LU 59 - Space 12

I was relaxing in the town's hub area when I overheard some kids talking about a large castle and how rundown it was. Intrigued, I interjected into their conversation and asked about what they were talking about. They began to describe how they found a large castle in ruins and met with an old self-proclaimed queen. There was only one person I knew who could possibly claim themselves to be the queen of the only castle I've ever seen in my 500 years: Illios. But didn't she... die? Yeah, there's no way she's somehow alive, right? I was filled with this feeling of hope, so I pressed the kids for more information. However, they didn't seem eager to share more than they did with a stranger (which is fair but come on). They mentioned having to go see a friend elsewhere, so I thanked them for the talk and ran for the empire. Using my muscle memory, I managed to find my way back to my old home. It was... in ruins. The entire town area was broken down by nature, and the castle didn't look much better. Curious, I began to explore the old building in hopes of running into Illios. Everything was about to collapse into a pile of dust, and every room looked horrible. I felt a twisted feeling of nostalgia as I roamed the empty shell of a once-all powerful empire, and my hope began to run dry the more I explored. I eventually gave up, and decided to sit down and pray in the church for old time's sake. I prayed that things would go my way in life, and I prayed that I could see whoever those kids ran into here. And by the grace of Katharos I watched Illios walk into the church with some other guy. To say I was shocked when she came through that door would be a major understatement.

I immediately ditched what I was doing and went to greet Illios, but she seemed a bit upset and confused at me being here. She asked how I was alive, and I poorly avoided the question. Then she began to blame Katharos for me being here, and I said that I wished it was his fault but it wasn't. I was introduced to her friend, Awyr; he was chill, so meeting him was nice. Illios tried to get into how I was here, but I didn't wanna bring up how with the rest of the people in the room. To my luck, they left to go do other things and left us to talk. I used this chance to explain to Illios my entire situation, from start to finish. I've actually never seen her this upset, aside from when Fallen and Ajan died. There was a bit of loud silence, then Illios offered to help me. HAH, she thinks she can help me? No. I'm well beyond salvation. She started to brainstorm, but I shot down every idea she had since I've been thinking the same things for 500 years. She suggested gathering a few gods to lock Katharos away, and just the fact that *that's* the most reliable option in my eyes made me laugh a bit. She also suggested reviving me after handing off the sword, but something tells me the 500 years of age I've been avoiding will catch up to me if I do give up the sword. It was obvious she felt incredibly bad for me, but I assured her that this was the only way to protect the world from destruction and chaos. To change the topic, I asked how she was alive. Apparently she was just "blessed" with immortality, I'm guessing because of her origin. We got a bit bored after some small talk about my kingdom and where it is, and decided to go find her new friends. We found them at the front, and with nothing else to do we all left the castle. We parted ways, but before we left I made Illios make sure to see me sometime soon. She agreed to, so I wished her and Edelle well and walked off. I haven't had a real friend in my life for 500 years, so seeing them again was incredible.