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

Lady Elise, the High Warden of the Soulwatchers stood on the slopes of Snowscarred Pass. For millennia the pass had been sealed shut to the majority of the order.

Every year, graduate mentors left the valley to find novices to train.

Every year they would bring with them news of the world.

Every year the order would wait for the sign that it was time to leave exile and return to Pyra.

Every year the order was disappointed.

Things were different this year.

The High Warden closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, four greater spirits knelt before her.

- Hail, High Warden. Nisarga, the summer wind, greeted her.

- Hail, High Warden. Vasanta, the spring wind, greeted her.

- Hail, High Warden. Shairada, the autumn wind, greeted her.

- Hail, High Warden. Shishira, the winter wind, greeted her.

A Year Later