Chapter 1: The Resurrection

………….Hmm?

Who am I…?

What am I…?

Nothing comes to my mind at the moment… All that I recall is a snowstorm… Something happened to me during that catastrophe, something terrible…something that cannot be expressed in words. Wait…I recollect that I was trying to prevent the snowstorm…..with someone…someone was assisting me…was it…Lavender? Wait….who was this Lavender...? My name….. What is my name…..? It is…or was…Canas…. Yes…that is my name….Canas….. Canas Niime, the third son of the….Mountain Hermit Agatha Niime…. Yes…I am descended from a lineage of magicians, known as the Niime Clan. Wait…I….died while attempting to protect the villagers from the blizzard…does that signify that…I'm in the afterlife….? I must verify my current location...

I opened my eyes…. It was snowing… I was leaning on a grave…one with a tombstone marked as follows:

HERE LIES CANAS NIIME

SCHOLAR, SORCERER, AND HERO

MAY HE REST IN PEACE

My wife's grave was adjacent to mine…

"Impossible, I'm still…of this world!…. How can it be…," I wondered…

I examined my clothes…my robe and cape were ripped and torn in many places….an exceptionally deep gash was across my chest…but there was no wound under it… My monocle was cracked…I removed the eyepiece… Under my arm was a book of Nosferatu… The wintry air was quite strong…I was in Illia no doubt… The place of my apparent demise…

"I'm alive!" I exclaimed as I spread out my arms and embraced the world…

I felt a sudden uneasiness as I thought, 'I am Canas Niime…. But what am I….? I cannot be human….if I'm resurrected that is… Am I….an undead being!'

Soon, I noticed an enigmatic man in a dark emerald-colored cloak. It would seem that he was glaring at me, but his eyes were veiled by the shadow cast by his hood. He suddenly turned his back on me and walked away… I recognized that man…it was…

'Brammimond! What is he doing here!' I thought, 'Is he the one who resurrected me!'

I was too fatigued to pursue the Legendary Warrior of the Silencing Darkness. I struggled to stand up… As I turned, I saw my old hut…I rarely stayed in the abode, since I was on my many travels, but my wife and mother had raised our son in that dwelling.

I walked into the shelter.

"Mother? Hugh?" I called.

No answer came… It would seem that they had left. The most likely solution was that my mother had returned to the mountains with my son.

I looked through the rooms. The house was most certainly deserted…..

'Hmm…my library, Many of my books were ripped and possessed a hue of yellow… They were surprisingly in terrible condition…

"How peculiar," I wondered, "I always ensure that my tomes are in good quality… Here's another Nosferatu, also a handful of Fluxes…a Luna as well… Hmm… I believe that book will prove to be useful…"

I revealed a hidden safe that was concealed behind a tome called "Ancestry of the Niimes". I took out a chest key and opened the lock. Inside the safe were my most prized possessions: a Fenrir spell, a Light Rune, a Recover Staff, an Elixir, a Fimbulvetr spell, a Rune Sword, the Gespenst spell, which was one of my rarest tomes, and…….a pendant with the portrait of my family….

'If only I had used this spell, Gespenst…,' I thought, 'I may have been able to protect my family, but…no…I underestimated the blizzard...I didn't believe it would be worth casting this spell...at the time...'

I could not remove my eyes off the picture…my smiling wife Lavender, my elderly mother Niime, and my infant son…Hugh… Tears came out of my eyes.

'Hugh….,' I thought, 'Hugh was always so frightened when I cast my spells…perhaps he fears the darkness even now...'

"This house… My son and surely my wife will not live in this dwelling any longer… There are no more reasons for its existence…..any longer…," I admitted, "If this house stays erect, it will be proof of my inability to be a decent father and husband…"

I took out a torch, but just before I ignited it, I thought, 'Wait…knowledge should not be wasted…'

I chanted, "Misahci Seldne Sihttixe Otehti Wallaisse Linuelo Hllehsiht Nismitci Ymparte Diovakal Sihllepssi Tsacineht Yrrasec Ensitaht Llaerotsdna Raepparet Nenaciyl Nohcihwin Inoisne Midsuoi Retsym, Abyss!"

I summoned a void out of thin air…one by one I telekinetically cast my books into the chasm… This spell summoned a mysterious dimension that only I had access to…

"There…that should do it…," I said as I closed the portal. My once full library was completely barren.

Then I left my house and threw the torch at what I once called "home"… It was set ablaze immediately… The raging inferno was quite strong…the snow was not intense enough to affect the flame… I wiped another tear…

'For whatever reason I was resurrected, there must have been a purpose… I must discover the truth…'