[Corvus]

Floating there Corvus' soul bobbed up and down, sharing a rhythm the all the others. It was a weird sensation. Unlike in his body he could see everything around him. It was the most disorienting experience he had every had. The other souls came in all sorts of shapes and colors. Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, really there was a shade of each color present, but the most plentiful were on a grey scale. Easily one half were grey, a fifth of the remainder were a nearly black purple, only a few white ones could be seen. The shapes tended to be fairly simple globes, squares, pyramids, and prisms. There were only two that really stood out, the first was in the shape of a sword, the other was a bow.

Just as Corvus had fully gotten himself used to his new orientation, he was slammed with a massive force that pushed him downward.

'No, no, no, no!' he yelled internally. Pulling forth great effort he managed to resist the force. Swooshing around the room, he came to a stop in front of the king. Telrok just gazed in his direction. His face was completely inexpressive, as if he didn't care about anything. 'He probably doesn't,' Corvus couldn't help but rage to himself.

"Oiii," he tried to scream, " you bastard."

Even after being insulted, the young looking king's expression remained deadpan as he made a downward gesture with two of his fingers. The light that was Corvus' soul started to sink downwards again.

"Ah, my liege, that youth," the short servant spoke as he gestured to Corvus' body, "came to deliver a letter from his late mother."

"A letter, from his mother?" Telrok seemed to ask.

Corvus' form was halfway merged through the floor as the king with a wave of his hand the letter lifted out of the motionless hand and soared into Telroks. Unfolding it he read it his face becoming a complicated mask of emotions.

"Aaargh!" Corvus' soul shot up hovering into the same space covering the letter. He felt a flash of anger, which turned to shock quickly as he noticed the letter begin to burn up.

The king's eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed as he imperiously said, "Be gone."

Corvus couldn't see what shape his own soul took, but he was sure that right then under the pressure his grandfather was exerting on him it looked quite flattened. Frustrated at his own weakness, at his mother's death, at his grandfather's indifference, he screamed, "You could have saved her! You let my mother die! You Fuc-"

Telrok stood straightening to his full height, and Corvus' resistance shattered. His soul flew downward and became engulfed in darkness.

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[Telrok]

Looking at the bits of paper and ashes that had fallen to the ground, a wave of grief washed over him.

"Leave," he dismissed Ort, his Drus manservant.

The man seemed to understand, exiting the audience hall through the main entrance. As he left he closed the large doors behind him.

Finally alone, Telrok waved his hand over the remnants of the letter, watching as the large pieces found their place. With a twist of his hand the paper rose, the ashes seeming melding into the burnt gaps. He couldn't help but sigh. Even though he could restore the paper, the words written on it, her words, were gone forever. As close as he might be to a god in his domain, he still wasn't one.

Though it was usually a taboo for a parent, she had always been his favourite child. So vibrant and full of life. Wiping a small stream of water from his face, he felt as though he was being ripped apart inside. The boy had been wrong, Telrok hadn't let his mother die, he had killed her.

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[Corvus]

"-ker."

Corvus finished. Trying to sense his surroundings, Corvus noticed that there was nothing there. Void, all around.

Though still angry, Corvus found himself unable to ignore his current situation. The void grew dimmer as he restrained himself, as though calming himself reduced the intensity of the light given off by his soul.

He tried moving forward. Unlike in the audience chamber, here it felt as though he was trying to walk across the bottom of a lake. In the end nothing around him changed so he stopped trying. 'How long have I been here,' he wasn't sure any more. Nothing seemed right in this void, he knew he had been angry but now he was calm. Not restrained as if he was holding his anger back but as if he had never been angry at all.

'Why was I angry in the first place?'

Before he could follow that train of thought further, he was distracted by the appearance of a large sprout tree soul. Corvus had heard the phrase world tree before but before now he had thought of it like a massive oak tree. Never again. Before him he could see what looked like a tree, but made of vines of pure white light. The roots ran from the bottom of the space meeting up and coiling together becoming a solid trunk before short leafless branches shot off from it. It was a stunning sight.

