After dinning at the inn, the day had been uneventful for Eiden. Fin advised him to rest. Tomorrow was going to be a long day for them, or so he said.

Eiden tossed and tumbled, trying to find a comfortable spot on his bed. He was in a large room at the inn, sharing it with Fin. His mentor was currently snoring, fast asleep at the opposite side of the room. Eiden could have had his own room, but he didn’t want to be alone. He didn’t feel like he could withstand the nightmares alone.

He could still remember them vividly. They weren’t normal, didn’t feel normal. He could remember everything. The taste of blood in the air and his lips. The rush of adrenaline and thrill of the hunt. The feeling of those warm iron claws against the tips of his fingers that dug into flesh and tore it asunder. It was hard to fall asleep when what awaited him was being dragged into the skin of a monster.

Eventually, boredom won out, and then sleep slowly came, creeping upon him. Sleep was always so ephemeral like a thief in the night. He never knew exactly when it would come, only that it did.

Eiden was back in the tunnels, a turn of events that confused him until he realized what was happening. I’m in a dream. But I’m awake? Interesting, so if I’m in a dream can I control it? Eiden simply thought of a flame appearing in his hand. And it did. Warm to the touch, the red-tinged flame floated a little above his palms. He held onto it like a sacred relic.

This is amazing.

Eiden tried willing into existence a myriad of different things. They had varying degrees of success. His flames were always scarlet. Any object he tried to create was made of a black substance that slowly turned to dust. It triggered memories Eiden tried his best to ignore and forget. But it was for naught. The sight sent a chill down his spine. Gods, it’s the same stuff as those claws.

Eiden thought he heard a noise coming from behind him, turning around he saw something that gave him pause. Lisa? It was Lisa. She wasn’t hurt nor a drained husk. She was whole and unhurt. A hopeful smile appeared on Eiden’s face as tears started pooling at the corner of his eyes.

“Lisa” Said Eiden “Is it really you? I thought… No, you can’t be here…”

His smile crumbled into a mixture of hurt, grief, and the worst of all: hope.

Lisa gave Eiden a small smile that never quite reached her sorrowful eyes.

“I’m sorry Eiden,” Said Lisa “I am not the Lisa you know of. I am a form of which you find comfort in. We don’t have much time. Please follow me.” Lisa began going down one of the tunnels of white stone.

“No, Lisa. Wait!” Eiden began jogging to catch up to Lisa just as she turned the corner. When he turned the corner himself, he was dumbfounded. He was in a different place, the top of the white cliffs of Arvenpyre. A throne of white marble rose above the ground. The throne was sculpted into the form of an ancient twisting tree. To the right of the throne, the sky turned into dusk with the two moons hung high and the sun hung low. To the left of the throne, the sky was blue and vibrant, the morning sun cresting the horizon with two fading moons. The two clashing extremes met at the middle of the throne, melting into each other seamlessly like candle wax.

On the throne sat two crowns, one of marble and the other made of pitch-black iron. Atop the white crown swirled a red flame, a coiling wind, and a blue fog. Atop the black crown, ashes and black iron dust fell appearing out of nowhere.

“Eiden,” Said Lisa, breaking away the boy’s stupor from the marvelous sight “These are yours to take. You can take either one, neither at all, or… both.”

“What do they do?” Eiden asked.

“Touch them and see for yourself,” Lisa answered.

Though Eiden had so many questions for Lisa—Nine Hells, he wanted to hug her for fear of losing her again—he felt drawn towards the throne. It was like his eyes always found their way back to the throne. He couldn’t peel his eyes away.

Eiden approached the throne, seeing the crowns from up close shed light on their properties, and brought a new set of feelings to him.

The marble crown was made from the twisted roots of the throne, smooth to the touch but wiry and twisted. The three wisps of power atop the crown were marvelous in their own right. The scarlet flame had a touch of black inside it, the wind felt powerful and free, and the foggy mist was cool and comforting. The white crown belonged here, wherever he was. It radiated love, comfort, and control.

After inspecting the white oak crown, Eiden turned to the black iron crown.

