Specters of our Past and Future

The entity was silent for a while, its visage hidden and expression unreadable. It glanced down at the half dozen items Artorias had laid out in offer, then looked back up to him. The entity spoke, leaning across the stall towards the young wolf. Then he chided Artorias for not offering more. His brow furrowed in confusion. Was this not what the being wanted? Was this not enough? He didn't have anything else to offer. What would a supernatural being even want? Turned out, it didn't matter. The entity stated that it would help Artorias change his perspective on the matter, and no sooner had the words left its invisible mouth, Artorias began to see bright blue light creeping in from the edge of his peripheral vision. "Wait, what are you doing?!" Artorias snapped at the entity, stumbling back from the shop stand with panic in his fading eyes. Gradually the blue began to engulf his vision until it was all he saw: a world of pale blue the same shade as the moon and the fireflies and every other damned thing that had happened since the world had gotten fucked up.

"No, stop!" It was far too late to plead. In an instant, Artorias' vision was swallowed up by empty blueness, the world around him completely gone. He lunged forward, paws seeking the shop stand to ask for mercy or forgiveness or whatever the hell the entity wanted so long as he could have his sight back—but his paws found nothing but air. The shop and its owner had simply vanished as unexpectedly as they had appeared. Artorias gasped as he collapsed to the ground, his paws landing on his cluster of mushrooms and crystals, left behind by the scornful entity. Artorias swung his head around, unable to see anything, but still able to feel, hear, smell the world around him. The entity had taken his sight and left him with nothing but confusion and fear.

Gasping for air and trying to keep himself from panicking, Artorias slowly rose to his paws, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now. How could he live like this? How was he going to lead the Hallows?! There was no way they could rely on a blind leader! He'd asked for a means to keep his family safe and instead the malicious entity had crippled him, making his desire impossible! He was lesser fit to lead now than he'd felt before! Gods, what was he supposed to do?!

"Artorias Carpathius"