my name is Raphael Darklight. this is the story of how I found my purpose. i was born into a royal family and lived a seemingly normal life. i had all the money i could ever want. i was not restricted from knowing anything i wanted to know. i was even a potential heir to the throne and had political backing. yet i was not allowed to have my own choices or ambitions. i had a great deal of power in my kingdom but was nothing more than a puppet to the king.

to my father i am just a pawn. and my mom was the same. she just saw me as a puppet to use for political power. even after i turned 18 they never saw me as a person. and they both punished me any time i dared to think for my self. at first it was just getting spanked as a child. but eventually it escalated to being burnt and given scars. yet they always got scared whenever i was close to dieing from anything. they would scream like they had angered the gods or the underworld or something.

regardless of the reason. it always got me to laugh a bit. but not out of happiness or of satisfaction from there suffering. it was not even connected to any emotion. something about it just always made me laugh. one day they took there punishing to far. i had burns and scars everywhere on my body. i was no longer able to be recognized as human. and if those burns weren't bad enough i had scars all over them. which were each infected. that day i tried to runaway as it was now painfully clear beyond any shadow of doubt that they were no family of mine.

no parents would cut or burn there own children. but before i could go anywhere i was killed by the guards. as if they had been ordered to do so years ago if i just happened to try running away. ironically when i died i wasn't given much choices of my own either. the gods had a strong look of pity in there eyes upon seeing me. as if they expected this would happen. yet also as if my death in particular was somehow considered forbidden. they asked what i would like as compensation for my early death.

they said they could do almost anything but preferred not to mess with the world of the living directly. knowing that my so called family was likely already going to be in trouble upon there deaths. i asked for something simple. i asked to be given a fair choice. even if it requires reincarnation. i asked to know every truth and every lie. lastly i asked to have powers like those myths of people with magic. those myths were one of the few things that kept me sane in this world.

with that last request i disappeared from the afterlife. i awoke as what appeared to be a 18 year old human. i was still a prince. though in this life i was adopted into a royal family rather than born into one. my name somehow was the same as my previous life. though i was also taller than i was in my previous life. additionally i had memories that were not from my previous life. this time my family did care about me. my dad was a king and my mom a queen. though i was an only child. i had this odd ability that was similar to magic that was also nothing like it.

i was told before being adopted that i would never be normal. but it was not said as an insult. but more so as a truth. the owner of the orphanage said he could see that i had 3 shadows regardless of the amount of light. and each shadow contained the previous. some of which were in an inhuman shape. they were all watching him with a 10 thousand yard stare and glowing purple eyes. he then shuddered. like he was being watched by entities beyond his comprehension. yet to me my shadows held a friendly expression that looked like they experienced everything i had.

it was like they were part of me. yet not at the same time. in truth i didn't know yet how they were part of me. but it was clear they were very protective yet also obedient to me. a few days after i was adopted i figured out what my power was. my dad had a local archimage run a few tests to figure out if i had magic. the short answer is i do have magic. the long answer is that i had a very rare type of magic that bypasses most of the laws and rules of magic. it was called eldritch magic. a type of magic no human and very few monsters could be born with.

what made it so different is that normally magic was given to it's user via a source. this source is conceptually connected to a concept that provides the magic in question to it's user. and each source is contained within the persons soul. while eldritch magic was much more unknown in how it works. though it was known that eldritch magic was much more potent. if you describe magic as an energy applying your will upon reality then eldritch magic would be described as reality being your will. though like any other magic. eldritch magic too had it's weaknesses.

it was very sought after by nobles and magic users alike. which made it very hard to conceal it's use. it can sometimes influence the mind of it's user. with how little is known about it there is quite a bit of a learning curve to its use. and ones lack of creativity can oftentimes hold the user back from its true potential.

on the flipside eldritch magic had a lot of potential. with how little was known theoretically it could do almost anything. eldritch magic was said to be capable of absorbing souls. and was theorized to be capable of replicating many types of magic.

though right now i wanted more than anything to figure out what i was. it was not possible for a human to be born with eldritch magic Afterall,