Hello. Nice to meet you. This is my first time taking to humans, or the like, so please forgive my incompetence. I suppose I ought to introduce myself; I am the Narrator. I’ll be popping up occasionally in the story, but after this short bit here, the story will not be from my point of view.

Seeing as this simple job is the extent of my importance, you really don’t need to know much more about me. Except, perhaps, that I work in the Underworld. Or Hell, Heaven, the land of the dead, the land of souls, or whatsoever you may call it. For purposes of this story, I shall simply call my place of business the Void.

Living where I do, I work with souls. Most souls, when their mortal bodies die, enter the Void. They then proceed to being reborn into a new body, losing their memories and what-not in the process.

Usually souls end up, at least, on the same planet, if not the same species. However, occasionally, a soul will cross between planetary boundaries during its trip, and end up somewhere else entirely.

For example, have you ever wondered why your stories are all littered with elves, dwarves, and dragons? That is because the soul of the aforementioned gets reborn into a human body, with a vague sense of their previous life. These faint traces manifest themselves in a dream, or some similar fashion. These people then go on to become great writers, or perhaps, in the case of the dwarves, great metalworkers. This same general concept applies itself to most worlds, and most stories.

While this little tidbit has almost no use in the context of our story, it does nicely introduce the next important fact about souls (and please, be patient for my explanation; it is important, I swear).

Since I just said that almost everything about a soul is erased prior to reincarnation, you are likely wondering why certain aspects remain. This mainly due to how a soul is attributed. As per most Earth stories, there are four main attributes. These make up the core of all creation. Earth, water, fire, and air.

Souls typically have a single attribute, and (again, typically) it is usually very weak. There are four basic tiers to categorize the strength of an attribute; faint, minor, innate, and major. Each one can be weak, intermediate, or strong. There is also an incredibly rare fifth tier, called resonance, but you will learn about this at a later date. The strength of one’s attribute is determined by how well they can sense and control the elemental particles around them (something that is possible to increase over time). But strength isn’t everything. Souls are often inclined to be more skilled utilizing one part of an element than the others.

For demonstrative purposes, let’s imagine three dwarves. The first, dwarf A, has a faint-weak earth attribute. He is skilled in jewels, instead of the other thing the earth attribute encompasses, like metals, strength, or battle. He is naturally slightly sturdier than other creatures, and enjoys being inside the earth. He also is slightly, approximately 5%, better than others at finding and working with precious stones. Dwarf B has a minor-intermediate earth attribute, geared towards metalworking. Since his attribute is stronger, he receives more of a boost from being around the earth, and can also create swords, or other metal items, about 25% better than average people. Dwarf C has a major-intermediate earth attribute. He is probably the first of his clan in thousands of years to have such a strong affinity to earth. He is very good in several areas, like metals and jewels, and can utilize them with nearly double the effect of others. He can also survive without food or water two or three times as long underground, than could someone else at his level. Now you see the power of having a strong attribute.

Before we get moving to the main story, I will divulge a fairly well kept secret regarding attributes. Instead of just 4, there are actually 7 attributes. There is light and dark, two sides of the same coin. The reason why these attributes are so rare, and so powerful, is because they must appear simultaneously. Without light, there is no shadow, and without dark, it would be impossible to distinguish light.

Since it is possible to have slight affinities with more than one element, light/dark attributes have appeared—but rarely, and with a very weak power. The other element, the seventh, is the nature element. I know not of a single instance where a soul with the nature attribute survived creation, for this element is the very power over life and death…

You excited now? I hope so. Because here starts the good stuff, here starts our story!

* * *

Perfect stillness. Neither oppressive, nor peaceful. Simply empty. My consciousness moved leisurely down the endless line of newly arriving souls. The faint glows released might have brought warmth, if I had something to warm.

An emerging soul caught my attention. Around it the atmosphere slowed. Time moved like putty, as the residual shock wave emanating from the materialized soul moved outwards. This soul was almost twice the size as any of the surrounding souls. In its center I could sense the presence of a large amount of a dark liquid.

Pulled into a sphere in the center of the soul, the liquid was streaked with silver curling about it, like mist rolling over a tar lake. Whilst the others souls resumed the endless trudge towards their destination, the new soul remained frozen.

It was shivering slightly, out of fear or euphoria, it was impossible to tell. I curiously observed it, wondering what its next move would be. Should I have had eyes to blink, I would have missed its next action. When the shockwave faded into the distance, the soul suddenly stopped trembling. As frozen as the time around it, looking at the silent soul gave me a sinking feeling, like I was being drawn into a boundless sea.

While I was entranced, I almost failed to notice the soul streaking off into the distance, a pale golden light left in its wake. I rose higher, all the while focusing on the soul. Gracefully, I moved above the rivers of souls below, letting the path of the new soul guide my own.

I followed it to areas unexplored; the Void expands as the number of souls expands--infinitely. It dipped under and around protrusions from the dark terrain, gracefully gliding over the black landscape. After an unquantifiable amount of time, it halted.

A faint golden light was expelled as it started quivering once more. The vibrations grew stronger and stronger, until even the solid ground quaked beneath it. Underneath the soul a small chasm opened up, growing larger and larger until it could encompass an entire mountain range. I sent a small piece of my soul-sense and attached it to the new soul, fearing it would soon disappear from my presence. My intuition proved correct, as the ground swallowed up the soul, and closed as suddenly as it had come into being.

* * *

Nothing could be felt in the tunnel. Not that soul-sense stopped working there, it’s just that there was nothing to sense. After falling for days, or months, or perhaps seconds, the tunnel narrowed and became bumpy. The lumps soon turned jagged, and the channel almost too narrow to continue. Whole chunks were sheared off the soul.

A slight whistling sound grew to a thundering shriek, then back down to a whistle, then faded as the soul fractions were thrust into a cavernous subterranean hollow. They fell like morning dew off a leaf onto the forgotten floor of the chamber. The largest piece, containing the dense black liquid stayed whole, but another shattered into three.

A blinding light was released as the fragmented soul should have dispersed. But against all rules of nature the pieces remained. A living soul in six parts. An abomination, a cruel joke of the consciousness existing inside. Pain seared through its newly created form. Any hope at life after death was broken to bits along with its body.

Through the darkness it sat, waiting. Unbeknownst to it, the soul remnants that sat around it were moving ever so slowly. Over a period of many of thousands of years each piece disappeared, and reappeared once more as a whole soul. Each soul blazed vibrantly with a different color, until it was absorbed back into the whole, forming an onion-like layer of color, protecting the inner core.

As the fragments around it moved, the main soul itself was also active. While its mind was shut off, it automatically absorbed the surrounding magic power. It slowly expanded. Ever. So. Slowly.