Beyond?

***Free City States of Nict, Capital***

***Azir***

“That mirror is simply a wonderful tool to tell stories, Grandfather!” The boy on my lap claps his hands, watching my last match with Serenzar. “And to the left! Uppercut! Wow! That got him real good!” He gestures towards Fafne, who is sitting beside us. “Did you see the teeth flying? And that spray of blood?”

The boy is eight and he is Sariel's and Nathan's first son.

I smile and nod. “Telling stories is one of my best abilities, Karn.”

Zadkiel's daughter, Fafne, pulls at my robe. “But are you sure that it's okay to watch all these gruesome scenes at our age? My mother only shows me censored footage when we watch a movie for adults!”

Fafne is sitting at my side and is thirteen years old. Zadkiel found a really nice girl as his wife, though she is a little younger than him. Who would have ever thought that he would get together with Louise's daughter?

I think that in absence of a proper candidate Sariel and Zana put a lot of effort into raising one. Their choice fell on Louise's daughter, since she was neither too old, nor too young.

My children turned out to be dangerous existences despite our efforts. Luckily we have the advantage of age and knowledge over them. My ability to stop them from using magic also helps. I simply drain their surroundings of all mana, which leaves them with only their own mana pools.

As long as they don't learn to counter that by training inside a mana stream themselves, they can't oppose me. They may have my abilities, but in terms of wisdom and training they are far behind. Incidentally I, Mother, Grandmother and Valeria are also the only ones who know the proper training methods to gain the necessary level of control.

Maybe I should have a closer eye on my children. They have the tendency to abuse their powers when I am not looking.

I place one finger on my lips and wink at Fafne. “Who says that you have to tell her?” Fafne's mouth forms a voiceless 'O' and then she nods enthusiastically.

“But I want to know what happened to your old world? And your old body?” Karn starts rocking on my lap.

I gesture for the mirror to show them another scene. The displayed picture changes to a white, round planet. It's completely covered in ice and drifting through a sea of stars.

“Actually I went there to explore what the old emperor did to my world. The planet is completely frozen by now and the star is dying. There is nothing which can be done about it, but the people whom I cared about are long gone anyway.”

After pausing for a moment I continue. “Their degenerated descendants, who are roaming under the surface, aren't worth to be saved. They only pose a threat, if anything else. That's why we are still hunting down the remaining believers in the second emperor's cult.”

Even after such a long time, there are still fanatics appearing who attempt summoning rituals from time to time.

“Apparently he used the Shield of the Emperor to draw energy from the star. Then he used that power to reform this planet's core to his desires. It's irreversible as long as we don't plan to damage another star, which we won't do.”

Fafne looks up to me with a sad expression. “So all the people on your old world are dead? How could the emperor do such a thing?”

I smile at her and pat her head. “He was a power driven egomaniac. We'll never know for sure, but I don't think that he even checked if the star in question had an inhabited planet. He simply used it because it fulfilled the needed criteria.”

“Then what about Zana? Did she never get upset that Grandfather Serenzar didn't get punished?” Karn asks.

“That was indeed a little complicated.” I lean back on my chair. “At first we didn't tell her anything and kept their identity a secret. But after she turned thirty I decided to tell her the truth. She took it relatively well, but you have to remember that she had almost no connection to her real parents by that time. Stella and I were her parents for most of her childhood.”

“But why forgive Serenzar and Jeremiah at all if they did such bad things?” Fafne grumbles at my side.

I chuckle, seems like my little story got me far ahead in terms of popularity. “You shouldn't hate them for it. The world isn't just black and white. While it's true that there was much bloodshed, you also have to see that everyone just tried to achieve the best for their people. And they are people with almost endless lifespans. Who says that someone can't change in twenty or thirty years. They are powerful people and as much bad as they might have done, they are currently on a path to do as many good things.”

And the main reason is that Stella would probably get grumpy if I threw them into the dragon's cage. I don't want to be cut down on our happy time together.

