Riloth the 19th the 299th

“Get up! It's back!” Dagmar’s voice shouted.

I jumped out of bed, Conjuring my sword to hand, and picking up my boots as I ran down the hall.

We made our way through the crowd towards the entrance just as before while Dagmar updated me on the fight’s aftermath.

“I got to the gate in time to see the end of your fight,” she explained. “I had no weapon so stayed back to watch. At the end, when you died, the space around you seemed to shrink. A massive sphere appeared and looking at it was like staring through a glass bottle, the world through it was distorted, and stretched towards a central point. When the effect faded, the demon still stood, though half of its body was missing—the front half. The demon’s chest had been sucked into your death spell, and much of its legs and arms, yet somehow it fought on. It slew your friends, but it did not torture them, such was his anger. For some reason—wards I suspect—the demon couldn't get past the walls. It killed anyone still outside and then threw carts and wagons into the city. It went for hours, but then Tilavo showed up. He went right up to the demon and incinerated it in a beam of brilliant light. The light bleached the dirt white and killed all the grass and trees in its path out beyond what I could see."

"Where was he before?" I asked.

"Who knows?"

Outside, free of the magic that canceled sound, I heard the demon once more.

“Come out, little wyrmling!”

The words were accompanied by raining debris.

“Stay here and stop Daulf from running out there!” I ordered Dagmar as I ran to Levar’s across the rooftops. It was difficult in my post-inebriated state, but I managed.

When I returned to the Parlor, I found Dagmar and Trish talking animatedly.

“I would know if he had any dwarven friends!” I heard Trish say as I got close.

“Trish, she’s not lying. Where is Daulf?”

She looked me over just as she had the today before. The exactness of the gesture sent pangs of guilt through my heart.

Is she now doomed to die this more horrible death?

“He went towards the northern gate to face that monster.”

“I told you to stop him!” I shouted at Dagmar.

“Believe it or not, he didn’t spend time listening to the beggar dwarf,” she said, gesturing at herself.

“Do you think we can take it this time?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” she answered.

“I have to try.”

“What can you do? Why must you help?” Trish asked, just as before, each syllable deepening my guilt. “He can handle himself. Don’t involve yourself.”

“I have to,” I answered, just as before. “This is my fault. You need to stay here.”

“Burning flooding balls of Faust’s bastards!” she shouted into the air in frustration.

She reached into her jacket and drew her knives, but when she did, she froze.

“What do you mean?” she asked the air to my right. “What? That’s absurd.”

"Is this normal for her?" asked Dagmar.

"No," I replied as Trish carried on her one sided conversation.

"Tal, has this happened before?" she asked me, clearly thinking the very premise of the question absurd.

I paused, considering how to answer, and settled on the truth.

"Yes."

Her eyes grew wide in shock, and her wry smirk turned to one of worry.

"Did I die?" She asked in a whisper barely audible over the crowd streaming past us into the Parlor.

I looked away before answering, "Yes."

What is happening? How does she know this? Why now of all times?

"I need to help Daulf. Please stay here. Trust me, you can't help. You too Dagmar. Only magic can harm that."

I didn't give them a chance to protest as I ran off to face the demon once more.

Daulf was standing between the demon and the flood of refugees when I reached the gate, the demon stood twirling his whip once again as he waited.

"Welcome back Theral!" He greeted me with his disturbing enthusiasm. "Or is it Tal? Your friends screamed both after your little incident. I spent the rest of the day flaying their flesh. They begged until the world reset."

He's lying. He doesn't know that I know Tilavo killed him. Can I use this?

I ignored him for the moment and yelled to Daulf, "Daulf, you need to leave. We can't defeat him. The city is warded. Come back with me, we can be safe!"

The demon broke out in laughter at my plea.

"You think that will work? Even I can tell this fool will die a thousand deaths before running. He's one of those. But I think I might be able to help him reach that tally."

Daulf gave no response. The demon was right, we both knew it.

He charged the demon, and I followed. The battles ended much the same. The demon never took to the air, having learned I could turn that to my advantage. He didn't toy with us, he fought aggressive and reckless and battered through Daulf's defenses, losing an arm to the Chosen in the process. I tried to switch places with Daulf using my new spell, but I was too late.

I charged the demon in anger, screaming as I did. I drew on the Font of Force, hoping for a more dramatic effect, but just before my death magic unleashed, the demon leapt back with a wing assisted jump.

Riloth the 19th the 300th

Dagmar woke me again, and we took off without a word.

Outside in the hall she updated me on what had happened. Trish had stood at the Parlor, paralyzed by indecision and speaking angrily at the air. Dagmar had left her to find Simon and asked if he had a way to call for Tilavo. Simon brought out a bell, much like the room service ones, though much more ornate. They rang it three times, the sign of an emergency, but the proprietor did not return until six in the morning, three hours after the bell had rung, but still three hours sooner than his previous arrival.

The demon had dodged my attack, and spent the time that followed bombarding the town with the heaviest items from the camp.

He was surprised that Tilavo arrived so early, but the dragon gave him no time to question it before burning him away.

