Declan’s head spins as he wakes up, finding himself no longer on the ground but covered by blankets and sleeping on a comfy material he had never felt before. This shocks him and he looks around noticing he’s in a dimly lit room with a single door leading in and a single window that only reveals darkness outside.

(“Where… Where am I? I was in the alley but now… I shouldn’t be here.”)

He tries to get up, but then he’s hit by an awful pain in his stomach and falls back to his resting position. His mind is overtaken by hunger and he almost cries out, but stops himself. The door leading into the room opens and a tall and muscular young man walks into the room carrying bread and water. Seeing that Declan is awake he swiftly hops over and offers him the food in his hands.

“Here! You looked half dead when I found you and well I could tell you were starving. Don’t ask any questions and just eat for now, I’ll answer any questions when you’re done.”

Declan almost hesitated, but the pain of hunger was too great for him to resist and he grabbed the bread and began to quickly eat away at it. The young man smiles watching Declan eat earnestly. Declan finishes eating his food and then he begins to talk in a low hushed tone.

“Who are you, and where am I ? Did you bring me here?”

“I brought you to this small cabin I’ve been living in. You looked like you were half dead and I just had to help. As for who I am… The name I’ve been given is Abbadon. A kid who’s probably only a little older than you gave it to me. Okay, now that I answered your question I want you to answer some of mine. Who are you, and why were you in that alley only dressed in those rags.”

“I’m Declan. I’m eight years old, but I’m really smart for my age! My mom used to tell me that. I was in the alley waiting for my mom, she went away… And I think she’s not gonna come back.”

Tears begin to form in Declans eyes and he curls up in a ball. Abbadon sighs and looks down at the curled up Declan.

“Listen, Declan. I’m gonna offer you something, but you have to think it through. You can’t make this choice in the spur of the moment. Do you understand?”

Declan nods his head and Abbadon takes a deep breath.

“If you’d like, you can live with me. I can’t promise that we’ll have full stomachs every night or that we’ll live in luxury, but you’ll have a roof over your

head.”

Declan responds with a light whisper.

“Why… Are you helping me?”

Abbadon smiles in response to that question and responds with words backed up by his absolute confidence in them.

“If someone is suffering and I’m there to see it, isn’t it only natural to go out of my way? Even if I lose something because of it, even if I’m hurt because of my choice, I will still go out of my way. That is what I live by.”

Declans soul is pierced by his words, and his mind is overwhelmed with a single purpose.

“I don’t care about luxury or a full stomach. As long as I can follow you, that’s enough for me.”

Abbadon smiles happily and then laughs.

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“Well, I might of lied a bit about luxury and full stomachs. Eight years, as long as we can last eight years we’ll have more than we can handle.”

Declan’s surprised by Abbadon’s confidence behind those words.

“What will happen in eight years? How do you know for sure that something good will happen then?”

Declan looks at Abbadon with a fervent curiosity in his eyes and is shocked by what he sees. The man he had just decided to follow endlessly through life, had a look of absolute devotion plastered across his face.

“I know. Because I was promised that in eight years he would come back and would change the world. Promised by the very same boy that gave me my name.”

“Change.. The world? This boy sounds pretty amazing.”

“That’s because he is. I wholeheartedly believe that he is truly capable of shaping the world in his image.”

Declan begins to get excited, earnestly waiting for his chance to meet this boy. And that chance would come after 8 years of spending his life with Abbadon, learning from him and admiring him like a child loves their father. Declan grew over the years into a fine young man and Abbadon also grew taller and stronger as the years passed. One day they were sitting in the shack simply talking about nothing, when there was a knock on the door. Abbadon went to open it, and when he saw who it was on the other side he instantly knelt to the ground. The man who had just arrived, was Oswin.

“Haha! Abbadon, the first greeting you give me after eight years is to kneel? That’s no way to greet a friend.”

