Another harsh cough wracked through the man’s aged body.

Weak pants followed in from behind. Despite it all, the elderly man could still not curse the way his life was about to end. Why should he? He had a long and full life, no matter how you looked at it. Here, on his death bed and surrounded by family, his final hour approaching...

Hadrian could not have wished for anything else.

And yet, part of him still feared the silently approaching end.

Was it not the deepest fear of all living things? Not even the Elves of the Aldari could escape it. Time, they could keep up with. Some of their most venerated leaders were thousands upon thousands of years old, after all. But, there were other perils they were not safe from. Swords and spears, poisons and diseases, and most of all, the hatred of implacable foes.

The wisest of all beings? It was a wisdom the Aldari earned only after many mistakes and hardships.

The man sighed as he shifted slightly, trying to get more comfortable. It was then that he felt hands fixing the pillow he had been resting his head on.

“Thank you...”

But what came next was said in a voice he did not recognize.

"Think nothing of it, old friend."

Pushing his weary eyes open, Hadrian looked at the room around him. Everything seemed the same. Except, he could not see any of his loved ones around. More to the point, he realized that the room he was in was indeed the same one... The very same room he had when he was but a child.

And beside him, a man like no other.

Impossibly immaculate. As if nothing could touch him. As if his existence transcended everything around him. And in a way, it did.

“Who...” The old man began, only to begin coughing hard again, hand clutching at his chest. Pale fingers soon rested upon aged ones as the much younger human smiled down at him, even though his eyes were filled with something that could not have been mistaken for anything but sadness.

Sadness so deep that Hadrian could not help but feel his heart cry out for the young man.

With his other hand, the young man held a finger up to his lips, as if telling him to be silent. It was then that he noticed his coughing had stopped. More to the point, he noticed that he no longer felt any pain. In fact, it was as if he felt young once again, rejuvenated. As if decades had been taken off his shoulders.

“It’s all right.”

Hadrian stared up at the youth, something whispering to him from deep within his body, perhaps all the way from the soul.

“Vanar.”

With only a comforting smile, the god nodded.

“Forgive me for being late.”

The elderly mortal shook his head, not minding it at all but rather concerned about something else. “My family?”

“Still at your side, praying for you. To them, you’re merely sleeping comfortably.”

Relieved, the old man finally returned the smile. “Thank you... Is it...” The question went unfinished, but not unknown.

“Nearly. I did not want to see you go without paying my respects.”

Hadrian could only chuckle. He had always been a lover of history, and it always was strange to see the difference between the god before him and the ancient gods. They had been full of indifference toward those they claimed rule over, full of ambition only for themselves. As if the heavens belonged to them alone.

Unlike them, Vanar had abandoned the lofty heights of the heavens and chose to walk among the mortals instead. A god that loved his people more than anything. A god that had no wish to be worshiped as the ancient gods had demanded. A god that always had the time for anyone, no matter how far they had fallen or how miserable they had become. Instead, he only wanted to help them up, to make them strong again.


“I am honored.” Hadrian smiled, deeply embarrassed. He had never really seen Vanar as a god, just as an exceptionally gifted man who had taken advantage of the circumstances and positioned himself as the planet’s ruler.

And yet, here he was.

“No. I was there to see you come into this world, and it was my honor to see it happen. Now that you are about to leave, I respect you too much to miss such a solemn event. The honor, old friend, is still mine.”

Vanar smiled as his hand closed on the older man’s arm, reassuring him. “You have nothing to fear, I promise. I will watch over your family just as I watched over you. They will be all right. They inherited your strength, after all.” The god squeezed the wrist in his hand softly, taking great care to ensure that his charge remained as comfortable as possible. Even here, in the shadows of memory, Vanar did not wish for the aged mortal to feel any sort of unease and had chosen one of the happiest times in his life.

Now, he couldn’t even remember what it felt like to fear death. A most unique gift, to not only feel youthful again but to experience all of youth’s exuberance as well. “Thank you, Vanar.”

Nothing more was said now. Nothing more needed to be said now.

Hadrian laid where he was, silent as he thought to himself, barely aware of the god beside him. And in his wish to show the man nothing but utmost respect, the god remained silent as well, counting off the seconds until Hadrian would ask him-

“Vanar. Do you always watch us, all of us? Even if we don’t believe in you?”

He only nodded, still silent. It was not the time to speak yet.

“Every moment of our lives?”

And now, it was time.

The god chuckled, surprisingly so. “Worry not, old friend. I, too, appreciate the value of privacy. Rest assured, I saw nothing to be embarrassed of.” Despite all of their supposed differences, all races had several things in common. It was one of the reasons he loved all of them as one people, instead of many.

It was his fondest wish.

For there to be no more races. No more countries. No more differences.

Just one Mankind.

Only then would he ever be free of his duty, free to embrace his own death. Free to face the one thing that was denied him. Two thousand years had gone by since the first days of his rule, and he would have been lying if he had said he was not weary at all. More than anything, Vanar wished only to be reunited with those he had grown up with and fought alongside with. With the sole exception of one man, they all had gone on to the next world, leaving him behind.

Even now, whole generations marched on their way to the next life, and even though he was far older than any of them, he still could not keep up with the speed of their marching, nor could he go with any of them.

Not until man could live freely without the influence of the gods, responsible for only their own actions. It didn’t matter if their wars went on, if they still fought each others...

Just as long as they held themselves accountable.

No more words passed for a long time.

Then, it came. Vanar watched with both sadness and relief as the old man slipped free of his mortal coil, free of all the pains he had been afflicted with. He knew that Hadrian, at the very end of his life, understood that death wasn’t something to be feared.

It was simply life’s final farewell.

And to the god, the sight of the elderly man on his bed, surrounded by his grieving loved ones as the attending physician confirmed the time of death...

It was a sight more powerful than the splendor of any past kings. He had come without any of them knowing. And he left without any of them knowing.

It wouldn’t be long until he returned to the family, to see another friend off.

In the blink of an eye, even.

Sighing, the god faded from sight as he left the household to work out its grief. And atop the tallest spire of the capital, both his seat of power and the greatest city on the world, Vanar reappeared.

From atop his city, Vanar watched as the heavy rains fell atop the spires and towers, remembering countless deaths before Hadrian. And with his powers as the God of Time, he too saw the countless deaths that had yet to come. His punishment, he decided, for daring to become a god even if it had been done with the best of intentions.

Everyone knew what the road to Hell was paved with, after all.

The rains grew harder as the winds blew even harder, the forces of nature growing more furious as the god began shedding tears for Hadrian, for so many others, for the world itself. It was a heavy punishment, he thought to himself once again as he had so many times before. One he would bear without complaint. Because he knew the truth. That immortality wasn’t a gift. That it was a curse of the highest order. A cruel game for anyone to be caught up in. Even the Aldari had the wisdom to not revel in their immortality, many of them often choosing to undergo ritual suicide once they had enough of life, rather than staying around for countless centuries.

Not him, however. He had to endure. He had to stay. He had to be here.

Always here.

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