"I've been burgled.  All of my shinies... gone.  This can't be real..."

I have lived in Aetius my entire life.  I rented a room at the inn, where I stored all my shinies.  It was empty that day, everything I had collected was gone.  I didn't want to believe it. It had to be an illusion, right?

I lost control.  I tore at my face, certain that the illusion could be broken by pain.

Illusion, ha.

I knew it wasn't from the start.  My head feeding my heart a lie. A lie that fell apart a little with each additional drop of blood I tore from my face.  A pyromancer unraveling... We all know how that inevitably ends.

I was found and treated in... Kindlehelm, by Grey, for some reason.  Something is off.

I can't remember how I got here.  It's a blur of pain, blood, and burning.  What little I've found in my head, it's as if I merely watched someone else going through it.  It's less like memories of pain, and more like memories of empathizing with someone else's pain.

Why has this happened?  I did everything right, didn't I?  Never took shinies from others, only fought those who wronged others.  All the things I was supposed to do, right?

So why is it all gone?

I figured it out.  What was off.  And now I'm dying.

Another voice in my head, one I conjured up two years ago.  Created to spare me from pain.  I've been in a lot of pain recently.  My memories have grown increasingly more distant.  My mind has practically split.

This shouldn't have happened.  With time, I think, I'd have eventually recovered and returned to normal.

If only that holy magi hadn't tried to help me.

I think he mistook me, the real me, for a magical wound on the mind.  Tried to heal my split personality, to fortify it and equip it to better handle what he assumed to be an intruder.  I guess he succeeded.

I'm trapped in my own mindscape.  Skewered to the mast of a ship by a black halberd, covered in golden chains.  I can feel my consciousness fading, while he asserts himself as his own whole.

What a ridiculous name he's come up with for himself.  Teague.

...I'm still alive?

Where am I?  It's dark, it's... right.  I was subdued in my mind.  I... guess I was wrong to think I was dying.  But is this really any better?  I'm just a voice in someone's head... in fact, I don't think I even have the strength to be that.  Is watching Teague live his life all I can do?  My friends, my family, those I love- they just have to accept that I've disappeared?

Perhaps I have died then, perhaps this is Hel.

I'm not dead.  I'm trapped in Teague's mind, but I've regained strength.  Sometimes I can even influence his body, by manipulating the golden chains that bind us.  Soon, I think I might even have an opportunity to take control of the body.

If I wait long enough, I could even force him to share control.  But I can't wait that long, I need to let them know, to let her know I'm still here.  Another year... and I'll only have a day.  A day should be enough to let them all know I still exist, to let them all know I'll be back again.

It should be a great day, don't you think?

Dead?  I'm dead? What? No, no, no-
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I can't be, not now- I took control, I told everyone- I had a plan, it was all ready to go-

I'm dead?

What happened?