Chapter One:

Remembrance of a Dream

Can you hear me?

I've been watching all this time, waiting.

Darkness was where everything began. The light of the Star inherited the night. And the third will be the end.

…No, the third should be the end. Power is poison, but there are those who are immune, or at least incredibly resistant, to its effects that chip away at the body, heart, mind and soul.

Perhaps he wished for the continuation of this legacy for eternity. To, perhaps, someday let rise of one who would cure all ills through the accumulated wisdom and power of their predecessors.

Those who have seen all things, for them it would be trivial to weave such stories of hope endlessly.

But… Would that be the right thing to do?

I asked myself that. Over and over each day.

While I worked. While I laughed. While I smiled at my loved ones.

As they cheered me on, while I walked this path of Inevitability.

My laughter, my smiles, my devotion, my pain, my love... They were all genuine despite this. I shall never regret my path. Despite the tribulations, who could deny that I was one of the luckiest people to live? To shun this would be the height of ingratitude, of self-entitlement, of selfishness.

Yet...

Was being sure that everything would be fine in the end, that there would surely be a "Happily Ever After" if I did as my Predecessor did before me enough of a justification?

Could I assume the role of the detached Author of a fairy tale, who spun fanciful tales of glory, beauty and hope while treating the characters simply as marionettes to manipulate instead of actual people with agency? Could I justify it?

Even in the life full of blessings I had been granted, the Champion who received their "Happily Ever After", those questions would flicker in the back of my mind; a phantom that haunted each moment of bliss; a collecting of darkened clouds that signaled the coming of a storm during the heart of summer; the march of the cruel Winter that is felt in the frigid air even as plentiful harvests of Autumn bring joy to the people.

Finally I had decided at the eleventh hour, when I could no longer look away and smile as though everything would end well.

I could no sooner bear the burden of depriving a whole host of people of their agency, their right of self-determination than I could justify the possibility of being complacent in the untold suffering the next in line could cause if they decided to pursue evil.

…You are the result.

The one-in-a-million… No, the once-a-eternity chance of the stars aligning; of those of exceptionally pure hearts yet confused convictions congregating. The fateful flowers will either bloom in all their glory or wilt away before they can open their petals fully.

I leave you with my best wishes, and the accumulation of my own and my Predecessor's work.

May your Journey be full of blessings you earned with your own hands, on the path navigated by your own heart, with the companions you chose to accept as your kindred.

And I await the answer to the question I left behind.

Freedom or Hope?