He felt the change as it happened. The tightening in his chest at first that woke him from the troubled slumber he so rarely managed. He couldn't remember much of what he'd dreamed of? there had been screaming. Not for the first time, he wiped tears from his cheeks in the darkness. He didn't need to remember the details of the dream, not really' He'd lived it after all. He only ever dreamed of his memories now. The things he'd done. The people" He remembered each face. The color of their eyes, their hair, how tall they were. He remembered what they were wearing, the sounds of their voices, how they died"

Whether they begged.

Whether they fought.

He remembered their names.

All of them.

He didn't need to remember the dreams" it was no different from what he saw each day. He'd been born to power the likes of which many would never know. But it did not free him from humanity, it robbed him of it. He snorted at himself in the dark. It was that sort of thinking that led back down the road he'd fought so hard to escape. His birthrights hadn't taken his humanity. It wasn't even his mother's betrayal that had resulted in it.

His humanity had been freely sacrificed by himself. His foster father had shown him a path, and Diritas had walked it without a second thought. He'd embraced it. He'd become what he'd been named for. The Cruel Wind that beset the Northern Sea with storms and fire. He'd spilled that blood himself" and enjoyed it. That thought made him sick to his stomach.

He rolled out of bed, the barest frantic gesture sending a brass basin sliding across the floor to his bedside where he grabbed it just in time to retch into the thing. It never got any easier. But he would not forget. He refused to forget. If he forgot' they would be gone. Who would remember them all" Most were long dead, more than half a century for some. Their families had moved on, their names inscribed on tombstones if they were lucky while others had been listed as lost at sea. Still others were probably never even reported.

Wiping bile from his mouth, Diritas stood on shaking legs. He knew what was to come" it happened every time. Sure enough' he heard that voice a moment later.

"You're so weak" you can't even rest properly." The soul behind him sneered derisively. He didn't need to look to know what was there. He'd seen the horror so many times, and he carried it within himself each day. But tonight, he felt different.

"I am weak. But as weak as I am, I will not be defined by you." He said forcefully. Thing is" he felt it. He knew it somehow. For the first time, he decided he would not try to be better. He would just' be better.

The soul laughed, the sound grinding down into a snarl. "I AM YOU!! You have no choice Diritas ASHIN! You are your father's son. You are ice, and fire, and death! You will bring ruin to everything you touch! You know this to be true. You've seen it. We both have."

He nodded slowly. "Yes. I know what I am. I am the son of Ashinabe. I was born with the magic of nature in my blood. I was born with balance. And I choose that birthright. My father gave me something as well."

The soul didn't let him finish. It screamed and wailed in the darkness, it's inhuman cries tearing from Di's throat as well as the memories flashed back through his mind. But he didn't try to force them back down. He opened himself up to them.

"He gave me power over you." Diritas turned and stretched his hand towards the broken soul that he called his own. The fragmented thing with rusted chains that stretched to every part of the ship, that was the ship, that was himself. The Abyssus shook with power as Diritas stared at the husk of darkness that bore his name. He was not angry' He was determined. "I will not be defined by you." He repeated, this time with more conviction than he'd ever felt before. He knew" he was speaking the truth.

The broken soul, filled with darkness and seething with the captive dead, lurched towards Diritas as if to attack him. But the multitudes of chains held it in place. As he took a deep breath, those chains changed. At first it was only one. Then there were two' then three" then ten" then fifty' then Diritas lost count as each one of the rusty chains dissolved into golden thread.

The wailing stopped, and the fragment of darkness quieted. There, deep in the center of the void flickered a candle. It grew slowly, the darkness roiling around it sliding away as the flame grew in intensity. Golden tongues of fire reached out to each of the threads, and brilliance erupted in a flash of white light as the soul vanished.

Diritas stumbled backwards, crashing through the oriental screen that separated his bed from the rest of his quarters and landing flat on his back amidst the pieces, blinking spots from his eyes.

"What....the hell just happened?"