriage vows and embrace. Laerryn gives Cerrit the shortest exit path through the Labyrinth via telepathic bond. Loquatius throws his Pact Boon Talisman to Cerrit.
• 05:59:40 “The Brass Ring endures.”
• 06:00:04 The continent of Domunas will have been unfamiliar to most people prior to the beginning of our story, because in the modern age of Exandria, the chain of islands, known as The Shattered Teeth, is all that remains. The most [the blast] could be contained to, to ensure that it would work, was the land of Domunas.
  The earth opens, and fire and stone shatter a continent. The Calamity will last for centuries, and at the end of it, two thirds of those living beings of Exandria will be no more. Some large amount of that greater number died, not only in the first year, but in the first moments of Calamity.
  As Rau’shan and Ka’Mort, believing that they will rejoin the Betrayer Gods, are instead unmade, disenchanted, bound to a surging leyline and fired, diffused through as many realms as the Leywright could send them through. Two great titans are destroyed. Say what you will about the Age of Arcanum, but great workings were indeed possible.
  Gone from Exandria, those Primordials do not join the Betrayers. And though it will see centuries of strife and ruin, one day, the people of Exandria will triumph and the Calamity will end. Divinity will be forever sequestered behind the Divine Gate. At the end of it all hope will return as many times as it needs to. The eruption of ash and fire, molten stone sends a cloud of ash and shadow that will cover Exandria for a hundred years, marking the beginning of this Age of Ruin.
  The fire embraces Paia and Nydas. A different fire awaits the First Knight. The fire, as brightly as it may burn, does not burn so brightly as your (L&Q) love, which shines the brightest in your last moment, having given this world a chance.
  Ash, heat, rising faster than you can imagine from the earth.

I don’t know that I can promise the future of Cerrit, his wife and their children, nor the future of those children aboard the ships of the Golden Scythe, nor Evandrin and Elias out amongst the stars.
We’ve told a story of the coming o fa time of darkness, the coming of Calamity, of shadow and fire and ruin.

Why do we tell stories?

To try to make sense of a world that can be terrifying and enormous. In Exandria, I don’t know that your story will long be known. I don’t know who will remain to tell it. But it did happen and it did matter. And though Calamity is here, because of you, it will not be here forever.