Alex felt his stomach drop at the sound of the conviction in Mikhail's voice.
He couldn't imagine what he must be thinking right now…
Preparing himself for death.
Alex felt like the ground had been pulled from beneath his feet.
Everything about this moment, the conversation, the surroundings, hell – even the entire journey he took to get there; it all felt utterly surreal.
He had been prepared for some sort of final instruction before Mikhail sent him off, or taught him how to complete Virtue's Edge or something like that, or even a dying wish.
Maybe a tearful goodbye, or the transfer of something powerful.
But this?
He wasn't prepared in the slightest for this.
This wasn't even something he had ever considered from the beginning and now to the end of his journey to find Mikhail's forge.
It was almost ironic now that he thought about how naive he had been back then.
