[ WP ] `` I 'm on fire ? ''

`` No. Your body is on fire.'' 
 
 I starred at the old woman in the long grey cloak. The shadows in this place left only small hints of her face showing. 
 
 But the shadows were this place. 
 
 I stood transfixed, staring at one of the many trees in this strange forest. It's shadow overlapped others to somehow create a solid rock. 
 
 I walked a few steps to my right, trying to make sense of it. Now it appeared that it was the tree that was a shadow, cast flat onto the ground from the rock. 
 
 What in God's name? 
 
 As far as I could tell, we were in a forest made of nothingness, where everything was somehow a... dark reflection of itself. 
 
 I swallowed hard. I guess it all depended on your perspective. 
 
 `` Wha-what is this place?'' I asked, panic making me stutter slightly. 
 
 `` This is not a place,'' the cowled woman spoke, `` This is an idea. An idea made of ideas. An idea that gives birth to many more. And somehow, for some reason, you have come here.'' 
 
 I looked down at my hand, and was terrified to see the flames were still blazing, consuming me. Why did I feel no pain? 
 
 `` I... remember,'' I said, testing out the words. Words sounded hollow here. Out of place. `` I remember, they had told me that I was unclean. That only fire would cleanse me.'' 
 
 The cowled woman nodded. `` They have dangerous ideas. Ideas that do not fit well together. There is no rhyme or reason to them. Only hatred.'' 
 
 As the old woman spoke the word hatred, the shadows tightened, like loosely woven cloth being pulled from the last thread. 
 
 We were now in a bleak cage, with jagged edges. I got the feeling that it was slowly tightening, closing in on us. 
 
 I could n't feel anything, and yet, I felt cold. Even on fire, I felt cold. I looked into her deep, grey eyes. There was no pity in them... but there was no malice either. 
 
 `` Am I dead?'' I asked. I knew the answer, but still, I had to hear it. 
 
 The woman stepped closer to me, the shadow she cast changing the others as it moved with her. They rearranged themselves, shifting into different patterns and dimensions. 
 
 I took in my new surroundings. We were inside a large chamber with pillars that stretched up to a vast dome. It almost looked like a church. Intricate patterns shifted and moved against the surfaces. 
 
 `` You are nothing,'' she said, `` but an idea now. An idea that burned so bright in you that it survived inside this place. So much a part of you, that it took much of you here with it.'' 
 
 `` Freedom,'' I spoke. As I did, the shadows once again shifted, as if the word itself moved them. We now stood on the edge of a gentle lake. A shadow sun reflected across the deep blackness of the water. 
 
 This place... it took my fear away. 
 
 I looked down at my hands. No fire. They were unmarked. I smiled. 
 
 `` I know why you have come here now. You could not change their minds on that world,'' the woman smiled, `` But you may be able to make a difference in this one. And if you do, it will spread.'' 
 
 `` How?'' I said, noticing that I did n't need to move my lips anymore to do so. 
 
 `` You must fight the ideas. The ones that unbalance this place, and stifle it's growth. You still cary with you the parts that make you human. This will allow you to do the things that my people and I can not. But you must act quickly... or our world, and yours, will be forever corrupted.''
