004

When I wake up, I'm not where I was. I'm not in a pool of my own liquids on the forest floor. Instead, I'm resting upon cold stone. As I clamber up, I note the immense cracking of the stone. More importantly, though, I notice that I'm on a small platform in what appears to be an endless abyss of darkness. Nothing as far as the eye can see save for this single gray platform. Am I going crazy?

"You're awake, my dear child." A voice enters my head. Not my ears, my head. It's like someone is thinking for me. Still, I can tell it's coming from behind me and when I turn around, I see a massive figure. Gigantic. I might be half the size of its small finger. It's a woman clad in black robe and hood, adorned with silver trim in patterns unknown to me. I can't see much of her face--nothing above the lips--but her skin is unnaturally white and her lips a pallid blue. The edges of her figure, however, are blurred with a familiar black writhing mass. It's not so repulsive, though. Something about it is transfixing--beautiful. And it seems to be naturally radiating from her figure instead of... whatever that was. Her size aside, her aura is immensely oppressive. I can feel her power radiating deep in my bones. "I'm glad nothing happened to you. It's a dangerous journey to the inbetween. Much can go wrong."

"Where am I?"

"The inbetween, a place between realms. A place between the realm of gods and the realm of kith. A place where we can coexist."

"Who a--"

"That's enough, my child. I did not bring you here to answer your questions. I brought you here to bestow upon you a gift. My gift. Please, look at your chest." I do just as she says and notice what seems to be a new tattoo. A tattoo of three chains extending from my heart, wrapping around my shoulder, and a single link heading down my arm. "This is my gift to you, the first link in the chains that now bind us together. You'll discover its power soon enough."

Power? Gift? But why? Just as I begin to speak my mind, she interrupts me. "I've carved your soul into a suitable vessel for my gift. It will have had some effects on your mind but it was a necessary endeavor." She raises her arms and lowers her sleeves, showing prisoner shackles upon her thin wrists. Many chains are linked to these shackles and stretch out into the abyss, presumably somehow restraining her in a way I cannot fathom. "As for why, I've bet everything on you. Go now, my child and fellow prisoner. Take these binding chains of ours and make their power your own. Grow in strength as I know you will. It's inevitable if you wish to keep your dear friend safe, after all." She gently smiles as her figure melts away into nothing, leaving me alone in this dark abyss. So too does the stone platform melt and I suddenly awaken on the forest floor, once again lying in my own spit. Was it just a dream? No, something tells me it was more.

Naturally, the first thing I do is check my chest and sure enough the tattoo is still there. Immediately, I feel a strong impulse to raise my left hand and I hear "rise" in my mind, repeating over and over. It won't stop. Rise. Rise. Rise. Rise. Rise. A cacophony of voices ring out in my mind, drowning everything else out, demanding one thing of me.

"Rise."