Pain. Fear. Happiness. Regret. Nothingness.

Then, consciousness. Knowledge. Existence.

A rush of conflicting feelings. Happiness, sadness, relief, anxiety, power, helplessness, pride, melancholy.

A sharp pain in places he did not know he had.

An old form he did not know used to be his. A new form he didn't know was his.

A word. It resonated with him. So he took it as his.

Praetor.

It called to him. Made him feel real. Made him feel whole. Made him feel himself.

Whether it truly was his, he did not now. But it didn't matter. If it wasn't his, then he would make it his.

Consciousness spreading outwards.

Stone. Stone? Metal. No, definitely stone. A room? A cave?

Coherent thought started making way for a flood of newfound sensations.

Green. Soft. Grey. Hard. Rugged. Smooth.

Pain.

The one thing that prevailed through all of the sensations was pain.

Not the kind of pain he didn't know he was used to. Not a stomach ache. Not a broken heart. Not a blue eye. Not a mangled leg.

The pain was more disheartening than that. It was the type of pain that made him feel as if he was shattered both physically and mentally by one and the same wound.

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It ebbed away. Then it flared up again, only to diminish again later. Not constant, so there was no getting used to it. Not constantly growing duller, so it wasn't healing either.

No, this pain was as real as it was not real. It scared Praetor, for he knew it meant he was damaged in so many more ways than he knew possible.

Now that the pain was lessened, he focused his attention on the open space around him.

A cavern? A room?

It was dark, big and smelled musty. Most likely a cave.

Not enough. Not nearly enough.

He needed to know more. His consciousness stretched further and further. It had reached the edge of the caves when a sharp jolt of pain taught him doing this was not the best of ideas when in horrible pain.

But he still needed to know more. So he focused his consciousness into a ball. This time it didn't hurt so much. It also helped him think of himself as himself, instead as of an existence.

While it didn't feed him as much information at once as his stretched mind had, it allowed him to move around the cavern and focus on specific things.

Something he immediately regretted.

When he focused on what he thought was his body, he saw nothing but a pristine black marble pedestal with a cracked obsidian crystal ball on top.

At least now he knew where the pain came from.

It did little to calm him though.

Pain. PAIN.

One and only one emotion took control of his consciousness: fear.

I'm real. I'm real. I'm real. I'm REAL. I'M REAL!

I have to be.

...

But who is me?

And Darkness claimed dominion once again.