The fifth time he wakened, his mood was bleak. He could still feel the sorrowful man's embrace and he desperately wished that he could have helped him, but there was no going back. He sat up slowly, the bag on his back heavier than ever before, and reached his hands up to scrub at his face. He couldn't understand why he felt so much pain for the sorrowful man, but it was there, an ache in his heart that wouldn't go away. 

A cool breeze brushed over his skin and he looked up for the first time, noting that he sat in what seemed to be a circular stone room with open sides and six pillars holding the ceiling up. The center of the room seemed to glow with it's own light, a warm beacon that he felt beckoning him closer. He pushed himself to his feet and looked around, taking in the stunning view around him. 

The room sat alone on top of a mountain peak, and when Hoya moved to the edge he realized that he could see for miles and miles. Something in the far distance seemed to glow with a similar light to the one in the center of the room, and as he squinted to try and make it out, he heard footsteps behind him.

"The city of Light," a voice said, and Hoya turned to look into the face of a man a few years older than he. His small eyes were focused on the city far away, a small smile on his thin lips as he gazed out at it. Hoya had never seen him before, but there was something familiar in the way he spoke, and after a moment he ventured,

"You're the Light, aren't you? The same man I met at the fire."

This man nodded, with a bit of a shrug in there as well. "I am not a man, no, but I am the same entity in another form as the others I've shown you."

Others...? Then it all made sense to Hoya, and he felt a hot anger bubble up inside of him. "Why are you doing this to me? Showing me all of these things, making me see death and pain and... and-" And healing and joy, too, and even as he thought those, his anger faded away. "Because you were showing me life."

"Yes and no. Walk with me?" He didn't wait for an answer, merely turning to begin walking the circumference of the room, and Hoya didn't eve pause as he moved to catch up. "Death comes to everyone, Hoya. Even those who are good, kind people, must die when their time comes. It is simply part of life, it's not something evil. The dead feel no pain or anger, they are merely moved on from the world of the living and into the realm of the Grey. It is a natural cycle, but even as such, it can be painful for those left behind. Grief, too, is natural, and not evil: it must be so that humans can handle what life throws their way. Grief is the beginning of healing, and comforting and sharing in grief is one of the biggest gifts that humans can give to one another. It's that shared pain that gives life it's potency, the knowledge that one day pain will come for you but that there will be those around you that you can rely on. Do you follow me so far?"

"I-" He thought he did, and he said as much. What he was saying sounded plausible, that death