Prologue

On a rainy day in a small village a boy was walking through the streets. He stood 1 meter and 80 centimetres tall, had dark brown hair and his dark brown irises were only broken by his pupil and the whites of his eye. Seemingly lost in thought, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings. His senses dulled by the rain and his thoughts, he did not hear the sound a large oncoming motor vehicle until the headlights were only mere centimetres away from him.

In his last moments in this world, he heard a voice. The voice was clear despite the sounds of the rain, the motor vehicle that was now skidding to a halt and his dulling senses. The voice being almost ethereal cleared his mind and asked him one question.

“What do you value more, your memories or your thoughts?”

Meanwhile in a faraway world in a certain room seemingly part of an enormous tree seven figures sat a table made from the same wood. Each of the figures looked towards the figure at the head of the table with a grave expression. This was the moment when the figure at the head spoke.

‘Brothers and sisters, tonight I received a very disconcerting report. The contents of this report are to be kept secret until we have made a decision on what action to undertake.’

After looking around the table and seeing the grave and concerned expressions of the other figures he decided that discussing the contents of the report was meaningless. So instead he asked them a question.

“How should we combat this threat?”

Not a second after the words had left his mouth one of the figures sprung up from their chair.

“We should meet this threat head on and crush it!”

Screamed the seemingly female figure, you could recognise that she was a warrior, since she had a strong posture, a toned and seemingly very flexible body and the fact that she was carrying a sword even at such a secure meeting.

“Sit down lady Elyvia, if we met this wave head on it would only spell our doom. We must think of different options to ensure our survival.”

After hearing this the female named Elyvia sat down. The man that retorted Elyvia sat opposite of her, he didn’t seem older than her in terms of bodily growth, but his expression and especially his eyes made it clear that he possessed a lot of wisdom and experience, he continued.

“I propose that we start with fighting the already present corruption there more heavily to delay and weaken them. Besides that, it might be a good idea to ask the world tree for help.”

While the first proposal was met with agreement, the second proposal was met with heavy resistance from the three figures sitting across the table with lady Elyvia sitting in the middle.

Lady Elyvia: “Are we going to hide like dogs behind the world tree!”

Unknown figure on the right: “How dare you call upon the world tree for such a small thing!”

Unknown figure on the left: “We can’t rely on the world tree for everything! You should know that the most out of all of us Lyrian!”

After the side of the table lady Elyvia was on was finished with their initial outcry the other side retorted. With Lyrian sitting in the middle, they retorted heavily.

Lyrian: “What do you expect us to do? Kill such a horde with our pride!”

Figure on the right: “Asking the world tree to defend itself is only natural!”

Figure on the left: “If we don’t try to do everything we can, we will certainly die and this forest will die with us if that happens!”

It was clear that they were going to continue to rage on so the figure at the head of the table spoke.

“Silence!” The room immediately went completely silent, and the figure resumed: “If the six most wise figures in this forest can’t have a calm discussion then what hope do we have?”

After hearing this, all six figures realized what they did. They realised their fault and were ashamed of them, for they made such a ruckus in front of the most powerful and important figure in the whole forest. They fell silent and only after a dozen seconds the figure at the head spoke again with a sigh.

“Now, shall we resume the discussion?”

While the meeting between the seven figures continued somewhere in the same woods the screams of a woman could be heard. These screams did not stop for several hours until the sobbing of two people replaced them. The figures of the two became clear under the moonlight, lying in the bed was a woman. The woman seemed very pale and completely exhausted but most of all she seemed devastated. Looking at the mush of blood and flesh on the other side of the bed, she could only cry. The other figure was right beside her, holding her in his hands, sobbing he whispered to her.

“It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.”

After saying this for several minutes he realised the woman was unconscious. After walking out on the veranda, looking out from his house to the forest floor that was at least a dozen meters below the emotions welled up within him and resulted in a cry of anguish. A cry that reverberated through everything and made every living being in the surroundings aware of his grief.

On the same forest floor, there was a completely white spider with a small basket on its back. After the cry of anguish reverberated through the spider and the basket, a sound could be heard from the basket. A baby crying could be heard, realizing the spider had found its target at last, it raced towards the origin of the scream. After an hour of trying to navigate through the forest floor towards the house and multiple attempts at not getting lost, the spider finally found the house in the trees. Arriving at the base of the tree, the spider started to climb to the house without hesitation and arrived within twenty minutes at the front door.

Taking the basket from his back, the spider looked inside it for one last time. For even with its limited brain capacity it knows that it would be last time it would see the small child inside the basket. Looking inside the basket, it could only be captivated by the dark brown hair and the evenly dark brown pupils of the small child, the child had a human appearance with a white skin colour. Upon seeing the spider, the small child formed its mouth into a smile and released sounds of delight. The spider seeing this could only rub its face against the cheek of the small child for one last time before hurriedly scurrying off.

It started to race back towards where it came from. Sprinting along the forest floor with seemingly infinite stamina for an unknown amount of time, it finally reached its end goal. At the end goal stood a woman, the woman was completely covered in a black cloak with strange patters that exhibited a dark glow. The woman spoke to the spider.

“Well done, little one, you have served your purpose well. Now my child, I hope this family can give you what I am unable to give to you. Grow strong, so that we may one day meet.”

After the white spider left the child, the child started looking at its surroundings. It seemed to be on a platform connected or more a part of a very large tree. The child could hear sounds of animals nearby, both big and small. Being unfamiliar with its surroundings and seeing that the white spider had left, the child started crying. Suddenly, the lights in the house were switched on and hurried footsteps were heard followed by the door opening.