[ EU ] The world of Dark souls has advanced technologically and it is your task to link the first flame in the modern world .

*Do you understand what you must do? * 
 
 *Yes. * 
 
 ***** 
 
 I've always had an easy life. It started much before I could remember anything, but the brand was always there, a constant in this otherwise peaceful life. It was always passed along that the mark was a sign that you were destined for great things, that you had been chosen to serve a purpose much grander than anything you could have ever imagined, although they never explained to us what. Not in school, not from our caretakers, not from anyone. All I knew was that I was special. 
 
 There were n't many of us, really. In elementary school, there was only one other student with the brand, and though I never talked to him, I felt somewhat comforted by his presence. In spite of the seeming prestige, I never quite felt... A part of everything. The smiles seemed empty somehow, the stares a little too wary. Something about this brand separated me from everyone, and I never quite understood why. 
 
 ***** 
 
 *A Darksign...? This is your third one this year, Cynthia. * 
 
 *I know, dear. * 
 
 *Are n't you worried? * 
 
 *About what? * 
 
 *That they'll... Well, they'll be taken away from you. You know how attached you become to your students, and the ones with the Darksign are always taken away sooner or later. * 
 
 *If I am not there to show them the compassion they deserve, then who will? * 
 
 *... * 
 
 ***** 
 
 I could n't breathe the first time it had happened. I clutched my chest, panting heavily and trying to withstand the urge to empty the contents of my stomach on the metal floor. I was only fourteen at the time. 
 
 `` Can you hear me?'' 
 
 An unfamiliar face came into my field of vision. A person in uniform, with a stern expression and chiseled features, who looked at me with concern. Concern and, though I did n't know that's what it was then, a healthy amount of *pity. * I felt very small, suddenly swept away by things I did n't understand, in a place I had never seen, with other persons in coats taking me away after laying me on a stretcher. However... 
 
 That was when I first saw it. 
 
 Its soft, golden light twisting upwards and playing with the rusted metal of an object I had only heard of in my history lessons. A source of splendor and life, a legend that faded away as it became a myth, and yet there it was. And as I was taken farther and farther from it, I felt a pit growing deep in my heart, and I knew in that instant that I would be invariably tied to its fate. 
 
 ***** 
 
 * [... reporting another assault in New Londo. Witnesses confirm that the assailant was armed with an automatic weapon and firing into homes, seemingly at random, before local police stepped in and subdued the suspect. A tragedy, would n't you agree? ] * 
 
 * [ I do. In more recent news, a crowd of protesters gathered outside Sentinel Station 7, calling for an enforcement of'anti-Hollow' policies in light of the recent... ] * 
 
 `` Can you believe this shit...?'' 
 
 Damian set his drink down roughly, the sincerest form of his displeasure, as the news continued to display its stream of current events. The bar was n't very full, not at this time of the night, but it felt homely. With the owner being Undead himself, it was n't a secret that others who were branded frequented it. And, hey, half-priced drinks past midnight is n't a bad deal, either. 
 
 `` You ca n't blame people for being afraid, man,'' I voiced. `` Not a lot of people really get it, you know.'' 
 
 `` I get that, I do.'' He eyed his mug for a few seconds, before downing the rest of his beer. `` But it hurts the way people look at me when I'm walking down the street. I had a little girl, maybe six, turn to her mom and ask,'Mom, is that man Hollow?''' 
 
 It was a pain I knew all too well. Ever since the first time I died. What I had n't known back then is that they kept us separate from the `` normal'' world, raising us in an environment that was designed to facilitate our development, and keep us away from what was really behind the Darksign, at least until we turned 18. For some of us, it's a bit earlier. Death does that to you. 
 
 In other words, we were raised away from the prejudices that surrounded our existence. In a walled city, under strict watch from the Sentinel Corps. Safe and sound. Controlled. Once you walked out of there into the real world, where you were n't hired due to'lack of appropriate skills' when you knew the real reason why, where you freeze to death in the winter for the first time if the hunger did n't get you first, and where you meet the first person that mutters the words `` accursed Undead'' with a sneer that gets to your very core... It's not hard to imagine why some people go Hollow. 
 
 `` Another round of drinks, please.'' 
 
 `` Anyways...'' Damian's tone lightened slightly, in an attempt to distance himself from the train of thought. `` Have you decided what you're going to do?'' 
 
