It had started with Jude, beside him on the lighthouse. But it hadn’t ended there. Then there had been Hector, helping to pull him from the wreckage of the Red Gate even before he knew who Anton was. Hassan, who’d had good reason to resent Anton, but had joined him instead. Khepri, who had gone with them to the edge of the world when there were countless reasons for her to stay behind. Ephyra, who like Anton had learned not to trust anything that came without a price, and yet who time and again had risked herself for Anton and those he cared about. Even Illya, whom Anton hadn’t forgiven and might never forgive, yet who had handed his fate over to Anton anyway.

And Beru, who among everyone Anton had ever met always seemed to know how to do the right thing, and never hesitated to do it. Who had fought harder than any of them for a world that she would never get to fully live in.

“I don’t care what the prophecy says,” Anton said fiercely. “I don’t care about destiny, about fate, or any of it. I care about stopping the god. I care about saving Jude.”

Tarseis clucked his tongue. “This is why we hold ourselves apart. Why we don’t take lovers or have children. When your fate is tangled with the fates of others, when you have the power that we do, you will always be tempted to change destiny.”

Nazirah looked at Anton thoughtfully. “You were meant to have two choices. You could watch the world fall. Or you could sacrifice that which you love to save it.”

“I don’t understand,” Anton said. “This was what you were trying to do, wasn’t it? Make more Prophets to replace you after your powers stopped working? So why won’t you help me?”

“What we did followed the lines of fate,” Tarseis replied sharply. “We fulfilled our final prophecy.”

“What—you mean me?”

“You were meant to be the Last Prophet,” Tarseis said again. “And so we made you the Last Prophet.”

“You…” Anton’s voice faltered. “You made me into a Prophet?”

Nazirah nodded.

“Then you can do it,” Anton realized, brushing past the rest of this strange realization. “You can make more Prophets.”

“Not without defying fate.”

“Then defy it!” Anton demanded. “What’s stopping you?”

“For two thousand years, we were careful never to step outside the bounds of our prophecies,” Nazirah said. “Never to change their outcomes.”