A myriad of colors shifted all around him in different hues and shades. These colors took on various celestial shapes up close and from afar around to his left and right. Directly in front of him a heavenly light millions of miles away greeted him taking precedence over the other colorful lights around. It seemed at least to him that a presence within that white light so far away wanted him to walk towards it even though it might take him a thousand years to ever reach it.

The vastness of this unknowing place he occupied had no bounds. It was indeed without reason, without cause, without purpose, and without end. It was not a place for a mortal person. It was a place for gods and things beyond his understanding.

He thought it quite obvious, that a person such as him, did not belong in this place.

With arms stretched out, he felt an unnatural force being exerted onto his body. If it increased in its intensity any further, he’d easily be thrown backward.

He walked forward nonetheless struggling in doing so due to this unnatural force he waded through. It would’ve liked for him to stop and not go any further, but even if it did take him thousands of years to reach that illumination a million miles away, he had no other choice than to go towards it. There was nothing else for him to go to except that heavenly white light up ahead.

Only darkness existed behind him. Not even the vivid colors shifting around him existed back there. There was only an endless void of nothingness.

He kept walking on some kind of invisible surface that was without color unlike the spaces above and around it.

With widened eyes struggling to make sense of his surreal surroundings, he stretched his hand towards that illumination a million miles away. His fingertips reached for it with all their might. That presence that existed there was truly calling for him.

And yet that most glorious presence in that light became extinguished and so too did all of the beautiful colorful shapes shifting around him. Instead of a surreal and wondrous space to join him on his walk, he became plunged into a never-ending darkness. The invisible surface beneath his feet disappeared too causing his body to begin to plummet into the endless dark space that now surrounded him.

There was nothing here.

No light.

No sound.

No life.

There was truly, nothing at all except him who could somehow exist where nothing else did. For a mere person such as him, all he could do was fall for an unknowable amount of time for he doubted whether time itself even existed here in this place of nothingness.

There is no end to this is there?

He was in his mind, fated to live here for an eternity. He had wandered into this place knowing that something didn’t feel right before he decided to enter the portal. And yet, to not have come here would’ve brought him to his death. There was no changing his decision to come here though. For that, he was completely sure about.

There is no going back. And so he fell for what felt like an eternity only for something strange to eventually occur.

Within this world of nothingness, something else other than him did exist. It moved around him like a force made up of aura. It began to motion around his ankles then moving more towards his chest. This force then moved towards his backside and he thought he could feel it breathing beside his left ear with its lips just an inch away from him.

“And who might you be?” the hollow low toned voice said. “You do not belong here.”

This presence moved away from his backside. He could not see it but he could feel its presence now remaining in front of him as he kept falling.

This invisible entity began to touch his right cheek. Their bone-chilling fingertips brushed along the surface of his skin causing bumps to rise over his entire body and the hairs to stand up as well.

“So that, is why you’re here.” They began to laugh and pull away from him.

When Kiran tried to speak, he found himself unable to do so. He did still possess a mouth, but nothing came out when he tried his hardest to say something to them. No amount of motioning of his lips or the forceful effort of using his throat would produce anything audible.

As his body kept falling, the unknown presence faded away leaving him to fall all alone once more in this endlessly dark place.

His mind began to wander. He began to wonder whether the others had ended up here. For whatever reason, he thought that couldn’t have been the case. Something was fundamentally wrong with him. The portal acted strangely towards him as he approached it and the portal hadn’t reacted this way towards the others as far as he was aware.

In that case, if everyone did make it over to the other side, he could at least in some way be hopeful that things worked out for them. He felt bad however knowing that he likely wasn’t going to be joining them.

His companion was likely immensely concerned for him wondering where he was. He also imagined Juna and even her dog Fred feeling quite sad about his absence. Everyone else within the coalition likely felt similarly.

They would be fine without him. Or at least that was what he told himself as he continually fell. He remained hopeful even if he had no reason to be.

It would be so easy to panic and become consumed by dread. But instead, he found this nothingness which surrounded him strangely peaceful.

This isn’t so bad actually. I might like it here. Just me and my mind. Although if that strange presence ever returned, he thought he wouldn’t like it so much. Since it had gone though, he very much found himself strangely content.

For many minutes, hours, and quite possibly days, he accepted his fate to endlessly fall. It was not the end he had in mind. Though he imagined there were far worse ends to end up with. This was one that he could feel content with or at the very least willing to accept.

But this was not the end or so it would seem. Something began to appear towards him as he fell below. It moved around like water and became closer and closer until eventually, his body fell straight through the water-like surface and he began to float within it.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He immediately began to drown in the water. Sunlight shined through the water greeting him for the first time in a long while. The light did little to calm him unfortunately as he found himself unable to breathe. He tried to swim towards the surface, but it was so far away. It wasn’t as endless as the place of nothingness he just came from, but it was overwhelming for him to even think it was possible to reach the surface in enough time to spare him from death.

The remaining air in his lungs soon withered away leaving him to eventually instinctually breathe in swallowing water by doing so. His arms that motioned him upward began to stop moving and he began to plummet back down in the water. The darkness of the body of water began to swallow him as his body drifted down. He began to think that perhaps he was better off in that other place.

Soon enough, the light above from beyond the water became extinguished and he fell unconscious surrendering himself completely.

