Chapter 1- Wake

[Basic Translation tool used]

[Initializing Argos-0]

[Welcome Aedhira Israejin]

[Status- ether heart functioning at 2% capacity]

[Brace for Runic Ignition]

Suddenly the world jolted and shook, reality stretched to conform what the 'heart' used to bend the laws to its will. Runes.

[Runes displayed]

[Servitude-Of-Metal->Igniting]

[The-Dragon-Flies-The-Storm-Follows->Igniting]

[Bound-Flame->Igniting]

[Ignition succesful, all primary runes functional, secondary runes igniting....]

[Initialization succesful, all runes active]

[Incoming Hail,-accepted-sender?> Veria]

[....Force hail initializing---accepted]

The world shuddered, stretched and tore. Through the rips and tears stepped out a woman. No, what stepped out was perfection.

Perfection imbodied in physical form. A woman, with no imperfections in any way. A form, constantly shifting between shapes and sizes. A blur almost.

The figure, flickered in and out....of existence...or perhaps space. Only the figure...no, Veria would no. For a time, she kept coming and going, shifting, morphing, before The Mother finally settled on a form.

A human woman, dressed in a humble green dress. No excess skin showed anywhere, a dress that imbraced simplicity. It made her seem pure... innocent.

Yet her eyes....they showed age. Not wisdom, but age. Age beyond what any living being should know. Alas, she wasn't exactly a living being.

Her expression, as she looked around the empty room. Mossy floors and walls, with rust gathering everywhere. The ceiling looked hadn't collapsed on the young man yet, but it has surely seen far better days.

....

Young man?

There was, in fact a young man on the bed. She looked at him, with an expression that could only be described as love...and perhaps regret.

She rubbed the back of her hand against his cheek, a small tear, rolling down her's. Yet a smile, a small one, graced her otherwise godly features. She opened her mouth, to talk, yet the words thundered throughout the facility.

{Welcome young one...you must be confused, perhaps scared, and you are right to be. For you are nor among the living or the dead, nor the unliving or the undying, the first and last of your kind.}

She, brushed his hair along the fingers of her hand.

{It took me much effort to guarantee your 'birth', to give you... a souI....so....I gave a part of my own, to perfect your existence for only when you are 'perfect' can you truly exist.}

As she brushed his hair, her smile bean to fade.

{Your life, is an eternal one, destined to be a weapon against the Enemy yet to be scorned for those you will fight for. I apologize here and now for nothing I would do could justify what I have done to you, for you are a contradictory existence given form. You will one day yet scorn me, and I can only apologize.

I ask you to endure, endure everything.

The Enemy, The Denizens, This world. I ask you to endure unending infinity and everything beyond it. Endure my child, for it is all i may ask of you

And remember, no matter where you are, where you go.

This mother of yours loves you.]

And so, she leaned in, to give him a small kiss on his forehead. Yet all that remained was the love of a mother, who could do nothing but see her child....suffer.

With that last act, she closed her eyes...and faded.

{END HAIL}

*BADUMP*

*BADUMP*

On the bed lay a boy, maybe 14 or 15. He seemed well fed, not too thin nor too fat, in fact he seemed rather fit. Not muscular but fit. An unremarkable physique. With pale, alabaster skin, that took a slight metalic sheen. Cold to the touch, like the dead, firm, almost metallic flesh, with sleek silver-like veins running underneath it all. A bit short in stature.

To pair with it, an alluring face, one that seem custom built to invigorate the maternal instincts in a woman. Sapphire-like eyes Pupils, with a hint Ruby or Crimson around the edges. A normal, human like white scelera, but it wasnt comepetely, due to the lack of visible blood vessels around them, instead a faint silvers at the very edges of it. And Cloudy white hair, unnaturally lush, yet tougher than Arachnove Steel.

An innocent face for all intents and purposes.

He opened his eyes. Yet they weren't eyes that held wonder. Nor any sign of curiosity.

Not like a newborn.

These eyes shone with intelligence. And something else. Grim resolve, resolve that you shouldn't expect from a mind not even a day old.

[Welcome Aedhira Israejin]

He furrowed his eyebrows hearing a strange noise. So like any logical, he had to imitate it.

"AADheeeelaa Is-raiiiieeee-jeeen"

The boy, no, the homunculus, said his own name, with wonder.

...Or at least he tried.