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<p>This is my promise and my question to all those who choose to join us in this story. What that is, the greater tale will tell in time. However, to understand our ends, you must witness our beginnings.</p> <p>In the beginning, we died. Then we awoke at the dawn of our second lives. Those five of us, who you will meet shortly.</p> <p>As I lay on the precipice of death, I still ponder the circumstances for us dying and coming to this world with our memories preserved. It seems the universe has a cruel poker face and no inkling to show its hand, so I am left to wonder. I have theories, but I feel those are better left to be discovered in the recounting. As for this story, I would ask you only a few things to please consider while you read.</p> <p>Have empathy. We were already struggling people who were brought into a place that was as unforgiving as it was foreign to us. It beat us down and pressed us to our limits with nobody to fall back on except the rest of our lonesome troop. We did not always have the luxury of morality, but I wish we had. I know some of my friends went to face death carrying burdens that no other mortal soul could help them shoulder. But, for all the pain we endured, we found solace in each other and our ends. I know they did, but I shouldn't get ahead of myself.</p> <p>Please do not judge us too harshly. We are people. We made plenty of mistakes. We were unprepared and immature when we were brought into this aching world. We hadn't learned the lessons needed to be the people we grew into. I'm still unsure if I believe in fate, but I believe we were the ones who finally claimed it.</p> <p>My final ask: Enjoy this. We messed up. A lot. We invite you to laugh with us and at us. To witness our despair and revel in our love. Release yourself from preconceptions and assumptions. There's no greater way to understand another soul.</p> <p>As for the content of this volume and the following volumes- should I live so long to dictate them- translating from the languages of this world into English is no easy task. The languages are beyond just different, they are downright alien. Untranslatable names of things and colloquial phrases will appear and you will not understand their cultural implications. Neither did we. I encourage you to learn with us. It may help you step into our boots for even a moment.</p> <p>I am honoring my friends' wishes by recounting the stories exactly as they remember. It's the only way that you can truly understand their lives. I apologize in advance for the frustrating moments. Early on, mental lapses and repressed memories/feelings were not uncommon to us, so if details are strange, inconsistent, or downright stupid, then that may be the fault of my friends and myself. Or rather, your unreliable narrators.</p> <p>Perhaps by a miracle, this story will reach our loved ones and they will see what we have made of ourselves. I hope they will be proud of how our story ends. I really do. So if any of you are reading and you recognize us through our mannerisms or our names, know that every day we wish we could have given a proper goodbye.</p> <p>Damnit, I'm getting all teared up now. Please gimme a second. Wha- Why the hell are you still writing? Oh, you- you little shit, don't put this in the book, I'm</p> <p>I should wrap this up now. Apologies for the break in tone. You can thank my son, who I am dictating this to. No… I suppose it's fitting. We really were a group of crass, cocky little shitheads that somehow managed to change the world for the better. I don't want to spoil it for you. Just know that this is a beautiful place that we didn't get to fully explore. And even then, despite the pain and the hardships we endured, we all found a way to fall in love with the world and the people who reside here. This first volume is dark and bleak, as our lives were back then. Do not let that fool you. So long as there is life, there is hope. Glimpses of which are hidden in light's shadow. Hope, which pushed us forward until the end, when we gave everything to Rhial.</p>
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