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

I felt something brush my mind as we approached the khanate.

A scryer. She sent me the coordinates, and I passed them along to Ilargia.

It took another two hours before we arrived.

The khanate had a stark beauty about it. Short blue green grass, and gentle rolling hills flowed like an ocean as far as the eye could see.

I saw herds of horses running on the plains, and I spotted herders moving with their cattle. There was no war here. Not yet.

The Khagan's capital, Palem, stretched before us. Thousands of tents, and semi permanent structures dotted the landscape.

I dropped us off outside of the gates, where two tough looking warriors barred our entry to the settlement.

"Hold mage. You will surrender your weapons, and come with us."

I caught Rowan's arm before he could draw his sword.

"It's okay lad. They just want to check our weaves. They'll return your sword."

The Khanate