Liana struggled like a tigress, kicking and squirming wildly, but no amount of effort availed her. Raven Frost's arms around her neck and arms felt as strong as steel. All she was accomplishing was exhausting herself.
The werecat sorcerer was practically ignoring her as he dragged her down the halls. Liana could hear his footsteps and her own heels dragging across the cobblestone floor echoing eerily throughout the passage. Other than the sound of their own movement, all was silent. It was creepy. Even if it had been the sound of other warrior cats, Liana would have been comforted to hear another sign of life.
The sound of their echoes shifted when Raven Frost dragged her into a room. It was a relatively small one, judging by how the sound bounced off the stone walls. Liana guessed it was about the size of her bedroom back in Stiix. Before she knew what was happening, the werecat had shoved her down on her back on a cold, hard table-like structure. Icy manacles were strapped around her wrists. When she moved them, she heard chains rattle and felt them hanging on her arms.
Liana's heart was racing like mad—she thought it would burst out of her chest. "W— what are you going to do to me?" Despite her best effort, she couldn't stop the slight tremor in her voice.
Raven Frost's chuckle sounded above Liana's head. "The same thing we did to the Sons and Daughters of— oh, pardon me," he added mockingly. "to the 'ninja'. The rest of the team will meet the same fate soon enough... as will you, Daughter of No One."
Liana stiffened when she felt Raven Frost's fingers running down the side of her face. She flinched back and snarled, "Don't touch me."
Raven Frost drew his hand away, but otherwise ignored her. "I can't help but wonder, why in the name of the first ancestors would the 'ninja' add a blind she-man to their ranks? Seems rather desperate to me... Of course, I suppose you know each other, but to go and risk your neck for their lot is quite beyond me—"
Raven Frost suddenly sucked in his breath, then he laughed softly. "Don't tell me you have a special connection with one of the toms! One of them is a mate, perhaps?"
Liana flushed indignantly. "Don't be stupid! They're all just friends!"
"I suppose the Son of the First is rather good-looking—for a human, of course." Raven Frost seemed to be enjoying her discomfort and anger.
"Ew. No way," Liana muttered, making a face.
"Hmm... surely not the Son of Ice—what about the Son of Earth?"
"You're crazy."
Raven Frost dropped his voice to a low hush. "Oh, but I'm not, little Daughter of No One," he purred in her ear, making her cringe and flinch away. "I can see into your mind. I can crawl into the darkest, deepest depths of your memories, your dreams, your hopes, and your fears. In just a few moments..." He whispered softly, "you will be completely under my power."
A cold chill ran down Liana's spine. "Y— you're going to trap me in the Dark Sleep, aren't you?"
"Yes," was the low hiss. "Yes, I am."
Liana heard fingernails scraping over something like glass—was Raven Frost carrying a jewel or a glass ball?—and the sorcerer began to chant softly, a strange, haunting tune that reverberated strangely throughout the room. A low hum made Liana's head ache.
"No!" Liana jolted up and strained against the chains, wrenching her wrists in the manacles painfully. Raven Frost's low murmur continued, increasing in intensity.
Her head felt heavy. Strange, high-pitched voices were whispering. Her eyelids fluttered. She could hear her heart pounding like a hammer in her ears, it rang with each beat.
"Would you like to know..." Raven Frost purred, "why I recognize you? How I happen to know who you are?"
Liana couldn't answer. Her movement felt slow. Her limbs were jelly. Raven Frost's voice was beginning to echo in the distance. Her struggles grew faint. Her breath came out in ragged gasps—she felt as if someone were sitting in her chest. "Please..." she rasped.
"How did you come to be blind, Daughter of No One?" Raven Frost asked. "Those hideous scars on your face are blatant signs that it was no natural development."
Irritated, Liana spat, "A wolf attacked me when I was four years old. I wandered into the forest from my family's picnic. It clawed me in the eyes, and I've been blind ever since."
She heard Raven Frost chuckle. "Are you quite sure it was a wolf, little one?"
Something about the way he said that... Did he know something Liana didn't?
Her question was answered when he leaned down and hissed in her ear, "I recall once, over ten seasons ago, I had been out hunting in the land that had once belonged to the bakeneko tribe of old. Foolishly, I was alone, and I wandered into human territory. I was chased by hunters, but managed to avail myself from them, and then I stumbled upon a small, tiny little she-man in the woods."