I sigh. “I highly doubt that I am the same person as the me who died on that frozen world so long ago. But I am happy here. Now this world is my new home and Stella and everyone else is my family.”

“Even Aunty Valeria?” Fafne asks doubtfully. “She's strange. Father said that she's destroying the reputation of the Zait.”

My expression cringes. “Even Aunty Valeria.”

My sister totally got into painting and even created a new magical system from it. She's calling it reality manipulation and it's a hype all over the planet. After marrying and taking over the clan from Valda she went on a journey to show off her skills.

The new magical system uses mana infused paint to create an almost real picture of her model. The picture even ages with the one who was pictured. They look so real that people are willing to pay unbelievable sums of money for them.

Though as it goes with all great artists... she turned out to be a really unique person. “Don't worry. Valeria's case is the same as with Serenzar and Jeremiah. Once she gets old enough she will overcome that stage in her life. And I highly doubt that the Zait ever had so much money.”

“What about the second continent?” Fafne asks.

“Well, after the war it fell apart. Multiple small countries and city states formed. Some were democracies, some were ruled by dictators. Nict, Dwem and Quinn made the mistake of trying to keep it from coming apart. We struck down some dictators and warlords, but everything we achieved by doing so was making it worse.”

I shake my head. “Changes like that have to come from within the country, from the people. It doesn't work if you don't know the various groups and their desires. Waltzing in and destroying the structures of power without something to replace them is a hopeless undertaking.

Most of those people neither knew how to control a country, nor did they have the desire to do so. It wasn't within our capabilities to lead them towards a better future. They have to find their way on their own and the best thing we can do is to keep our fingers out of their business.”

“Then how did it happen that the nomads and northerners joined the alliance?” Fafne looks up to me with curiosity.

“Well, that's because we constantly demonstrated our desire for peace.” I smile. Probably I shouldn't mention that we bribed their leaders with hefty sums and rosy promises for the future. Those are national secrets after all. “And you have to see that they didn't join us right after the war. It took them ten years to overcome their grudges. Even now they aren't full members.” And even if the enemy leader eats out of your hand, it doesn't mean that he can overturn his people's opinion of you from one day to the next.

Fafne nods with a tired expression, simply accepting my words. “I guess that's true.”

I clap my hands together and put Karn down. “I have a great idea. Why don't we go and steal some chocolate from Stella. I think she hid a secret reserve in the pot above the kitchen's stove. If you share the loot with me I might come up with some other stories.”

“Yess!” Fafne gets up and runs out of the room, followed by Karn.

I take the remote controls for the memory mirror to deactivate it, but not before I call up a very special scene. “Oh, yes! Stella, you became such a-”

“AZIR!” Stella's voice bursts out from behind me and I deactivate the mirror. Damn it! She is too good at sneaking.

“What? I didn't do it! Not a thing!” Turning around I find her, red faced, glaring at me.

She gestures with her left hand that I'll get one head shorter. “If this ever gets public! You know what will happen?”

“Of course dear! This will never ever get public. I'll delete the mana net before that happens!” I place a hand on my chest and raise the other. “I take an oath on it!”

She nods and turns to leave the room. “Then it's good!”

“Whew!” I follow her with my eyes glued to her swaying tail. Maybe I should put additional encryptions on my secret files?

“So it's the end? The world is finally ending? I'll be free?” The dragon inside his barrier asks, looking down on the old man who is supporting himself with a staff.

The old man nods. “I am afraid so. We are the last ones. I just stayed behind to ensure that it's your end too.” He takes a hearty bite from a bar of chocolate. “At least I can say that I made the most out of this life.”

He freezes for a moment. “And maybe I'll meet all of my friends and my family again in another life? That's a pleasing thought.”

The dragon closes its eyes. “That's fine with me. After being locked away for so long, I think that death can be called a form of freedom.”

The old man's expression distorts into an evil grin. “Oh, I don't think so. At least not for you...”

-The End of Time

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