“It is the age of change and new. With it, the old powers look for a new heir”, said he, the old one. “This time, the unheard songs of the past paved a way for the new stars.”
And he showed everyone around him, all of the shades and lights, a vision. What they all have been waiting for.
“Five lights, to show the way in our darkest moments:
In a flowery palace, the one to instill fear. It will show us how to love.
In the deepest parts of a dreary forest. It will show us how to create.
Born in a bloodbath, small and barely breathing. It will show us willpower.
Forgotten. Despised. Thrown aside. It will show us potential.
Cursed from birth, lonely and without a crown. It will show us determination.”
The vision ended. The details were few. Nothing was shown apart from the fact that they exist.
“What do they fight for? Had it been so long the passage of time, in our conscience, that we forgot what we fight for? There is no mercy in this cold universe. When all are against us, I will be proud to look by my side and see not a human, but a brother. That is our mission.”
The narrator stepped between the shades and lights, some looking vaguely humanoid, others not so much. He put his hands on their shoulders as he went by them. Saluting them by their names and greatest deed, though those were only whispers.
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“It has been waiting for them! But they are no different from you! They might not even change anything, and we would be standing here! Fools and daydreamers!”
As he said those words he arrived at the back of the room, where a small, barely visible light in the shape of a child stood lonely. Out of it, sparks fell. The only light out of which something like this happened.
The narrator stood before it. His fiery gaze looking down to the floor.
“Yet, I dare not even look into your eyes. The biggest dreamer out of us all.
We do not believe. We are old men and women, our life rife with failures. Our eyes often met the gaze of the earth. Sometimes, we didn’t even look back up.”
The narrator slowly bowed before that light, with him, the whole group.
“But you looked to the stars, and saw what eyes can’t. We show our respect and now we, too, await his arrival. We believe now, and it’s not too late, even for us. The honor, though, will forever be only yours.”
Then they all stood up. Nothing changed but the lights and shades moved in a much more lively manner. The narrator faced the gathering as the shades and lights slowly took their past forms. Those of warriors and mages; leaders and healers; rebels, traitors and unforgiven.
They were ready for war. For the end that had to come. For this they chanted.
“We wait for a new beginning. The brightest light in its full glory!”
The almost mute chanting grew louder and louder.
“We wait for a hero! And with him UNITY!” he shouted the last word as his hands reached towards the ceiling.
“UNITY! UNITY! UNITY!”
The small, lonely light took the shape of a boy, crying and bleeding out of love for a world that didn't want him. Even for a forgotten and shunned child, there was a place between the greatest. For he began it all. The rebellion for a better life.
And the formless, cold void was, maybe for a slight moment, warmer than usual.