Bet looked at him, confused, and Sefron chuckled. “Oh, not literally, of course. I can come and go as I please, but doing so has only made me realize that no one out there cares about all we do to protect them. Long ago some insufferably good wizard decided that the wizards of our order should spend our days as guards, and for decades now our order has been stuck with the duty of watching over this dome. I created our little Monster Slayers game to help pass the time, but it’s not enough anymore. Wizards of our caliber were not meant to waste our magic serving as watchdogs. No more!”

Looking down, Bet sobbed. “But all those wizards on top of the keep,” she said. “You made me help you hurt everyone. Why?”

Sefron stood and put his hands behind his back. “Do not cry for those fools. They were content to sit back and play these little campaigns with the kingdoms’ children, as though that were enough reward for the service we’ve given.”

“So why didn’t you just tear down the wall yourself? Why did you need us?”

“There was no way for me to dismantle the globe myself. When the wall was built, a committee of humans and wizards determined that the globe should be designed so that only someone with non-magical power could destroy it. That way the wizards guarding the dome could never be tempted to unleash the monsters without the permission of the kingdoms. But that wasn’t going to stop someone like me. I devised a way to use the order’s own game against them, to manipulate their human game pieces into coming into the keep and think destroying the wall was their best hope for escape. The chimera was a noble ally in my plan. He wanted to destroy this keep as much as I did. But I knew he couldn’t have done it alone.” Sefron smiled down at Bet. “I needed someone to guide the game pieces through the campaign, someone young and lovely who they would inherently trust, like yourself.”

Tears streamed down Bet’s face. “I never would have done any of this,” she said. “Never. …”

“I know,” Sefron said. “And that is why it was necessary to play with your mind as I did with my chosen two humans. For that, I apologize.”

“What now?” Evin said. Leaving the balcony, he climbed down the steps to stand in front of the table and its shattered plates of food and its scattered pages. He looked at Bet, at Sefron, at Jorick still standing silently by the pile of metal scrap.

“Are you just going to let the monsters run free?” he asked. “Are you just going to watch while they kill innocent people? Is your big evil plan to be the ruler of kingdoms destroyed by monsters? And why even keep us alive now that you’re done with us?”