Like the phoenix, I am reborn from my ashes. The shedding of my old body is a desperate and painful process, but in the end, I have a new body, exactly like the old, and with all the memories of my former self.
Kazyr shook, the exertion of his rebirth was telling on him. He glanced behind him and saw a burnt husk lying in the remains of his wizard's robes. The age-old wizard shivered, this time from the cold of his windy castle. His new body was naked. He had to get some clothes on or he would die of the chill. Those sorry remains wrapped about his corpse would not warm him.
He wanted to call his phoenix fire around him one more, but didn't have the strength. The youthful-looking wizard staggered to his feet and stumbled down the staircase from the orb room in which he died.
Long ago, an evil overlord known as Ulgar tried to destroy his world. It took armies and humans, elves, and dwarves to stop him. The final battle ended with him being banished to another dimension, and only a trio consisting of an elf, a human, and a dwarf returned alive. The Black Seal, a magical warding forged by the dwarven craftsman, Mumbles, was what kept the overlord imprisoned in that other dimension. The key to the Black Seal were four orbs kept in Kazyr's castle.
Kazyr was a young wizard at the time of Ulgar's banishment, far too young to have participated in that fateful battle. But when he came of age a few years later, the goddess of the moon had come to him, offering him the position as guardian of the four orbs. The young wizard had gladly accepted, and was given a measure of immortality in return.
From then on, the wizard lived by the light of the moon rather than the brightness of day. In time, most of the world forgot about his castle, and as his power grew, he meant to keep it that way.
But living so close to the orbs had begun to have a corrupting effect on Kazyr as the centuries passed. These past few years, Kazyr had been held under Ulgar's sway; the guardian had turned to prisoner. He could do nothing to stop the atrocities he was forced to commit. The overlord wanted to be free again, and certainly wasn't above using his jailer as an instrument towards that goal.
But Ulgar's ambitions were crushed when a young bounty hunter named Popful Mail had come to stop him. Mail and her friends eventually defeated the overlord, but not before Kazyr was commanded to stop them at all costs. Kazyr had died at their hands. But his impending death had freed him from the overlord's control. The fact that there was still a world outside when he was reborn was proof enough to Kazyr that Mail had succeeded at defeating Ulgar as well. And he had also noticed that the orb in the particular chamber he had died in was cracked, something that would only happen if its power was no longer needed.
From the sky outside, Kazyr knew that many hours had passed since his death. This had been his first time dying, and at first he wasn't certain how powerful his phoenix abilities were. But though he felt himself being burned from the inside out, the pain was worth it, to be alive again.
"A bit of a phoenix, wolf, and man," he muttered to himself. "What an unlikely creature I am, and a sorry whelp of an immortal."
Kazyr shakily opened the door to his personal chambers and hobbled over to his closet. A warm set of robes. The thought was so pleasant to him. He yanked open his wardrobe and eagerly draped a thick blue magician's robe over his head. Kazyr shivered, the warmth of the cloth reminding him of how cold he was.
Then, completely drained, the wizard collapsed on the floor and fell asleep.
Kazyr awoke early afternoon the following day, considerably refreshed, although stiff from sleeping on the stone floor. And now he was at a lost with what to do with himself. Clearly if the overlord was dead, then his job as the guardian of the four orbs was done. And yet he lived on, when by nature's rights he would have been dead a millennia ago.
The wizard sat up and leaned against the side of his bed. He spoke a few words and the image of his treasury can into view. Mail and her friends were looting it, much to his dismay. He had spent eons collecting all that gold, but thankfully, the gold was all she was interested in. Her wizard friend Tatto was also there, but unlike Mail, he didn't take any of Kazyr's stash. Kazyr was grateful that at least something would be left for him when they were done.
As Kazyr watched Mail leave, the implications at what he could do began to overwhelm him. He was finally free of his duties. And there wasn't a wizard on the planet as powerful as he was. Perhaps he could take over the world, get the respect he deserved for guarding this world for so long.
But he shook his head, that just wasn't his way to doing things. Kazyr had been a well meaning young man when he agreed to serve the goddess of the moon, and he hadn't really changed all that much. No, with the goddess's blessing, he would remain dead to this world as he had for centuries. And then, perhaps with her help, he would leave this planet and explore others. The thought of learning more than anyone else on his planet intrigued him greatly, and was much more appealing than conquering the world.
Kazyr got himself properly dressed and then headed out towards the larder. After all he'd been through he was famished. He pulled out a slab of dried bread and salted venison. Then he kicked the larder door shut with his foot and proceeded to his treasury room, alternating bites between the venison and the bread.
He had finished his meal just as he reached the treasury doors. They were still open from when Mail left, taking the last of his money with her on one giant wheelbarrow. But apparently most of his magic items were left behind, overlooked by one as unskilled in the art as her.
