Prologue
The flames roared high into the night sky, consuming the only home and family she had known her whole life. She steadied herself on the nearby pine, her stomach sick at the sheer horror of what she witnessed.
No longer could the trembling girl suffer to watch everything she had loved so easily taken from her. She fell to her knees in the blanket of snow, the powder giving a soft crunch under her tiny frame. Tears rolled down her rosy cheeks in streams, dotting the sheet of white beneath her. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, refusing to look again.
"Mama… Papa…"
Her voice wavered with her sobs, yearning to hear her parents respond with consoling words, telling her that she was just having a bad dream; yet the illusion was too painful to be farce. She buried her face in the snow and continued crying for her loss.
The modest cabin lay in a smoldering pile, the flames subdued by the lack of fuel. The embers gave a warm glow to the surrounding snowfield, mocking the child; her whole world was now as empty and bitter cold as the snow that served as a pillow for her tears.
She clutched her satchel tightly to her chest and rocked back and forth, denying any who would take her gift, her only memento from her small, shivering hands. With a sniffle, she reached up to rub her eyes dry on the arm of her coat. Snowflakes began to descend on the field, as though nature herself wished the evidence of the trauma buried.
The girl sat steadfast, her reddened eyes staring away from her lost innocence and into the pine forest that hid the vandals who had committed this sinful deed, and then admired the blaze of their creation like to a bonfire. She hugged her legs to her chest tightly, uncertain of what the future held for her. Sorrow weighed on her heart, as exhaustion weighed on her weary head. Her lips felt numb as another icy wind blew past her, heeding the child not to give into fatigue.
It was then, at the most devastating point in her life, that she had seen the shadow. Tall and imposing he stood, with features indistinguishable through the broken girl's misty eyes. He approached her slowly, appearing from within the forest without warning. Tears threatened to flow again at the corners of her eyes as she hugged herself tighter, terrified that her turn had come.
She trembled as the shadowy figure reached a hand out to her, flinching when it rested gently on her head and ruffled her hair. The confused child looked up at the being, uncertain of its nature or motives. Her frostbitten ears twitched as a deep, soothing voice consoled her.
"The pain must be unbearable, the loss of all you held dear, devastating. Yet you will press on, little one, for there is a strong spirit in you. No more will you have to suffer, so long as these are in your grasp."
The tower of a man took the girl's palms, placing two small objects in them and closing her fingers around them. Her eyes would not peel themselves from those gifts for the longest time. The shadow spoke once more, in a more hushed tone than before.
"There are some things you will need if you wish to relieve the heartache you feel, little one. When the day comes that you are ready, I will guide you."
She never fully understood his words at the time, but in a way they filled her with hope. His warm hand had held hers firmly as he tugged her across the sheet of white, easing her nerves and fending off the winter's chill. He had said not to fear the glowing vortex whose mystic light both frightened and intrigued her. She was told it would take her to a better place, and that she would know what to do once there.
His words lingered in her memory, the very words that had coaxed her to delve into the unknown, to survive though she had nothing left, to seek her destiny. It was because of those words that she had woken up in Al de Baran the next morning. He had been right, too; she knew exactly what to do. She would never forget what she lost, and she would eagerly prepare herself for the day he would guide her to fulfill her heart's desires.