* * *

Water brushed up against his body. It brushed up against his sides, through his toes, and feet that rested atop what must’ve been sand. His bare back lay atop the wet sand that pressed against him and dug in every crevice it could.

As he opened his eyes, a cloudy gray sky covered it completely hiding away the sun. He pulled himself slightly upright pushing his palms into the wet sand. Along the beach rocks were sitting there in random places while from behind him large cliffs rose quite high.

The beach was quite large as far as his eyes could see towards the left and right of him. The cliffs too existed all behind acting sort of like a barrier between the beach itself and whatever may lie beyond them.

He was not alone on the beach however. There was in fact someone with their back facing him as they stared out towards the endless ocean ahead of the two of them. They stood tall and proud not even bothering to pay him any mind. The waves of the ocean kept them preoccupied instead.

They wore a long black coat that nearly reached the sands beneath their feet. Their brown hair flowed back as the wind blew up against them. They appeared to be a man although who they were was a mystery.

Kiran got up from the ground realizing he was completely naked. Under other circumstances, he might feel quite averse to being naked in front of a stranger, but given recent developments, he struggled to care at all about being naked. If his companion could deal with it and not ever care, perhaps he could feel the same way.

He walked towards the person who hadn’t yet thought to look at him. All he ever seemingly did was stare out towards the ocean to perhaps appreciate the beautiful waves coming in to land on the beach. The water pushed past his feet as he neared the stranger. The water felt nice as it did so.

He ended up standing by him with his arms to his side feeling the cool wind brush against his still somewhat wet body. Sand still stuck to his back and he found himself brushing some off of his right arm.

Kiran eyed the man who still didn’t bother looking at him. He wore a plain and unconcerned face whilst gazing forward.

“I apologize,” the man suddenly said. He looked to his right to briefly look at Kiran. “I meant to pull you out of that place sooner, but such a task wasn’t easy. I also would like to apologize for having you almost drown. That’s another mistake of mine that I will gladly admit to.”

“Thanks, I guess?”

The stranger wearing black attire turned his body towards Kiran. He shoved a gloved hand in his long coat’s pocket pulling something out of it. “I thought you might want this back.” The man dropped a necklace into his hand. It was in fact the one he had given Della and he always made sure to wear.

“Judging by the relief on your face, I can tell it was important to you. I guess it’s a good thing I thought to grab it after all. I wasn’t able to recover any of your other belongings though besides this.”

He shoved another hand in another pocket. He pulled it out and tossed it to Kiran. He managed to catch it and grasp onto the dead arcane root he had been holding onto since Queen Luvia Aenveld’s death.

“It’s pretty rare to be in possession of one of those things. And it’s even rarer for someone to just hand one over. But I’m not one to steal from others. Especially someone like you.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“Of course I do. What, am I to assume that you don’t know who I am?” The stranger began to rub their chin.

“Well, actually,” Kiran said, “I happened to lose my memories some time ago.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The man took a step back and sighed. It looked as if he began to realize a lot of things that hadn’t made sense to him before. “It seems we’ve been played then. But at least now you’ve been found. There’s that I suppose even if it took longer than it should’ve. Tell me then, do you truly not know who you once were?”

“Not one bit. Or well, I suppose I know a few things but I only have a few memories from before I woke up one day without them.”

“What’s your current name then?”

“Kiran.”

“Do you remember what name you used to have?”

“I believe it was Raelle.”

“That was it,” he pointed a finger towards Kiran and then approached him. He pressed a palm towards his necked chest and closed his eyes. After a dozen or more seconds, he pulled his hand away and reopened his eyes. “Did you know that your soul is damaged?”

“I seem to recall being told that at one point.”

“That might explain why your memories aren’t all there with you. It’s strange though. I’ve never known someone like us to reappear in the state that you’re in.”

“Like us?”

“That’s right.”

The implication of what he suggested began to worry him. “I take it I’m not exactly an ordinary person then?” He realized how silly that question was given his history. Kiran could be considered a lot of things and ordinary was definitely not one of those things.

“Ordinary is far from what we are. It’s not entirely accurate to say we’re not human though. I will say however that if that concerns you, it shouldn’t.”

“Honestly, I have a lot more things concerning me than that at the moment such as the fact that I’m naked right now. You wouldn’t happen to have any clothes I can wear now do you?”

With a quick motion of their wrist, the stranger cast some kind of spell allowing for clothes to appear above him. Kiran caught some light brown trousers along with a white tunic. He brushed the sand off his buttocks and legs to the best of his ability before putting the trousers on. Then after trying his best to brush the sand off his back, he put the tunic on and a pair of boots appeared before him as well.

“Feeling better now?”

Kiran finished putting the boots on and looked up at the man. “I sure do. And if I may, what exactly is your name?”

“You may call me Eugene.”

Kiran stood back up and shook the man’s hand. He stuffed the dead arcane root in the left pocket of his trousers and put Della’s necklace around his neck once again.

“It’s nice to meet you Eugene,” he said even though it sounded silly since apparently they had known each other from a time he couldn’t fully recall. He found himself looking briefly towards the ocean glad to not have died from drowning in it. The waves continually reached the beach causing water to brush past his feet which were now in boots.

What all should I ask him next? There are so many questions that need answers. This man seems capable of answering them for me as well so I’d be a fool not to ask.

While he prepared to ask him further questions, their surroundings suddenly disappeared and a new place emerged all around them.