Liana stopped breathing. Her blood ran cold.
"I took revenge on the terror the human hunters caused me. I attacked that little she-man and attempted to put an end to her. But older humans came before I could finish her, and I was forced to flee. That incident was but a small one. I paid no mind to it for years... until now.
"I'd recognize those scars anywhere. I still remember running my claws down your face and hearing you scream. I thought I had finished you. Considering the trouble you've helped the ninja caused, I should have completed the job when I had you in my paws.
"Yes, Liana, Daughter of No One... it is because of me you are blind."
Liana choked. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. "No..."
She felt her eyes close. The chains felt like they were dragging her down to the stone, like heavy cold fingers. She fell back. Liana barely felt her head throbbing when she hit it on the surface of the table.
Everything was fuzzy. She lost all feeling. The sense of sound was gone. Sightless, soundless, with no sense of touch. She was floating in a thick cloud. Floating—or falling?
"No..."
"Seeing that I was the one who took away your sight, Liana," the werecat murmured, "I'm willing to grant you a favor.
"I'll give it back."
Those simple words reverberated throughout her head. Then, all the world faded away.
Liana breathed her last breath of consciousness. Over her head Raven Frost cackled. The crystal orb he wore around his neck was glowing with a mixed silver-and-purple color, lighting up the dark cell with its dim light.
Liana had fallen under the fatal curse of the Dark Sleep.
* * *
Light.
Until then, light had only been a feeling. Warmth on her skin. She had felt light when the sun shone or a fire blazed, or even when a lightbulb or electronic device was on. Merely heat.
Light. No, light was no longer a mere feeling—it was something to see.
To see.
Sight.
No, surely not. That is impossible. The blind cannot see. A mere trick of the brain—surely that is what it was...
But it wasn't.
Liana could see.
She could see.
She... could... see.
She had never really known light. Sometimes she would see odd, soft flashes of it in her dreams. Sometimes, when she was a child, she had dreams of bright landscapes of ever-changing light. Often odd little images could be formed in her mind, though they never lasted long, and she could never remember them. All in all, however, Liana had never really known light. It had been a formless stranger to her.
Until now.
Her eyes hurt. The light was hurting them. It hurt so much. Tears ran down her cheeks from the shock of it. Liana screwed her eyes shut and lay there silently. She concentrated on breathing. Were those tears real...? Surely there was no way this was a dream. She could hear. She could feel. She could see.
For a long time, she kept her eyes closed. She was terrified of opening them. What if the light burned her eyes out? Could she actually see? The darkness she had known nearly her entire life was familiar—comforting. She clung to it like a frightened child to its mother. She didn't want to open her eyes again—yet at the same time, she knew she should. What else could she do?
She heard trees rustling in a warm breeze. She felt grass scrunch beneath her weight. She lay belly-down on the ground. The grass was soft and pressed gently against her face, which was wet with tears.
Her hair fell in soft waves around her head; she no longer had it in a bun. She thought her clothes felt different... like she wasn't wearing the same dress. She wanted to inspect herself with her fingers, but she was frozen stiff with terror. She just lay there, shivering with shock.
Liana fingered the grass. How long had she been lying down there? Her body was growing stiff from staying in the same position. Her heart beat began to slow down; the shock was wearing away.
Is this the Dark Sleep?
Slowly—ah, ever so slowly—she raised her head, still keeping her eyes shut. Tears leaked between her eyelids and continued pouring down her cheeks—she wasn't crying, her eyes were simply not used to experiencing light, thus her body was producing tears in an attempt to protect them. She did wonder if she ought to cry, though.
Although her eyes were clamped down firmly, she knew this darkness was different to the darkness she had known for so long. There was an odd tinge of low light seeping through the skin of her eyelids. She didn't know what color to call it, simply because she had never known color.
For a while longer she lay there, with her head raised up. Then, she took a deep breath, and opened her eyes.
"Ugh!" She shut them again when blinding light burned. More tears than ever ran profusely down her face. She clutched her head and ducked down, pressing her cheeks back down on the grass. She was trembling.
