Abad-Shai, Scion of the Black Flame, Scourge of the Ten Realms, the Dark Scholar, felt himself slowly pulling back together. Piece by piece, mote of essence by mote of essence, he gathered himself at the edge of the void between thought and form.

A wanderer, the most substantial fragment of the most powerful entity to walk Reial, had been slain once again. However, this time it was his choice. He waited for many years as his body reassembled itself. He knew it would take centuries, but Abad-Shai was not worried. There was little to worry about in his state. He was a corpse in a coffin. That was his lot in life. It was the path he'd chosen, and he'd choose it again.

In his previous life, he'd once had lofty ideas. He had it all planned out. After he failed to slay the Divine Hero and conquer the land with his allies, he had what he thought was a brilliant idea. If he couldn't defeat her in single combat, he would try a new tactic. He decided to mask himself and managed to infiltrate courts, seduce noblewomen, and become close to a king. Then, he died at the Hero's sword without achieving his goals.

But, a lucky accident sent his soul to a coffin he'd constructed years before, where he remained trapped for centuries. His spirit floated in the darkness between worlds as he seethed and whined. For centuries, he gnashed his teeth, but the void slowly seeped into him. In time, he grew calm. Quiet. Introspective.

Against all hope, he lived again. He'd awoken, overcome his past, earned friendship, found allies, and thought he'd found a new path.

Then, he ushered in the end.

He'd indulged in his fantasies of being mortal. Of having friends, and family, and a lover. He had wished to be redeemed, and the world paid the price. For all he'd gained, the world lost. His frivolities ended the world.

He wouldn't make that mistake again.

He felt his shoulders rub against the sides of his too-small coffin. He laughed, the sound a dusty, croaking noise that echoed off the stone. It was just as irritating as he remembered.

Growing tired, he willed his mind away and drifted into the void.

***

He awoke after some amount of time. He felt something on his chest. Looking down, he saw a familiar figure in the soft silver light of the sigils carved into the sarcophagus's lid. He reached up and brushed her hair as he remembered words from his final moments: "If this is the path you choose, I can offer you a final gift. You'll need a companion for the path you've chosen. I can return her to you."

He'd agreed without hesitation.

After a flash of light, She'd handed him a small glowing red stone. Then, with the last of Her essence, he'd cast one final spell. The greatest in his long life. It shook the heavens. All of the world collapsed in on itself, and he found himself in the void for the second time.

The memory of that moment was hazy, but in his too-small coffin, resting in his bony palm, he held a small black stone. He could feel all that had been within it.

The other, the red stone the Goddess had given him, had become something else when he found himself back in his coffin. From it sprouted a small form. One that he was intimately familiar with. He felt himself slip away.

***

Wiling his soul back into his decayed body, he reached out and again brushed the red hair of the one who rested on his chest. The soft glow of the sigils etched into the lid of his tomb illuminated her. She was small, the size of a large cat. Her body slowly restored itself like his. At that moment, she was little more than skin and bones. Her breathing was labored, her eyes sunken. But she was alive.

A soft groan escaped her lips. She'd felt him stir.

"Master..." She whispered in the darkness of their tomb. Her voice was hoarse.

He pulled his spirit the rest of the way into his rotten body and spoke to her. "I'm here, Angra."

She moaned. "I had a terrible dream..." Her breath came in gasps.

"What happened?"

"I dreamed that you were gone. and I... was all alone... forever." Her little body shuddered.

"I'm here."

"Good..." She nested into his chest. As she did, she sniffed, then coughed. "You stink." She lifted her emaciated arm, sniffed herself, and coughed again. "We stink."

"It's okay. Sleep more. We'll be whole soon."

"Okay..."

"Sleep well, little one."

"Master...?"

"Yes?"

"I'm happy you're with me... I was afraid when I woke up, you wouldn't be here..."

He reached out and hugged her to his chest. She nestled into his bony form. "I'm here..." He held her close. Her breathing slowed, then stopped. When she was still, he drifted back into the void.

***

Abad felt himself drifting among the vast emptiness that was the void. Slowly, carefully, he channeled his essence into his healing body, like he had once before. It had nearly been restored the last time he'd checked. He hoped it was finished.

