PROLOGUE

"So how did you, the Alranai, come to be?"

"It would be a difficult thing to explain. First, we recall being one. Peace and stillness were surrounding us, while all was dark and silent. So continued for what seemed to be millennia until we looked long enough within ourselves to find the most beautiful of all things – we imagined the light. So comforting and warm, that from it, we created many other wonders. Eventually, our mind meditated among the meadows and rivers of gold. We thought of sounds from the distance and smells from nearby.

In a feeling of loneliness, we continued to draw images of what was not – gentle animals and birds that sat at our side, then we dreamt of people and societies with whom we lived in a state of love and happiness. The more eons have passed the further our mind has traveled and the more complex creations that were filling our head started to become.

We had to take pause and thus once again suddenly found ourselves alone in the endless silence of the void. The feeling left a bitter mark upon us, so we withdrew back into our fantasies, but this time, our thoughts were changed.

We dreamt of dark ocean beds and deep grim caverns, merciless mountains, and cold snowy wastes. Our mind-children began to struggle and fear. It made them cruel and violent. Eventually, they become so malevolent that nothing but destruction mattered to them, and for the first time ever, we shed a tear seeing how innocence was stomped underneath an unfeeling foot.

We came to observe nothing but endless war and conflict, yet we couldn't stop and return back to what it once was. Some of our horrible creations kept invading our sanctuaries; there was no escape from them, no longer any peace or happiness to be found.

Then, we did our best to separate order from chaos, love from hate, pleasure from pain, and life from death. I think we tried so hard that as a result we tore our own heart out and rend it in two. Although it was extremely painful, in the end, we found the release which we sought. Calm was felt once more but when we opened our eyes we found ourselves upon a bed of soft ground and in the company of another.

At first, we were confused and scared, but at least we were no longer alone. Peace and happiness returned when we felt drawn to that other being, just as it was drawn to us. We decided to call ourselves Alra and they came to call themselves Fehtl. Even though it seemed right, we felt love towards them, while they remained aloof.

In our union, we've set to make this land into our home. It was easy to pick and shape the ground into what you'd want, be it life or clay, but it was gradually far more difficult to agree upon the vision of what our world should be like.

Eventually, coldness began to separate us, then conflict, then fighting. With each powerful blow or a harsh word, shards broke off us. Those shards became smaller yet slightly different versions of ourselves, thus we came to be, the Alranai but also the Fehtlezar."

"So wait a second. Does that mean that..?"

"It exhausts me to think of this further my love. Satisfy me again and let's rest. We have an eternity together to speak in length about this."