It was a very long time before Liana dared raise her head again. She opened her eyes again, but slowly—very, very slowly—allowed her eyes to adjust to the light at their own pace. As she raised her eyelids higher by the long, crawling minutes, she could make out more and more of the scene she sat in. Curiosity made her open her eyes wider, which of course made them hurt more. Tears were still leaking. How much longer until her body would run dry of tears? As light adjusted to Liana's new sight, she took in more and more. She was shivering violently from shock.
How to describe...? Shapes. So many shapes. All the images were overstimulating for her brain—she could barely keep track of them all.
Colors... she had no idea which ones were called what, but color blasted her sight and left her stunned—utterly stunned. How is it possible there were so many other shades than darkness?! Liana had learned the names of the colors of the rainbow alongside her brother, despite not being able to see them, but there were only six in the songs her preschool teacher sang—surely there were way more colors here than six! They mixed and mingled with one another, falling into natural patterns that combined and collided with each different shape.
The grass she sat on—she knew it was grass, for she recognized the feel of the soft blades when she lay there—was almost all the same color, although bits of light here and there reflected off of their surfaces and hit her in the eyes. Warm light was shining down on her body—she recognized the feel of sunlight. She kept blinking. She hardly dared to believe her eyes.
Big, sturdy shapes that had a different, darker color from grass rose from the ground. They split at the tops many times and had hundreds—thousands—millions?—of tiny different shapes growing off of their thin ends. Looking at these strange shapes made Liana think of broccoli... she recalled feeling the sturdy middles that led to the bushy tops. Many more of these kind of shapes surrounded her, sprouting from the ground of millions of grass blades.
Liana stared at the shapes. The sound of the wind whistling made her think of trees. Were these trees? Was she in a forest? She couldn't stop staring.
Texture. Texture had always been one of the main sources of feeling to her. Nobody had ever mentioned how these different shapes—the grass, trees, leaves—all had textures that created different pattens on their surfaces! The grass' thin flag had a single, strong vein running up the middle, creating a crease that matched every other blade in the ground. The leaves in the trees—small as they were—were similar, but they were circular shapes, bouncing gently from the limbs they grew from and glinting in the sunlight. Liana could made out their curved edges, their brown stems at the very bottoms, and the main veins running through their thin surfaces. The trees—oh, the trees!—they were like a storm frozen in time. Their textures looked thick and swirling, cracked and peeling in many places and bumpy and full of strange circular shapes that sunk into the trunk—were they holes? The colors of the trees were never-ending, though they contrasted quite differently from those of the grass and the leaves.
Liana glanced down and noticed that different shapes were also growing from the ground; these were thin and spindly and matched the grass, but at the tops leaves like those on the trees appeared, and on top of that the plant split into many different parts. The edge—like a round piece of paper or pizza cut into many slices—was the brightest color Liana had ever seen, and the round thing in the middle was the second-brightest.
Liana, still lying belly-down on the grass, finally dared to reach out one hand and touch one of these spindly plants. As her fingers ran up the stem and brushed the petals, she recognized the daisy flowers. Who knew something as tiny as grass could be so beautiful!
In the midst of gingerly feeling the flower, Liana stopped. She could see her hand. What a strange color it was! She had no idea what color her own flesh could be called, but she was utterly fascinated by the sight.
She drew her hand nearer to herself and stared at it. The five fingers she used to feel her way around the world for so long were attached to their large stem like five, pale tree branches to a wide tree trunk. She moved her fingers, and was interested to watch how the bones and joints worked together to make a smooth, fluid motion. She stared at the wrinkles on her knuckles, the cuticles around her smooth, nearly-flat fingernails, and the hundreds of tiny little hairs dotting the skin. The ends of her fingernails were curved, though faced small nicks here and there and were a little dirty at the corners. Some of the skin around her fingernails on her thumb and pinkie were a slightly deeper color, and Liana could see where she had been picking at her cuticles a few days earlier. She rubbed her pinkie against her thumb and felt the tiny little wound give a small twinge of protest when against mild pressure.
How strange and intricate her body was! How is it that being able to see it made Liana appreciate every muscle, every hair, every bone, every fiber that moved and breathed as long as her heart beat and gave her body the freedom of expression and movement?
Something caught the edge of Liana's eye. She stared at a small group of many thin strands falling around the edge of her face, similar to the color of the daisies. Her hair. She caught the locks in one hand and looked at the countless silver ropes that took part in framing her face. Then she looked down at the rest of her body. Cautiously, she moved and managed to sit up on her knees, allowing her a better view of herself.