Kazyr picked up a small maroon pouch, one of his favorite creations. Anything that could pass through the mouth of the pouch could be stored inside of it. And whenever he wanted something back out of the pouch, he needed to only ask for it, and when he put his hand inside, he would find it. The pouch was currently empty, but Kazyr would take care of that.
The wizard went around his room, stuffing in potions, wands, staves, and even other pouches inside the little maroon bag, and yet the pouch never got any heavier nor any bigger. Kazyr fit nearly all the leftover items into the pouch, leaving only those that could not fit through the opening.
Then he went back up to the Blue Orb Chamber, the one of the four orb chambers in which he fell. It wouldn't do to leave a corpse lying around, even if it was his. Kazyr deftly searched his old husk for any items that might has survived his rebirth. All he could retrieve was a silver amulet shaped like the top view of a wolf's head. The amulet hung from a beaded silver chain, and it was one of Kazyr's most prized possessions.
The wizard again hung it around his neck and then levitated his corpse. Kazyr took it down with him to the castle's tomb, a place he hadn't visited in several years. There tomb was dusty with age, and there were platforms for only two bodies. One of the platforms was already used. The body that lay there was lovingly covered with a white silken shroud.
Kazyr's heart leapt into his throat when he saw the used altar. Only a decade after he had become the guardian of the orbs, the moon goddess had seen fit to provide him with a wife, so that his long years needn't be lonely. Mira was all that Kazyr could have hoped for and more. She was magically created at the moon goddess's whim, and like him, was effectively immortal. He loved how Mira would move with an unearthly grace, how she taught him to enjoy his life under the moon, and how the moonlight would glisten off her silvery hair.
But all that ended when the overlord took hold of him. Unable to control Mira, since she was a direct creation of the moon goddess, Ulgar had forced Kazyr to kill her. Kazyr was left dazed after the event had happened. He was able to stave Ulgar's control long enough to lay his love to rest, but after that, he became the overlord's puppet... until Mail had freed him. But that was years too late for Mira.
Kazyr dropped his corpse on the platform next to Mira's. This tomb was met to serve as their final resting place when the world was to end and their jobs as guardians were no longer needed. But though their charge was completed, the world had not ended and Kazyr desperately needed something else to do.
"My love, I need to leave this world, to go in search of myself," he murmured to the shrouded body, remembering her face as it was during their centuries together, rather than the day he murdered her. "I don't know when I'll be back. But I will come back. I will leave your protection up to the goddess."
Kazyr left his castle and stood outside of it for the first time in over half a century. He knelt as the sun had just faded down below the horizon. "Oh, great goddess of the moon, I have served you to the best of my ability. I have been loyal and faithful to you until these past few decades when the overlord possessed my soul. Your humble servant now seeks to redeem himself and find a new life now that his age-old mission is complete."
Stars twinkled into view as the sky continued to darken. Kazyr remained patient, and continued to kneel, knowing that it was best for the goddess to hear him as she was waking up, but also that she would not respond to him until the moon lit the sky.
When all signs of sunlight disappeared from the sky, a sudden moonbeam surrounded him, bathing the wizard in a soft blue glow. Kazyr bowed his head low, humbled by the obvious attention his goddess was giving him.
"Dear goddess, I beseech you, please shroud my keep from the eyes of men until the day I return to lay myself beside my beloved Mira. And provide me with the means to search for a new life."
In response, a thick mist formed, becoming so dense that Kazyr could barely see his own body outlined in the light blue of the moonbeam. Then another moonbeam shone to reveal a gigantic transparent prism in front of him. The brick-shaped structure was about the size of a house. He realized that the prism was his way off his planet, and that he instinctively knew how to use it.
"Oh, thank you, my goddess! Thank you!" he whispered loudly.
Kazyr stood as the moonbeam around him disappeared. And he pressed himself into the prism, pushing through its thin walls to the inside. The wall reformed behind him as if he had passed through a sort of thick, soupy, water, rather than a wall. But the sides of the prism was hard now that he was inside, and he wished them to be. He knew that food would instantly appear whenever he desired it, and that the prism would fly according to his thoughts. Furniture would even form as he needed them, though they would all be transparent like the ship.
The wizard bid a fond farewell to his home and world, and then ordered the prism to fly. And it did, steadily rising into the sky. Kazyr sorrowfully watched his home dwindle under him, but he knew that the world he was a part of no longer held any future for him. He had guarded the orbs as dutifully as he could since he came of age, but that had been his whole adult life. Now that he was free, he wished to learn what the universe had to offer.
Soon, the wizard was no more than one of several thousand twinkling lights in the sky.