Keir leaned against the stack of pillows, grateful that he finally had enough strength to weave a simple anti-pain spell. The drugs he'd been given had made his mind fuzzy and kept him too tired to do much more than sleep. He knew he needed the sleep, he was still too weak to leave his bed. But he also had things to do, or at least to plan.

Unfortunately he didn't have any real information. There were no reports to read, no one was willing to talk to him about the situation, and when he asked for information, he was told to rest. So he was mostly just bored.

Looking out the window didn't show much. Thick frost covered the glass, and the city was covered in sooty smoke, obscuring his view. Apparently while he'd been dead, coal had become the common way of heating. Even the radiator attached to the wall of his room was powered by the black rock. A furnace in the basement heated water, sending scalding hot steam throughout the building. It was efficient, but like so many other things, he wasn't used to it. His healers had been willing to tell him that miners had found a seam of cheap coal in the mine under the city. It wasn't very good, putting out thick, smelly smoke, but they'd been using it to power their industry for the last year.

He felt old. There were so many changes, and he had so little time to learn all of them.

Someone knocked on the door. Floria, gripping her pistol, called out, “Who is it?”

“Mage Von, I'd like to speak to Mage Keira.”

She opened the door, ready to shoot if it was an assassin pretending to be the mage. Keir had to admire her willingness to commit violence on his behalf. It was a useful trait in a bodyguard. She did have a fair bit to learn about her new duties, but at least she had a good base to start from.

“I didn't expect to see you Von,” Keir said.

“I heard you were doing better. I thought I should see it with my own eyes,” the mage replied.

Watching the mage take a seat, Keir decided it was time to do something he'd been avoiding. “Do you have time to talk?”

“Of course. I don't exactly have any duties at the moment. They don't quite know what to do with me yet.”

Turning his head to Floria, Keir smiled. “Can you give Mage Von and I some privacy for an hour?”

“Regua, I don't think it's a good idea to leave you alone,” she said.

“Floria, consider that a direct order. You can guard the door outside if you insist. But I'd prefer it if you got a few hours of sleep in a proper bed.”

Frowning, she nodded. “I'll just be outside.”

With the room free, Keir was able to focus all of his attention on the perplexing mage. They'd spoken many times over the weeks since his resurrection, but most of it was focused on spells, demons, or planning for a battle. What drove the mage, what kept him up at night, why he was willing to risk angering the Council, all of that was a mystery.

“How are you feeling,” Von asked.

“Like I've been shot,” he replied with a grimace. Sighing, he realized he needed to actually talk if he expected the mage to do the same. “I'm surprised I'm not dead. A quarter of an inch in any direction and I probably wouldn't be here.”

“It was very close. You were lucky it was a long shot, and just clipped your ribs on the way out. If it had ricocheted off your bones and done more damage to your body, or had a bit more energy...” Von shook his head, seemingly unwilling to say the obvious.

“Well... thank you. Without your magic I would have died.”

“I didn't do it alone. All the mages on the airship helped out, it's why you survived long enough to get here.”

Rubbing the thick bandage that rested just under his left breast, Keir nodded. “I can believe that. What I can't understand is why?”

“Why did I save you?” the mage asked. He gave a small smile. “I thought it was obvious, we need you.”

“Your Council doesn't think I'm needed. So, why did you decide you need me?”

The smile slipped from Von's face. Keir watched him, noticing how his hand rubbed the stump that had been his left hand. “I've fought this war right from the start. I've been in almost every major campaign. I've seen over two dozen cities fall, and I've lost count of how many towns were abandoned or destroyed. You fought wars, what was the largest group of refugees you ever saw?”

“I didn't count them. But I've seen thousands of dispossessed in camps and slums around recently conquered cities, or fleeing before the fighting started.”

“I've seen road so full of fleeing people you couldn't see the dirt. Sometimes my soldiers and I would take days pushing them aside. Struggling to either get to the front and face the demons, or running to the next line of defence. I've abandoned hundreds of thousands of people to the demons, because if I stopped to help them, we would have all died.”

“That's the lot of the soldier, and their leaders,” Keir said. “Sometimes you need to make sacrifices to do your duty.”

“I know. My duty is why I wake up in the morning. But at some point I realized I couldn't keep sacrificing others, I needed to sacrifice myself.” The smile returned, but this time it was a bitter one. “I could have sacrificed myself in some last stand. Plenty of others have done it when the death and terror became too much for them. Or I could be like General Ajani and put myself in situations where the only options were death or victory. But how would those sacrifices help anyone for more than a few weeks if I was lucky. More likely it would only make a few minutes difference.”

“So you decided to resurrect me.”

“Yes. You were a fairytale. A monster to keep children in line, and to give a reason to keep necromancy illegal. But I knew you were real, I'd spoken to soldiers who guarded your Heart and body. I couldn't go to your body directly. Even with the continent on it's knees, the Council wouldn't allow your return. So I made sure to slowly retreat towards Kodor. I bribed and cajoled officers to give me orders that kept me moving in the right direction. When I had to, I made sure something would happen, preventing me from going where the Council wanted me. Then I finally reached your tomb, and I still couldn't resurrect you. I was in Kodor, preparing a last stand, and High Commander Alder wouldn't let me get close to you.”

Keir watched the mage, searching for any sign of lying or trying to hide the truth. The deep lines that covered the man's face had been placed there by war and suffering. He'd seen similar many times, in the faces of defeated foes, and on his own. The dark brown eyes were hard, but only because they were the only thing holding back the exhaustion and grief, that was hinted at in Von's voice. “So you had to wait for the city to fall before you could resurrect me?”

“Yes,” the single word was almost a snarl. “I wanted to resurrect you to protect the city. We had good walls, supplies, and the men, It wasn't enough, but with you, we could have won. Even after the city fell and we ran to the Keep, it still took weeks of lying, forging orders, and paying off key people to raise you. I was finally able to sacrifice the only things that were important to me. My honour and my duty to the Eldritch Council.”

“So where do you stand now?”

“Like General Ajani, I'm just going to kill the demons. It's the only thing I can do.” Von shook his head, letting out a deep breath. “I've answered your questions, now I have my own. You've been doing your best to build up a power base and avoid getting anywhere near the Council. What are you going to do?”

“Kill the demons, of course,” Keir said with a grin. “I don't have much choice, I can't exactly summon a ship and go somewhere pleasant to continue my research.”

“And what will you do after that?”

“I don't know yet. The demons are a little more important than plans for my retirement.”

Von nodded in understanding.

“Did you really only have a girl's body to use?” Keir asked.

“Yes. Every other body was either damaged, too old, or too young. You seem to be dealing with it fairly well.”

“Only because I've been fighting, badly injured, or trying to avoid dying or becoming a slave. Lying here healing is giving me time to think about it.”

“Have you come to any conclusions?”

“Yes. I don't like it.”