“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.

I sat in the pavilion, staring into the distance. It was a clear summer day, and I could see far into the horizon. I watched the ships dock and depart. I saw the waves rise and crash against the shore. And I felt at peace.


"It's rare for you to visit here, Lukas." The pixie bobbed in front of me. 


"Here, in this world. Where do you think you are?" The pixie laughed. 


"In the gardens?" I looked around, and for the first time noticed the hundreds of lesser spirits playing in the flowerbeds. "Where am I?" 


"In the spirit world, Lukas. You're with us." Another pixie, this one old, with a long white beard, and drooping wings fluttered into my vision. 


"I don't understand. I was just looking at the ocean, how am I in the spirit world?"


Chapter 90 - Flying Lessons