"Go get the potions. I'm going to try to stop Daulf from leaving the city."

Dagmar ran to Levar's, and I searched the crowd for Daulf. From the vantage point of the Parlor, I made out his large form squirming upstream through the river of refugees.

"Wait!" I sent him through a Message.

He stopped and turned, finding my eyes remarkably fast. To my surprise, he did as I asked, and I wasted no time running to meet him.

"What is it?" he asked, urgently but still concerned.

"You can't go out there. You must believe me. We can't beat it. We need to wait. Tilavo will be back in a few hours. Only he can kill it! He's a dragon! Not even a death spell can fell this beast. I've tried—we've tried—twice already, but both times we died," I pleaded with him to stay, adding at the end. "Please believe me."

He stared deep into my eyes and placed his hand on my shoulder. His lacked the telltale blue of his truth sight, but still it felt like he could see into my soul.

After a moment he finally said, "I believe you, but I cannot stay. I am needed, even if my death buys but a single life."

He left me, but before he got too far I cast Mage Armor on him, for what little it would do.

Dagmar found me in the crowd and handed me my potions. Will restored, I followed Daulf to my death.

This time I didn't wait for the demon to taunt us once I got in range, I began to draw power from the Font of Force. Just as it reached the point of no return where the power grew to an uncontrollable cascade, I moved to the Font of Space. I don't know how I managed it, and I knew the task would have been impossible to me just a week prior, but somehow as the Force Magic grew in my body I completed the spell and teleported to just in front of the demon. As soon as I appeared, my death spell unleashed, catching the demon fully in the face.

Riloth the 19th the 301st

Dagmar woke me and I ran to my window scanning the crowd below. I spotted Daulf running down the steps of the Parlor and Blinked through the glass.

I fell uncomfortably close to the ground before my tired mind managed to cast Slow Fall, but the shrieks at my descent drew Daulf's attention. Again I begged him to stay, explaining the resets as best I could in the brief time allotted me, but he refused.

"If that's true, I hope you can find a way out of this. I must do what I know is right."

I ran to Levar's, and then back outside the gate to die at Daulf's side futilely once more

Riloth the 19th the 302nd-309th

The next day I ran down with Dagmar, and she explained that no matter what she did with the bell, Tilavo never arrived before six. She waited at the door for Trish while I ran for potions.

As soon as I returned, I called to Trish, "Draw your weapons!"

She did as I asked without hesitation, and the confusion on her face grew as she stared to the side once more talking to the air.

I activated my Willsight, and as I had suspected—hoped?—I saw a hazy cloud of Will in the rough shape of a man. The brilliant blue light of the figure glowed with an intensity that rivaled Tilavo's aura, but it had an ineffable beauty to it unlike any aura I'd ever seen.

A celestial! How long has this been here?

"Trish," I said, pointing to where I knew the other-Realmly being to be. "What it's saying is true. The world is resetting. I can remember. There's a demon killing Daulf. I need your help."

She looked from me to the celestial, and tears began to run down her cheeks. "I don't understand what's going on, but you don't know what you are asking of me. I will not take his offer."

She threw the long knife to the ground, and as soon as it left her hand the celestial vanished. I didn't understand the one-sided conversation, but had no time. I Conjured my sword to my hand, and offered it to Trish.

"You can use mine."

She looked from the sword to my face, and then back to the discarded knife.

"Okay, but if this is futile, please don't ask this of me again," she begged in a tone I'd never heard from her, even as an act."Don't let me draw that knife."

"I promise," I said, and I meant it. This was the situation I'd been fleeing. The reason I'd never included my friends in my plans, and now I had no choice and even with their aid we were still doomed to fail.

"Are you going to tell me about the celestial?" I asked as we ran to the nearest roof.

"No, and don't ask again until I can remember the conversation."

I left it at that and we ran to the gate as Dagmar followed, grumpily pushing through the crowd.

We did not win that battle, but we did better. With the aid of my Gusts, Trish was able to survive against the demon long enough to deal some real damage. In her hands, my sword covered the demon with streaks of frozen flesh. I'd never before seen her wield a rapier, but she had clearly trained in the weapon.

It didn't matter. The demon killed Daulf, then Trish, and I cast a death spell. And then we did it all over again.

Five more times we tried. The days totaled to a handful of hours from my perspective. Dagmar stayed out of it at my insistence that the demon not learn of her awareness of the resets. She instead spent her time trying to force Tilavo to appear sooner. She broke into private rooms of the Parlor, assaulted the staff, and even tried burning it down, but no matter what, the dragon never came earlier than six.

The first battle where Trish used my sword was the best we ever did. The demon was himself a skilled warrior, and after only a few bouts with Daulf, he learned the flaws of his form and exploited them ruthlessly. Even with my magical aid, Trish never lasted long after Daulf fell.

While I could remember each battle, I couldn't capitalize on the knowledge, as the demon remembered just as well.

After the seventh attempt with Trish, I gave up. I tried one last time to get Daulf to stop, but I knew it to be as futile as the battle he ran to.