Claraina Arrives

[Claraina]

I am not Superhuman

All Claraina could see, could comprehend, was complete and utter darkness. There was no sense other than of self as if she were the only thing that existed. It was a terrifyingly dreadful sensation, one that gripped her like the icy fingers of death and threatened to drive her to the depths of insanity. The only saving grace from such loneliness came in the vague shape of a person.

Omni it had said its name was, its only defining features being the masculinity of its seemingly ethereal form and the mouth that smiled wide and friendly as it spoke. Though knowing not whom Omni was, as the only other soul around Claraina had the natural inclination to reach out to it for comfort, only to find there was nothing she could do but think and listen. So she did, thoughts clouded with questions that Omni answered freely as if to put her at ease.

One response came with a gift and upon its presentation the unconquerable fear that had sub-consciously held her trapped in her own body was broken, the child's natural vanity and greed drawn to the beautiful globe of colors. Claraina clasped it to her breast as if it alone could bring her salvation. However, the way Omni described it to her reminded her of her own beliefs in how the universe, and all of reality, worked; Mana. The building blocks from which all things came and returned, that which nothing could exist without.

Before her dread of the darkness could fully resurface through the moment of peace, Omni concluded their conversation and released the girl from Hell, sending her instead to what some may consider the Gates of Heaven. White that made even snow seem dull and gray stretched out all around her for an eternity, broken in only nine locations; the wondrous multi-tiered fountain from which the purest of water flowed and eight distant structures that appeared to lead to realms beyond this one. The existence of other life at those distant peaks was lost in the haze of her swimming vision.

The revelation of her new surroundings was a quick observation, one that faded to the back of her mind as she searched within herself for all else that seemed lost. There was so much she felt she should know and be capable of but did and was not. Her own past was fuzzy. The faces of her family were like time-worn photographs that came in blurs at the best of times and their names sounded garbled as though she were underwater. A world forgotten as she was thrust into a new, foreign one.

Those thoughts made her fear from before manifest once more and she collapsed into a worthless puddle of sorrow before the majestic fountain. The sound of its flowing waters muffled the sobs that shook her small body, which lay curled beneath her thick blanket of blood-red hair. Consumed by grief, she clutched desperately at the Omnilium in her hands, the only thing in this new existence she knew and understood.