Sealed inside the towering city walls of Acadia, magic users known as Wielders are feared and hunted for the abilities they have been blessed with. They're living in hiding, terrified of revealing themselves to the Authorities that hunt them.
But w...
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"In a mad world, only the mad are sane."
-Akira Kurosawa
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Dreams.
They were just dreams. Illusions.
Fear and shadows infiltrated Soren's dreams, haunting him, making him cry out in the middle of the night. He rolled in his sheets, sweat drenching the fabric beneath him, no matter how hard he tried to block the dark memories from his mind. When he closed his eyes, the terrors were still there, just as vivid and gut-wrenching as the day his life changed seven years ago.
Dreams.
They were just dreams. Illusions.
His thoughts were useless words he told himself every night, as if his excuses and explanations could somehow change the reality of his scarred life.
No matter how much he wished that all of the pain, despair, and terror were just figments of his imagination, they were still there each night. His memories wrapped their bony fingers around his throat while he slept, choking him. Sometimes he wished he wouldn't wake up so that he didn't have to face the day and witness the darkness that continued to spread into his life like blood spreads through water.
He'd been just a boy of ten when everything changed. At the time, he had only wanted to impress Grimm, the man who'd taken in his lonely soul in from the streets of Acadia. He remembered the hunger that had ached in his stomach and the times where it just felt like one big hole where his organs should be. Grimm had fed him, trained him, and at long last, he had his chance--his first mission.
His heart soared with the opportunity. He knew he would go to whatever lengths necessary to see Grimm's eyes swell with pride.
On the day of his first mission, Soren rode in a cramped truck with Grimm's closest comrades, Aeron and Raydon, to a large shop on the outskirts of the city. Not one of them had uttered a word about what they were doing and why. If he had known, would he have turned away? Would he have done anything different?
