"I mean that very literally. I've been visited by a mysterious spirit who says we've got until the last day of this year exactly, and I'm supposed to run around analyzing our world so I can design the next one. I'm planning to save it, obviously, but in the meantime we need the empire held together and I won't be able to help."

"...Do you trust your mysterious spirit?"

"Yes. He's a little obnoxious but he has good reasons for it and I don't think he's lying or mistaken."

The slightly obnoxious mysterious spirit rolls his eyes and snorts.

"Well," says Vira. "Then I guess I'm holding the empire together for the next year, aren't I."

"I'm sorry to drop this on you, but - you're really the first person who should know - it would be me if I had the time, but I absolutely do not."

"No, no - of course you came to me, it was exactly the right thing to do," she says.

"The other thing is - I can put people in the next world. Well, approximations of people. I'm including Kanero as immortal emperor, obviously, unless the advisor spirits have a brilliant alternate suggestion, but do you have any opinion on whether I should add in one of you?"

She shakes her head. "No, I - I can't even think about that. Do what you think is best. I'll keep the government functioning and the cities as riot-free as I can manage."

"Okay." He smiles sadly. "Good luck. I'm sorry."

And he hefts the book and turns and heads back to his room. Along the way, he presses his hand to the pages and adds in a light fixture, a stained glass window...

"Is there a limit to this thing, am I going to run out of pages stuffing it full of architecture?"

"No. There is no reason not to try to preserve everything you care to."

"Good. What's your name? I've been very rude and I'm moderately sorry but the world is ending and I'm on a deadline so I'm less sorry than I might be."

"Kastimund. I've dealt with worse," he shrugs. "A few times there has been shrieking and cries of 'demon!'"

"I'm Riale. And embarrassed on my predecessors' behalf."

He adds another window, a stretch of wall...

"Ranelin's the next spirit that'll wake up, and that'll happen at the beginning of the next month. Spirit of light. If this works as your predecessor intended, it should be straightforward, I know he planned to have all of the spirits wake up on the same continent. Are there any light themed locations that might house a spirit?"

"There's... Dawnbrook, I guess? How much detail work did he do, do you know?"

"As much as he could, though he didn't deign to tell me the details of it all. Describe it?"

"It's the easternmost major city on the continent. It's on a big plateau right under the path of the sun and it's not in the shadow of any major islands, so it gets a lot of light. The architecture's beautiful and they definitely take advantage of the light thing - stained glass, gardens, statues that cast different pretty shadows at different times of day, all that."

"Sounds like where a light spirit would nap. We should try to be there early next month, to meet Ranelin."

"Okay. What about the rest? One spirit per month, I assume? Fire, Light, Air, Wood, Twilight, Water, Ice, Shadow, Earth?"

"Yes. They'll be in similarly appropriate places, if all goes well. It gets very tiresome, you know, that we must wake up in the same order every time. Avasendai hardly gets to be awake at all. ... Though perhaps that is for the best."

"Avasendai is Earth? What are the rest of their names? ... Why is it good that Avasendai only gets one month per world?"

"Avasendai's the spirit of Earth, yes. In order, Kastimund, Ranelin, Saerith, Laisanni, Finnehalva, Neriantelle, Ilifalyr, Estirie, and Avasendai." He pauses, thoughtfully considering the chain tied to his heart.

"We all have our own shackles, and they take more than just our freedom. We each suffer in our own way, but while Avasendai is a fantastic artist and a brilliantly creative soul, he is also twelve feet tall and does not handle his loss of limb as well as Saerith handles the loss of voice."

"Oh."

"Does yours—"