A writhing flood of mist whipped over a stretch of the broken continent of Teknish. The hellish mist contained countless souls sundered from their natural cycles. Each soul screamed in their eternal agony, seeking to break free from their endless torture of being bound to the earth. The incessant wailing only matched by the continuous roaring of hate filled beasts as they trudged across once-green fields.

A lonely hill stood bastion against the ocean of mists as a vivid sapphire light glowed from a cave entrance situated at its base. Time had shattered the tower that once guarded the cave, yet the blue glow was enough to drive even the fiercest of the beasts away with it's hidden promise of death.

Within that cave every wall was bathed in sapphire light that streamed from glowing moss growing on the ever morphing walls of a vast maze, the azure light flickered each pulse regular and rhythmic as if a great eternal heart were beating in synchronicity to the light.

At the core of the maze, a floating gem shed its palpitating light upon a figure that was on its knees with a rapt expression of prayer.

The light of each Azure flicker seemed to flow around the creature as if the light refused to touch its hard-edged scales. The gentle curvature within the radiance of the light made it difficult to distinguish the creature from the surroundings, acting as camouflage as it blended into surroundings.

In front of the figure loomed a giant statue depicting a man who stood covetously guarding a thick book while glaring at possible intruders with eyes that seemed to pierce through every thought, examining them with a distant sense of curiosity.

However, any attempt made by a common man to identify the creature would be doomed to failure, for it was an Eccudian, one of the many legends lost when the continent was damned.

The legendary creature was still in prayer as its eyes skirted over the statue, the creature knew it better than most men know their lovers, the serpentine eyes stopped on the only part it contained no knowledge of

“------ the heretic who became Curios.”

The lack of knowledge was forgivable, existences similar to Curios had all lost their original names to others with the sole exclusion being themselves.

Another moment of silence passed as the creature maintained its silence, what it prayed for only it and its god would likely know, however, if an onlooker were to pass by they would know the expression the creature was making was one that a slave makes of its master whilst awaiting their request.

The lizard suddenly became entranced, its eyes glazed over as it violently began to tremble, the force of the words it heard echoing through its skull with a power that, were it of a physical nature, would’ve crushed it a hundred times over.

moments after they had begun, the tremors ended, and the serpentine pupils of the creature became sharply defined within its eyes.

“Oh Sage, What has my Lord spoken?” a crystalline voice filtered through, coming almost from the walls themselves.

“The pieces of the puzzle have begun to shift and fall… He shall be bored no longer.” The Lizard answered cryptically.

“Ah! That my Lord should be entertained once more! How glorious! Were the world to be burned for the amusement of my Lord I would care less!” The ecstatic cries of the crystal echoed as her light pulsed brightly in her joy belying her typically reserved nature. “What does he ask of us?” she questioned.

“I am to go to the fortress of Alzor to make some arrangements… there is the coming of an ancient soul, and I am to take advantage of the... ripples it creates.” The Eccudian stated dryly.

“And what of me?” the begging voice of the crystal responded it’s light growing dim in fear that it could not be of service

The dry voice echoed from the lizard as it soothed the worried crystal, “He asked that you shed some crystals for my use.”

Almost before he had finished speaking the sounds of fracturing latices could be heard as a slab of the large crystal itself broke away, whilst not a significant portion of the crystal itself its size and the reflection of the light made it look to be a human heart.

The ancient lizard walked over the crystal and picked it up gingerly placing it within a large cloth bag.

The voice of the crystal echoed out again expressing its curiosity with a slightly drained tone.

“what task required the use of my child?”

A trace of a smile drifted across the eccudian’s stoney expression “Like creator, Like creation. It muttered before speaking to the crystal itself

“I am to add my blood, some plants, and your crystal to a Summoning ritual on the second continent.”

The sapphire light of the crystal started flashing brilliantly, the echoing sounds betraying the Crystal to be mimicking laughter “have the people of this world become so dull that Master looks even at stew for entertainment now?” Came the mocking voice.

“Indeed it appears that they have.” responded the creature's voice carrying hints of disdain and amusement as it too found amusement in mocking the fools who blundered about in absent-minded self-destruction.

Both Crystal and Lizard had lived near each other for centuries and had long since understood each other for what they truly were and could predict the other's thoughts without so much time as a second passing, as such the Crystal knew that the Lizard despite its dry humor had a slight fear of its death.

The crystal also knew that the lizard’s fear was nothing so grounded as it was instinctual; it was the fear one carries when one knows that they have a calling with the reaper.

What had surprised the crystal, was that for as long as she had known the scaley creature he had always been unphased by the threat of Monster, Soul, or sea of magic. Yet shockingly, the placid second continent was somehow more of a threat than shattered First.

Despite the glaring inconsistency she as well as he could hear the mournful clinking of the cold chains of death in the distance, invisibly the crystal shivered at a sense of certainty that she would never meet him again, that even his soul would be lost at his death.

Neither lizard nor crystal made any comment. Their loyalty to their master had long since surpassed any trifling fears of death. A slight sigh escaped from the lizard as a mocking smile slid on its scaly lips. It then began to leave the maze, the mossy walls warping to allow it to quickly leave the cave and venture forth into the hell that awaited outside.

The crystal was left to mind its creation; its sapphire light never ceased to pour from the cave as it quietly hummed, in all honesty, their conversation had been entirely ritualistic, after the many centuries they had spent together one’s attunement to the other allowed even the slightest change to betray their inner thoughts.

As such despite his silent parting, she knew that he had left communicating a far more eloquent message than any speech could hope to match.

The tune that the crystal hummed took on an amused tone as it examined the slightly curved path which led to the exit, even after thousands of years she had never forgotten the first lesson her master had taught unto her; “Never build a straight path, it kills the excitement of the journey.”