She wore a long, simple dress with sleeves reaching down to her wrists and the skirt pooling beneath her like liquid silk. She thought the color of this thing was like a dark version of the daisy's petals. A single belt wrapped around her waist, made of some kind of cloth and tied into a knot at the middle. She was interested by the way she moved under the dress.
For a very long time she simply sat there, staring in astonishment at the world around her. Then, she began to stand up.
She rose to her feet, looked at the ground and trees, and staggered. With a low grunt she fell to the ground. Her depth perception was completely off. The new gift of sight was distracting her from balance. After several tentative attempts to pick herself up, she finally settled on closing her eyes.
Ah—much better. This was more familiar to her. She stood up, waited a few moments, then allowed herself to open her eyes again. The distance between her and the ground—even though she was only standing up—startled her, and she swayed, but managed to stay upright.
Up till now she had heard no sign of animal or human life, despite finding herself in the middle of a forest. Not so much of a bird's tweet or a insect's buzz reached her ears. The strange silence of the forest was alien and unearthly, and she would have found it unnerving if she hadn't been so distracted by her newfound sight.
This queer silence, however, was suddenly broken by the snort of a horse.
Liana gasped and whirled around—which threw her off-balance, and she stumbled back to the ground. She swiped a strand of hair out of her face and watched in stunned silence as a enormous shape, unlike any other she had seen, lumbered slowly out of the shade of the trees. This shape wasn't like the trees or the grass—this shape was alive in a different way. It was a creature. This creature walked on all fours, with a long tail and a mane running down the back of its long, sturdy neck. Its head was long, its belly was wide, its pelt was sleek and patched with two different colors; dark and light.
Liana had never been able to see this animal, but she knew the sound of a horse's hooves on the ground and the snort of her dearest animal companion better than any vision.
"Aquila!" She stumbled her way to the horse, tears blurring her sight. Her knees fell weak under her weight, and she fell forward. Just as she was plummeting toward the ground, however, one flailing hand grasped the horse's neck, and she was able to steady herself. Trembling, Liana pulled herself to a better standing position, and ran her hands through the short fur of her dearest horse.
She had no idea how Aquila got here. She had no idea why she was in an empty forest. She had no idea how she was able to see. She was confused, disoriented, scared, and completely in shock. Was Aquila even real? She dug her fingers into the horse's scraggly mane. There was no way she wasn't feeling the rough hairs of her horse through her fingers, or not smelling that warm, sweet horse-scent, or not hearing Aquila's soft, steady breath thrumming through her body.
Wordless, Liana screwed her eyes shut and buried her head in Aquila's mane, digging her fingers through her fur and breathing in her scent. As she clung to her old friend for comfort, Aquila craned her head back to where Liana was and sniffed her. The horse breathed gently on Liana's shoulder, warming her, and she reached a hand up to stroke Aquila's nose. Liana stared into Aquila's eyes—they were so dark and beautiful. Those eyes were gazing at her with concern and curiosity. Liana closed her eyes again and wished she could simply melt into Aquila... to stay by her side until whatever was going on went away.
"Oh, Aquila..." she whispered, a slight tremor in her voice. "What's going on? Is this all real? Are you even real?" She buried her face in the horse's mane. "Is this really what it's like to see?"
Aquila gave a small snort and stood there patiently, allowing Liana to press herself against her neck and breathe into her fur. She didn't mind.
Liana didn't know how long she stood there with Aquila. Maybe hours. Or days. Or weeks. Months. Years, even. She really didn't know. She had no sense of time in this—this place. At the moment the world was making absolutely no common sense whatsoever, and it certainly was taking its time to return to reality. Thus Liana decided to be patient and wait for the world to make up its mind and make sense again. That seemed the most sensible thing to do. The forest was very quiet, and Aquila seemed perfectly content to provide silent comfort for her human friend. Surely nothing else startling could happen.
"Liana?"
Liana stiffened.
That was a human voice. She knew that voice. If she opened her eyes and turned around, she would see the speaker. She would see the speaker for the first time in all her life.
"Cole...?" she whispered.
"Yes," came the gentle reply. "It's me."
Liana didn't dare to breathe. She kept her eyes shut tightly. She didn't want to look. She didn't want to see the boy she had known for so long in the dark. She didn't want her perception of him to change. She just wanted him to be that same young, rough, slightly raspy voice that was a friend years ago and was a pain in the butt to hear tonight. She didn't want Cole to change.
