Stars were falling across the world of Kargasa. Change was coming. The ripples in the great beyond were now felt in the very fabric of the world, tumultuous, rupturing the sacred order that had been established during the shattering ages ago. Time is a fickle mistress. She drags civilizations along with her to their highest highs, and then brings them down to their lowest lows. Pride is her weapon. Greed her charm. No one is left unscathed by her embrace.

Ask the witty paladrians, brave numerions or the adventurous parathonians - the greatest of the civilizations of their ages. Untold warriors, Champions, Explorers - none were pardoned. Kings, wizards, nobles, farmers, beggars, scholars - entire civilizations united to counter the felling of her axe. All that remains of them are just fragments, a legacy that defines the absolute time has on this world, nay the entire great beyond.

But she is not infallible. Nay, some souls are just too powerful. These are the ones that bring about the next age. These are the ones that make the mistress herself change. These reverend, indomitable souls braved cataclysms that struck their civilizations and forged empires out of the rabble. Ages have gone, and Ages will come, yet it is these bright souls that glare bright in the emptiness of this vast expanse, ever defiant against the will of mistress herself.

The stars herald the coming of another great age. An age of men, an age of courage, an age of love, an age of tragedy. Oceans are rising, forests are changing, volcanoes erupting - even the moon has started to increase her influence. The very fabric of the world twisting and turning - preparing a trial that shall make or break the civilizations of men.

So come with me dear reader. I, yes I, will take you on a grand adventure; against the river of time we shall go, and look at those five heroes, the five who might make or break this new age. Journey we will together, to the bowels of the earth where the flames birth devils, to the stricken deserts where scarcity breeds monsters, to the bountiful plains whose harvest feed millions, to the icy mountains where only the hardened can venture and to the shimmering glades where the time itself seems to have no effect.

The journey itself is fraught with perils, not for us, but for our heroes. Pain shall they see, and pain shall they feel, cause it is only under pressure that diamonds bloom. So hold my hand dear reader, and we shall venture onto the great beyond to witness the journey of our heroes, these five new lights in the dark emptiness of the cosmos, shining with hope, power and dreams. Witness shall we together, the snuffing of these lights, or the brightening of the shadows.

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I look at the hand the narrator has extended to me. Queer being he is. He has no legs to speak of. Only a wisp of a tail that flits randomly. The bright blue eyes, along with a smirk on his lips makes me eerily comforted. I look behind at the planet I live on. Or I used to live on. Apparently I have died, atleast that's what the narrator told me. How, and why? I do not know. But death, if it is death, seems calm and relaxing. I stare at the planet, it is a bright blue and green world, large continents separated by oceans, covered in part by the clouds. Hints of a cyclone are forming in the northern hemisphere of the world. Surprisingly, I dont remember where I lived on this planet. Come to think of it, I dont even remember my name. A sudden sadness fills me. Is this how death is going to be? That I dont even remember who I was and what I did on this beautiful planet during the short amount of time I was here? That I will not even remember the people i made my life with here? My friends, my family? And will they remember me? Will they remember who I was, and what I did? And will they remember me fondly? Or will they celebrate that I was gone?

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"Now, now dear friend, don't be sad", said the narrator. "It is a good thing that you do not yet know what you did and what you were in your previous life. Yes, previous life. That journey of yours is now over. And now, a new one begins. Then, you were the actor of your life, taking actions, making decisions, living. Now, you are an observer."

"But what am I then now? ", I asked sadly looking at my planet below me. "Everything I know, everything I had is down there. And I dont even remember it. What is my purpose? Did my existence down there even matter to anyone?"

"Those are difficult questions that you ask, dear reader, and ones which I'm not at a liberty to answer yet. You have just taken your first steps into the great beyond. You, are like a baby who has stepped out of his mother's cradle to take his first steps. Let me guide you, let me lead you, in time everything will be cleared and you will have all your answers.", said the narrator.

I peel my eyes away from the planet to look into the narrator's. I sense a warmth filling me, a realization that this man, no, this entity is speaking the truth, and will always speak the truth. Something breaks inside my mind, some sort of a wall, and I see things more clearly. I notice a small thread flowing from my center to the center of the planet. Faint, magical, unreal. The narrator smiles on seeing my reaction as I trace the thread. I cannot touch it, I cannot feel it, its immaterial, imaginary yet real at the same time. I look at the narrator curiously, a question on my lips. He smiles wider, and points a finger at his centre. To my surprise a similar thread but much thicker flows through him to the centre of the planet as well. My eyes snap back at him again. He puts a finger on his lips. "All will be made clear in time, dear reader, everything will be made clear in time. Revel in the new beginning that you have been given so far, I will personally take you along and answer all the questions that you have, but it will take time, and you have to trust me".

Trust. Trust. A fleeting memory comes to my mind. Yes!! This trust is something that was important to me in my previous life. So important, that I felt a note of conviction ring inside my mind. Another layer peels off in my mind. Trust and Time, two notes in harmony, singing away. I take a last look at my planet, revelling in the harmony inside my mind and turning around I grab the narrator's hand.