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[Deacon Drake]

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All he saw was gray.

Gray everywhere. The sky was gray, the ground was gray. His mind was gray, a huge gray spot in which he remembered nothing. He sat up, trying to get his bearings, but to no avail. It was all gray.

Yet out of the gray came a black object. Black swirling mists surrounded a black humanoid figure, hovering inches above the gray ground. The blackness stopped when it reached him. It looked down on him, almost in pity. Then suddenly the black turned to white. The black mists parted, and an old man, a sage in white robes, stood before him.

Excelsius...

The man sat up, staring in awe at the sage. The sage then sat down on a stone chair that wasn't there before. Before he realized it, the man noticed there was a chair next to him as well. He managed himself up into it, and continued to stare in confusion at the sage.

"Where am I?" he asked.
"This is the Abyss. You've been dead for nearly ten years now."
"This place is a hellhole. I've been here for ten years?"
The sage nodded. "I'm sorry I put you through all this. But you discovered the truth."
"It's what I do," the man replied. "And my son?"
"He is grown, now... a handsome young man. Unmarried as of yet. And don't worry... he didn't follow your path," he finished, to a sigh of relief from the man. "I've come to undo what I've done."
The man stared at him, unsure of what he meant. "Undo? I'm afraid you can't do that, old friend."
"Why not? You could."

The man fell silent. How had he found the tome? he wondered. The tome, his life's work...

It didn't matter. All that mattered was how the sage was here.

"I can explain that," the sage replied, peering into his thoughts like a nosy halfling. "I'm in the same situation as you are."
"You're dead!?" the man asked, shocked. "How is that possible?"
"The same was it's possible for you to be alive."
"You came here to get me out? Why?"
"I made a mistake in having you killed. You found out the truth about me. But it seems my meddling in the affairs of the physical world are causing more harm than good. You see... I had my ambitions when I was young. Hell, I was one of the few who accomplished such an act. But I can't meddle anymore in the affairs of time. Nobody can, I've realized that now... so I'm stopping myself before it happens."

"You killed yourself?" the man asked.
"I did. And by doing so everything is going to change. When you wake up in the morning, you will forget everything I've ever told you. I will have never come to you that day in Nujel'm. And I will have never been there to have you executed." The sage spoke in such a matter-of-fact tone as if he had no problem with his fate.

"And the others?"
"They're out there waiting for you." The sage stood up, turned around and walked away. "Don't thank me. I've caused enough trouble."

"Aras!" the man called after him. The sage turned slowly and glared. "Yes?"
"I do thank you."
The old man chuckled and continued walking away. "Enjoy the rest of your life, Steel."
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