"Are you all right?" that same voice asked behind her. "Won't you turn around?"
Liana gulped. She straightened, then slowly, tentatively, turned around and faced the direction in which the voice came from—but still kept her eyes tightly shut. Aquila could sense the distress of her mistress, and she snorted and shook her head uneasily.
For a moment she stood there, facing the place where Cole's voice came from and keeping her eyes screwed shut. Her heart pounded rapidly in her chest and hurt her throat. Her breath began to come out quickly.
Cole's voice spoke again. "Open your eyes."
For a moment, Liana didn't respond. She didn't want to respond.
She held her breath—and opened her eyes.
His shape was like that of Liana's, though she assumed the physical differences that she could see were what people used to identity a man from a woman. He was taller than she was—broader, too. Actually, she suddenly felt a little puny when she compared herself to his physique. His flesh-color—whatever they called that color—was a bit darker than hers. He himself was darker. His hair, falling in long, messy bangs across his eyes and framing his face, was very dark, dark as the patches on Aquila's pelt, and the slim-fitting, neat clothes he wore were of the same color.
A thin, three-cornered thing hung from his belt—was that a sai? The shape of it certainly matched the physical pattern she had identified with her hands whenever she held such a weapon. His eyes were bright, like the color of the grass, and they stared back at her calmly. A jagged shape ran down one side of his face from under his hair, matching his eyes. She figured this was the scar she had felt on his face when they had met that night on the bridge.
Liana stared at Cole. No longer was he a shapeless voice in the dark. No longer could she only identify him by the sound of his voice, the feel of his fingers, the shift of his feet on the ground, or the shape of his face should Liana feel for him. Now Cole was a living image—a creation of flesh and bone molded together in an intricate, unimaginable pattern. He stood before her, constantly moving as he breathed, like Aquila, and as all living things did.
His eyes were especially alive and animate; they were staring into Liana's own quizzically, almost teasingly. She wanted to pull away from this strange gaze, for she was not used to looking into another's eyes. Yet something held her in place, and she could do nothing but stare.
For a long while they simply stood there, gazing at each other. Cole didn't seem to think of making any move to speak, thus Liana found herself rasping weakly, "Is— is that really you?"
Those strange eyes blinked. She couldn't help it, she hadn't seen eyes before; she kept staring back into them, fascinated by the bright, alluring colors molded together with the iris and pupil.
"Of course." He smiled. "Your scars. They're gone."
Liana blinked. My scars...? One hand reached up to touch her face. No shallow ridges ran over her eyes. The skin was smooth. She could see her own fingers out of the corners of her eyes, groping for a sign of the scars that had marked her blindness for so long.
Nothing. They had simply disappeared.
"No way..." she whispered, nearly choking. "No way. No way. No... way."
Cole gestured behind her with one hand. "See for yourself."
Surely not... Liana turned around in the direction Cole was pointing. She was disconcerted to see that Aquila had mysteriously disappeared, and a large tree took her place. Hanging on its side was some sort of flat disc, shining in the sunlight.
"What is that?" she asked, finally managing to control the tremor in her voice.
"It's a mirror," Cole replied simply. "Look into it, and you can see yourself."
Liana knew what a mirror was, but she wasn't really in the mood to pick a fight. She hesitated, then stepped over to the tree. She wobbled on the ground, but didn't fall, and thankfully Cole didn't offer to help her. With a deep breath, Liana looked into the mirror's reflection—and saw herself.
A humanoid face like Cole's stared back at her. She knew this was a girl's face, even though she had never seen one. Long, light-colored hair fell in soft waves around her pale face, which was perfectly shaped, and the soft skin was unblemished. Her lips were of a lovely color she had not seen yet, and curved nicely. A nose protruded from the surface, just above her mouth.
What really struck Liana, though, were the eyes staring back at her. Like Cole's, they were balls behind eyelids of a very light color, and sitting in the very center were two rings. One small one, smack-dab in the middle, was a pitch-black circle; the pupil. Around this pupil was a larger ring, and... it was the most beautiful color Liana had ever seen in all her life. The iris looked like the color of the sky overhead, but mixed in deep with it were hints of darker hues, a little like the pale one of her dress she was wearing, and something else. The colors mingled and glimmered back at her, together forming an intricate pattern that no human could ever hope to design himself.
