Bismarck's (attempts at) Dailies

He pushed the doors open and entered silently. Maja followed a moment after, her eyes widening. They were on a great balcony overlooking a vast city beneath a midnight sky. Towers of grey stone stretched across the horizon, the ground beneath hidden by a layer of fog. They were lined with windows rendered in tinted glass with gold sills, pale lights emanating outward. Elevated walkways ran between the structured, bearing lampposts, gardens, fountains... but all was still and silent. 

"What is this place?" asked Maja.
"Once, it was the capitol of this world." said Death fondly. "These streets were filled with life and sound a joy. It was an architectural marvel, the pinnacle of creativity and knowledge on this world. Generation upon generation was born, raised, and died within these towers. You should have seen it in its prime..." Death took a seat on a bench overlooking the edge. After a moment Maja took a seat next to him.

"I remember all of them. Every single one." he said softly, gazing across the horizon. The metal skull-like mask that protected his face was emotionless, the eye holes empty pools, but his cool voice carried all the emotion the mask lacked. "I could tell you about every person who lived here. What they did for a living, their passion, all their friends, loved ones... how they died... when they died..."
"The burden of godhood." said Maja. Death nodded sullenly.
"No one should be alone when they die. Someone must shut out the lights and close the door."
"Then why are the lights on?" said Maja. Death bowed his head slightly and a small chuckle escaped his robes.
"Mayhap the illusion of life can make up for its absence." His black robes rustled slightly in a cool wind.
"What happened to everyone?" asked Maja. "The city looks unharmed, but... everyone is gone?"
"It was... a tragedy. A necromancer of incredible talent sought to find a cure for death itself. She had nothing but the purest of intentions..."
"The road to Hell is often paved with 'em." Maja mused with a sad note in her voice.
"Indeed. Her cure was much the opposite; she ushered an entire world unto an early grave. They died peacefully, there was no suffering. They simply... ceased to be, and went on to the Hereafter."
"That's... horrible."
"Such is the fickle power of death." Death raised one of his gauntleted hands and stared at it for a moment. He turned his hand over, fingers slowly curling into a fist.
"How long ago did it happen?" asked Maja.
"Thirteen thousand years." said Death. Maja's ears flattened against her head and her eyes widened. "One of my early mistakes."
"Your mistake?"
"Necromancy is not magic to be trifled with. Not by mortal hands. My mistake was allowing it to go as far as it did." he said coolly, lowering his hand. "All who dabble in it meet terrible fates, I'm afraid. By a horrid irony the necromancer who doomed this world was herself spared the enchantment. She has been a reaper ever since, the sole resident of this city. It is her penance."
"That would've been right around the time when Artaxerxes... right?"
"Yes, it was. Artaxerxes' war was a terrible thing indeed, but... it was this place that drove me, back then. Artaxerxes was some centuries after it. My siblings disagreed with me at first; they believed it a terrible thing. To declare a type of magic forbidden. To rewrite the laws of reality so mortals would not be born with it! Would mother have wanted that...?" Death hesitated. "Chrona was always behind me, my loyal twin... but Eris was not convinced until that Archlich carved a bloody path to her doorstep. None would contest her word, her anger." He bowed his head. "In truth... I should have done it long ago..."
"And so you banned necromancy." said Maja. He nodded.
"In the end, there is only death. Sound fades to silence, light fades to darkness, life fades to death. It is inexorable. To resist it... futile. Cruel. To yourself and those around you. One day perhaps all of creation will fade away, and I alone will remain to close the door one last time..."
A silence fell over the two as they sat regarding an empty paradise.