I felt wind on my skin. It was a strange sensation. So different from the cold currents of the Dark Waters that it disoriented me for a few minutes. As I got used to the sound and sensations of the wind, I began to notice other things. Like the warmth of the sun beating down on me. The rustle of clothes shifting, and voices speaking over me.

  I looked down at myself and didn’t recognize what I was seeing. A strange sense of disorientation overwhelmed me. I was a skeleton made from clear, transparent crystal tied together with pale threads of tendons.

  A soft palm pressed against my head and gently lowered my head back down. I looked at the owner of that palm and saw two women muttering chants over me. One of them was a pale-skinned elf; the other one was shorter and brown-skinned. I looked away from them and at the world around me.

  I was lying on a pallet under the purple leaves of the great tree. Grass covered the soil. Wooden furniture like chairs and tables held glass bottles, vials, and implements just a few steps away from us. Beyond them I could see structures made of stone bricks. People wearing so many colors ran back and forth, collecting strange glowing objects and bringing them back to the tables.

  And the Dark Waters? There was no sight or sound of them.

  As I looked around, I stopped and considered my thoughts. I shouldn’t have known what any of those things meant. And yet I did. Just like this new sense of time I had. In the Dark Waters, I had lost all sense of time. For eras and eons, I had kept order in the waters until time had no meaning. And yet here I was. I could sense the seconds tick away. Minutes pass. And with it came an understanding that days had passed since I had been pulled out of the Dark Waters.

  The spear man stepped next to me and smiled down. “Ah, you are awake, child. Hold on for just a little bit longer. Soon, you will be free to move around on your own.”

  The man turned to the chanting women and asked, “Ready?”

  The women responded with a nod. They continued their chants. The spear man unbuttoned his coat and threw away his tunic, revealing his pale marble skin. He held his spear in one hand and took in a breath to brace himself. With a sharp and sudden movement, he dug the tip of his spear into his chest and ripped down.

  The spear man grunted and coughed out blood all over me. With a groan of pain, he ripped open his chest and sliced a sliver out of his heart. It glowed a pale white in his hand. He slowly placed it under my rib cage. And took a step back, covering his chest with a hand. The women followed his lead. They sliced their wrists and dripped their blood over my bones, covering them completely.

  Their chants changed, and this time I could understand their mutters.

  “With our blood, we bind thee. With our blood, we bind thee. With our blood, we bind thee...”

  They continued their chants. The spear man drank down a vial of potions and returned to me with a healing chest. He looked down at his left hand with a grimace. And with a hint of pain, sliced off his fingers, one by one. He joined the chant.

  His pained, deepened voice spoke over the other chants.

  “By my bone, I anchor thee.”

  His voice grew deeper.

  “By my blood, I bind thee.”

  His voice echoed.

  “By my flesh, I give thine form.”

  The voice penetrated my consciousness.

  “By my breath, I give thine life.”

  His voice rattled my bones.

  “By my mana, I make thee a Truechild of mine.”

  The world stopped. My mind shook. I... I... knew who the spear man and the two women were. They were my parents. The man was my father. An Emperor. The Mage Supreme, Larden Starbright. The women were Yavana Sareen, the Elf Queen and Father's first favorite. And the other one was Savera, the mysterious Southern Star.

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  I felt a deep connection form and take root inside my soul. Not with the father, or the elf, but with the Southern Star. I looked at her. She touched my forehead with a bloody palm and smiled down at me. I blinked.

  I could blink.

  Savera leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Calm, child. Everything is well. Everything will be...”

  A loud screeching sound stopped her words. Father staggered. And had to hold himself up with his spear. Thunder cracked the sky and the pale blue sky transformed into hues of red and yellows. With a loud boom, a massive eye opened up in the sky. Its iris was not a normal one. It should have been circular. No, this one was misshaped, resembling a cracked yellow-green glass with jagged edges overlapping each other. Its pupil was red in places and blue at other spots. It was one of the most unnatural things I had seen in a long while.

  The eye scanned left to right and found us. Its malicious gaze moved to focus on Father and then looked at the mothers. And finally, it settled on me.

  “Noooo!” The eye’s voice shook me to my core.

  It tried to undo the ties that had bound me back to life. Father’s guards, servants, and mages threw themselves in front of me. It only stopped the eye for a second. They were burnt away like paper in seconds. Done with the people, it focused back on me.

