Niko's Shadow

You open your eyes. Or rather, it feels like they've always been open—you've just finally begun to see. A gray, nonexistent light spills around you. Glass chips crunch underfoot. The air is cold and still.

In the distance, against the backdrop of an endless gray plain, stands a small figure in a tunic and hat. She doesn't move. She simply stands, lost in the silence.

And then you realize she's looking at you. Two dim lights in the emptiness of her face.

The silence lasts forever.

Finally, barely audible, as if through a layer of cotton wool, comes the sound:

— ...you've come. Or is it just me? It often seems that way here.

A pause. The figure takes a step towards you, and glass crunches underfoot again.

"Are you broken too? Or just lost?.. Well, I don't care. But if you want, stay here. Quiet. I am Niko. The one who broke the light."