As his spirit filled his body, he could feel that he lost some of his power in his long sleep, but not nearly so much as after his first death. Somehow, whatever he'd done had preserved him against that effect. That would be useful.

He felt the form on his chest stir. She was heavier now. "Master..." She yawned. "Is it time to wake up now?"

He yawned in response. His body felt whole. He could feel as his chest rose and fell. He was alive again. So was his beloved familiar. The Goddess's final gift to him. "Yes. It's time to wake up."

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He reached up and pushed against the lid of the sarcophagus. It slid away, revealing the dimly lit vault beyond. He felt a wave of emotion as he saw its stone ceiling. He didn't know if he would ever see it again. He had performed magic far outside the bounds of the Goddess's laws and didn't even know if he'd truly succeeded.

Sitting up, his little familiar crawled off his lap and sat on the lid. The smell hit her first. "Ugh!" She exclaimed, holding her nose. "We really stink!"

"Well, we've been in a coffin for five hundred years."

"How do you know how long it's been?" Her fiery eyes met his. "I would have said a hundred."

"It's complicated." He yawned and stretched. Blinking a few times to clear his eyes, he looked around his beloved vault and was confused. He assumed his vault would have been in the same condition as he'd left it. However, it had completely changed.

Instead of discarded coins, broken chests, and toppled pedestals, everything was neatly ordered. Coins were sorted and stacked in chests and his remaining treasures and trophies were displayed on cleaned and polished pedestals. Someone had gone through a great deal of effort to make it nice again.

He heard a noise behind them, and something tapped him on the head. Looking up, he saw glowing red eyes boring into him. The Grimoire!

"Hello, Master of the Vault. Did you have a nice rest?" The book asked in its deep, rumbling tone. Abad stared at it as it spoke. He was speechless. How could it be here?

"Grimoire?" Abad asked. "How is it that you're here?"

"A strange question, student of my maker." Its skeletal hand brushed its chin. It cocked its head to the side, thinking. "I don't know what you did, but it felt as if a great force shifted this place from wherever it was to somewhere new. When the magic took hold, I searched the caverns surrounding the vault, but I found that they looped in on themselves. A magnificent feat, Abad-Shai. That alone is worthy of praise. You have come far." The skeleton placed a bony hand on his shoulder. "Being trapped as I was in this place, I simply decided to continue my work. After some time, I felt your essence enter that tomb of yours, so I simply worked and waited for you to awaken." It looked at him for a long time. "However, by your words, I see that not all went as you expected. Please, enlighten me. How is it that you have done what you've done, and what exactly did you do?"

Abad reached down and grabbed the black orb he'd held for many years, then showed it to the book. "I cheated."

The book almost seemed to blink its skeletal eyes at him. "Cheated?"

"Things happened that were out of my control. So the Goddess and I worked together to contain that world inside this." The book leaned in and peered at the object. "Inside this orb is the world as it was when it ended."

"Impossible! Even with that witch's help, it is not possible to do what you say!"

"And yet," He handed the object to the book, whose skeletal hands wrapped around it tenderly. It studied the object in the dim light. "I did."

"This defies belief, young one." Abad felt its essence reach into the object. It gasped. "I sense many things within. Souls, memories, events. Too many to count... This is fascinating." The skeleton turned the object in his bony hands, marveling at it.

Abad chuckled. "So now you believe me?" The book nodded.

"Tell me of the end. I know nothing of this and wish to fill my pages."

***

They sat on the coffin's lid and spoke for a long time. The book asked endless questions as it attempted to grapple with the events that had transpired. Angra had listened wide-eyed as he spoke.

"So I saved your life?" She puffed out her chest.

"You did."

"But then I died?" She deflated.

"Yes. I managed to save your essence, but Helia stole your soul stone from me, and it shattered."

Angra stamped her feet. "That rotten whore. I'll tear her apart."

"Then how was she returned to you, young one?" The grimoire asked.

"She said I'd need help on my journey and asked who I'd need most." His gaze drifted to the imp, who blushed. "So I answered, and the Goddess pulled her essence back together and gave her back to me."

"Stupid idiot..." She blushed deeply and stamped off.

"And how did you do what you did? I still don't understand."