Abbadon quickly got up, and looked back at Declan and beckoned him to come over to the door to meet Oswin. Declan quickly ran over, excited to meet the man he had heard only good things about from Abbadon.

“H-Hello. My name’s Declan. I’ve heard a lot about you from Abbadon.”

Oswin smirks and begins to talk again.

“I see you’ve got your own protege now! I’m glad, it’s always good to have more company. Enough with the small talk though, we can get caught up later. I’ve come here to deliver on the promise I made eight years ago. I’m taking you both to a place where you can live in luxury, and a place where I will change the world.”

Abbadon smiles and accepts Oswins words without a second thought, but Declan quickly asks a question in response as he’s not sure if Oswin is truly telling the truth.

“Where? Where are you taking us, what kind of place could be so wonderful?”

Oswins eye twitches quickly but it goes unnoticed by Declan and Abbadon. He responds cooly, but there’s a hint of oppressive anger in his voice.

“Inquisitive one aren’t you? Well to answer your question, we’re going to the city where the world's history was born, Eternity! The city that has lied in the center of convergence islands for millenium. No more questions for now, we must get going right away.”

Oswin quickly turns around and begins to leave and Abbadon follows without missing a step. Declan also follows, but doubts fill his mind.

(“Can this guy really be amazing as Abbadon has been saying? If he believes in him so wholeheartedly then he has to be but… I don’t want Abbadon or I to follow him. I just want to stay here, living the life we have been.”)

Another year passed and Abbadon and Declan both served Oswin dutifully. Abbadon and Declan had began to grow apart, with Abbadon becoming more and more distant as time passed. And Declan had begun to question what it was that went on in Oswins group.

(“I knew what was going on here wasn’t normal when he gave us these blessings and taught us to see essence, and I could live with that. I just thought we were looking for more people to join us, we weren’t hurting anyone. Abbadon has become so cruel to everyone and he just treats them like they’re not human. People have started worshipping Oswin as some sort of god, things just seem to keep getting worse and worse around here. But those things aren’t the worst… I think Felix is killing people he finds not worthy. There’ve been reports on the news and he keeps talking about cleansing people are impure. I don’t know what to do in this situation, do I tell somebody or do I stop him myself?”)

Declan's mind goes frantic, until he finally comes to the decision to ask Abbadon what to do. Even though they had begun to grow apart he thought that he was still the only person he could turn to for guidance.

“Abbadon, I think… I think Felix is killing people. I don’t know what to do, do we let Oswin handle it- or do we do something ourselves, or do we report it the police?

“That won’t be necessary. Oswin already knows of it.”

“He does? So what’s he gonna do?”

“Nothing. He said it was fine as long as he didn’t get caught.”

Hearing this from Abbadon Declan's mind is nearly torn apart. He lashes out at Abbadon and begins to yell.

“But! He’s killing innocent people, isn’t that wrong!? Aren’t we supposed to go out of our way to help people? Even if Oswin says it's okay shouldn’t we do something about it?”

“No. Oswins word is law, you should know that. Other people suffering is of no concern to us.”

Declan tries to yell a retort but no words form in his throat. He can only look at the man he once admired.

(“Abbadon what happened to you? How can the words of one man make you go against everything you believe in…”)

Declan simply walked away from Abbadon in shock, not muttering another word. His mind and spirit were both broken. More time passed, and Declan suffered knowing Felix was still killing people. But one day, news broke out that Felix had been killed. Oswin had called him and Abbadon and told Declan that he was to deal with finding the killer and dealing with them himself.

(“I’ll use the city phone records and send a message directly calling out the man who murdered Felix. And if he doesn’t respond, I’ll figure out what to do after that. And if he does respond what am I gonna do, am I really gonna kill him? Am I going to become just like Felix?”)

And then the day that had changed his life came, the day where Sokar and Declan met. And then soon after, the day where he came face to face with his mentor once again had come.

("Sokar, please... You need to win!")