Saaee

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Saaee was just an ordinary young woman.
When raiders slaughtered the gatherers beyond the tribe’s fires, she ran.
Bleeding and hunted, she fled toward the mountains.

Beneath the mountain, Saaee fell into Cronux.
It filled her lungs and opened her mind.
She saw countless lives, deaths and futures that might never exist. 

Cronux changed her.
Her wounds sealed beneath turquoise flesh. Her hair turned white.
When the raiders found her, Saaee had already seen every way they could kill her.

By dawn, the hunters were dead.
Her people found Saaee standing among them.
Some called her chosen. Others called her cursed. She had returned as something else. 

Something had been waiting inside her visions.
It moved through her memories, her fears and her doubts.
Ithnorak told Saaee that every breath of Cronux had opened another door.
And that her thoughts were no longer hers alone. 

Saaee had seen Zulmar break.
Ithnorak promised survival, but demanded everything in return.
No doubt. No weakness. No self.
One will. One purpose. One mind. 

 The masks descended.
One by one, the tribe fell silent.
Their breathing synchronized. Their minds became one.
Saaee alone remained untouched.