Prologue
Darkness. Staring into the depths of the abyss, it seemed to envelop reality itself. A crack in the ground split the world in which the pit lay. At the edge of the cliff, shone a flame. Though dull, tendrils of fire radiated from it, dictating its determination and resolve. For this flame was not magic, nor magma within the crust, but a soul. And so this soul, filled with one single purpose, set off into the abyss voyage and plunged deep into oblivion.
Plummeting deeper and deeper into this mouth of eternity, time itself became an abstract of reality. Days, years, decades? None of it matters to me. There was no wind, no sound, no nothing. Some would not be able to determine whether they were falling or standing still, but I knew. I had to press on. I will keep pressing on. Until my identity seemingly deteriorated, I will pursue this end. As I began to lose thought of who I was, I arrived. You wouldn’t know what had changed for there was no difference, but I knew. There was a feeling, a preconceived notion that I had arrived.
“I knew you would make it, young soul” A loud but gentle voice echoed throughout the endless space.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t respond, well, that wasn’t particularly the case. As a soul, I didn’t have a mouth. However, I didn’t need to give in to this false god’s provocations.
“You dare enter my domain? What do you think someone like you can do? The world isn’t as simple and easy as you think” The voice threatened.
Inside my mind, I seethed, “I don’t care who you are, you self-proclaimed God. Your world is nothing full of lies and fabrications. I will take you down, and I will rewrite this history. I will recreate it from the bottom up. I will shatter your fantasies and pretenses and rewrite the world in my image. Monster, Demon, God, it doesn’t matter. If you stand in my way, you will know hell!”
Though no words came out, the flames of my soul erupted from my determination. I will accomplish my goal. I will surpass God, and kill it!
“Terry, I’m boreeed” I exclaimed in exasperation.
The day had not been an eventful one. In fact, none of my days were eventful. It was full of the same mundane things over and over again. The village I lived in, also called Barghn (I know, not a pretty name), was located at the edge of The Sovereignty. It was a small rural town. I could walk from one end to the other in about 10 minutes. We lived a simple life to be honest. We lived in wooden cottages and farmed just like any other rural village. A well in the center provided us with the water we needed. In fact, one could say there wasn’t much wrong with living this lifestyle. However, it was so BORING!
“Comon Lyrah, get your butt off the floor and come help out. We have to move all this firewood we got into the storage to prepare for winter. You wouldn’t want to freeze to death right?” A rough yet oddly charming voice proclaimed.
The voice belonged to a young boy, about the age of 12. He had a rough look to him, probably from his years of living here. As a boy, he was in charge of the heavy lifting in his household. I, on the other hand, was surprisingly weak. Most girls would be able to help out with smaller tasks but no matter how hard I try, I just can’t. I gave Terry a look that said even if I wanted to help, I couldn’t.
“Aw, don’t give me that look. You can at least carry a couple sticks home” but after pondering a little bit he continued, “however it would probably take so long it's not worth it. You still need to get your lazy ass up though and help with winter preparations” He said in a joking manner.
Terry and I were best friends ever since childhood. We were kind of the only ones around the same age in this small village, so we only had each other to interact with. I gave him a smile and I got up. It was true that I had to get ready for winter preparations. The winter was especially cold in this region and it was less than a month away. The air was starting to get quite a bit chilly as well. After parting ways, I headed towards my house. I didn’t live in one of those super loving families one would say. To be honest, I would prefer living with Terry but sadly, that couldn’t be. I have to suck it up with the people I have. Sighing loudly, I headed inside my house and began to cook lunch. Even I was strong enough to be able to chop some ingredients… kind of. At times like this, I really wish I had a stronger body. God if you could, please just give me a couple more muscles? Maybe a couple of inches to my height too? Thanks.
As I was slowly cooking, well, I haven’t even gotten to the cooking part yet actually. Still too busy cutting these vegetables. Honestly, it’s such a chore. I can’t tell if it's because I’m weak or because I simply just don’t have the technique down? What am I talking about, of course it’s because I’m weak. My parents, upon coming into the house and seeing how slow I was, beckoned me out and took over. Thank you! If only they would only do that from the start. Lately, they’ve always just taken over. Maybe they’ve gotten tired of me being incapable? Anyways, I casually strolled outside. Oddly enough, I didn’t have a feeling of being lazy. Maybe I just secretly knew in my subconscious that if I was lazy I’d get yelled at though. On a dime, I decided to walk into the forest for a stroll. I wasn’t much of a help anyways, so I’d rather just take in my surroundings. I’ve always had a soft spot for the flora. I’m not like OBSESSED with them or anything… maybe a bit more than the average person. I don’t know, the smell of the surrounding plants just calms me down.
The sunlight was streaming through the dense foliage. This surrounding forest served as both protection from outsiders as it hid us well from random bandits, but also as our way to gather berries and firewood and the like. It was honestly such an essential part of our lifestyle. I thought maybe I should be useful for once and go foraging. I could tell which plants were edible and which were poisonous. I usually avoided this task as well, even though I could figure out which plants were poisonous, I couldn’t really carry that many back myself. And getting a substantial amount would take multiple trips which I’m not really up to the task for. Of course, I could just ask someone else to accompany me but… if I do then that means I have to do more work. No thank you. Some may call me a lazy freeloader, and I wouldn’t say they’re wrong. But I’ll have you know to give me a bit more credit. I’m not totally a potato! I have my useful traits. Like… umm… well, setting that aside. Let’s see what we can gather!
Looks promising!