Tenebris

The harsh surface of the rocks rudely woke up Tenebris, as he held his aching head and sore body, his knee feeling extremely tough and rigid. 

'What happened... the mine must have collapsed... where am I?' Tenebris examined his surroundings, albeit to little results as the darkness around him was hard to get used to, after a few minutes, his eyes adjusted enough to make out a blurry outline of the place he fell on. 

It was a rather flat area of the hollow part he had fallen in, but it did not mean the jagged rocks were providing a comfortable resting area. He stood up slowly as he reached out with his hands, keeping them extended outwards so he didn't walk head-first into anything. 

After some distance of walking, the surroundings were... partly illuminated, although still much darker than the mines who were usually lit up by fickle oil lamps. 

A dark and ethereal glow slowly filled his irises as he stepped forward, spotting what seemed to be a.. pond? A lake? It wasn't clear, Ten's sense of distance was heavily clouded by the abnormal darkness. 

Regardless, the water inside the dark pond, as Ten decided to call it, was, unsurprisingly, very dark. Dark to a point that it didn't quite make sense, because the surroundings were brighter than the water. The pond outline took over a large part of the dark passage, making it so that you had to enter it to cross to the other side. 

'This looks creepy as hell... but I can't stay here. Who knows if the cave will collapse again, not to mention, I must find Baron and Nessie.' Ten mused in his mind as he hesitated about crossing the water. Something inside him told him that the entire situation was very, very off. 

But what choice did he have? Or rather, what choice could he make when staying there was definitely not in his plans? Tenebris, with his long past life and its experiences, knew very well that the world did no such things as close all doors. There will always be a way out. 

Sporting a resolute expression, he started walking slowly towards the dark pond as his surroundings became slightly brighter, for no apparent reason, he couldn't spot any light source. 

Tenebris stepped into the water. 

One step. Two steps. Three steps.

At first, it was shallow enough that he thought he would cross it in just 10 steps, however after the third step the shallowness of the dark pond disappeared as it presented Ten with a steep slope, forcing him to go deeper as the water level abruptly reached his waist. 

Four steps. Five steps. Six steps. 

The depth experienced a sudden drop again, as the water this time around reached up to his chest/collarbone area. 

Seven steps. Eight steps. Nine steps. 

The water suddenly shifted again as Tenebris dropped lower, the dark, black water, that Tenebris had put all of his concentration into ignoring, reached up to his nose, invading his ears and nose canals, as he tried to not think of it. Surprisingly, the water did not smell, and it did not have a texture, it was pure and clean, like the water of springs that entire cities depended on. 

Tenth step. 

Tenebris' world was enshrouded in darkness, as the water fully submerged him, of course, he knew how to swim, granted his past life experiences stuck with him, but the water itself did not seem too keen on making that possible. 

'Fuck, fuck, fuck! I can't swim up! There's no... there's no bouyancy? How is that possible?' Tenebris panicked slightly, he had never encountered a situation like this in both lives. And it certainly wasn't an everyday experience as a politician to encounter pitch black water that you couldn't swim in. 

Just as he was about to flail to pull himself up by the slope to his back, Tenebris heard a slight hum, as the suffocating surroundings of the black water disappeared, and he found himself... standing on two feet, in a completely pitch black field. 

'What in God's name is going on...?' Tenebris questioned inside his mind. 

"You will learn shortly." A sudden voice erupted from all around him. It was loud, yet quiet. It was fierce, and gentle. It was of one person, and of many at the same time. Ten could not tell the gender of the person... or whatever it was that spoke.

"Who are you?!" He spun around as he tried to ascertain his surroundings, to no avail. 

"My identity does not matter, my child." The voice spoke again, as the emphasis on the words 'my child' struck Tenebris' mind, a memory flashing in his gaze. 

-----------

"My child, do you know what your name means?" 

The woman, a tall lady with a blurry face, asked with a gentle voice as she held the child's hand.

The child looked up slowly and with a curious and anticipating gaze, answered.

"No, mom, I don't." He spoke softly. 

"Tenebris was the name your father and I agreed on. It means obscurity, shadows and darkness," The woman said matter-of-factly, as her soft and comforting gaze seemed to remember the days of the past. "it's pretty weird, isn't it? You can be honest with me." The woman added as she chuckled softly.

"Yeah.. it seems pretty weird." The boy said with a slightly embarrassed expression. "Why that name?" He questioned honestly. 

"It is... homage to our family line, our past. Your great grandfather, which would be my grandfather, was a wise man, but he was only one man. Our family needed strong people, yet your great grandfather was the only strong person. He tried his best, but our family line inevitably declined, seperated and divided. Now, the only ones left are me, and you, my child. 

Our ancestors left us an important message, Tenebris. The shadows and darkness, will always be behind you, watching over you, protecting you, like the eternal symbols that represent our ancestors' indomitable will. Remember that... no matter what... you are our bloodline's last and only successor."

-----------

The recollection vanished as swiftly as it came, as Tenebris regained his focus and remained silent. He did not wish to give the mysterious and unknown party any leverage by revealing information about himself. 

"It is useless to withhold your speech and thoughts from me, my child." The Voice said solemnly. 

Tenebris' eyes flickered and widened as he thought again: 'It can hear my thoughts?' 

"Yes, I can." The Voice answered, as if it was holding a normal conversation.

"Why?" 

"Because you are me, and I am you." The Voice answered in a curt manner, leaving Tenebris' attempt at getting more information, fruitless. 

"You are a special child." The Voice said again. 

"How? In what way?" Ten questioned. 

"Well, because you are of the same kind as me." 