Liana's mouth fell open. Seeing herself—at least, this version of herself—left her feeling dizzy. "Is that— me?"
She jumped when a warm hand rested on her shoulder. "You're beautiful," Cole murmured.
A hot flush spread across Liana's face. She took a step away from him uneasily. "Wha— what's going on?" She stared back at him. "Is this real? Are you real?"
Cole chuckled—an odd chuckle. "That's a funny question. What would make you think otherwise?"
"I—" Liana tried to think, but her head was still swirling, and she felt dizzy. What had happened before she woke up in the forest? She had been scared and blind... had someone been kidnapping her and forcing her into a dungeon cell, or was that just a weird dream? Why had she been in a dungeon? Who was with her? Yes, of course, Lloyd and Nya and Zane and such... Why were they there, though...? Oh, how her head whirled. One thought after another flew by like scattered leaves, with no distinguishable pattern to aid her in returning to reality. As far as the world around her was concerned, this was reality.
"I'm so confused." Liana put her hands to her head. "I was blind. Now I can see, and my scars are gone, and I don't know how I got here, and Aquila was here, and now you're here—"
"Hey," Cole soothed—it was very odd, the way he spoke; his voice was soft and smooth, not that usual strong and brash rasp Liana was accustomed to hearing. "Calm down. It's all right. You're fine. There's no danger here... only me."
Liana stepped back, away from his intimidating gaze. "OK. You're kinda freaking me out, Cole."
Cole hesitated, then blushed and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry. I— Heh. I guess I'm just a little nervous." He looked at her again, and a boyish smile spread across his face—an achingly cute smile. "I've never seen you like this."
"You and me both," Liana muttered, taking another step back.
Cole stepped forward. "Look, I've been thinking about—well, you know—our fighting and all that."
Liana took another step back. "Yeah?" was all she could say.
"I'm really sorry about what I did. You're right. I should have stopped to think about it. It's crazy for anyone to think that someone like you would betray us." He took another step forward. "I know that now. You're not like that. You're more."
OK, this is getting really weird. Liana took another step back. "All right... apology accepted."
He took another step forward. "The truth is, Liana... I care about you. I mean, we were friends years ago, and... I want to be close again."
Liana decided that she did not like the way Cole was looking at her—or did she...? She took another step back—and bumped into a tree.
Cole stepped up to her, and she found herself trapped between him and the tree trunk, with her back pressed up to the bark. "I mean, I'd like to be friends again," he was saying, not seeming to be aware of Liana's discomfort. "Like back when Philip was alive—"
At the name of her brother, Liana felt a painful wrench in her heart, and she flinched.
Cole saw her flinch, and he took her hands in his own—much to Liana's increasing unease. "I'm sorry. I really miss him." He moved closer, so that she could feel his breath on her face. "It's been so long, but I think I've finally realized..." He took a deep breath. "I'd— I'd like to be... together."
For a long while Liana didn't move. She didn't speak. She just stared at Cole—up into those bright eyes. That almost innocent smile.
Then her own eyes narrowed. Her face felt frozen.
"Cole would never say that."
Cole blinked. "What are you taking about? I am Cole."
"No, you're not," Liana spat coldly. "You're just some twisted, sicko Prince-Charming version of Cole! Get your hands off me!" She wrenched Cole's hands from her own and jumped to the side, freeing herself. "Nice try, Raven Frost, but I'm not stupid."
Cole's eyes suddenly blazed ice-blue. He turned his mouth into a sneer, revealing feline teeth. "Think you're so clever, Daughter of No One?" he hissed in Raven Frost's voice.
With a furious cry, Liana snatched the sai hanging from Cole's belt, and plunged it into his gut.
Brown sand spewed out of the wound she created, like he was a cloth bag. The Cole apparition screwed his face into a feral snarl, and he leapt at her with a cat's yowl.
With a shriek, Liana stabbed the sai into the Not-Cole. It burst into a shower of sand. The sand flew in the air and whirled around Liana like a storm, hissing and screaming in her ears. She clenched her eyes tight and crouched down, gritting her teeth against the spray of earth hitting her from all sides.
"I can see into your mind." Raven Frost's voice echoed loudly in the sandstorm, and it reverberated chillingly in Liana's ears. "I can sense your thoughts. I can uncover your past. I can describe your future. I can torment your present."
