It was a slow, meandering walk back towards his crystal tower, but one that I quite enjoyed. Mostly because the exertion left Alred sweaty and out of breath. It was a petty joy, certainly, but one that was easily added towards the tally of vengeance for his wizard tricks. Skelt joined us, silently walking behind and to the right as soon as we left the forest proper, Alred giving the man only a shallow nod for greeting.

While I hadn’t yet entered the tower, the entry hall was as grand and pompous as I imagined it would be. Crystalline statues of maidens and young men in somewhat artistic, if garish, poses created a corridor within the round room. The walls themselves were designed as murals that depicted the various adventures and important moments in Alred’s life that he wanted to display towards his guests. Powerful creatures slain, battles being waged, dungeons cleared, triumphs and failures all told of the Planar Lord’s life. I was particularly annoyed at one mural that seemed to show me breathing fire down his neck as he worked to study magic.

Around us, the robed mages paused to bow low in greeting to the man, but he didn’t even bother to acknowledge their presence. Instead, he focused a conflicted expression on the one or two murals that depicted him with his late wife. I didn’t slow in our walk, not wanting him to distract himself from the goal of showing me the sleeping giants from a bygone age.

At the end of the corridor of statues, we paused before the archway that led to the spiraling staircase, Alred giving it a grimace and a look of distaste before sharing a knowing glance with me. At the same time, we both cast spells that would levitate us a few feet up the floor and began to traverse the stairs in a hovering fashion.

Behind us, I heard Skelt struggling to keep up. Alred hadn’t taught him the spell needed to travel this way, though I could only offer suspicions as to why. On the stairwell, other mages that were going up and down would pause and move to the side as Alred passed. The doorways that led off to different floors showed me a multitude of quarters, meal halls, libraries, lecture halls, laboratories, and more. Magic workings of many different types were wrought in great numbers, even this early in the morning.

If I had to place a number, I imagined there to be at least three hundred mages housed in his tower, more than I had seen in any place that wasn’t one of the academies. That he gathered so many was noteworthy. That he gathered so many to work for him was extraordinary. I didn’t envy the man his position, though. I wouldn’t want that responsibility interfering with my own research. I did note a few interesting applications of spells that I hadn’t considered before, even though they were too low tier to make an immediate difference in the world at large.

Yet, it was when we reached the top of the tower that all my thoughts and considerations fell away. I was dumbfounded by what I saw. Behind us, I could see clearly into the void. Easily, I recognized other planes that circled the world like the one we were on. Crystal benches had been wrought around the tower’s top, and we weren’t alone. Other mages sat or stood and whispered to each other their observations. Yet, none of that was what caused me to hold my breath. It was the giants.

The top of the tower was maybe the height of three men above the top of the quartz cliff. But on that quartz cliff was an enormous flat shelf filled with the sleeping forms of giants. Not any kind of giant that I had imagined, either. I had pictured a giant to be an elf as tall as my tower. I knew humans pictured them as large humans, three or four times the size of an ogre. Yet true giants weren’t those at all. Each one was the size of a mountain itself. Their sleeping bodies rested in great mounds that made even the Tervan’s snake god pale in size. Four enormous clawed legs. Bodies covered in giant spikes. A face that held a long, thin snout. It was preposterous and alarming to consider. These giants were some relative to a porcupine or a hedgehog. The mountains full of giant ants struck me now as something I should have considered more.

Even greater than these giants was the domed spell that kept them in their slumber. A spell that could easily cover the entirety of Sena. Maybe all of the five kingdoms. I could see in the working the hints of many different types of magic. A powerful sleeping spell, a barrier that contained all within it and prevent anything from entering. More than that, I saw the spellwork that took death mana from the sleeping giants and converted it to life mana. What looked like time magic, as well, though I wasn’t entirely certain. This spellwork held complexities beyond what I ever thought or seen.

I withdrew my tome and began to write, both my observations and the intricate spell forms that were used. I sat on one of the many benches that had been placed around the rooftop solely for gazing at the giants. While I couldn’t possibly power such a spell without the holy magic of the gods, I didn’t need to. This sleeping spell, that kept them alive, was the Stasis magic that my tower crystal had asked for only a couple of years ago. That told me it was possible for mortals to cast such a spell and had done so before. If I could pull it apart to see how it worked, the piece that converted death to life could be the answer to the Longevity spell I had sought after for so long!

I was so enraptured in my writing and analysis that I didn’t hear Alred depart. He must have, because he was coming back up the stairs when his words interrupted me, “Still at it?”

I had already finished transcribing the spellwork, and had been studying the patterns to see if I could comprehend it when he spoke. With a glance up, I gave him a pleased smile. “This might hold the answers I’ve been working towards for a long time.”

“The slumbering spell? Aye, I considered looking into it as well. I thought if I could master it in time, I could put Natali to sleep until I had a cure. She didn’t want that.” Alred shook his head. “She wanted to do her damn ritual and ‘return to the soil’. I—she, she could be so hard-headed at times. It was part of why I loved her.”

“Loved? Have you stopped?” I asked, quietly.

“No. And I don’t think I ever will. Not in this lifetime. Yet, she’s all I can think about. Like a bird constantly pecking at my head,” Alred confided in me as he came to sit down on the bench beside me. “What do I do, old friend? I don’t think I can live without her.”

I nodded sympathetically and stroked my beard before answering. I knew the question was rhetorical, but that didn’t mean that I could let his words lay unanswered. “You work. You work on the dream you and she had. You work to save as many as you can. Because, for all the pain you feel now, how many others will feel the same if you don’t? Yes, it’s a sacrifice, but this is the end of the Age and we all must work or we will all die. If you can’t do it for anyone else, do it for Natali.”

My words hung in the air, the chatter of other mages that had been in the background for as long as I had been up here fell away to a heavy silence. I hadn’t meant to speak so loudly, so adamantly, but I had. I regretted speaking my words immediately. Not the message or the tone, but that I had more audience than just Alred. I wished I had more time to prepare my words, to select each one specifically so that they would echo further or carry Alred’s motivations higher. However, that was just one more tiny regret and I shoved the emotion away.

Instead, I filled myself with determination. How hypocritical would I be to deliver such words and taskings unto my friend and not apply myself equally? No. I had visited long enough. I made my decision. It was time to return to my tower. I stood up, tucking away the tome I had been holding and offering a hand to my old assistant. I could tell from the look on Alred’s face that he understood, both my words and what I intended by standing up.

We might not see each other again, but so long as we carried on in our work, that too was a sacrifice we were willing to make.