I, Kwan

For over a thousand years, a powerful oligarchy known as the Worldwide Order of Lightnings has oppressed us. With the help of the prying eyes of their pet chronomancers, the Lightnings have torn us from our homes... have forced us to do their bidding... have stripped us of our rights... even our names.

I have spent my life in hiding. Please understand that an unrated telepath like me is a commodity, not a person. If it’s not the thought-police come to call on me, it’s the Lightnings, or worse, a suitor who won’t accept no as an answer.

Peace. Security. Love. They all elude me. When I manage to grasp a little of them in my shaking hands, they are all but snatched away by outside powers beyond my control. My heart groans with black tears from all this folly.

Madness to resist. Yet, eternal torment to fail.