Two faces appeared before Liana's eyes, dim and flickering in the swirling earth: a man and a woman, both of whom looked strangely familiar to Liana. Raven Frost answered her unspoken question. "You still feel the loss of your parents. When you swing your nunchucks, you think of the father who taught you how to defend yourself. When you touch that necklace you wear, you think of the mother who bestowed it to you."
Liana choked, and she reached out one trembling hand for the faces of her parents, but by a gust of sand, their pale images were swept away. Another face appeared: a young man with dark eyes and curly brown hair.
"You miss your brother even more. You think of him as one of the only people to see past your inability to see. His presence gave you peace, patience, and joy. You looked up to him. You wish you had died in his stead that day the Anacondrai attacked. You wish he were here now, fighting the Moon Tribe alongside you and your two friends of long past, Cole and Matilda."
"Philip..." Liana watched his image drift away. She crouched there helplessly, feeling wretched as Raven Frost continued.
"Ever since his demise, you have begun to despise your blindness. You feel anger and frustration when your close-minded uncle and mindless cousins patronize you and treat you like a crippled toddler, always expecting you to fall on your face without their help. You search desperately for a friend in your cousin Rosie, but she has grown distant over the years in college, and the two of you no longer really know each other.
"You wish to go to college and find a place for yourself in the world, yet you have no idea what you want to do. You are desperate to find money to afford it. You are ashamed to admit to your friend Cole why you really wanted to meet him that night, on the bridge.
"You are scared. You hide your fear with false optimism. You are scared that your blindness will hinder you in your quest to find a life for yourself—that you are not as capable as others to take care of yourself.
"You are angry to realize you doubt yourself, and angrier to know that your relatives doubt the same thing. You are desperate to prove yourself. Ah, so much fear... and so much bitterness. Such an angry, bitter child."
"Stop talking. You're getting really irritating," Liana snapped, glaring into the wind and sand.
"You cannot help but recall the many times people have looked down upon you, dubbing your blindness a disability. You've pushed away the memories, but they keep coming back."
Then other voices began to ring in her head. Voices of people she had known. Voices of adults and children talking about her, staring at the hideous scars on her face and her sightless eyes.
"What happened to this poor child?!"
"She's ugly."
"No, you can't get the pencil case—I'll get that for you."
"You can't read."
"What in the world makes you think you can cook?"
"Sorry, Liana, I must have forgotten your invitation to my birthday party."
"Just sit down, you can't get your books, Miss Green. I'll have another student get them for you."
"Mama, that girl with the ugly face scared me!"
"I'm sorry— I— I just wish you could see."
"We need another man to watch this girl, Dog Bone—"
"No need. She's blind. She'd just run into the wall if she tried to escape."
"Liana... I need you to listen. I know you think you can do it, but you just can't. You can't go to college. You can't get an education. You can't make your own living. You can't take care of yourself.
"You—are—blind."
"Stop it," Liana said weakly.
Raven Frost ignored her. "You are lonely. You feel your blindness cuts you apart from others. You feel a connection to Cole, because he was the first person who wasn't your family who treated you as an equal. You appreciate the other ninjas' acceptance of you and your skills, and you consider them as friends. You are angry at Cole now, but you can never forget the friendship the two of you once shared. You want to be close once more, but your anger and fear prevents you from going to him."
"Stop—it—now."
"And there's one part of you, one tiny feeling hidden away in the darkest corners of your mind... you wonder if you'd like to be more than frien—"
"Shut up!" Liana screamed into the wind. "Get out of my head!"
The wind shrieked louder. It whipped her face and her dress. She clenched her eyes shut against the flying, gritty sand. Her heart was pounding as loud as the wind was screaming. The hissing sand drowned out Raven Frost's words.
She didn't want to hear the werecat's voice ever again. She could feel his presence in her head, pressing in like a headache on her memories and emotions. She wanted to shake her head until he fell out. His mind was searching hers—pressing for information, peering into the corners and nooks of her head, eagerly searching for something else to torment her with.
Her heart pounded in Liana's ears. She was trapped in the Dark Sleep. No one had ever been freed from this curse alive. She remembered Jay's groans and panicked cries in his sleep, and she trembled. The sorcerer was just going to keep on giving her painful and horrifying visions. One after another, a never-ending nightmare—yes, Liana knew how this would go.
