He flinched a little at the 'pop' and accompanying hand motion. Not reassuring at all, no.

And neither was the thought of Its resurrection. Duncan had read so much lore he was more qualified for a Zenderean history PhD than a genetics one. Nothing in the lore ever referred to Xumurdad's comeback as a good thing. Even the ones who wanted it, the most devout, spoke of the perfect chaos It would deliver and the world as ruled by something that was fairly unfair. That was the positive end. The negative end was that everything would be destroyed in Xumurdad's fury and It would start over.

Nothing very appealing, as long-term outcomes went.

Duncan considered the words for a moment, silently thoughtful, his eyes on the floor and his arms folded over the chair.

If the Vahishta was in on it... If the clerics in the greycloaks really meant that the greycloaks were trying to resurrect It...

"Fuck," he breathed. He looked up, resigned. "Ezra. If we're gonna do anything about this, we need to know from the inside. And it's looking like I'm the only one who can get there."