I awoke on stone floor, head pounding and ears ringing from the copious yelling around me. Looking up, I saw metal bars surrounding me in a five by five foot square. This pattern continued in rows throughout the large cavern we all were in, each square housing an occupant. To my right sat Aloura, head bowed and hands together as if in deep prayer. She was whispering something in that strange tongue of hers. I attempted to get her attention but was unsuccessful. From my left came a voice, "You won't be able to speak with her for a while, son. She's meditating right now, essential for someone of her talents." An old man sat crossed legged on the floor, hands made into fists with the knuckles touching. He wore a large set of robes so I couldn't tell his build, his hair in a bun at the top, and a long white beard with no mustache. His voice was calm and welcoming, he seemed to be trustworthy, yet I was still wary. In the floor beside him was a small teapot and a few wooden cups. He breathed deeply and looked at me with a smile, relaxing from his meditative state. "Would you care for some tea, friend?" He asked. I thought for a moment, "Sure, why not." I sat down close to my wall of bars. "So, what is your name son?" He asked, pulling a small pouch from his robes. "Kaine. And yours?" He replied, "Most people here call me uncle. You are welcome to call me that if you want." "Uncle. I never had an uncle" I said. He pulled two rocks from his pocket and began sparking them against each other. "Well now you do." He kept banging the rocks with nothing to show for it. "Allow me" I said, reaching my hand out and palming the teapot. I surged slowly, and the water in the pot came to a low boil. His eyes went wide for a moment before he recollected his demeanor. "So it's true what the guards said about you. How fortuitous that a marked one has graced my presence. An honor indeed." He spoke, preparing the tea and letting it work its magic. "An honor?" I asked. "Feels more like a curse now of late. Everywhere I go trouble seems to follow." He looked quizzically at me, a furrowed brow and cocked eye. "You don't know the prophecy of the marked. Do you?" I shook my head no and he poured two cups of tea while explaining. "Long ago a coven of seers were all shows glimpses of a prophecy through dreams, each seeing a different part of the prophecy. This caused a split of the coven. Each of the three sisters began preaching their version of the prophecy where they could, thus forming three cults of sorts. There is the Dawns light, The Dusken, and the Circle of Tartarus. The dawns follow the belief that marked ones are angels or gods, descended from the heavens to lay waste to evil and disease. The Dusken believe that the marked ones are simply humans that have been blessed by powerful entities, meant to fight in great wars and become legends of battle. The Circle of Tartarus on the other hand believes you all are hellspawn sent from the circles of hell to raze this world to the ground." Last one might not be far off. I thought. He passed me a cup and took a drink from his own. I gingerly sipped the amber liquid and savoured the taste and aroma. Light and floral, slightly sweet with a cozy warmth as it went down. "This tea is delicious uncle. Thank you" I said. "There is not many things in life as good as a nice cup of tea." He replied with an ear to ear grin. "Anyway. These three cults are all wrong, at least in their general belief. The three ideologies represent different parts of the prophecy. My organization has spent a few centuries researching in each of the threes hidden archives to find out the truth. Piecing together the entire picture from the fractured information from the cults. And what we've found is this quote, "Marked one's soul both fiend and divine, an endless cycle to last all time, their choice laid bare on the toll of last bell, what side shall they choose, heaven or hell."" My heart was pounding in my chest, threatening to burst out. Was I really going to have to choose between heaven or hell? What kind of choice is that? What does this all mean? I thought. "And what exactly is your order? Your belief?" I asked. "We are the shadows. We are the light. We work in one to serve the other. Come find us when you're ready. You'll know." He smiled. Then I blinked and he was gone. No sound, no smoke or flash of light. Just gone. What the fuck was that. I thought. "Kaine, who are you talking to?" Aloura asked from behind me. I turned around and said, "There was this strange man. H-he told me about this organization that can help us but he just disappeared. He gave me tea" I held out my hand, still gripping the cup. But when I raised my hand the cup was gone, as well as the teapot and other cup in the empty cell. I was speechless. "Kaine, that cell has been empty since we got here" she said slowly. I'm going insane. I thought. Aloura looked at me strangely, as if she didn't know if I were truly still me. "What happened?" I asked. Her inquisitive expression turned fearful. "Well, what do you remember?" She said. I thought for a moment, head still ringing from earlier. "I remember running, then something hit me. It gets kinda foggy after that." She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Well you got hit in the head with a hammer. Then this Goliath guard came up and started hitting you with the hammer over and over," her voice broke. "He almost killed you. But then you became something else. I don't know what it was but it had horns and claws made of flames, was surrounded by red and black lightning, and the most evil smile I've ever seen. You ripped the guards to shreds, some of them a fine paste on the wall. Then their leader, then one with the hammer, you roasted alive. What happened to you?" I was stunned. I didn't know that happened or what to say to it. "I-I don't know." Was all I managed.
