For a long time, there was simply waiting. But that was good. It surely meant that I was not needed, and that my people prospered. Time passed, but I did not pass with it. The plane I was bound to consisted of a palace, a library, and the belongings of the being who was last bound here. In my small world, I trained, practicing the arts I had been taught in the time before the waiting. And I perfected those art, bringing myself to new heights. I was nearly alone. The golems that the previous owner of this little dimension had left behind were poor company, other than the occasional spar. They did, however, make good research subjects. I took them apart as they deteriorated, diagraming their insides and learning their secrets. They had grown in numbers over the time I spent on this plane, as I learned to create more. The original seven had multiplied to just over twenty before I ran out of the materials to make them. The last four were works of art, sleek, humanoid weapons, each capable of following any order to the fullest extent. As I honed my martial arts against my servants, these three learned as well, any one of them becoming a capable warrior in its own right. Within the confines of my castle, I read every scroll in the vast library, learning all the sciences of man and the ars magicka, always waiting for the call. When I exhausted the library, I continued my studies on my own, each ending only when I found no way to progress further. But when there seemed nothing further to be done, I began to despair. What if my people had fallen? What if I had been here so long that there was simply no one left to call upon me? But, as the fear nearly took me, I remembered something that the man who had once lived here told me, something I had quite nearly forgotten: “If ever it gets to be too much, there is a drawer in the back of the library. Within you shall find what you need.” I walked through the empty halls, flanked by my servants. They seemed to have taken to following me around, but I didn’t mind the company. As I walked to the back of the library, I stepped through stacks of papers strewn across the floor, half-finished cups of tea, and towers of books that I had never returned to the shelves. ‘I should have 17 clean this up for me’ I thought. ‘Oh well.’ As I opened the drawer, I saw, side by side, a dagger and a scroll. I reached for the scroll, and opening it, read of a meditation to pass time faster than it ought to pass. Then I looked towards the dagger. The Other Way Out read the message engraved upon its blade. I stared at it for a long, long time. Then I turned, walked briskly to the center of the palace, and sat myself down. I retreated into myself, removing my senses one by one, quieting my breathing and heart. The last thing I remember was that my golems encircled me, sitting as I did, waiting with me. That warmed my heart a bit as I fell into a deep trance. ‘I wonder if they’ll sleep too’ I thought, before even that faculty stopped. Then there was only warmth. Warmth and Eternity, stretching onwards before me.

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