Kaius was able to push himself up onto his hands and knees by then still wheezing. He hit the floor with a fist, over and over again until his knuckles began to bleed.

“You wanted to help?” he said between his cries. “Then why didn’t you kill them? Why don’t you help?”

Appearing again in front of him, the being crouched on its single leg. Tilting its head, it tapped the floor with a claw.

“Above water is no place to make a daring escape. Out there lives things even I fear to encounter. Kin that I could only hope to match in millennia,”

“And how powerful can you be? Too afraid to strike,”

The demon’s face contorted in odd ways and single eye narrowed. It stepped forward coming face to face with Kaius. It stayed silent as it stared, unwilling to lessen the tension that held them in their spots.

“You humans are hideous when you let your emotions take control,” it ran a clawed finger along Kaius’s jawline. “You know nothing of the world you exist in, of the powers that exist. Living oblivious lives as wars greater than your worst nightmares begin and end. Countless of my Kin have died, regardless of their power, regardless of their rank. But I lived through it all. Every war, every battle, every day face to face with the reaper of souls. But I’ve carried on!”

It brought its hand to its own face, rubbing across the scar on its left eye. Back and forth, as its hand began to visibly shake.

“You ask how powerful I am...j-just strong enough to carry on with the scars of endless loss and suffering. Just enough to have survived against unbeatable odds,” it stopped knowing it had said too much. Then struggled with itself, coming to a decision its eyes were hardened.

“And you...you don’t see it. You humans never truly see. But I do! You’re cursed...like me. It will never be my place to intervene as fate weaves itself into your reality. My only chance was lost in the forest. now you must find your own path, and I will witness it whether you wish it to be or not!”

The demon grabbed Kaius’s head and squeezed. His eye began to glow an eerie gray color. Struggling to keep hold of something, it sagged as black tendrils ran along his arms and onto Kaius’s head.

Kaius tried to scream but found himself without a voice. He strained at his chains, trying to reach up and pry the claws that clamped around his head. But he couldn’t. All he could do was futilely shake his head and mime words that may mean something without sound.

Whether the demon noticed was unclear as he did not stop.

The tendrils crawled across his skin peacefully, but with a sudden jagged movement, it dug into Kaius’s neck. It rushed forward under his skin towards his chest.

He screamed, without audible voice, as he felt his skin tear and stretch--as the tendrils ate at his innards. With more panic, he fought to escape cursing himself for trusting what must have been a demon.

With a pop, Kaius lost all sight, though he knew he was still conscious. He could still feel the tendrils wriggle about within him, jubilant at finding what it searched for. Within the darkness, he could see a pinprick of mysterious lights. Floating in the endless scape of shadows--they fled from the light’s touch.

Taking a step forward, surprised to have his freedom, he gasps as the distance disappears with incredible speed. The light stretched as he moved from one place to the next.

The light was a window into reality, images floating and passing. A beautiful woman with dark purple hair, dancing, singing, fighting with spear and sword. One by one, of the same woman, they kept coming. Her accomplishments and strengths, failures, and weaknesses.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

For a time he could not perceive, he stood there, learning about her. Becoming familiar with the woman, she soon became a figure he found security and reassurance in her presence. He felt he knew her as well as any could learn of another.

She passed the time, became a warrior beyond scope. One of the few who were armies alone.

Eventually, the images stilled at one scene. Two hills and a gulley between them, two armies stood in filled lines arrayed against each other. One of humans and the other of demonic creatures.

Like a play, it began and played out--hazy characters playing roles given to them beforehand as the lights centered around her. It showed her standing on a battlefield, a commander of men and women alike. They all looked towards her with awe and respect. They were her people, and to them, she was their source of strength and reassurance--putting their hopes on her broad shoulders to keep them alive.

Drums began to shake the surroundings as the army of demons began to march forward. Each step of the army reverberated within the ground. Red, blue, black, and green creatures of nightmares walked in tight lines and covered in armor towards them.

She nodded to those around her, her lieutenants and advisors. With a wave of her hand, waves of arrows and fire and lightning rocked the world. The window shook and became blurred, but the voices became audible. Cries of pain and struggle then shouts of triumph echoed within the shadows Kaius stood in as he watched.

But after long hours, the voices were silenced, and only a single one remained. Just a whimper and nothing more.

The image cleared as a scene of death and destruction became clear. Countless bodies lay broken or torn apart. In the center of it all, surrounded by a mountain of demonic bodies, the woman stood on her knees. She was at the top of the hill clutching at her chest. She was fatally wounded, her armor dented and ripped apart.

The woman clutched at her chest as a bright light of dark purple pulsed from her chest.

Kaius standing alone wretched and heaved at the gore and blood that soaked into the ground. But even then he could notice an odd resemblance to an image he experienced. The image continued, the woman--as the last survivor of both armies--passed from blood loss.

It gathered into a perfectly circular pool around her as light blue magic danced in the air then disappeared. Decades passed as no soul touched the remains, a forest had grown, and the hills were left to soak longer in the blood.

On a night with a full moon, red shining brightly on the hill, the woman had met her end. The blue magic danced once more around a bud--a seed it had cultivated from the countless deaths surrounding it and that of the woman. Years later, a flower grew around a manicured hill--the bodies naturally buried as they decomposed--its petals were the color of the woman’s hair and her power; dark purple with black highlights.

Kaius reached with his shaking hand, it was a flower meant to die the moment it was touched. That he knew without conscious thought. What happened had given the images life once more.

His finger touched the image, it rippled without end. With an explosion, the shadows receded, and the light disappeared.

He gasped as he woke to the real world. Back to the chains that bound him and the demon that crouched before him. Taking the flower out from under his ragged shirt, he stared at it. It meant more now, he had seen too much--became too intimate with who this flower had belonged to.

“Did you see?” the demon asked in its harsh, whispering voice. “Did you witness what I must suffer constantly. Whether it is a flower or a sword given a name and meaning, I See the life that brought it about. And now, I see yours flashing before me. I know who you are, Kaius Xaxis. Son of Cecily Javal and Bhaltair Eabha. Boy who knows not what he now holds.”

As though the words caused him pain, the demon recoiled and fell backward. It covered its face with one of its massive hands. Taking a deep wheezing breath, it looked back at him.

“I will witness this tale that spins around you. I’ve become too invested to do otherwise.”

Finished, the demon disappeared once again, leaving Kaius alone to stew in what he had just learned. It was too much for him, too many things happening so quickly one after the other. Was he to grieve the death of his family? Sob at the condition he found himself in? Or maybe struggle to remember the lady who he felt so familiar with though her image was hazy already?

Not able to find an answer or a decision, he huddled into himself and let the various emotions shake his body. This time he made no sound, kept quiet as his heart was wrenched from his soul. He had no other recourse then except to let them ravage his soul.

Maybe, just maybe, he could find peace one day.