Azoth

"I used to just be part of this big, dark void up here."

She's sitting next to Ciaran with her head poking out of the dark, barely illuminated, so that he can't tell where the shade ends she emerges.

"Little bit of light got through a crack in here one day, somehow."

Azoth raises an overgrown talon in the direction of the small white fissure snaking its way through the blackness above, the light in question that's making anything visible at all.

She furrows her brow. "Come to think of it, isn't that when you popped up in here?"

"Ah, nevermind." Azoth waves her talons, seeing Ciaran's bewildered look.

"Well, that's when I got this... 'sentience'. Honestly? It’s pretty overrated. Even if I had a chance to leave, I’d fade just the same, like the shadow I’ve always been."

“Perhaps I wouldn’t even try.”

She dips a clawtip into the trickle of light blossoming from the crack in the void, and it instantly vanishes.

"What was the point anyway."

Azoth sighs and closes her eyes, which are so dark it seems as though the shadows themselves have seeped inside, and her form melts back into the nothingness.

After a moment, Ciaran can see her teeth flash as she speaks again.

"So... how did you end up here?"