The dark is pressing in, around and against me. I struggle to make out much more than vague blurs – as they hit the darkness I feel pain, and assume that they are part of me. In this dark, it's hard to tell what is what.

I reach up, and hit darkness above. Something sifts down, speckling the light blurs. At first it's only a light drift, and I scrabble at it, trying to break through, to see – something. Then it cascades down and I shriek, covering my head with my arms, screwing eyes tight shut.

Something thumps above my head and I flinch. It hits again, more and more regularly. More specks fall, in bigger and bigger bits until it hurts to be hit by them. And then whatever is above me breaks completely and the darkness disappears, to be replaced by blinding light and – if possible – I can see even less.

Someone grabs me by the neck, by my thin covering, and lifts me from the hole. I mewl pathetically, flinching away from the light as I'm dropped onto the ground.

"A bit old for a follower, but time is running short. Name?"

I blink, trying to see. Leaves, sewn into a cloak. A tattoo I don't recognise, on a tanned and scarred face.

"Your name!" he yells when I don't answer.

Name, name… I have one, I know I do.

"T – Teran," I whimper. "Please sir, I should go, my parents – my clan, they'll be worried, looking for me – we were supposed to be goi–"

"She's not ready." He turns away. "Leave her down there, until everything is forgotten."

Someone grabs me by the neck again, dragging and dropping me back in the hole. I scream, attempting to thrash away, but I'm too thin, too weak… the slap sends me dizzy and I shut up, in case he hits again and I get hurt worse.

Darkness consumes me, back in the hole. I can see nothing now, after the brush with light. I huddle into myself, shaking. There's no hope of sleep, since now I can hear things scrabbling around me, see them creeping closer… I scream at them, yell at them to go away, but all that does is lose my voice. So I sit in silence, repeating what I know to myself, trying to remember.

The silence deafens, blanks out everything. Even my own thoughts, and they stutter to a halt. Now there is nothing but the demons, creeping closer and closer.

The next time they pull me out I keep my eyes shut, frightened of the light.

"Name?"

I don't even recognise the sound of the word, let alone its meaning. I whimper, cowering away. Looking for darkness, because at least in that I can see nothing and nothing can see me.

The ground is hard under my feet, warm. I feel tremors as something – two somethings – move around. There's a lot of hissing, and something burning strange smells.

And then –

I scream, in agony, in pain like I've never known before, as something is poured into my body, forcing me smaller and smaller, contorting in ways I never wanted to know.

I try to fight back, force it out… but I am too weak, and I don't really know what I'm fighting against except that it's bad, very bad.

Something laughs, echoing through my body. I give up then, cowering from the pain. But my body isn't mine to move.

"It's worked, then?"

"Demon, answer me! You are there?"

My head moves, nodding jerkily.

No, no, no… I'm not a demon, I – I am… who am I? I was someone once, sure of it!

My eyes flutter, and light bursts in as they're prised open. I wince away from it, but my arm doesn't raise to shield my eyes, my lids don't shut.

"Excellent. My servant in the dark, the whisperer of slow death… Tokoroth."