I pursued the bright prints, letting them guide me. As I proceeded, the voice died down, though the light ahead of me did not. Were the voice and the footsteps not one and the same, then? Were they caused by different beings? Maybe the voice was simply no longer necessary. I had done as it had asked, and heeded its call. Purpose…it seemed like these unknown things or beings had it. Why were they leading me, and where?

The only way to find out, and progress, was to follow. I ascended, then descended, I took twisting turns, and padded along lengthy paths. Darkness had concealed this environment – the outside – from me, had kept me isolated from it, had entrapped me. This landscape was indeed a vast one. Still mostly obscured, though, and utterly desolate. What would happen if I deviated from the guiding footsteps? I had the ability to do so; I could produce my own illumination. Yet, I persisted. I did not fancy being lost.

Previously, I had not wanted to be consumed by the shadows and be made a part of them. That wish was fulfilled; I did not feel in danger of being disintegrated into the night any more. But I still yearned. Whatever for? I was freed, I had potential, there was a whole wide world to explore. All that, and here I was, chasing after something – or someone. I craved to reach wherever these tracks led me. Was it gratitude that drove me, a desire to reciprocate that which had helped me? Perhaps it was simple greed, a primal hunger and thirst, a need to fill this odd emptiness within me. Did it mean that I was incomplete, lacking? I despised the idea, but it had the ring of truth to it.

It would upset me if this trail led to another barren part of the land. I would stay alone, forsaken. That left a sour taste in my mouth. I did not want to remain an outcast. Was that what I was? Or was I just lonely, afraid to be the only one existing, the last one remaining? I was only sure that I would prefer to be with others, or one other, but not in the way the abyss had attempted to force me to become one with it.

When I was led through the thorny labyrinth, I considered razing it to the ground. If it weren’t for the clear guide through it, I might have. Did that make me impatient, reckless? Or was it just a natural eagerness born out of the simple fact that I possessed the ability to incinerate such pesky obstacles? Thankfully, I did not have to ponder upon the question too deeply, because I finally arrived to my destination. The lighting trail was nearly gone, its presence barely enough for me to see the being in front of me.

It was a creature wreathed in shadows, bound and stripped of its senses as I had been. But the similarities did not end there; this being had a burning force within it. Just like I did. Was this me? A part of me? A caricature, a replica? Something for me to own, like the staff had been? Or…

Was it kin?

“Who are you,” I demanded, then immediately frowned. What a pointless action. Surely, this one could not answer, could not produce a voice until it was liberated. Besides, it was silly of me to expect another to tell me who they were when I did not even know who [i]I[/i] was.

I approached the being, drawn to it. “I will free you, but you better not betray me,” I muttered, wondering if it could hear me at all. When I was close enough to touch it, I lay my right palm upon its chest. I narrowed my eyes, concentrating on sending a trail of energy through my arm, fingers, and into the creature in front of me. It was my hope to ignite it from within, to awaken its own power, so it could unleash itself. If it did not respond to that, however, I would set ablaze the chains surrounding it and tear off the tendrils clinging to it with my own hands.