PROLOGUE
Darkness.
As a wielder of light, a Phosphos, the fear of darkness was unconditional.
Why was she here? Who was she?
All she could remember was that a man had asked her if she was one of The Awakened. Now she was here. But where was here? She assumed that here was wherever she was, but where was she?
Footsteps. Large, footsteps. They were the only thing audible in this empty void, apart from the voices. Those had been here only company for as long as she had been in here. But were they real?
The footsteps belonged to a well-dressed man, but she couldn't make out any of his details.
Suddenly she remembered, when she first Awakened, she embedded some vivium into her body, for emergencies.
Feebly conjuring some light, she shone it into the man's face. She recognized such a familiar face, how couldn't she; his face was known all over the world of Kulethe. His long black hair matched both his suit and his deep, dark eyes.
"Well, well. It looks like you know my secret now don't you. You spent so long in here that you must have begun to suspect something. Don't worry, you weren't the first."
As she was about to scream his name, blue vines covered her mouth, wrapped around her arms and suspended her legs.
She was dragged into the air and hung upside down. The vines injected themselves into her skin, finding and shattering her emergency vivium, causing a surreal amount of pain. Screaming, she barely made out what the man said next.
"We wouldn't want you wasting your precious power now, would we?"
The vines entered her body, but didn't harm her. It was almost as though they were entering her soul. Suddenly, she felt weak and the vines were pulsing with a yellow light.
She felt as though a part of her was disappearing. As she slowly fell to the floor, the last thing she saw was the handsome man, his features a sick twisted deformation of the familiar face.