The iron crown was made of black iron dust scrunched up together forming two serpents that intertwined. Their scales shimmered and squirmed as if alive, and their eyes had a crimson fire in them. Scarlet like the flames atop the white crown. At regular intervals of length, black thorns resembling a scorched plant shot out of the twin serpents. Their surface was rough and powdery, leaving behind a coat of black on Eiden’s fingertips. The crown radiated hatred, corruption, and power, leaving a feeling of bugs crawling on his skin. Even though it did not belong to the landscape before him, the black crown twisted it under its power. It felt corrupting, and yet felt a part of him in the bigger sense. The anger inside him that boiled at the loss of everything resonated with the crown.

A bell once rung cannot be unrung. But sound fades away. Should he leave it be, fading away?

Eiden’s fingertips hesitated at touching the crowns further, feeling that the next touch would be the final choice. What's my choice? The black crown feels wrong, but it’s a part of me. Though people have cut off limbs due to an infection spreading to the rest of the body. Could I cut it off? This isn’t just an arm though. It’s a part of me, caustic and volatile, but in the end no more inherent of existence than the rest. Love and hate and really different at all, both destroyers of civilizations past…

Eiden was confused at the words in his head. Though not having learned any of them, he understood them in their entirety. Trying to remember the words’ origins was like trying to remember a dream. The more he pushed to recall, the faster they fell through his fingers. Shaking away the confusion in his head, he went back to the dilemma in front of him. Purge the part of him that was hellbent on destruction or be whole.

The man whose efforts lie in eradicating which makes him himself to spite the Dark is killing himself unduly. The brightest stars come from the darkest corners of the universe.

Purification or integration?

Integration.

Resolute with his choice, Eiden reached out to both crowns at the same time.

They reached back.

The marble oak crown turned to grappling roots that stretched out onto his left arm. The twin serpent crown turned alive, slithering across his outstretched right limb. Fire, air, and fog danced around his left arm while black dust swirled around his right.

Eiden felt the skin of both of his arms burning. As both crowns left behind their likeness etched onto his skin, they plunged into their marks. The crowns merged with his skin, painting the color of their likeness onto the coal-black burn marks.

A silver tree with leaves of red and blue that shimmered with white incandescence was stretched upon his right arm. Twin serpents made of black shimmered with crimson between their scales, spikes erupting from the twin coils in even stretches, wrapped around his left arm.

The tattoos on Eiden’s skin slowly melted away into nothing as if they were never there. On both his palms, a mark was left behind. On his left was a white ashen tree with the three facets of power in place of its leaves. Scarlet flames turned to a swirling wind, and then into a blue fog. On his right were twin red serpents with black, thorny protrusions and horns, eyes alive with red fire, and black chains circling their bodies. In their middle was a single, tiny flame with a red core and black ends.

“You have chosen” Said Lisa, her voice was somber, becoming more distant as words left her mouth “I pray your decision will bear fruit and not your destruction.” Eiden felt a wrongness in Lisa’s words. She was never religious, even in her speech she avoided all that related to it. She left her comfy life because of religion. Being fated to become a priestess of Elara was not something Eiden wished to be forced on anyone else. Worse than being a normal courtesan, they had no hope of anything else.

Eiden was pulled away from his thoughts as pain erupted from his guts. He felt a writhing mass of something akin to worms squirming under his navel. The writhing worms exhumed an intense, psyche-bending feeling. Ravenous hunger. Eiden felt he could kill even a man just to fill the emptiness that was not empty.

Eiden felt Lisa’s hand touch his forehead. The soothing touch comforted him, whisking him away to the blissful void of unawareness. His last act in the dream was the shedding of a single tear, the first of many to come.

Barry woke up without waking up, or so he felt. He was back in his unnamed village, laying down on his bed. Even though he felt his heart belonged in someplace far away from here, the hay-filled cot on top of unsturdy wood made him feel home. Whitewashed walls and a thatch roof were his confines. The room he laid in was uneventful. A small chest, and a bed. He was lucky to even have a room. He had helped his pa build the house after their last one was infested with mold. It became too hard for Barry to breathe, so his ma and pa decided to burn it down and rebuild farther away. They lived with gram-gram for a time while rebuilding.

Sunlight poured through the window. A single hole in the wall with metal bars protecting him from the outside. May as well have chained him to the wall. That room became a token of imprisonment through the years, chaining him into a peaceful and yet dull life. Safe, comfortable, and dull.

It was the worse of prisons, one that was hard to part with because of himself. He became his own warden, trading excitement for safety and swallowing the key.

