Submission (#276) Approved

Messy development of Umbra -

Everything had changed, seemingly within less than the turn of the sands, nothing was the same. Fragments and flickers of memory danced in the recesses of his mind, hiding like the shadows that both consumed him and now answered his command. He had been someone else once, a name Fulgeo crept into being before flittering away. Distant remembrances of light, a self shining with strength and hope, a heart undimmed by the hurt it would know, the untainted positivity pulsing with every beat, shining out of his very being for all to see. Every step Umbra took, echos of his pain lingered within each footfall, the loss that had almost driven him to the brink of ending it, instead twisted into a desperate search to forget, to seek any way of being able to survive and cope with the shattering of his world.

No longer could he remember her face, even her name had been torn from his memory, mind altered along with the corruption that twisted his once bright form, only a distant feeling that his soul had once been bound to another's. The cold now within his chest almost dismissive of the sundering that had been caused, unable to feel the passion that had once made him hold on tight, to fight for what should have been forever. Light within him dimmed to a dull hollow, now only his bones retained any sign of his once bright essence, heart absent that which had previously suffused him.

Having heard of a way to forget he had, perhaps foolishly, tread his path into the tainted lands of Berkir, its new rulers rumoured to have ways to change and perhaps let him forget his pain. Rumours which seemed to be based in truths, even if they did not tell the full magnitude of what he had embarked upon. The casual cruelty they showed, the nigh glee that they held upon casting him farther down than envisaged, quenching nearly all the light within him and shrouding it in ephemeral shadow, tearing out the core of his being and leaving him empty of much that he was, along with the crushing pain and hurt of the loss he had presumably felt.

Was it worth it? Umbra truly did not know. Knowing only glimpses of the what, he could not perceive a way to determine if this altered loss was a better trade. The hollow within lending no aid in determining a path forward, all he could do was place one foot in front of the other and distance himself from this new source of... not even pain for such seemed beyond him, but of doubt. Never to know and remember the what's and why, the what ifs and maybes, he was left just with... existence. Even Philip was quiet, disoriented by the shift within Ful...Umbra. Time may change all as the say, but for now weary tread mulched the sodden corruption of diseased leaves underfoot, step after trudging step. Pathless, forlorn and without any knowledge of what the future was to hold, even what he wanted it to hold now, Umbra kept moving. For if he stopped, would he even care enough to start once more?

Reward	Amount
Unvivos	50