The barest reaches of sunlight reached out across the horizon, shedding light onto the town surrounded by forests and mountains. The town was situated near a volcano, and the heat could be felt by all of its residents. And yet, despite this grand volcano, the dominant feature of the land was a great cathedral that stood in the middle of the town. The name of this place was Daath, the holy city of the land of Auldrant.

As the light entered the windows of their homes, merchants awakened, and prepared themselves to begin the daily rush of selling their wares to pilgrims, tourists, and other travelers. They shuffled slowly out, walking to their stands, bowing to the great stone monuments as they passed.

On the grounds surrounding the Cathedral, men who had been up well before the merchants stood at attention. A man, old, but still sturdy, stood before them all, shouting orders, encouragement, and light-hearted insults at them as they continued their practice session. All together, as if they were one large body, the soldiers gripped the swords at their sides, and drew them. These were the Oracle Knights, the defenders of the city, and its soldiers whenever the armies of the Kingdoms of Malkuth and Kimlasca-Lanvaldear would need to be broken up. Sweat poured from exertions of many hours, and each man wielded their sword with more skill than normal warriors would have, for Daath held back no training for its defense. And so they trained.

The amount of activity inside the Cathedral, although different, was no less great, as people moved about in preparation for the pending arrival of pilgrims and such. The priests worked quickly to organize the common routines and the altar boys lit the fires of the candles. Maids ran through the halls, searching for any nook and cranny to clean…and occasionally standing by a window to watch the men train on the grounds. Those who did so would then move back to her friends and they would giggle and gossip amongst themselves on which Knight was the best among them. Such a group of maids passed by a door before which two men stood, talking to each other. The maids grew silent as they walked by, their eyes carefully trained on the floor. Even after they had moved a far distance from the men, they spoke in whispers.

One of these men was large; not fat, but certainly larger than the other. He wore a white and purple hat, and his robes were of the same color. The other man was taller, and had a more distinct face. It held a pair of bushy eyebrows, and a prominent goatee had grown itself on his chin. Both of them seemed to be enveloped in an aura of confidence, a sure sign of their power in the Cathedral. They were conversing in muffled whispers before the door, glancing at any who would come by to make sure that none eavesdropped on their conversation. For behind the door was something so important that it was to be dangerous if any other person was to know.

The room itself, however, was completely ordinary; in fact, maybe even less ordinary than it could be. It was almost bare, and held only a mirror and a bed. On top of this bed lay a small boy of perhaps twelve, with a full head of green hair on his head. His body was slight and, except for the blanket covering the lower half, naked. The boy lay on the bed, perfectly still as his mind came to grips with its surrounding.

He couldn't see a thing, but of course, his eyes were closed. But for the time being, he was fine with that. He felt the sensation of nerves that were apart from his main body, enclosed in long, thin appendages attached to him. With a harsh concentration of will power, he slowly lifted each one in turn. The boy slowly opened his eyes, and was instantly blinded by the sudden light in his eyes.

A few moments later, his sight returned. One of the appendages hung before him from an automatic reaction to the light. He gazed at it, confused. The part he could see was wide, but flat, and from it stemmed five smaller limbs. He concentrated on them, and they began to move in front of him. He blinked in confusion upon seeing the movement and let his concentration falter. His arm fell back onto the bed with a slight thump. Now, he was able to stare at the ceiling, and at the window that was on one wall. It was boarded up, but rather sloppily, as small rays of light were able to enter through cracks between the wooden planks. The green-haired child lay on the bed for a few moments longer.

After those moments, the boy felt a strange need to move some of the lower appendages, his legs. He moved them, but felt that it wasn't enough. He shifted his body, turning it so that it faced the doorway, from which his ears picked up some strange sounds, something that he would later be able to call mumblings. With careful movements, he turned his body more, so that his legs were hanging off the bed. He was not sure as to why he did this, or how he knew too, and he did not think about it. With pushes of his body, he brought his body over the edge of the bed. He placed his legs on the floor, still without any knowledge as to why he did so, and pushed the rest of his body up from the mattress. He stood there, swaying back and forth, as he tried to retain his balance. Eventually, however, it left him, and he fell with a crash on to the hard wooden floor. The small mumblings from outside stopped abruptly, and the door creaked open, revealing the face of Van Grants. Too pained to do anything but look, the child stared at the face of the taller man. He felt the gaze from the man's blue eyes looking down into his own green ones, and it almost felt as if the man was able to look at the boy's soul. The child blinked a few times, and instantly felt a deep trust toward and a need to impress the man. He watched as the man stepped across the room to stand right over him.

With a smooth motion that the child felt he would never reach, the brown-haired man bent over, and lifted the boy as if he weighed no more than air itself. The man began to carry him back to the bed, and then hesitated. Then, making a decision, he turned away from the bed and toward the only other piece of furniture in the room: the mirror.

When the two had reached the mirror, the man set the boy down on his feet. The latter nearly fell, but the man set a hand on the boy's shoulder, so that he was able to keep his balance. The child looked up into the mirror and saw a boy, unclothed. The boy was small, especially compared to the man beside him. He had green hair that fell to his shoulders, and equally green eyes set in a thin face. Suddenly, the boy realized that the one in the glass was himself. He reaffirmed this theory by reaching out with one hand. The same hand of his glass-self reached out for him. Turning to look up at the tall man, the boy saw a smile on the man's face. This brought a strange feeling inside the child, one that appealed to him. He shrugged off the man's hand, which was relinquished willingly, and stood there before the mirror. He began to totter again, and he set his arms out to balance himself. He could feel himself almost falling, but managed to catch himself, and he stood, without support. And he recalled the motion that the tall man had made when he came into the room.

Carefully, he pushed his foot forward a little, rubbing the bottom of it on the smooth wooden floor. But he knew that that would not be enough to imitate the motion, and that he would need to lift the whole foot of the floor. Taking a deep breath, he did so, and promptly fell down on his bottom. He felt the edges of his lips angle downwards, and he got back up, refusing the help that the man offered. In response, the man moved his mouth. The child was unable to understand the sounds that came out from it, but the tone certainly seemed encouraging. He tried again, to get the same result. His face reddened as he tried a third time to no avail. But his fourth time proved fruitful, and the boy managed to balance long enough on one leg to set the other one forward a small step, but a step nonetheless. He repeated that small ritual three times, and then, exhausted from the effort, he fell back down on to the floor. The man lifted him again, a smile on his face that brought the emotion back to the boy's heart, and this time, he took him back to the bed. The last thing that the child was able to recall before his eyelids covered his eyes was the receding back of the man, and the strange design that decorated it.