Nurturer of Nightmares

Prologue

There is a darkness that grows in the hearts of every person you meet in the middle of a war; the kind of darkness that can consume everything in its path, and tear apart even the strongest of those around you. My allies and I have fought tirelessly, given everything to survive long enough to build a world worthy of living in, doing so even if it destroys us at the end of it.

We have lost far more than we have gained in this war, but we continue to fight. Giving up, for us, is not merely losing the war and surrendering to our enemies whims, but it is losing everything we have loved. It is losing dignity and face.

It is losing happiness, and love, and freedom.

The latter, I can no longer imagine giving up. Where once I had lived without it, these months with the people I now call my friends and family have shown me that I cannot live without freedom or love, that those two things are to be valued above all else.

I can leave everything else behind- I can lose morale if it means running to survive fighting another day. I can lose happiness under the hope that I will find it again in the rubbles of war, and the things we build out of that rubble.

I can even lose my sanity, and know that I will find it again.

But losing freedom and love? That is no longer something I can find myself leaving behind.

This final mission has shown me that I need those things to live, and without them?

I am merely surviving.