The child was crying. And why shouldn't he be? His mother had always told him that he shouldn't cry…but his mother was gone now. His father, too. His brother, his neighbors, his best friend…all of them were gone. And the little boy was alone. So he wept, little more than a tiny figure kneeling in the corner of Kul Elna's desecrated temple.
"Why—?" He whimpered again, his tears washing over the blood-splattered stones. "Why would you do this to me?" Most of the gods offered him no answer, no comfort for the young boy who had seen too much. But someone was listening.
Suddenly the boy's tears slowed, his eye catching sight of a dark form across his hand. He looked around, confused to see nothing casting the shadow. Even as he did so, he felt something tickle his ear, like a tongue whispering close to him.
"You were left behind, weren't you?" a voice rasped. "They killed your entire village, except for you—."
The boy nodded, pawing at his eyes. "I am alone," he whimpered, clutching at his ratty garments. "They took everyone away—"
"Get up," the voice ordered, an unseen force jerking him to his feet. The barest form of a figure, not quite human, seemed to materialize before him, pushing him roughly into the crumbling wall. The boy gazed fearfully up into a pair of glowing red eyes, ones that studied him flatly. This cannot be…he thought, squirming against the figure's grip.
"You will do," the voice said, the pressure disappearing from his chest as the shadow figure dissolved. "After all…you wish to avenge your family do you not? I know who to blame for this, and I can help you destroy them, if you'll only lend me your strength."
"You…you can help?"
"I can…but only with your help…Together we'll make them pay."
The boy nodded. He felt a hand on his face, gripping it tightly as the scarlet gaze bored into his. He couldn't close his eyes, even as they started to dry uncomfortably. The hand became burning hot, his skin feeling as if the soldiers flames once again whipped at his face. He cried out as his skin twisted and tore, his body writhing against the wall. Pain sliced through everything he ever was and stripped it away, leaving little but a handful of memories and a healthy young boy. He screamed and the desert whipping away his voice, he couldn't bear it—
I have to…for their sake…He thought desperately in between the moments of sharp, mind-numbing pain. I must— His knees buckled and he collapsed onto the broken stones, his mind succumbing to the darkness.
When he came to, the sun was setting outside of the tomb. He staggered outside, his hand clutched over the sluggishly bleeding cut under his eye. The world around him seemed hazy behind the pain, both in his head and in his stomach. He would need to find food and water, and soon at that. He wandered through the ruins of his village and eventually out into the desert; oblivious to the fact that, inside his head, Zorc waited.