Magic is the most peculiar of all miracles. We take it into ourselves like air, yet we need not breathe it. It sustains us like water, yet we need not drink it. Some can shape it like clay, and yet others can live their entire lives denying its existence. One thing is for certain, however: the absence of magic is death. Life cannot exist without magic.

Soon, magic will be like air in a collapsed cavern, like water during the harshest drought. Soon those who could shape it will question its existence. Soon all life will perish.

He is the Dream Caller. He is a summoner of nightmares and on this day he shall call forth the most terrible of haunted dreams. He will begin a ritual which will drain all magic from the universe. In 25 days his ritual will be complete and he will take all of the air and water of life and with it, reshape existence.

Our time is short and I fear that my meager plans shall not match the decades, perhaps centuries of preparations that he has made. But there is a small hope. Tomorrow a hero shall come to this island. His fate is not certain, but I have looked into the deepest reaches of his soul and part of me can’t help but rejoice. He will be thought a fool, and perhaps he is. It is the greatest irony of all that the fate of the universe shall be decided not by the brave, the wise or the strong, but by a fool and a Liar.

Yes, the Liar. He is still a mystery. No matter how long I concentrate, no matter how much I pray to see even a glimpse of his face, I cannot. It has been foretold, that all hope; hope for the universe, hope for life, all hope… shall rest with a Liar. A fool and a Liar. I’m sure that somewhere there is a cosmic being who at this very moment is laughing uncontrollably. I wonder how quickly he will abandon his euphoria when the Dream Caller dethrones him. No matter. Fate has given us the unlikeliest heroes, the darkest future and the highest stakes. However, there is hope, and even the smallest of hopes represents the slightest chance for victory, for survival.

I pray it will be enough.

- Phoenix, advisor to King Stephen of Arioc