-----------

"Ugh..." Baron woke up with a pained groan, as he slowly tried to sit up. 

He rubbed his forehead with an extremely sour and painful expression as he noticed Nessie laying beside him, she didn't seem injured, except the purple and swollen bruise on her ankle. 

"Where are we?" Baron muttered as he looked around him, a lone oil lamp illuminating the surrounding space in the rather tight, hollow part of the cave.

He looked around before deciding to wake Nessie up by shaking her a bit. 

"Mnnh... Baron?" Nessie muttered as she sluggishly opened her eyes, the light scratches and bruises on her body did not diminish the girl's innocence and natural beauty at all. 

"We're stuck underground, I don't know where Tene-" Just as Baron was about to finish his sentence, the entire roof of the area they were in lifted in a bizarre and magical manner, as the bright sunlight shone inside the cave. 

Their eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight as three men stood above the hole in the roof, dressed in shining silver armor and helmets, the middle man yelled as he saw them. 

"I've found two survivors!" 

-----------

Tenebris was flabbergasted as he repeated the words of the Voice in his mind. 

'Well, because you are the same kind as me.' 

The sentence reverberated inside his head as he questioned out loud again.

"How can you be the same kind as me?" 

"My child, you and I, we share the same name, and the same blood. You may call me Tenebris, too." The Voice said. 

"You're called Tenebris?" Ten asked out loud. 

"I'm known as Tenebris, because that is our title. That is our family. That is our blood. Our past, present and future. We are all Tenebris, because our bloodline makes us Tenebris." The voice reverberated inside the pitch black field from all around again. 

"We, are your ancestors, your parents, your grandparents, your future, your past, your present. My child, you, are the last successor of our bloodline, and the first of our kin in a century to step inside this shrine." 

'It's placing emphasis on the word Tenebris in each sentence, it is important, but I lack enough information to learn the entire truth... plus, it seems to be of the same kin as me, or at least it claims so. Shrine... is this place a sacred ground?' Ten gathered his conclusions. 

"You are correct, and incorrect at the same time." The Voice spoke again.

"While this place is sacred to our bloodline, it is not to the world. This is the amalgamation of the origins of our bloodline, and our burial ground all at the same time. This Shrine is where we come from, and where we eventually perish, towards an eternal rest. Our people have long ago placed their mark on this world... centuries... millennia ago." 

Ten listened carefully as it slowly got over the uncomfortable feeling of having his mind read. He tried to think about his past life, but the Voice showed no reaction to it. Or maybe it couldn't show any reaction to it, because it couldn't know. 

Multiple hypotheses were created in Ten's mind but he pushed them to the side and refocused again. 

"So, why am I here?" Ten asked.

"Fate. Fate is the only reason you have stumbled here, and also the only reason our bloodline is able to continue with your existence." The Voice spoke, but Ten's eyebrow twitched in an imperceptible manner at the mention of fate. 

"I have read your memories, you've been reduced to a slave after the death of your mother. Do not despair, she rests easy at the embrace of Tenebris. My child, your arrival here is not for no reason. There is a heavy duty which you must take upon." 

"What duty?" 

"The revival of our bloodline." The Voice spoke in a solemn, yet heavy and somewhat dejected tone. It seemed... melancholic? "You must revive our bloodline, in order to ensure your own life." 

"My life? Why?" 

"Your ancestors were powerful. Power comes with enemies, and enemies come with losses. The ones before you could not prevent the cockroaches of the damned mortal world from brandishing their swords at our bloodline, and thus... we perished, reduced to a flickering flame, ready to be extinguished at any moment."

The Voice spoke with intense hatred and anger before it subsided back to its solemn tone yet again. 

"But my ancestors were my ancestors, and I am me. How could I be endangered by people who are dead?" 

"Yes, however, the world, my child, is ruthless. Stopping at your ancestors was not a solution, the only choice they could take to prevent us from emerging again, was to eradicate us. And so they did. One by one they slaughtered the many families with the blood of Tenebris flowing through them. Even the children were not spared. You will not be spared either, the moment this is found out." 

"And I'm assuming I can't keep it hidden, since you're warning me." Ten quipped back, guessing what the Voice was going to say next.

"You are correct. There are people coming for you. The moment this mine collapsed, the seal I placed on our bloodline vanished, and the Shrine is now exposed. I must seal our Shrine back again.. so that we may continue to exist, until we can re-emerge from the throes of the past. However... the seal placed on the bloodline... I cannot do it. It would take too much time, too much effort. They are already near, they've sensed you, I must keep our conversation short." 

The Voice did not let Ten speak as it continued. 

"They are currently digging for clues, I can only provide you with a parting gift, to modify your constitution and innate talent. I will change your eye color to fit the current royalty of the Black Empire. Even though they will inevitably know your identity after some time, you are safe for now. After I seal the Shrine, I will lose all connection to the outside, mortal world, I cannot help you until you return here one day.

Our bloodline, even though eradicated, is not without allies. Find them. The Black Empire is our inheritance. You must succeed in ruling it, to ensure your own life. The Black Empire's citizens think that our bloodline is the royalty, but the only one left of us is you. They are pretenders that have lost the name of our glorious bloodline, Tenebris, they now call themselves Nightstar. You must beware of the Emperor, and of the Nobles. Now, go, you must run, run as much as you can, as far as you can. They must not discover the Shrine." 

The Voice finished speaking as Ten woke up from the pitch black field and found himself laying wet on the other side of the pond which he had just sunk under while trying to reach it. He stood, confused as he recollected himself. 

'Go!' The Voice yelled firmly in his mind, urging him to start running. Tenebris could not linger any longer and ran. 

He ran fast.