Do you ever wonder what is behind your sight? What it's like falling inside your own mind? Alexander knows it best, he's sometimes there when he tries to sleep. It's like sinking in an endless void, surrounded by nothing but darkness. The only thing in front of you is a canvas that depicts what your eyes would see, were they open. It gets further and further away as you go deeper inside your own mind. If it were your mind though, there would surely be some thoughts around you. But there is nothing. Just you and the canvas.
This kind of sleep is not even restful, but it makes watching the eternal flame go a lot faster. Alexander is on day duty as the flame watcher. It's not that hard, even non-callers can do it after all. The tent where the flame is situated is rather spacious, being held by thick wooden pillars that serve as corners for an imaginary square. The flame is situated at the center, on a stone pillar. It makes it look like the flame is floating. Opposite of the chair Alexander is sitting on, there is a secondary room, where the night flame watcher sleeps. With the flame log resting on his lap and the quill tightly gripped in his right arm, Alexander awaits changes in the flame's color by peeking through the canvas of his void.
"Alexander?" a woman's voice breaks the silence of the tent. "Sorry to wake you, but I've brought you a meal."
Alexander raises the head he has been resting on his shoulder, moving his eyes towards the sound of the woman's voice. She sticks her head and arms through the tent's cloth, holding a wooden bowl in one of her palms. This makes Alexander respond as if he were never asleep.
"I told you before. Just let the meal outside. If the creed finds out somebody else but me entered the tent, they would come for the both of us!"
Already knowing what she had done was wrong, her gaze was set to the floor. She took a quick glance at the flame and then back at Alexander.
"But... the flame is white anyway... That means there are no ghosts here, right?"
"That is besides the point! You know what happened to the last flame watcher!" Alexander gets up and approaches her.
"Back then, word got out of a red ghost appearing in the village and a caller channeled it, slaughtering almost everybody here!"
Left with his mouth open, as if wanting to continue, Alexander cuts himself short.
They both know what he was going to say. They were there that night after all. Their parents protected them, hiding both of them under the floor boards of their home. Alexander was holding Sophia in his arms, both to protect her and to muffle her cries. His ears were ringing the entire time. He sunk himself inside his mind, not wanting to witness the death of his parents through the holes between the floor boards. But the canvas didn't let him avert his gaze. He could feel himself screaming inside the void, but nothing was coming out of his body. He was in the void after all, the void was protecting him, it was silent there.
The creed caught wind of the incident swiftly, the White Board being first responders. They saved what was left of the village and tended to the survivors. Ianos, the Rook of the White Board, was the one in charge of the area. He had captured the culprit and the flame watcher, swearing to hold them both accountable for their actions. He appointed Alexander as the new watcher, assuring him that this will never happen again. Before leaving, he handed out bags full of metal necklaces to everyone, as apologies and as a reminder that they are his people to protect.
Sophia and Alexander are in the tent now, sitting in silence, as if thinking about the same thing, and finally coming back to reality. They are both staring blankly at each other's necklaces, which serve as grim reminders for them.
"Sophia, thank you for the meal. You should go now..."
Without a word, Sophia left, letting Alexander tend to his duty. Alexander took a peek outside though. Since the tent is set on top of the village's hill, he could make sure Sophia got home safely. Seeing her inside the tent, it made Alexander aware of how thin Sophia had gotten. He wanted to remind her to eat, but she hates it when he worries about her. How could he not worry though, when her hands and feet are always dirty from overworking herself. Some days she struggles to get back home, her eyebags giving away how tired she really is. It pains Alexander to see her like this, but he can't burden her with his worries as well. He only gets to see her outside the tent when he delivers reports during night duty.
His attention drifts somewhere else, he takes a look around the village, wooden houses sparsely placed on the green plain. Among the people he can make out some callers who use their ghosts to aid the people around the village. He looked disgusted while following one of them with his gaze, the village's own fertilizer. That caller would always leave the village to steal life force from vegetation outside the village, using it to help the crops grow faster. That's what he was told to do. Whenever he's lazy he would just dry up a patch of grass inside the village for life force.
In the distance, a party can be seen raising Ianos' flag, either to patrol the area or for a regular inspection, but it would be too soon for that. A ghost's voice cuts the sightseeing short.
"Damn that Zacharius, he touched me before killing me! I need to look for a caller quickly."
Alexander, covers the tent entrance, and looks towards the flame, making sure to avoid looking at the ghost. The flame had gone out.
"Boy-" continued the ghost "- you don't happen to be a caller, don't you?"
Alexander rushes to the flame, and upon closer inspection it had not gone out. The flame is black! He had never seen nor heard of this before. He turns towards the ghost in awe, and asks.
"Who are you?"
"Ah, a caller posing as a flame watcher, smart AND rare." the ghost responded.
As if taking a bow, the ghost continues:
"I am Mikola the Bloody, King of the Black Board! Sorry to witness me in such a pitiful state, but your village is about to be wiped from history because of me."