Prologue

Darkness. Nothing but darkness. Was there even something else? It was so hard to remember. For years she knew nothing else—at least it felt as if it had been years. Locked away in a dark cell, somewhere underground. Why was she locked away again? She didn't remember. It was just far too long since she had seen anyone …

While her memories left her one by one, she was still here, still alive. Unable to die. The chains held her in place. She was too weak to even lift her arms, she had no power anymore, and yet she was still unable to pass on.

At first she had struggled against the chains around her feet and hands, had tried to rip the one around her throat away, but it had been futile. One of the few memories she still had, assaulted her again—the one of tears on her cheeks. But there were none. She was just a shadow of her former self, still bound to a body that had all but decayed. And yet parts of her mind remained, aware that someone had subjected her to a fate worse than death …

Had she had friends before? Companions? She remembered faces … Remembered them dying in front of her. Killed by … by whom again?

A sound interrupted her thought carousel and she managed to lift her head. She thought she heard steps. Had someone finally come for her? Something clanged and clacked. Then there was a creak and a bit of light fell into her cell. That’s right, there had been a door there all along. A locked one, that had now been opened. Someone had come for her. Maybe … maybe she could finally rest in peace. Hopefully she could die now.

When she looked up, she couldn’t make out, who was in front of her. Her eyes refused to focus. Maybe they had forgotten, how to do that.

“Are you ready?” The voice rang in her ears. It was far too loud, and didn’t portray any emotion. Maybe it was the reaper’s. She tried her best to nod.

The reaper snapped with his fingers and two more shadows slipped into the cell. They slowly undid the chains that kept her in place, then they pulled her up, and helped her stand. When they made a step forward, she tried to follow, but her feet disobeyed. They pulled her along, her feet dragging on the rough stone floor.

“It’s time to harvest the power of the gods.” The reaper’s voice sounded pleased. There was something strange to the thing he said, but she didn't remember. Her mind refused to remember. It was as if that secret would only serve to prolong her suffering. So she conceded and let the memory rest in its dark corner.

She was pulled through a long, long corridor. The light she saw came from spots in the wall that also felt warm. Warmth … another concept she’d almost completely forgotten.

Finally they arrived in a large dome-like chamber and they all stopped. The reaper raised his voice: “Brothers and Sisters. Goddess Saesquar. The sacrifice is ready to give her life, and her power, for our cause!”

Her mind took a while to understand that she was the sacrifice. That she was ready to go. And he was right. She was ready to be released from this life, from this body. A smile formed on her lips.

“Then let’s begin the ritual,” another voice said.

The men next to her moved once more and helped her to lay on her final resting place. It was a large bed made of cold stone. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly. Waited for the one thing she had been waiting for all this time she could still remember.

“Saesquar, goddess of darkness,” the reaper intoned, “we give this willing sacrifice to you. May her power strengthen your own. May the soul of this innocent girl be proof of our devotion to you!”

There was something about his sentence that threatened the one memory to come out of its dark corner. As if there was a regret attached to it, a wish that would now be unfulfilled forevermore. A child …

The presence of someone next to her distracted her before she could realize what her stray thought really meant. She opened her eyes for a moment, only to see something gleaming coming down on her. The reaper was finally doing its job. Light streamed out of her body, and something like a muffled cry left her. And then she left her body.

From above she saw herself. A scrawny woman with long red hair. Her body looked pristine in the light, unmarred. Not emaciated, not even old. Like a flower that had started to bloom only a short while ago.

Then a dark shadow was directly in front of her. White circles and a white line were the only thing that looked like a face. “Don't worry,” a voice whispered. “I will take good care of your power.” It reached into her soul. She screamed and the thing in her mind that had hidden in a dark corner sprang up. It screamed at her to stop the darkness, but it was too late.

A bright, shining star left her as the darkness pulled its hand back. She knew that it was the thing that had held her back, that had kept her alive all the time. But when she was finally free from the burden and kept rising up into the sky, she also knew that she had made a big mistake.

But who was going to blame her? After all, she had lived through a fate that had been worse than death. And yet, as she was fully embraced by the light of death itself, she could only hope that the world would find a way …