Abad thought for a time. How could he explain it? "I used [Dominion] and the Goddess's remaining essence to anchor my spirit to the moment I first died, then shunted the vault into the astral sea, like when one makes an arcane sanctum. Then, I used the principles for creating a soul stone, but instead of trapping a soul, I folded the world in on itself, creating that black orb." He shook his head. "I have no idea how I pulled it off, but I did."

"How were you not sealed with that doomed world?"

"At the last second, I threw myself from the Tower. When I died, my spirit was pulled into the void along with the soul stones, then back to my sarcophagus."

The skeleton shook its head. "So is all of Reial gone then? Are we trapped in this place? I sense the Depths beyond, so that can't be true, can it?"

"No. Even with the rest of her power at my disposal, I couldn't seal away an entire plane. Instead, she loosened her laws, and I was able to seal away everything past the moment Faye killed me."

"Why then?"

"Because that was the moment that came most easily to me. I spent so long in that coffin that it was easy to visualize."

The skeleton continued to shake its head. "While creating an arcane sanctum is not unknown, no known magic could have done the rest. You did the impossible. I am humbled." The skeleton's red points of light glowed in the darkness as the being considered him. "And you say that the Goddess assisted you?"

He smiled. "Yeah. She reminded me of some things I'd forgotten. The memories are hazy now, but we've not always been at odds."

"That history is unknown to me. For as long as I'm aware, you have been her sworn enemy. I'm surprised she'd deal with you."

Abad laughed. "I realized that the enmity is a bit one-sided. But it's not important. Not now."

***

The book asked many more questions, but in time it was finally satisfied. It had pulled itself out its skeletal ribs and was scribing furiously as Abad stretched his limbs. He hadn't moved in centuries, and everything hurt. Angra groaned as she stretched her wings, her little body hunched like an old woman as she did laps around the vault.

He still couldn't believe that any of it worked, and even more surprising was the fact that the grimoire had made the trip too. Not only the grimoire but its creations as well. Abad watched as the skeletons the grimoire had raised went to and fro, arranging, polishing, cleaning, and maintaining the vault. He appreciated the efforts but didn't understand why. At long last, his curiosity got the best of him. "Book, why do you do all this? You've taken it upon yourself to maintain this vault of mine. Why?"

His old master's creation laughed. "I don't know how long it has been from your perspective, but I was left alone for many long years. At first, I simply decided to repair the teleportation seal after that unfortunate mishap with your old ally. It had been ruined when you'd left. I wasn't even certain you'd survived. However, with nothing else to do, I recarved it. I intended to find you; however, once I'd finished, this place had become a sanctum, and I was stuck in the astral sea. With nothing else to do, I went into torpor, but over time, the filth and decay wore on my nerves, so I decided to clean and rearrange things. It took many years to repair the damage, but I succeeded. In time, I found the act of maintaining this place soothing."

"So it's a hobby?"

"Yes. It keeps me centered."

"Fair enough." Abad laughed. He looked around at the bustling skeletons.

Seeing where he looked, the grimoire spoke. "They have been my companions for a long, long time. Though they are mindless thralls, they obey without question, so we get along quite well."

Abad smiled. "It's good to be here again."

"It's good to have you." The skeleton seemed to grin. "So what do you intend to do now, dark one?"

"I don't entirely know. The path I chose led to the end, so I have to consider where I went wrong and what I can do differently." He looked over at Angra. Her yellow eyes met his.

"Wrong?" Angra echoed.

Memories of her loss came to him. "Yes. I need to consider what choices I've made, and what mistakes I must correct. The path I chose led to some comfort, but it wasn't the correct one." His words were soft, almost a whisper.

"I don't understand."

"I don't either. Not fully, at least."

"That's not very comforting, master..." She shuffled where she stood.

"Do you trust me?"

Her eyes grew wide. She walked over, hopped in his lap, and nuzzled her head into his arm. "Of course. You're my master."

He stroked her small head. "Thank you, dear friend." He sat with her in his arms for a time, savoring the feel of her heat against his skin. He'd missed her terribly. "I'll make sure to do it right this time." Her eyes met his. "And if I don't, I'll do it again."

The grimoire stopped writing. "Explain."