There was no time within the void.  Every second might as well be an eternity.  And yet he had waited over a century in this timeless hell.<br/><br/>He was aware, yet there was nothing to be aware of.  He had no form.  No feet to pace upon.  No hands to fiddle.  No heart to beat.  No breath to draw.  He was nothing.  Yet he was not.  His mind and soul existed in this place without a body.  Indeed, there was not even a 'here' to his awareness.  No sense of existance.  But he knew he existed by his thoughts.  He could remember even after all these eternial years what it was to be a man.  To see and hear and taste and feel and smell.  To rule an Empire.  To sit upon the Sun Throne.  To be Balthazar Deschain the Black.<br/><br/>There was no time within the void.  Memorys and dreams drifting as they had, did, and always would.<br/><br/>Then there was a heartbeat.  And another.  Chill air upon skin.  The smell of dust.  Heavy footsteps echoing over the sound of almost silent footsteps.<br/><br/>Curses echoed.  Directed at a man he did not know... at a father... at the Sun Himself.<br/><br/>Herrek.  It was Herrek they were cursing.  Herrek who was taking them back to the caravan.  The caravan would take them to Father.  The Emperor.  They were... a princess.  Aurora was the name.<br/><br/>More things flooded into his mind.  Flashes of memory.  Bits of speech.  The Old Wolf speaking to them.  No.  To her.  To Aurora.  He was Blathazar.<br/><br/>The sensations and thoughts were excruciating after the eturnal silence and nothingness.  He cried out in fear as he felt himself being washed away.  Wait, she would hear such things.  He forced himself to be calm.  To make sense of the jumble that came to him from her mind and the constant assault of her senses.  He lived.  He felt her heatbeat.  Felt the warmth of breath filling and leaving her chest.<br/><br/>Slowly, he began to collect her thoughts.  It had been a century.  She had found his phylactery beneath the alter in the chapel.  Aurora Deschain, Princess of Valaria had found his soul as she finished her prayer to the Sun to avoid having her birthright stolen.<br/><br/>He laughed at the irony.  Surely he could give her what she desired, but never would the Lord of Light have guided her hand to find his prison.<br/><br/>He waited, learning all of her.  She would sleep and her dreams would be his.