Near the crystal tree

I pulled myself free of the ground, naked and numb.

It was dark out, I could tell that by the full moon overhead and the stars, but to my eyes the darkness proved to be no veil. To me, it was no darker than dusk. I looked around, mesmerized by the freedom to do so and the reflection of moonlight in the crystal spire nearby.

I looked down at my hands, finding them too-thin and covered in pitch-black veins. I knew that no healthy thing, no living thing, could possess such thin limbs. Looking over my chest, it was as if skin alone covered the bones, with black veins spiraling from my heart. I touched my cheeks and let my talons read the shape of my face. It was skeletal thin, and most alarmingly I had no eyes. There was simply the feeling of absence.

". . .What. . .is. . .this. . ." my words came in a guttural whisper, like the sound of a shovel dragging along the earth. I stood, my stick-like legs carrying me easily. I wasn't human anymore, that was becoming obvious; but it seemed like I wasn't a demon anymore either. Or, more accurately, I wasn't the same kind of demon anymore.

But I was still Ikarus Vhalnic, and so I took stock and weighed my options.