"Hello, young one." a female voice boomed. "This stage of your training has been entrusted to me."

"Training ...?" Corvus didn't understand, hadn't he always been here? 'No!' he heard something inside of himself scream.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Ah," the voice seemed to be trying to correct itself, "it was supposed to be testing, wasn't it?"

"... entrusted?" something inside of Corvus was struggling as if trying to get free. He didn't know why but the answer to that question was important to him.

One of the branches of the tree seemed to twist and extend towards him. It hovered near him for a moment as if examining him.

"It doesn't matter. You won't remember soon anyway."

Frowning Corvus's mind drifted for a moment, "Why won't I remember?" then a little voice inside him seemed to ask, 'Shouldn't it be why don't I remember?'

'Remember? Remember what?' he mused, noticing his perception of the void flickered as if the light was faltering. 'It did that before too when I calmed my anger.'

'Wait, I was angry? Why was I angry?'

"I sai~d it doesn't matter. Let's get this over with, little soul." the voice of the tree said almost chuckling, "Don't want to keep your grandfather waiting for another millenia."

"Grandfather?!" Corvus felt something inside snap, and as if the flood gate had cracked things began to seep through. His grandfather was testing him, and his cousins. Looking for an heir. He didn't know why but he felt like he wanted to go against that man's designs. He also came to understand that this void, was a place between realms. It seemed as though it washed away who you were in preparation for rebirth. Corvus would have frowned if he could have, he couldn't understand the logic of such a test if people didn't know they were being tested.

"As per orders from your grandfather you are allowed to select a Trait and a Skill to be born with!" the voice began to explain.

"What you pick is entirely up to you but it is strongly recommended you pick Soul Memory as your Trait." the tree soul continued in a chipper voice, "After all, how can you do well on a test you don't remember you're taking. Let's see what your options are ..."

"It's fine," Corvus spoke coldly, "I want nothing from that man."

The tree's branches seemed to wither inwards when he said this. Then a single branch extended towards him seeming to examine him again.

"I see ..." the voice almost mumbled, " ... well if it's like that I suppose it's fine. Now then ..."

Corvus was suddenly jarred as the void seemed to blur around him and the tree. When it finally settled, He could see a world below him. He had seen things like globes and maps, they showed the world having green land, white clouds, and blue. What he saw underneath him was dark clouds, and a lot of brown land. He couldn't make out if the world had any water at all.

"What are you waiting for, get going." he was chided. Then he felt one of the branches whack him in the back propelling him down to the world. And all of a sudden he could no longer see anything. The something popped up in front of his eyes.

Welcome to the Primordial World, Belys.

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Author's Note

Sooo, more than a chapter one this turned out to be more like a second part of the prologue ... oh well.

I tried out new colors for the thoughts and speech, and dropped the italics on the speech. I do have a poll regarding that in the prologue so please feel free to make your voice heard.

Actually on that topic any sort of feedback would be nice. Let me know what you think needs work, or if you want to give me a boost tell me where you think I did well. I tried to plan this chapter out a bit more, which is why it took longer despite being roughly the same length. Did it make the story a bit better?

I did a very short POV scene with Telrok. It was really short, but I thought it turned out quite well and added a lot to the story for how short it was. What did you think?

Lastly another poll. This one's important so please vote. Note that whatever creature he becomes will probably eventually end up humanoid, so keep that in mind.

Edit: I forgot about tags. I am not positive what direction this story is going to take in the end, this is partly because it is being written to work on writing rather than planning, plotting, and world building. The other reason is because I want it to be reader interactive. I won't have polls every chapter, but when big events are coming I will ask for input. Anyway back on point if you thing this story is lacking the appropriate tags just point it out and I will update them. It's a little early to make a proper judgement though.

I used ~ to indicate that a person extended the vowel in the word on the left during speech. I don't know what to call that or the proper grammatical way to do so. Probably an M-dash but I can't get it to come out so ... I'll be using tildes for that purpose.