It is the end of the day.

Once, a long time ago, all of the spirits attended a great feast in honour of the Sun's birthday. Everyone, from the lowest to the highest, came from every corner of the earth. All the dragons, all the faeries, all the foxes and sorcerers and enchantresses. But for all of them, not one of them could think of the right gift to give the rising sun. They searched their souls and scratched their heads and interrogated mortals searching for ideas, but in the end they resolved to ask the Sun herself at the party and swear to accomplish whatever it was she asked of them.

And the Sun smiled serenely and asked for 'a moment of perfect virtue'.

Magic left the world that day. For a thousand years the world felt mundane and ordinary. But that is because each and every day every magical creature, every spirit and every aspect of the natural world was caught at the Sun's birthday party. Day after day they argued, they meditated, they perfected martial arts, they attempted to calculate the virtue of every deed down to the tiniest util. For a thousand years the party continued, none daring to leave the Sun's celebration early, none daring to leave her wish unfulfilled. For a thousand years they strove -

Until one day the Sun smiled and said "Thank you. I have it now."

In an instant, the spirit world erupted forth from the celebration and sped back to their own domains. They filled the shrines that had been left for them or demanded new ones be built where the old ones had once been. Magic poured back to life in every corner of the world, and only after they had re-established themselves did the spirits realize that none of them had actually seen which among them the Sun had thanked.

Some of the spirits declared that it was their virtue - whichever kind they had been developing - that had satisfied the sun, and they should continue to maintain it lest She cage them once again. Others decided that their obligation was discharged, and that with virtue sufficiently demonstrated they could return to their old ways as a reward. Everyone had an opinion and nobody had an answer, and so the great edifice of divinity went whirling on again down the wheel.

Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits never got to sit at the Sun's party. But she did feel the setting sunlight warm her ears more than it should have, like a celestial ear scritch. Can't be beat.

As she's enjoying it, other spirits start arriving. Enormous oni warriors, enscribed suits of armour, grey-suited tengu, ancient and limping kappa, serpents in rainbow and elven hunters in red. They stand at the outer edge of the circle as the bonfire is piled high with everything that no longer inspires love. Without love, these items have no more connection to the physical world, and they belong now to the spiritual. The fire will help them cross the boundary and there the spirits await with eager hands to welcome their new divinities.

Caster still holds his gnome, but now there isn't quite the same sense of urgency to his grip. "So this is it. At the end of everything you just say... goodbye?"