Left Alone With Myself

In a gloomy room lit by only a pair of candles slept a woman with long grey hair. Her grey hair was so long that it covered half of the room. Her long grey hair reflected the dim candlelight like silk the moonlight. This woman then suddenly awoke and began look around, the place where she awoke was entirely new to her. She looked at her hair and grabbed it with both of her hands; her face was full of disbelief.

"This is... my hair? No, this must be a wild dream..." She closed her eyes and grabbed her head with both of her thumbs started focusing. "I-I just have to wake up!" Then she started humming but nothing seemed to work. She continued this strange ceremony for a while but, she became more and more desperate with each passing minute. After a sort while the humming sound became a cry for help filled with hopelessness.

"Why...Why can't I wake up? Yesterday I was with my tribe, we celebrated the end of winter under the open sky... I led the ritual as the shaman of the tribe. There is no way I'm really here... What happened? Where is everyone?" Her gaze then then met the pair of candles on the desk. Like they were put there to signal something. She stood up then saw an open book. Strangely enough her name was written on it... She then went to the desk and opened the book with the name:

Hethna.

She looked at the first page of the hefty book, and she recognized her on handwriting... Even if she never learned to write like this it was strangely familiar and she even understood the meaning of the symbols...

"Hethna. I am you. You are me. This will sound confusing but you have to believe everything I am about to tell you through these words. You are more than a shaman. You are a witch, but no one understood that back then. I know you think that all this is just a dream, but it's really not. You should sit down first and take a big breath before you read the following lines..."She ignored the warnings and looked at the following lines." I said you should. I am you. I understand you more than anyone else..." She was shocked and followed the instructions.

"You are more than 400 years old... All of your memories are part of a long forgotten, no longer existing past... Everyone you knew, your family, the tribe is no more than dust by now... You are the only thing left... This is cruel reality. I will tell you how is this possible but I know I have to give you some time..."

She then just looked at the book and read the text over and over again aloud. She did this a couple of times and even memorized the text. Her grey pair of eyes where full of disbelief. "It's impossible... There is no way that... I can't be that old just look at me! "She then looked at both of her hand and showed it to the book. "I don't even have wrinkles on them! How can I be that old! This is nonsense! This is just a joke of another shaman!" She then began to lift the page but her hands began to tremble.

What she saw on the pages where the exact words that she just said...

"As I mentioned I am you. You are me... All the things I wrote are true, but I know that is not enough for you. On that day right after the ceremony. You... I mean we... wanted to accept the band of engage from a young warrior who was trying to get close to us from the very beginning. His name was Torunn... I can also tell you that everything happened just as we thought. A big celebration was arranged and all the shamans and chiefs were invited, and envied us... It was a beautiful day. However it did not last long... Shortly after news those invaders that came from the west wanted to claim this land as their own. They crushed all the tribes in the north and showed us as examples. Others bowed and even accepted these so called invaders. They then began to fight among themselves but that is unimportant to us right now... You are a shaman but these invaders would call you as a 'witch' you never knew what you blessing really was but I can tell you what it is."

"It is the gift of time. The gift of eternal life."

"However all blessings have a price. Ours was the loss of memory. You will forget everything about the past except what was 400 years ago. Fortunately there are ways around it; you are reading your own diary. Here you can search for anything you want to know about the past. It has information about how can you write these patterns called words and so much more... But the most important thing for us is to prepare for the day of reckoning and destroy those who desecrated our sacred lands. We have already found a way to do that... Your gift. Time allows us to do anything; even things that are out of our reach can be done with enough time and effort. One such achievement was your soldier... Please step outside and you will see what I mean." She then closed the book and rushed to the door. She opened it and what she saw made her breath stop.

In front of her stood a man wearing dark plate armour dark as the night sky. The helm on his head covered all of his facial features. His face was not visible. However, when she stepped one more step towards him. The man wearing the armour began to glow... His face was covered in a bluish light that looked otherworldly and spectral at the same time. Later his entire body was covered in the spectral light. Then he kneeled before her and took off his helmet.

There was no face under the helmet... Just the otherworldly and spectral bluish light with an unknown source... She imminently stepped back and screamed but the 'thing' paid no attention to it just spoke in a rough and torn voice that resembled the clash of steel...

"My creator... Is... there... something...wrong...." It then stood up but on the helmet and stood like a firmly.

"What are you!?" She jumped away from him and had a panicked expression on her face like she is about to die.

"I...am...Your...creation...first...among...many..."IT had a lot of difficulty speaking. The more it tried to speak the more his tone became torn apart. It paused for a while and said" I...have...news...what...you...requested...yesterday..."It then began to gesture towards her, and pointed at the book. She gave up the book and dropped it on the floor. The armoured 'person' then started searching and found a picture that resembled it. There was a text to the picture.

"These are our creations. We decided to call them Rune Knights, and HE is their Chief. The 'King' as the invaders call their rulers. As the Rune King, he is responsible for your safety and well-being, and reports everything to you. They don't feel hunger or cold or any emotions and are bound to follow us. If he decided to show you this page that means it's important.

She then pulled herself together and asked "What is it?"

He started to search the book once again and showed a page. On it there was a big anvil with strange tools around it, and below the picture the following was written.

"This is where you create them, it's the Runeforge. We stole this technology from the invaders; it takes one full year, and a lot of materials to make just one soldier. We could make more but these materials include your own blood... However there is another way to solve this issue. If a shaman or 'witch' ever born with the ability to control magic itself... there are no more limitations... We have prepared a special device for that case; or rather we stole one from the invaders... It is a small jewellery that will glow in a yellow light if a strong witch comes near it. We enhanced the effect so it can track people in the entire 'kingdom' If this device shows a glowing radiant light that means we can make more soldiers than ever before..."

"What can you tell me about the stone?"

"Its...I-t..."He struggled to speak and couldn't make a word just a clashing sound. Then he kneeled before her."Fo...gi-v..me..."

"Just show me where the anvil is." He bowed and gestured towards a dark corridor. When she took her first step into the corridor she heard the sound of steel clashing against the stone. Right after a dark corridor was light by the bluish light that came from the Rune Knights who stood there like stone sculptures. More than a hundred of them stood side by side and they scared away the darkness.

She stood there for a minute and when she moved she moved very slowly. As she passed them by all of these Rune Knights kneeled down before her. Treating her like a High Chieftain. Soon she reached the gigantic anvil. There a half done Rune Knight was lying on it; there was also a small jewellery was also hanging above the anvil. But it was glowing so bright that it filled the whole room with its yellow light.

"I-I...Wi-ll...arrange...the...se-arch." The Rune King kneeled before her.

"Do... just that." she grabbed the jewellery and when she looked at it she was filled with a sense of fulfilment. Her face looked like someone disconnected before but right now.

It was like she is whole again.