"Grandpa~ I don't want to sleep", spoke a child who looked no older than 8, peeking out from underneath the blacket his eyes fixated on the figure sitting on the side of the bed.
The candles flickered as wind blew, the curtains near the windows fluttered and the wind chime ringed in a melodious tune.
The orange hue of the candle illuminated the wooden walls and also the face of an old man.
His long stature and broad build made him look formidable, his face was half illuminated with the soft candlelight and half engulfed with shadows, but yet it did nothing in hiding his soft smile.
His lips parted as he spoke in a low pitched voice, "haha–So, would you like to hear a story?"
His voice held a certain gentle warmth in it, the child looked at the man with stars in his eyes as he enthusiastically sat up
The old man who looked to be in his 60's chuckled lightly as he witnessed his grandson's antics, moving his hand he slowly tucked the child back into his blanket.
"Just stay still, you will fall into slumber sooner."
The child who clearly didn't want to fall into slumber pouted but didn't retort.
With a soft smile the man started to speak in his low pitched voice with a gentle and reminiscing tone.
"So, it's about the time~ a young man by the name of Seris opened his eyes and—"
***
'Ugh-what happened? Where am I?'
I couldn't remember anything, my mind feels hazy.
My thoughts, they feel–cloudy?
A sense of strange dread plagued my mind, I didn't know what was happening.
Intelligent beings who feel emotions may vary in many things, but one things remains common in most of them–that is the fear of the unknown.
Uncertainty can make a man tremble and a god mad.
'my thoughts are truly in a disarray, sigh~'
'I should calm myself, nothing good will happen anyway if I were to panic.'
'So, what happened? I can't remember. Who am I? I can't remember.'
'T-This is bad, questioning myself with the same questions ain't gonna cut it.'
'I cannot feel my body, it's a bit strange, I cannot remember anything–yet, I can talk to myself in such detail, what language is this?'
'argh–nevermind that, the bigger problem comes first, my body, my senses and my thoughts they all seem detached, very much so'
I kept thinking–and time passed, a minute, an hour, a few more hours, a day, a week, a month, an year, few more—a decade, a century—a millenia, or just a fleeting second.
I couldn't really differentiate, my senses were all dull, the only thing I could feel were my thoughts and a mild sense of buoyancy, like I was–floating.
I was slowly losing consciousness, I was scared, I didn't know why, but I had a feeling that–if I were to falter now then I would definitely fall into eternal slumber.
It would most definitely be the end of me.
I resisted with all my might and persevered, but alas–it wasn't enough, it wasn't even close to being enough.
'Just for a second, I want to rest, just a second', Saying that to myself I closed my fictitious eyes.
And then I rested, forever–or so I thought.
***
A small bead of golden light had been flowing through an endless expanse of a sea flowing through time and space, the small bead of golden radiance had been surrounded by many other's, all resembling itself.
All those beads had many similarities but one thing that differentiated them all was–they all had their own Unique thoughts, all belonging to different people.
And all the while a singular bead of golden light had been going through the cycle of emotions and fragmented memories–it had been devouring the others of its kind and absorbing their essence and their thoughts, ultimately sending them to their eternal deaths.
Yes, they all were souls, souls of the dead–and this place was the mystical sea, where they rested with their most prized memories until eventually their souls would discard those memories and become an empty slate ready to be reincarnated.
But this time around a phenomenon occurred which had never occurred before in the ever expanding history of Life and Death.
An anomaly had taken birth, an insignificant soul bead had been devouring other soul beads and had lost its golden radiance and lustre.
An aura of malevolence had taken its place–and a sinister crimson colour had replaced the golden.
And this had not gone unnoticed, for centuries, Gods had been searching for the anomaly.
In the cycle of Death and Reincarnation Souls play a very crucial part and they are bound by a very certain law.
Every soul shall reincarnate along with the souls who had been with it in its past life, and the soul can only reincarnate in a world whose laws are higher than its previous lesser world.
But for a very long time, a single soul had broken this chain and this could cause cataclysmic damage to the cycle of reincarnation, and it can because of a single reason.
A Forgotten–a soul that had been forgotten by the universe, a being that nobody remembers, and a being that nobody can predict–an outlier of this world, and could possibly change the course of the inevitable fate if left unhindered.
But alas someone finally found it.