 `` Nah... I still have another year before I have to decide.'' I thanked the bartender once the next round came, and took a large gulp before speaking again. `` I can always just settle down and do something easy like the Sentinel Corps.'' 
 
 `` Hey, watch that mouth.'' He chuckled with me, twisting the ring he wore out of habit. It had an unnatural sheen to it, with the insignia of the Blue Sentinels etched into it. `` They have good benefits. Not to mention the Humanity that you can keep when you take down someone. Really perks you up in the down time.'' 
 
 `` I'll get my Humanity in the hospital when I die, like a *normal* Undead, Damian.'' There was a lull in the conversation after that, which I took advantage of to sip some more of my drink. 
 
 `` You know, the Darkmoon Special Forces is always looking for people. If you put your mind to it,'' he patted my skinny arms for emphasis, `` I know you can get in.'' 
 
 Before he could speak any further, Damian's ring pulsed softly with blue light, and he took a deep breath. `` Alright, duty calls. I'll catch you tomorrow, man?'' 
 
 `` Yeah, at 7.'' He nodded in confirmation, before his body faded away with a slight shimmer. I sighed once more, before resuming my musings with my drink. 
 
 `` Alright, that's 2700 souls, buddy.'' 
 
... Ah. That's what I had forgotten to ask him. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Even though I had managed to control the shaking in the rest of my body, my heart still beat at an incredible speed, and I felt a single bead of sweat trail down the side of my face. 
 
 `` You are aware of what this entails, correct?'' 
 
 The voice came from a woman at the head of the auditorium. Two tiers of seats faced me from either side, the faces of the persons occupying the seats raised above the level of my head and out of the cone of light that was centered on me. I felt small, very small, as though I were being judged by lords instead of undergoing an evaluation. 
 
 I spoke, with the slightest tremor in my voice. ``... Yes.'' 
 
 `` Your years of service to the Humanitarian Aid of the Suns is admirable, and your commander in the Darkmoon Special Forces speaks highly of your ability, but taking upon this plight will be unlike anything you have ever done before. Do you understand this?'' 
 
 The voice was powerful, and authoritarian. I briefly wondered if this woman possessed a different soul than the ones I've seen. ``... I understand.'' 
 
 `` You will be sent alone, with only the supplies we provide to you.'' I understood this already. Unlike the country we lived in, which was maintained by the Primal Bonfire we held here, the rest of the world had no such coherence, with the lands being transitory and ever changing. Time and space flowed freely and without linearity, and it is very likely that it would be impossible to return here once I had traveled far enough away from the bonfire's influence. Even groups sent out at a time would find themselves inexplicably separated, and death did not just mean a step closer to Hollowing, but the possibility that your worldstream would separate from theirs, and you would only reunite as Phantoms, if at all. 
 
 `` It will also be treacherous. There are many creatures out there, some that you may have never seen in your studies.'' I swallowed at the thought of that. Though the worst thing we had seen in this country were Hollows, there would be large sections of the library dedicated to bestiaries of all kinds of monsters long gone that, though driven out here, would most certainly still exist out there. Not to mention the possibility of rogue Undead who, for reasons I could never imagine, would turn on their companions and take to murder. 
 
 `` You may very well go Hollow.'' There was nothing to say here. That was an ever-present danger, but with the risk of dying becoming exponentially high out there... 
 
 `` Do you understand these risks?'' 
 
 ``... Yes. I understand.'' 
 
 Yet, still... 
 
 There was something I wanted to accomplish. Something that I could never satiate by simply staying here and living out my endless days in comfort, or simply protecting the weak, or through tactical invasions of disputed lands. It might be simple naiveté, or an irrational attachment to those words spoken to me long ago, but I knew that I had something far greater than myself to achieve. 
 
 `` And finally...'' I could not see her, but I felt her presence a bit more strongly, and I knew that she had leaned forward. 
 
 ``... Do you understand what you must do?'' 
 
 In a way, I had always known. From the first time my life seeped out from my body, only to be refreshed in its vigor from that mysterious, incandescent glow of my first bonfire, I knew that my fate would forever be intertwined with that flame. Though it is weaker today than it was then, I will not let it fade to embers. I will protect it. 
 
 With the fire in my heart, and conviction in my voice, I spoke. `` Yes.'' 
 
 ***** 
 *Part 1/2*
