let's be alone together
if a tree falls, but no one sees it, no one hears it, did the tree fall? - shade/lucid
A part of me is quite angry at you, Forgotten Hero Shade. You were a hero. A fighter of legendary strength who could stand up against the Black Mage. A man who had the strength to be a legend.
A person with friends, people who cared about you.
And you threw all that away for the sake of the world.
Did you even fully understand what you were giving up? Did you ever think about what it would be like, to be forgotten by the world, to be truly alone?
Tell me – if a tree falls, but no one sees it, no one hears it, did the tree fall?
If no one knows of you, did you ever exist?
What was the point of saving the world if they would never remember you? Why choose this kind of existence? Do you know what it's like, to be alone and watch everything pass by you? To not be a presence, to be lower than a ghost?
Do you?
I do. And unlike you I didn't have a choice.
Don't judge me for the decision I made to follow the Black Mage, Shade. I was but a fragmented, pale version of myself – a shade, you could say – when I stumbled upon the Black Mage's dreams. It was a miracle, to have wandered the dream world as I did and find an actor of strong enough power willing to intervene with my situation. A miracle akin to searching the entire ocean to find one specific grain of sand.
You think you knew loneliness when everyone forgot you? Imagine being alone in the endless world of dreams for hundreds of years, the desires of all the unsavory creatures in the world given form in the realm of imagination that knows no bounds .
You, at least, had the luxury of being asleep all those years after the Seal.
I didn't. And after centuries, what might as well have been an eternity of self-hatred, despair, fear, loneliness and bitterness, the Black Mage was the light for me. He let me leave the shade that I had become behind. He took away my loneliness. He gave me a new life, showed me how to be a part of the world.
For that, for Him, I would fight you, Shade, with every bit of the powers I possess.
But at the same time, the part of me that pities you for the ordeal you bear upon your shoulders, the part of me that thanks you for helping me find that incredible miracle that was the Black Mage will remember you. Even if we are to be enemies, and clash against each other in a struggle to control the fates of these worlds, there is no one that deserves to be alone in the world. Even if it is only to be remembered by enemies . . .
You will not be alone by yourself, Shade. Let's be alone together.