“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.

The box was heavy in my grasp, when I arrived at the palace. I had to walk, Ilargia severely weakened by proximity to the book. 


I ignored the guard's surprised looks as I walked through the palace gates, and made my way up to my rooms. 


The princess paced back and forth in front of them. 


"There you are!" She ran to me. I raised the spirit prison over my head.


"Here I am," I replied, stepping backwards. "Why are you here?"


"Yes, dive from your window. You didn't tell me you could fly!"


I sighed and pressed my hand to my forehead. "Of course, you saw. What were you doing up so early?"


The princess shifted uneasily. "Nightmares. Really awful dreams. So? Where did you go?" she asked, 


"The Academy, and then the Weaver's temple."


Chapter 26 - Chapter 25