We need a hero.

And so time and minds and space are bent, twisted around themselves until all but unrecognizable in comparison to their original forms. Life and death are interchanged, reversed, blurred until what was certain is unsure and what was vapors is solid.

I used to love her, and then we were children, and when we grew older she loved me - and I changed for her, a thousand times and in a thousand ways.

Gold hair and green cloth. A sword. Blue eyes too sad and joyous at once to exist. These are all that remains of me, and even those are fading. I once was something resembling human, but that died away and disappeared with everything else. Even my memories are destroyed - I am not even certain if these worlds and lives I speak of are or were ever real. All that remains is an echo of emotion when I see her, a faded reminder when I grip my blade, a dull burn in my left hand when the sun sets.

We need a hero, and so I fight the darkness in all its forms; the beast, the warrior, the sorcerer, the god. I have fought myself, once, in a mirror room without end; I have torn alternate facets of my personality from my soul and encased them in masks; I have broken my body to pieces; I have lived as a beast. I have turned time forward and back and manipulated the elements until the world cried out around me.

A seal of three, binding us together through time and space and memories and life and death and all the things that should tear us apart. Wisdom for the ruler, power for the dark one. Courage for the one to defend the light.

Courage is mine, even when I don't want it. When I defeat the dark and find a reason to live, I always know something is missing - because I am but courage. I do not have the wisdom to find a way out of my place in existence - my blessing - my curse - nor the power to tear away from my fate. I have but the courage to push on against the dark, even when I feel it welling up in my own heart.

I used to love her, but now I only wish to rest.