Prologue: The Realisation

Midnyte blinked. She was in total darkness. What was going on? There were mixed, chewed-up-and-digested bits of memories and dreams she didn't know the meaning of, or simply couldn't comprehend. Then the truth crashed upon her, hard.

She wasn't closing her eyes. She wasn't blind either, for her surroundings began filling with a piercing, blinding light. She was dead. Or else she seemed so.

At her realisation the light faded, and darkness once again replaced it. The darkness she knew and loved so well. It was as if the light had wanted her to know the truth.

Somehow, mysteriously, realising the situation she was in made it feel a little better. Just a tiny bit better. Then she was worried again.

What became of Shadow and Umbra? Were they dead as well? If so, where were they? And had they escaped this place? But to escape the Other Realm, where the souls of the dead went after the mortal form had perished, it was simply impossible. So they still lived. Midnyte relaxed a little, once again.

She had failed to notice, however, while ruminating that a girl—she looked no older that thirteen years of age—with short, jet-black hair had drawn nearer.

"Midnyte." She said, and her voice was like all the music in the world.

"You... Who... Who are you?" Midnyte quavered. "What do you want with me?"

"Fear not, for with this none will see us yet." she pressed a marble into Midnyte's palm. Midnyte instantly recognised it as the Bead of Concealment. The girl went on. "Your soul—it is not in the Other Realm. You are not dead. Instead, your soul is trapped. Within what, I know not. It lies not within my understanding. I only know that I have been sent to help you. To guide you through this. To bring you home. I am the guardian of your soul; my name is Lystelle."

And together they passed through the crimson mist surrounding them, two figures moving through eternal silence, unseen, as Midnyte awaited her first task. The first out of the Nine that would bring her home.