That was the difference between her and the other victims, though: Liana knew what the Dark Sleep was. Matilda had told them how the sorcerers made it work. Kai, Skylor, Jay, Misako, Ronin—they didn't have any idea what was going on, but Liana knew it was just a trick of the mind. She knew what this was. This gave her an advantage that nobody ever had.
Liana felt Raven Frost press further, making her head ache. She gritted her teeth, rolled her hands into fists—and fought back. She pushed against his presence.
She felt a twinge of surprise come from Raven Frost, then his mind pressed harder, this time with more ferocity. Liana pushed back. The abuser and his prisoner fought furiously, pushing against each other. Liana let her suppressed anger fuel her strength, giving her courage to continue defending her mind from Raven Frost's invasion. With more and more vigor she fought, shoving the sorcerer out of her head by each push.
"Foolish child," Raven Frost's voice hissed once more. The wind lashed harder as he spoke. "Do you really think you can fight back against one of the Seven Sorcerers? I'm so powerful, even that Sister of Darkness, Matilda Ravencroft, fears me. You're not even an Elemental Master—a ninja! What can possibly make you believe you can—?"
Liana interrupted him with a loud cry. She shoved the presence in her head with a mighty heave, making her head swim so badly that she stumbled. She heard Raven Frost snarl in frustration. Liana concentrated before he could take her mind again.
She knew she wasn't really here. She was lying in the cell of a dungeon, below Dog Bone's castle. She willed herself to wake up.
Come on, she urged herself, pinching her arms desperately and shaking her head. Wake up! Just wake up! You know what this is, this isn't real! Wake up! She closed her eyes and concentrated. She imagined herself breaking free of the curse.
Opening her eyes. Moving. Sitting up in the cell. She had to believe she would wake up.
A surge of heat flushed through her body. She opened her eyes.
Her arms were lighting up. From the elbow down, a strange, shimmering mix of purple and silver light made her arms glow. She flexed her hands. They felt hot—fiery, even—yet a bit icy at the same time. Power was surging through her veins. It was threatening to burst. The light from her hands lit up the dark storm swirling around her.
She didn't have time to wonder what was going on. She closed her eyes. Somehow, this strange surge felt natural. She could flow with it. It coursed through her skin like a river. She was one with the power.
She waited a moment—then summoned a surge. She pushed harder than she ever had before. The wind screamed in her ears. The light blinded her. Somewhere, she thought she heard Raven Frost exclaiming something in shock. She felt herself flying, flying. Then—
She woke up.
* * *
Raven Frost staggered. Blinking, he stumbled into a chair.
Black Blood, standing at the other end of the room with the warriors Birch Tail and Cloud Storm, noticed the sorcerer. "What is it? I thought you were with the blind Daughter of No One."
"I— I was," Raven Frost rasped. His ice-blue eyes stared vacantly into space. He seemed disoriented—confused. "I was in trance... but she was resisting me."
Black Blood sniffed, "All the victims try to resist for the first hour or so. If you're too tired to deal with her, just let the Sleep take its natural course on her."
"It's not that I'm tired!" Raven Frost snapped. "You don't understand. The human resisted me—she fought back. Then..." He hesitated. "She blocked me out. The human blocked me out."
For a minute Black Blood didn't say anything. She only stood there, staring at Raven Frost with an unreadable expression. Behind her, Birch Tail and Cloud Storm shifted uneasily on their feet.
Then Black Blood said very quietly, "No human in the history of the world has ever been able to fight back the Dark Sleep. Once the Lifesource is captured, their minds are trapped until broken. A human—a Daughter of No One, no less—fighting back and kicking out a sorcerer is impossible."
"M— maybe something's wrong with the Lifesource you have," Cloud Storm stammered.
Raven Frost looked down at his chest, where the crystal ball hung on a silver necklace. The small sphere was glimmering a dim, purple-silver color, just as brightly as the Lifesources that belonged to the other prisoners.
"It's still glowing. She should still be trapped under my command," Raven Frost growled, glaring down at the crystal ball.
Black Blood's green eyes narrowed. "It could be... that this female is not a Daughter of No One."
Raven Frost stared at his leader. Then, without a word, he swept away with a swish of his cloak to find the human girl who had foiled him.