The wind blew gently. There was no cold. There was no heat.
Only an eternal breeze caressing the suspended ruins of the Abyss.
Eidan sat on what must once have been the tip of a tower, now broken and floating in the void. Around him, fragments of the world continued to float slowly: a stringless harp, a broken statue, an unlit lantern.
For the first time since he was "reborn," no one was chasing him. No voice in his mind. Only the slow beating of his own heart. And the beating of others... inside him.
---
🩸 Memories that are not his
He closed his eyes.
He saw a little girl, asking the corrupt priest for a blessing for her sick father. He saw the priest kneel and speak pure words... before everything degenerated.
Then he tasted blood on his lips. A woman begging for mercy. The vampire, with moist eyes, caressing her face... and then sucking the life out of her out of necessity.
Eidan inhaled slowly.
History, pain, broken lives... everything mixed within him.
---
🌒 A gentle presence
A figure watched him from afar.
It wasn't a shard. It wasn't an enemy.
It was a boy with shadowy hair and eyes as gray as time, sitting cross-legged on a nearby shard.
> "You're becoming a good keeper," the boy said.
Eidan didn't answer. He studied him, ready to fight... but the boy showed no hostility.
> "The Shards don't want revenge. Not really. They just want to be remembered."
> "Who are you?" Eidan asked.
> "No one. Or perhaps... whatever you will be, if you lose yourself in them."
The figure vanished, leaving a gray feather in the air.
---
🔘 A Silent Choice
Eidan looked down at his hand.
He was no longer trembling.
He had the power of a vampire and the rage of a damned saint… yet, in that moment, he felt only calm.
It wasn't peace. But acceptance.
The Tower had forgotten him. But he was returning.
Not to destroy. Not yet.
To remember. To gather. To understand.
The return would begin soon.
But that evening—if the Abyss had a time—Eidan lay down on the ruins and looked up. Where the sky should have been. Where one day, perhaps, he would see the light again.
---
> [System: Spiritual Synchronization State 37%]
Mental Stability: +5%
Contained Madness: 2/10
Residual Humanity: Unknown.