I woke to the sound of my own breathing, rough and uneven. The floor under me was cold stone, cracked and dry, rough against my skin.
The air stank of ash and burned oil. I smelled blood too, mixed with something like melted wax. It clung to the walls and the floor like the aftermath of a ritual that had gone wrong.
When my eyes adjusted, I saw the pale blue glow of symbols carved into the marble. They were scattered along the walls, the floor, and the broken altar nearby.
Some still glowed with weak light. Others had faded or shattered.
Bones were everywhere. Some were blackened and curled like they'd burned from the inside out. Others looked melted into the stone.
The wax had pooled and dried in shapes that might once have been candles. If so, they had burned too hot and too long. Whatever had happened here had erased whoever was part of it.
A large summoning circle took up most of the chamber. Blood had been used in place of ink.
It wasn't fresh, but it hadn't dried cleanly either. Lines had been smeared, parts incomplete.
Whoever drew it must have been interrupted or never finished. I didn't know if they succeeded. I wasn't sure if I was the result.
When I tried to move, pain flared across my ribs. I looked down and saw that the robe I was wearing was torn open.
Across my chest were glowing markings. They looked like a snake eating it's own tail.
Its body had many random symbols that I didn't recognize. These had been carved into the skin, glowing with a faint golden light.
I didn't know what they meant. I knew only that they weren't supposed to be there.
I opened my mouth to ask what had happened, but the sound that came out wasn't right. It wasn't my voice. It was deeper, and older.
My hands shook. A loud ringing suddenly pierced my ears.
It wasn't coming from the room, it was inside my skull, high-pitched and sharp. I pressed my palms to my temples, but it didn't stop.
The pressure built until it felt like my head might split open. Then the images came.
They didn't arrive slowly or with warning. They struck all at once, fast and bright like lightning behind my eyes.
A girl with green eyes screamed. I didn't know her name, but the sound tore through me. Her face twisted in fear, arms reaching for something, or someone, before fire swallowed her.
The sky turned gold. Flames poured from it like it had been split open, burning the horizon.
Buildings melted. Trees vanished in seconds. I felt the heat on my skin, though none of it was real.
Then pain… Something cold and sharp drove into my chest. A sword.
I looked up and saw the person holding it. They were smiling.
It was a warm, gentle smile. One meant to comfort. I didn't know why it hurt more than the blade.
The memory shifted again. Now I stood in the middle of a battlefield. The ground trembled.
Titans moved through smoke, gods dressed in armor too strong for the world around them. Their voices thundered above the clash of mortals.
They didn't speak words. They gave orders, and the sky answered.
I dropped to one knee. My stomach twisted, and I couldn't hold it back.
I leaned over and vomited beside the altar. The taste was bitter.
My throat burned. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, still shaking.
The images didn't stop. They echoed behind my eyes, overlapping, out of order. Some didn't feel like memories at all, but pieces of someone else's life shoved into my head.
Each one left a mark. Not just in my mind…. I felt my soul had been torn up and stitched back together too many times.
I had no idea who I was supposed to be, but I knew this much, whoever lived in this body before me had died more than once.
I struggled to breathe through it. My hands scraped against the marble as I crawled forward, still trembling.
I didn't know where I was going, only that I needed something real to hold onto. My palm landed on a sliver of glass, half buried in dust. I pulled it closer and turned it over.
It was part of a mirror. The surface was cracked, but it still reflected enough for me to see what I had become.
The face staring back wasn't mine. Pale skin stretched across sharp features. My jaw was more angular.
My hair was darker, but silver strands ran through it like threads of moonlight. My eyes stopped me cold. One was gray, flat and cold like storm clouds. The other burned gold, faintly glowing at the edges.
I stared at that face. At those eyes. They didn't belong to me. At least, not to the person I remembered being.
I opened my mouth, trying to speak. Only one word came out, and I barely recognized it. "…What?"
The sound of my voice caught me off guard. It was rougher than I expected, a few notes deeper than I was used to..
I swallowed hard and looked at my reflection again. Whatever this body was… whoever it used to be… it wasn't mine.
A chill slid down my spine before I even heard it. Something had shifted in the room.
I turned slowly. The pillars at the edge of the sanctum were cracked, half-buried in rubble, their tops broken and bent inward like the ribs of a long-dead beast.
Between them, something moved. It didn't make any noise.
In fact, the air had grown even quieter. But I felt it….
A presence pressing in from the dark corners of the chamber, just beyond the edge of the rune-light.
My skin prickled. I took a step back and bumped into the altar behind me.
A figure stood near the fallen statue. It was tall, taller than it should have been.
Cloaked in shadow, its shape didn't quite match the way the light should have fallen on it. Just the impression of something human where nothing should be, a silhouette…
Than a voice came… it filled the room without raising its volume. "You're awake… Finally."