I came screaming into this new life.

The searing pain from the enchanted spear still burning through my chest. The old part of my brain screamed of my atoms being torn apart. That old life of science and discovery. So long ago we had promised the world that death was painless. We were wrong.

The Shades magic slowly burned through me, keeping me between the veil of life and death until it had consumed me entirely. His magic had been too strong for my own, and I could only hope that my death had given Eragon the chance he needed.

After every death came peace. Whatever curse or gift I had, it granted me this one freedom. Peace before a new life was to begin. Peace to come to terms with the life I was leaving behind. Peace to mourn the future I would never have with the people I had come to love. Time didn't pass in this place. It had taken a while for the logical part of my mind to come to terms with this, to understand myself and the curse I had to live through. I had wasted so many lives slipping into madness and had taken twelve more to crawl out my insanity. Finally, I accepted what was happening.

Reincarnation.

I had played with the idea a few times in my first life yet had always imagined it differently. I imagined I would come back as a baby, a clean slate. Yet fate was; each life was different. A different age and a different face. I've had powers, fought with heroes and fell in love with villains. I've been a Pokemon trainer, and a dragon rider. I've flown in a blue box, and made friends with a woman who could change her appearance at will. It had been fun at first, running around with no care and then it got lonely. I would be lying if I said I hadn't tried bringing someone with me. Those were dark times. So I learned to live these lives as they were given to me, to really give myself to these people, these places. In doing that I felt real love. Unconditional love and acceptance… even in death. No matter the pain these lives bring me, I would find a reason to fight. Be it justice, love, or revenge.

Suddenly, my peace was interrupted. The sound of thousands of birds flapping at once echoed in the void. A dark figure appeared feet from me. I didn't understand how it was possible. The presence never moved closer and gave off no indication it meant my any harm. Yet the flapping never went away, it began to grow louder and louder until even the sound seemed to have weight.

We need your help.

The words seemed distorted like a bad radio signal from my first life. As he spoke the sound of the birds went away, leaving only them in the echoing void. The presence seemed to disappear for a second before returning a little closer, this time it returned in the shape of a man kneeling at the foot of a massive tree. I would have thought the man an elf if not for the curve of his ear peeking out from his long white hair.

The wall will fall. I've seen it.

His words came out in a rushed whisper, his fingers gripping the bark of its roots. I had never seen this man before, with his snow-white eyes and his black cloak. I had definitely never seen a tree as beautiful as the one in front of me. White as snow with leaves as red as fresh blood. The same red that seemed to weep from eyes of the face carved into its middle. Once again the man and the tree were gone and I was left alone in my peace.

I'm sorry. I break every law but without you, we will all join his army.

The man was back and so was the tree only they had become one. The tree had grown over the man who was once at its roots. Age had found him, wrinkling his once smooth skin. His mouth moved so fast I couldn't catch anything he said.

I'm sorry.

In a sudden rush, I was being pulled through the void. It didn't take long until I began to feel again, my body becoming whole slowly as ice encased me. This ice cold grip penetrated me to the bone and taking hold of every muscle. I had never known something so cold to burn so bad. Every inch of me started to succumb to the cold grip that felt as close to a true death as I had ever encountered.

The pain crawled up my arms and legs as flashes of wars shot through my mind. The lives of thousands of people, of men and boys dying, of women and girls, sold off to the highest bidder. The beheading of a man whose whispered prayer reached my ears and whose eyes seemed to look directly at me. A scream ripped out of my mouth as the ice-encased my heart.

Stop him. With fire…

Suddenly whatever force held me suspended in the darkness disappeared and I began falling into a pit of burning fire, its flames unfelt against the ice on my skin. The soft whisper of laughter sang through the void along with the smell of lavender. Purple eyes flashed in the flames. A golden crown was placed on a head of white. Savage cries and pained screams. Blood. So much blood.

Or Ice…

My body came to a stop, knees cracking against a black stone floor. The fire was snuffed out in an instant and replaced with darkness and the smell of snow. The sounds of passion and then a knife is shown in the darkness before disappearing. Red eyes and white fur. Black hair tucked into a black cloak. Cheering. Crying. Death. Then a wall made of ice. As high as the eye could see and it went on for miles.

If the Night wins this world will die.

Giant spiders galloped over frozen ground, their riders blue-eyed and dismembered. Their long fangs ripped into the stomachs of men and horses alike. War was raging and it seemed the humans who fought could not win. These monsters swept across the land, never stopping to rest. They snuffed out every life they came across.

Valar Morghulis.

A hand gripped me by my very soul, unseen but felt. It pulled me towards the slick floor. I braced myself on my hands and knees trying to resist the power until my arms gave out and I slammed down hard, it was almost like it was trying to pull me through. The hand tightened on my soul, thin fingers digging in. The pressure felt like it was crushing my ribs, a loud crash of stones rang in my ears as cracks began to spider out from under me. Snow started drifting in through the cracks. The hand around my soul clawed at me almost desperately. I screamed until my throat felt like it might bleed and when I knew my soul couldn't take anymore, the floor crumbled under me and the snow poured in.

Valar Dohaeris. You are no exception.

In an instant I was alive and suffocating The mysterious presence was gone, the hand gripping my soul, and the voice was gone. Yet, the pain in my chest flared as I clawed at the snow surrounding me.