  Or tried to. My mother, Savera, the Southern Star, covered me with her body and took the blow. She was too small. She couldn't cover me completely. Burning pain began deep in my chest. Where Father had given me the flesh from his heart. It started spreading to my skin. I saw tendrils of smoke erupt from my body. My mouth opened in a noiseless scream. As did my mother’s.

  A pale white shield snapped into existence covering Mother and me. A large marble-skinned man lifted his hands and held the eye’s magic back. His shield began to crack under the pressure. He screamed and pushed more mana into his shield. It repaired. Held for a few seconds and then cracked again.

  “Larden!” My other mother, Yavana, shot a bolt of magic at the eye and shouted, “Hit it. Now.”

  Suddenly a bone-white spear shot into the sky. It skewered the eye left to right. The eye shuddered for a second and fell onto the distant ground with a boom. And a bloom of dust. Father suddenly appeared in front of me. He lifted the unconscious form of my mother off me with a fingerless hand and held his hand out. His spear flew back to him.

  He scowled and spat. “Demon filth!”

  With a flick, he cleaned the blood off the spear and turned to look at me. The spear man’s eyes widened at my condition. He snarled, “Stay alive, boy. Just keep breathing.”

  The man turned from me and shouted, “Sage!”

  A panting man responded, “Yes, Father?”

  “You keep him alive.”

  “Father, where are you going?” Sage asked our father.

  “To find out how a demon slipped into my capital,” Father shouted in anger.

  Mother Yavana looked down at me and placed a palm over my head. “Sleep, child. When you wake up, you won't hurt so much.”

  I don’t know what happened next. Life was too painful. It burned. It hurt. Every breath I took hurt. Raw from pain, I tried to find some way out. Somewhere to escape to. I longed for the numbness. The cold embrace of death. The Dark Waters I called home.

  I recalled the peace the waters offered. The cold that seeped into bones. The ice that chilled the mind. The currents that took away emotions. The certainty that slowed thoughts. Something responded to my call. It lapped against my soul. Trying to penetrate a barrier that had kept the waters away from me.

  The barrier broke. And suddenly, all at once, the cold of death rushed into me. It soothed my wounds. It quenched the fires in my soul with a hiss. It numbed the pain. It took my anger, my frustration, and the sense of helplessness of seeing my mother screaming in pain from me. Piece by piece, certainty returned. And somewhere in the depths, I found myself again. Before I could settle back into the waters, something pulled me out. It ripped me out and ripped something from me. I don’t know what. But I lost something that day. Something essential. Something that made me, me.

  In that haze, I drifted. And drifted. Trying to find what I had lost. With a sharp jolt, I awoke. This time I was indoors. Laying on a soft bed with Father and another stone-skinned man looking down on me. This one looked like me. No, he looked like Father. And we looked like Father. We were his children and it was normal that we looked like our parents.

  How did I know that?

  More thoughts came in. How long had it been since we had been attacked?

  Other people who were less than half as tall as the two men handed them glowing stones along with various tools and implements. The man’s—my brother’s—hands glowed as he touched my chest. A warm sensation rolled down my body.

  I looked at my brother and in a halting whisper asked, “Muh... Mother?”

  Sage’s eyes focused on mine in surprise.

  “Father. He is awake,” Sage announced.

  “I can hear him, Sage.” Father walked to me and smiled.

  I waited for an answer.

  Father's eyes grew crow's feet as he smiled. “Savera is well, child. It has been weeks. Look.” Father revealed his hand. “It’s been long enough that I have grown my fingers back.”

  I nodded and exhaled in relief.

  “You were hurt quite badly, brother. We had to do a lot of work on you,” Sage announced and asked, “How do you feel?”

  I nodded.

  Sage looked at me and shrugged. “Should I take that as good?”

  I nodded again.

  “Father, I think the Eye of Shroom did something to him,” Sage stated.

  “I don’t see any lingering damage.” Father responded and asked, “How long will he stay conscious this time, Sage? Should we get the mana stones?”

  “I don’t know, Father. He is…”

  My eyes began to close. I tried to stay conscious but the edges of my vision began to darken.

  “Father, he is slipping back to unconsciousness,” Sage stated quickly.

  Father sighed. “Let him. He has been through a lot.” Father looked at me and smiled. “Sleep, Truechild. Sleep and rest. When you are awake, we will talk about your future.”

  My eyes closed and I drifted away once again.