Particles of dust floated in the air, unhidden by the warm morning light. Everything felt comfortable and familiar, and yet also wrong. Memories of his close encounter with death made their way to his present awareness, flooding his mind like a flash flood. The death of his friend. The awakening of his magic. And the visions of a place he had yet to visit... His reacquired awareness of the past days shook him to the core. Unable to lay down anymore, Barry sprung up from his rickety bed. He dashed towards his doorway, pulling back the curtains made of wooden beads. Darkness stared back at him. Like black blood floating through water. It was not empty nor simple black. It was shadow made substantial. It was darkness that stared back.

Barry reached towards the shadows beyond the curtains with his hand. Before he could touch them he recoiled back in surprise. His hands were made of the same shadow substance. Stars were intersped throughout the void that was his arms. So many colors stared back at him. Pillars and misty congregations of light floated in the void of his hands. Barry’s eyes traced his arms, going further up and up. Until he was yet again bewildered. His whole body was made of the night sky. He had no clothes whatsoever, as vulnerable as the day he was born.

After acclimating himself to his current situation, Barry reached towards the dark once more. When he touched the floating shadows, he was sucked into them. He fell, having no sense of direction at all. No up nor down. He felt like he was falling for days until he suddenly felt cold dirt on his face.

He had not fallen, just appeared.

Barry got up from the cold ground and surveyed his location. The ground beneath his feet was mute-grey. All around him was a colorless forest clearing. There was no wind, no leaves swayed in the air, and everything around him was a mind-numbing grey. Beyond the trees, darkness floated in the air, obscuring his vision.

A flash of light caught Barry’s attention. Looking up, he saw the most beautiful night sky of his life. Countless stars with colors of every hue, vibrant, and full of life. He recognized some of the stars. Looking down at his body, he realized he was a reflection of the night sky or the reverse. The night sky was the reflection of him. The only spot that was devoid of stars was where his navel used to be.

The stars called to him, promising knowledge and power. Barry reached out towards the heavens. A hand like his own reached back. Knowledge flooded into his mind, permeating his psyche like water in a drought. It seeped into every crack, illuminating the unknown. Barry finally had a semblance of understanding of his power, but it was fleeting and blurry.

As was his dream. The outside pulled at his awareness.

Barry opened his eyes to true sunlight.

Eiden woke up gasping for air like a drowned man. Disbelief settled on his mind, driving him to look at his palms. Two marks were etched on his skin, a reminder that his dreams were in fact more. That they held knowledge under the murky, ink-black surface of his newly-acquired tattoos. Both marks were black and elegant, more like inky paintings than rough sailor’s marks commonly found at the docks. On his left was a circle of roots intersped with flowers with a tree at its center. On his right was a circle of intertwined serpents with spiky protrusions. At its center was a black flame with a hollow core.

Eiden looked to where the bed Fin occupied. The Exorcist sat cross-legged, his amber, almost-gold eyes staring into the depths of his own unremarkable brown irises.

“Boy,” Said Fin in a childlike glee “you’ve fully awakened! I knew that the order of events would be unpredictable, but this is just… Unprecedented, at least not documented.” Fin’s voice was drenched in curiosity and wonder. A stark contrast to his usually laid back and gruff demeanor. Even his body language was different, making him appear decades younger and full of life.

“I-I, what?” Asked Eiden

“Awakened.”

“Yeah, I know. I just woke up from a dream.”

“No, not awakened. I mean awakened. As in your soul has been shaken from its slumber. Unusual, since you’ve not actually manipulated mana…”

“Ma- what now?”

“I’ll explain in a moment. Take me to someplace we can practice away from distractions. Preferably away from people.”

“Sure…” Eiden was left slightly confused and shaken, but nevertheless, complied. He took Fin to a secluded cliff away from the town proper. They went through the dark, serpentine tunnels, lit only with a floating flame from Fin until they reached their destination.

The cliff was just big enough for it to be comfortable for two people without the risk of falling.

“Aye, This’ll do, lad,” Said Fin.

Sitting down, Fin looked at Eiden and rolled his eyes.

“Sit down too. Whaddya waiting for? Permission?”

Eiden bit back a scathing reply, sitting down in front of Fin.

“Now, I’ll explain to you some basics. I’ll make things simple, but they’ll probably be a little wrong on the account of making things brief.”

