<i>A dream.</i>It had all been a dream.<br/><br/>Aura had told her it had all been some kind of demonic nightmare everyone had shared. Even with all her doubts, she’d still thought Mania’s spell had been<i>real</i>- an illusion, maybe, but something that had<i>happened</i>.<br/><br/>But it had only happened in their minds. Somehow, that didn’t really make her feel any better. She’d failed to keep her promise to herself, even if it was in a dream. She’d spent days in that dark world, even if it hadn’t felt like it - days trying desperately to reach those ever-distant figures, accompanied only by Verita’s screams. Even when she’d felt the elves’ magic trying to tug her free, she’d stubbornly kept pushing forward until all her strength had left her.<br/><br/>She hadn’t been the last to wake, as much as she’d tried to be. Ashy and Verita had still been asleep when she finally awoke.<br/><br/><i>“I don’t need to heal! I need to go back! Send me back! <b>Send me back!</b>”</i><br/><br/>Abruptly, Dawn looked up. As she’d stared at her reflection in the lake, the water had risen into a ring around her, towering far over her head.<i>Did I…?</i>she pulled at her magic, and the water cascaded into place around her. In a moment, the lake was as still as ever. She tilted her head, her brow furrowed.<br/><br/>“I didn’t tell you to do that,” she said softly, almost timidly.<br/><br/><i>What would Lucian say?</i>When she was lost or confused, imagining his voice always helped her. But as hard as she tried, his words never came.<br/><br/>Instead, she floated naked in the warm water, gazing up at the shimmering canopy that sheltered the shallows from the sky. How ancient were those trees, that they almost seemed to meet the sun? Hundreds, thousands of years? Far older than she was, at least. And they’d probably keep on growing long after she was gone.<i>And who knows how long that will be.</i><br/><br/>As she drifted there, a peace came over her that she hadn’t felt since before the attack on the Aviari village. She’d failed in a dream, but they were still alive. She still had a chance to make things right. If she was too weak, she’d get stronger. Moping around didn’t really help anything.<i>You promised yourself you wouldn’t be sad anymore, remember?</i><br/><br/>Dawn wore a fragile smile as she climbed back onto the shore, fastened her pendant back around her neck and slipped into her new white robes. They felt strange against her skin, but her old, dark ones were tattered and ugly, even after she’d tried to fix them. White didn’t really suit her, but here, by the serenity of the Lake of the Moon, it seemed somehow just right.<br/><br/>"Dawn of dawns, light of a newborn sun." The voice came from the underbrush nearby. Her fragile smile wavered and fell. “Hear my song of swangs, or all that I’ve known will be undone." Ribbons drifted from the ashen elf’s horns, looking both beautiful and completely wrong at the same time. "Please."<br/><br/>Dawn looked up at the tall elf, almost straining her neck. She wanted to scream and yell a hundred words of blame - Verita had followed her into the shadows of that nightmare and out of her reach. If she’d stayed, could she have stopped those screams that had haunted them?<br/><br/>But the anger she expected from herself never came. Even if she’d wanted to, this was Ashy, not… the other one that hid in the same body - the lustful, vengeful demon that danced in the shadows and sang a song of tears and blood. It<i>was</i>Ashy, wasn’t it?<br/><br/>“I’ll hear your song, Ashy,” Dawn said, brushing her still-damp hair away from her eyes. “Although the words and melody will both be new to me, and I haven’t the slightest clue what it’s about.” She blinked once and tilted her head. And why<i>her</i>? If she’d gone through all the trouble of finding her, it had to be important.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>