The black. Swimming and swallowing everything around me. I couldn’t see anything, not even my own movements. All I could remember was the demon chasing Oscar and myself.

Did we even make it? Why can’t I see? And what was the light that surrounded us? Some sort of spell? An incantation? A curse?

Nothing but my thoughts in this extensive blackness. There was nothing…nothing…

But then…something. A faint light in the distance. A flicker, nothing more. But what was it?

What are you?

That voice, where was it coming from, for it was not my own. I could not find the ability to speak.

Think your response, young one. I will be able to hear.

Confusing, but what did I have to lose at this point.

Who are you?

I felt a wave go through the dark, almost like a rush of emotion of something of the like. Recognition maybe? Relief?

I have no name, young one, but I bear a message for you. I have been waiting for someone like you for a very long time.

The light in the distance rushed closer, stopping inches from my face. It was a small flame, barely flickering, the tongue of the light gently reaching up in the darkness that surrounded it. But in it, almost like an image, a projection, lie a crown, rusted beyond measure, cracks running through the golden peaks and bejeweled rims. It looked old and ancient.

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What is that?

Sadness flooded the abyssal dark.

The crown of our Lord, broken and shattered, a mere relic of the man he used to be.

What do you mean “used to”?

Even more feelings of sadness.

He is no longer the king he was. He was kind and caring about his people. Now, he just wants the fire to fade and dark to reign. He no longer has any value for our lives, much less his own. He’d rather see the world go than to let it go on longer.

Well then what does this have to do with me?

Determination.

You are the one we have been searching for. The one that can stop this from happening.

Another image appears within the flame. I see the place where the demon had chased Oscar and myself. I see the mountainscape along the edge of which I had stood mere moments before. The trees swaying and the birds flying through the air. And then, fire, engulfing all in its path. The building I was entrapped in cracked and crumbled underneath the extreme heat. The leaves on the trees were set alight, crumbling to ash. And the birds…life being extinguished through fire. The irony in that. Then black. The world had turned to ash. Nothing moved, nothing stirred. Everything is gone.

Why are you showing me this?!

The flame faded, surrounding me in black once more. Sorrow crept through me.

So you can know just what it is that you must prevent. It was said that you would escape that accursed island, that you would set out to prevent the fading of fire, and keep the dark at bay. For the sake of mankind.

I don’t even know who I am, least of all why I was on that island. How am I supposed to do this?

The voice was slowly fading out.

You must do it. Only you can do this.

BUT HOW?!

…you will find a way…

The woman’s voice faded out to nothing, leaving me solitary in the black.

Alone.