James_Human

“Do you weep for me, my teacher?” She whispered. I pressed my lips to her shaking hand and was transported back to when I first met her thirty years earlier.
“Yes, majesty. I weep for you.” I replied.  “And I weep for my soul. I failed to protect you, and I deserve damnation for it.”
My queen smiled, her blood-spattered face serene in the red haze of blood and smoke. “No, 
Lukas, you have fulfilled your duty. And you will serve me again in the glorious halls of our gods.”
“With all my heart,” I whispered. 
Tears glittered in her eyes, “Call me by my name?” She asked, her voice quiet, weak. “Like you did when I was a little girl.”
“Anna.”

At the end of the world, a mage held his student in his arms as the light left her eyes. At the end of the world a mage stared down his attacker. At the end of the world, a mage died. 
And woke up thirty years before the end of the world. 
He's been given a second chance. 
And this time he's going to do it right.

Spirit Speaker

The priestess lived in a large home, with half a dozen other elves, all worshippers of the Weaver.

The priestess didn't tell them who I was.

A fact that I was more than grateful for.

We were led upstairs, to a room with a curtain for a door.

Nalleth pushed the curtain aside, and let us in.

It was a comfortable room, shaded and cool, the curtains on the window bathing the room in shades of blue.

A dresser, a bed, shelves, a bedside table and a cupboard were the only furniture in the room.

My breath caught when I saw the elf on the bed in front of me.

Black pulsating ink covered her from head to toe, leaving only her face visible.

"How…how long has she been like this," I asked, hollowly.

"A few weeks." The priestess replied. "Nothing we do works, and if we shine a light on it…" She opened the curtain, and the woman on the bed started screaming.

Chapter 60