Seeing Eiden nod, Fin continued “What makes a mage different from normal folk is their ability to control mana. Mana’s a…” Fin scratched his head, seemingly trying to find a decent explanation.

“Well, it’s a lot of things, but we’ll settle on “essence of life” for now. It's inside everyone and permeates our world. You following me so far?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now, one becomes a mage by awakening their soul and linking their spirit. You see, there’s a second body inhabiting your own. It's mostly intangible and unnoticeable to you, but still there. The soul is its noggin, it controls it like how your head puppets your hand.”

“So what’s so interesting about me awakening? You were less excited when we first met and you knew I was awakening. You even said as much. Something about 'Awakened, blessed by a curse'”

“Well,” Fin answered, his tone slightly annoyed “If ya let me finish, I’ll tell ya.” Eiden rolled his eyes and waited for Fin to continue.

“Fine, fine. You see, awakenings usually happen in stages in a certain order. Starting from the outside and then going within. You barely scratched the first stage and then had a soul-dream, and then woke up with a soul-mark.

"No, soul-marks. Two, in fact. I saw them shimmering during your sleep. It's what woke me up in the first place. Blinding light and the strange ebb and flow of the Tide.”

Eiden’s mind was swimming with curiosity and question, but he bit back his flood of questions, barely waiting for Fin to continue.

“Soul-dreams show you, well, for lack of any fancy words, your soul. They usually involve places you’re comfortable with and show you how your magic works. The weird thing about yours wasn’t just that you skipped stages. You also awakened with a rare commodity for any mage. A soul-mark. It represents one’s magical abilities in a way that is special to them and shows one’s progress in those abilities.”

A small smile crept up on Eiden’s lips as he looked at his twin soul-marks. It was bittersweet and hopeful. His reservations with hope faded slightly, but were still there, just more distant.

“Eiden?” Said Fin, removing the boy from inside his thoughts “Can you manifest the full marks?”

“Do what now?”

“In your dream, they looked bigger, right? Colorful too, I saw as much when you were tossing and turning.”

“Yeah.”

“You should be able to summon them.”

“How do I do that?”

“Close your eyes. Breathe in deeply until you can’t take any more breath. Good. Now breathe out slowly until your lungs are empty.”

Eiden found himself falling into a trance-like state. It was like he was falling into a never-ending abyss, and yet it wasn’t jarring. Nor caused any fear. It was like falling into a familiar embrace, one he had full trust in. It was like falling into Lisa’s arms.

In the black void of his mind, Eiden saw the marble throne. He reached towards it, but he had no hands. He had no body at all. He felt a strand that connected him towards the throne. It was invisible to most of his senses, except one. He could feel it like an emotion. He pulled at the strand. It broke and pulled him closer to the throne. He repeated this until he was close enough to touch the twin crowns with both had hands if he had them. Before Eiden could try to take the crowns, he was pulled out of the void and back into his body.

Opening his eyes, Eiden felt something shaking him.

“Eiden?” Said Fin with concern-filled eyes “Good. You’re finally awake.” A mischievous grin spread across Fin’s wrinkled face.

“Look at your arms, lad.”

Colorful images danced around his arms like tattoos given life. A silver-barked tree coiled around his left arm and black serpents around his right. They moved as if alive and emitted light.

The silver-barked tree had surreal leaves. Instead of the normal green, they were made of scarlet flames, white wind, and blue fog. The leaves danced along his arms.

The twin serpents had spikes that protruded at regular intervals and chains wrapped around their bodies. Underneath their onyx scales, a ruby fire burned, slight and subtle.

Awe gripped Eiden’s sight. The colors before him were unlike anything he ever witnessed. They were saturated and distinct. More alive than any of the colorful garbs that the nobles that lived above wore.

The leaves of the tree and the movement of the coiling serpents withered. Leaving behind only the silver tree and ink-black serpents, motionless and dead. As the colors faded Eiden felt like he had just run up a hill. The fibers of his being were tired, slow, and stiff.

“What,” Eiden said while letting out a tired yawn “Was that? I feel weak.”

“You probably used a lot of mana. No worries, this happens to avoid serious injury. You’ll recover in a few.”

“Few what?”

“Days, probably.”

“Days?...”

Eiden’s eyelids waned and waxed like weights were pulling them down. He felt his consciousness fade, his thoughts becoming like dust settling at the bottom of the sea. His last discernable memory was the grin on Fin’s face.