The young boy sprinted bravely beneath an ominously black sky absent of moonlight and stars. It was cold, so quiet, save for the cracks of pure ember and spark devouring the savory wood of the house.
"Do you know of the story of The Diamond of Forever Dawning?"
Riin shook his head, looking towards his brother with great intrigue. "What's that?"
He stopped dead in his tracks. Hordes of rueful creatures accumulated toward the shrine; off in the distance, echoes of helpless cries erupted at once. The horror drove him onward, guiding the boy's hand to a nearby torch and controlling his feet forward. He swung it this way and that without regard to his own safety, the light from the torch making the infernal monsters shy away and flee.
"The Evensin family was entrusted to protect the Diamond several hundred years ago. No one knows where it came from, but it's power is immense. It emits this eery white light and in texts has been believed to be a portion of the very essence of the sun; hence the name Diamond of Forever Dawning..."
There, illuminating the small area of the shrine, stood the beacon of light glowing ever so brilliantly. He approached the gem cautiously, as though in respect of its existence, the pounding of his heart filling his ears. Never before had he gazed upon such beauty and, as an Evensin, he believed it his birthright to protect it at all costs. Monsters were wreaking havoc upon his family's foundation, murdering and destroying all things in sight. Fear coursed through his veins; why now after hundreds of years of peace? He had no time to contemplate. He reached to take hold of the Diamond.
"... But the Diamond is cursed."
Young Riin cocked his head in confusion. "Cursed?"
"RIIN!"
The boy sharply turned to face a lone figure off in the distance whose features were difficult to make out with the nearby torches to serve as his only light source. For the boy Riin, however, it could be no mistaking who the person was just by the sound of his voice.
"Skilar?" Riin called, zipping his jacket and concealing the Diamond beneath. He slowly emerged from the shrine's depths as he made to approach his elder brother. "I'm coming, I just had to get someth-"
"Get down, you idiot!" Skilar interrupted, waving his arm at a slanted angle.
His words were heard too late.
"Yea, cursed. Something like the Diamond attracts the attention of those with evil intentions... and while you and I have been kept safe here, Riin, our family's been fighting people who'd seek to use the Diamond for their own purposes and have been doing so for hundred of years. With power like that... who knows what damage they could do."
Everything burned. The intensity of the heat stole Riin's breath, replacing within him a deep and churning chill. There he lay upon the earthen floor, the heat of his life pouring in rivers from the gash upon the chest with the increasing heat of the Diamond resonating against him.
"Many have died protecting it."
The sound of moving gravel consumed Riin's senses, the little light available to see was starting to become too blurry to be of any use. His attacker knelt beside him, the creature's facial expressions indiscernible, as it observed the boy with severe focus. Riin flinched with fright as his assailant's hot breath met his bare and icy skin.
"Your valiant act ends here, child."
"Many have been driven crazy."
Riin froze, not even the sound of his own desperate gasps for life or the beating of his failing heart could be heard. No... It couldn't be...
"Get away from him!" His brother's cries reawakened Riin from the shock as he watched Skilar charge towards the dark silhouette. Riin gazed on helplessly, an unfathomable sinking feeling overwhelming him as Skilar was thrown back with great ease into the burning building.
"Ski!!"
"Truly, I pity anyone unfortunate enough to bear the Evensin name..."
His strength waning and utter despair weighing heavily upon his already dying form, young Riin mustered the will to rise if only to prop himself on his arm. His sights were set on the spot his brother disappeared as tears streamed down the young Evensin's face. Flames that now roared because of the creature's act bestowed Riin the sight of a man who bore a face all too respected... and all too feared...
Riin's hand rested upon the Diamond lying against his bloodstained chest, clenching it tightly in his grasp for fear he might scream. Nothing made sense, nothing made a difference. He was naught but a boy with outlandish delusions that he could protect his family's legacy... His brother was gone... creatures like the things of nightmares ran amok... the most gruesome of whom stood right before Riin's eyes.
Impatience grew prevalent in the man's eyes, which seemed fixated on the hand he somehow knew was clutching the Diamond beneath Riin's garbs. He knelt once more, his actions more swift and fluid than before and the fear and confusion drove Riin back away in response. In his state, however, Riin fell meagerly to the ground as his hand raised up in a feeble attempt to defend himself. He closed his eyes, he shrank away, anything to get himself far away from the man who dared bear the face of his predecessor. No, thought Riin, I can't take this... don't touch me... Please... Don't!
The incinerating heat resonating from the Diamond surged into Riin, the wonderful power pouring through his arm and projecting from his hand right at the wretched trickster. The blinding, pure light of the Diamond elicited a horrible blood-curdling scream out of the man, his cries of pain masking over all other sounds and his flailing figure seen only by the echoes of the roaring fire. Shocked, confused, Riin's curiosity about the man's mortality was starved as Death finally grabbed a strong hold upon him. He was too weak, too tired, to fight the blissful spell of eternal slumber no matter how much his grieving heart desired for knowledge and reassurance of the man's death above all else. He couldn't die yet. He didn't want to.
"Truly, I pity anyone unfortunate enough to bear the Evensin name..."
A heavy weight hung in young Riin's eyes, his limbs rendered cold and numb, as the strife of a weathered heart ebbed into a dormant prison of emotions and memories that would never again be.
"Me... and you."
