It was nighttime. Crickets were chirping, and the daytime creatures succumbed to sleep. The cool air created a calming atmosphere in the lush forest. A dull, heavy creature- none from these lands- dragged itself past each tree, each nocturnal critter and creature that scurried past. Left behind its wake was a pitch black trail of smoke and death. Undergrowth lay dead in its wake. A gloomy aura was settling in the air around. Ahead laid a circle in the forest the size of a meadow. In the distance, there was a silhouette of a stone pillar, no larger than six-foot-by-two. As they inched closer and closer, they could see more details. It had cracked markings all across, and four feet up the column was a large hole that faced their direction. In the hole was an orb. A floating, elemental mass that was made up of a flaring red aura, hints of orange and yellow mingled in. The dark figure of death rose its skeletal hand to the orb, then caressed it with one of their bony fingers. The aura almost instantly rotted to a sickly black and gray, spreading across the rest of the orb as it dried and disintegrated into dust. What was left was a simple ball, once a flaming red, now a withered black. It dropped. The glass ball rolled over the edge and landed on their cloak. The mysterious identity pulled its cloak out from under it and swept away, slowly dissolving into the air in a gust of black fog. Meanwhile, the withering slowly spread throughout the rest of the rock, down to the ground, and outward throughout the clearing, like a ripple.

    The reflection of the events that had occurred in the mirror rippled, then faded away as the gears around it shifted and turned. The person watching sighed and moved away. He took note of all the other gears and contraptions in the empty building as they were either working tirelessly, or stood lifelessly still.
    Upon entering the house of mirrors, or portals, despite there only being three of them, he made his way to the mirror on the right. Above it read in formal writing Spirit. His sibling element. He lightly tapped a finger on it a couple times and the mirror sprung to life, a swirling aura of purples and pinks filled the once empty mirror with life. The man smiled. As the colors mixed and settled, he stepped toward the now violet portal, passing through it like water. On the other side was another portal room that mirrored his own, aside from the different color scheme which resembled their element, much like his resembled his own. He moved away from the portal he came out of, which was labeled Time, and left the room. Ahead him lay endless hallways going in every direction. This would normally be overwhelming, had he not known the exact route to his destination. So off he went in a steady rhythm of footsteps and the clinking of his belt, obscured by his bronze and black trench coat.

    A young looking lady paced restlessly around her room. It was another vision. A scary one at that. She had hoped Millenis had more information on what's occurred, but she can't be sure. How awful...the amount of devastation and destruction it was...oh, my child, what are you doing? she wept. The small female sat back down on her bed and put her face in her hands. Thinking back to what she saw.

Flashback

    Everywhere she saw. Death. Everywhere she walked. Death. Even the air had gone dry. Every speck of life, every tree, every creature. Dead. Gone. It was now a wasteland. But death wasn't all she felt. No...she felt everyone. All their feelings of terror, helplessness, despair, anger, all of it. She resisted the urge to heave. She had to get out of here. She had to leave. But to where? Everywhere she went, even to the other two worlds, was dead. It was an empty sea of...death. She collapsed on the ground, now a pile of ever fading purples and pinks, weeping. He'd done it. Her child had done it. Death was finally overtaking the balance, and she couldn't stop it.

    She heard a distant voice calling her name. It grew louder and louder. She blinked. Her eyes reopened and she realized she'd zoned out again. Lifting her head from her hands, the woman looked up to see the one person she'd been hoping to see. Millenis.
    "Aurora? Are you alright? You look exhausted," the man said quietly. Aurora smiled.
    "And you look troubled," she replied. "Did you see anything? Anything...strange?" Millenis nodded solemnly.
    "Death has returned. He's targeted your brother's children this time," he said. Aurora's eyes widened.
    "Nexus? No...oh, of course he would...Nature is the heart of life. The center of it all. Without him, well, you might as well call it a cataclysm."
    "Indeed. Shall I call Moemahk to prepare the prophesied children?"
    "Yes...thank you, Millenis."
    "Of course."  With a curt bow on his part, the Guardian of Time left the First Master of Spirit to her thoughts.