001 PROLOGUE: WITHOUT A NAME
002 CHAPTER 01: OF GODS AND MONSTERS
003 CHAPTER 02: AN UNLIKELY EMISSARY
004 CHAPTER 03: AN ADVENT TO SHADOWS
005 INTERMEZZO: WHITE NOISE
006 CHAPTER 04: SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION, THE BOY-AVATAR AWAKENS
007 CHAPTER 05: STORM ON THE CELESTIAL CASTLE
008 CHAPTER 06: THE PATH TO DECIMATION
009 INTERMEZZO: THE LAST PAWN
010 CHAPTER 07: EIGHT YEARS AGO
011 FINAL CHAPTER: THE WISDOM FROM FRIENDS
I awaken once again. My vision clears, like curtains parting. I smell the ember smells of dusk and twilight, of fires dying. Where am I this time? I look around, trying to pierce through the haze. It is always like this upon awakening; I wonder when I will get used to it? Then again maybe I do not have to get used to it. Maybe all this will end soon. I sense it. I taste it, like wine swirling in my mouth. Like green crackles in the Weave.
Shapes begin to sharpen amidst the haze of burgeoning night. There. A vast rocky plain, lifeless and barren. The air stirs, not from things living, but from a haunt of banshees prowling the savanna. There. A bindstone and a merchant encampment; a safe pocket in this shadowy wilderness. There. Further into the gloom, melting into the darkening sky, a lake, reflecting fragments of the rising moon. And -- ah, there. THERE. Set upon the heavens like an ancient treasure. There I must go. This emptiness in my chest craves for it -- howls for it.
I lick my cracked, dry lips. And, without knowing how I knew, I whispered its name -- reverently, and thick with longing. "The Celestial Castle Rakhon." All at once, I begin my slow, silent ascent.
Demons plague the halls of this castle at every turn. So do mercenaries and thieves from all the free races, it seems. No matter. They will not stand in my way. They will not hinder me from the one who strums the chords of my emptiness. With but a thought, I sever their ties to the physical plane and send them to their final deaths where no magic, Elven or Draconic, can bring them back.
I walk -- slowly. At each bend, at each corner, I stop and close my eyes, feeling the strings tug at what once must have been a heart. I reorient myself, breathe, and then I walk again. I do this over and over, measuring the passage of time in sure, deliberate strides.
Eventually, I come upon it -- this wave of magic crashing into me. A foot steps back to accommodate its force, but my arms welcome it. I smile -- for the first time since I had been called into being.
I hear the song of steel on steel, of the hum of magic being cast. The emptiness in my chest growls in anticipation. I clutch at it absentmindedly. I step into the chambers.
There. THERE. Beside the Dekan. He is the one. The one who has the same emptiness as I have. The one who haunts me before I lose consciousness, and the one who plagues my vision as soon as I awaken. The one who gnaws at my mind and claws at my very existence. I must go to him. I must go to him. I must kill him.
