Slowly, Aeron's eyes opened to the hot sun above him, apparently searing through his eyelids. Arms and legs ached weighted, as if they had been bound. Everything around him was indistinct, shifting shades and colors, as the remnants of a dream vanished like smoke on the breeze.

He struggled to sit up, and his vision was fuzzy as he managed to get to his feet. Finally, he grasped onto rough earth beneath him. The world around him was alien, no longer the cold, sterile rooms of the city he grew accustomed to, but this was a world in bright skyscapes and wild landscapes, full of bright colors hinting at an ancient magic-one he almost failed to understand.

He breathed deeply and could feel the air fill his lungs in a manner almost strange. This strength, strong and unfamiliar to him, coursed through him in an energy he had never felt. It's as if the very vitality courses in him, stronger even than Nature herself, whereby he may be more than human-from another world.

"What. what happened?" Aeron whispered to his breath. He could only remember one thing, the sharp pains that had hit him, the betrayal, the moment he died.

Death.

His heart raced as memories tumbled out, clear and sharp: life that once was there, the betrayal by people he put his trust in, the subsequent war he fought and lost. He remembered it all, the kings and the generals, the magic he had used, the enemies that broke his world.

And then, nothing.

Did he. did he die?

It was more than he could possibly digest: he had struggled so hard to live in his old life, only to see that, too, defeated at the end, and now he sat here, alive again in a new body in a new world.

He struggled to his feet, his fingers brushing against the soft, near-magical grass beneath him. An incredible energy rode the air, mystical and ancient, full of life. Aeron felt this world was very different from that which he had come. There was power here, natural and unused, for the taking. But how?

He heard a voice from behind him and instantly shivered with awe and fear.

"You're awake."

Aeron turned and locked eyes with the speaker. Before him stood the woman-tall and lithe, her tresses of crimson dancing with the breeze like to so many tiny flames. Her eyes flashed with a light of strength-a mix of power and knowledge and something more again. She was clad in warrior armor; her sword was sheathed at her side, and her eyes held a look of careful interest.

"I did not think you would awake quite so quickly," she said, her voice soft as silk, laced with an underlying authority. "It would appear fortune smiles upon you, Aeron."

Hearing his name sent him stock-still. He hadn't told her who he was-so how did she know?

"Who are you?" Aeron demanded, the shake in his voice barely contained. There was something unsettling about the woman, an aura of danger, which seemed to surround her; the fire in her eyes was not one of warmth but of something much deadlier.

The woman smiled-softly, but her lips twisted in such a way it set Aeron ill at ease. "My name is Elysia," she said, gliding closer. "And you are the person I was sent to find."

"Find?" Aeron repeated, this time with a cautious backward step. His senses were still acclimatizing, yet the power within his chest-like any powerful thing-was impossible to go unnoticed. Its feel, coursing through him, was unlike anything he could have imagined. Ancient and infinite, an ocean of power threatening in each turn to engulf him.

Elysia saw that he was insecure. "You are not a mere man, Aeron," she said with respect and wariness. "You have come back to life. And in this world, those who come back are intended for grand things. or bad endings." Aeron felt his heart pounding, her words weighing down his chest. His mind was busier, trying to get the meaning from her words: reborn, meant for success or failure-too hard to accept, too hard to grasp now.

"I don't understand," he said quietly, "What is this place? Who are you? And why. why am I here?"

The hardness was there in Elysia's voice, but her eyes softened. "This, Aeron, is the Dominion of the Fire Sovereign-a place of the elements. And you are not any ordinary man; you are a reincarnation of some sort of ancient power, brought back either for balance once more or to completely ruin it.

Aeron's mind was spinning. Fire Sovereign? Dominion? Power? He knew nothing of this place, nor even which world he was in. All he knew was this unshakeable, ominous feeling that somewhere, something huge-something dangerous-lay in wait for him. And he had to know it. He clenched his fists, and a great fire burnt inside. Whatever happened, whatever the reason for being here, he would find it out, he would rise again, more powerful than ever. The world was not done with him yet. "Tell me all," Aeron repeated, the sharp edge laced low into his tone. "I'm ready."