Prologue
Date: Summer Solstice.
Location: Earth Kingdom.
POV: Kurai
As I closed my eyes that night, my world changed forever. It is said the boundaries between the physical and spirit worlds are blurred on the solstice, but traversing between them had never been a problem for me. Even so, I didn't expect to be graced with a vision that night, nevertheless, I was.
In the vision, the world around me had been ravaged. The land was almost unrecognizable. I could feel my connection with the spirit world screaming out in pain, as if the entire realm was simultaneously dying. Try as I might, I was frozen on the spot. I raised my head as much as I could and to my shock, in front of me, just a few feet away, stood a cloaked girl. It was obvious she was not part of the vision, but a spectator, just like me. She raised her head and our eyes met. They were truest blue I had ever seen. In her eyes you could see the ocean, stirring and moving in all its might. Her eyes seemed so familiar, and they pierced into my soul with unyielding ferocity. I had never seen this woman before, but it felt as though I knew her. Even her name seemed at the tip of my tongue, but just out of my reach. A part of me wanted to protect her, to stop her from seeing what I had hidden from the world for so very long. However, that part of me died a long time ago. I stirred in my bed and the vision faded to black. My eyes slowly opened and the real world came back into view. Was the vision just a dream? As I gradually recalled what was shown to me, it was clear that it was no fantasy. There was something coming and that girl in the vision was the key to it all. Perhaps the time to reveal myself to the world had come? It was raining now. As I gazed up to the sky, I saw her eyes in every drop. For she was the ocean; she was the sea; she had her secrets; and I knew she'd be the death of me.