Introduction

He sat, staring at the large piece of wood which dominated the space. The raw material filled the workshop, stretching high into the shadows of the vaulted ceiling, its form lost in inky blackness. Its broad base was said to be a perfect circle, stretching so wide its curvature was almost imperceptible to the casual eye.

Girdled by an intricate network of scaffolding it had an industrial appearance which stood in stark contrast to the sterile simplicity of its surroundings. A polished floor stretched seemingly indefinitely in all directions, its pristine whiteness shining gently in the soft blue light, reminding him of the sea on the stillest of days. The light seemed to emanate from the floor itself, with no discernible source or points of concentration. The pool of light was shallow, flowing up out of the floor for several feet before soaking into the thirsty darkness.

The silence was complete, the silence of finality and emptiness. The silence of a held breath.

The silence of despair, he thought.

The stillness in the room was oppressive, a palpable force opposing anything which would disturb it. Even thought felt blasphemous. The workshop reduced him, stripping away all the constructs of society and leaving him with only the most primal aspect of sentience: emotion. He had once, not so long ago, considered himself enlightened, one of the most celebrated intellects in a golden age of understanding.
He had been the pinnacle of civilization, the finest product of millennia of refining humanity, but that had been before...

Before the passing. Before the Choosing. Most significantly, before realization. Realization was slow to come, something which would have been startling to him in itself had he not begun to crumble the moment it had struck. Like a slow poison it had seeped through his defenses, tainting everything he was. By the time he had been brought here, a living sacrifice on the altar of humanity, the walls of confidence a lifetime of excellence had erected had been torn asunder from within.

Wave after wave of emotion crashed against him in quick succession; fear, excitement, confusion, fear, fear, fear... Each wave surged deeper and deeper into the core of his being, threatening to drown his very identify and leave only an empty husk behind. Terrified, his consciousness fled down the well traveled paths of memory, seeking refuge in the quirk of fate which brought him to this very moment.