Ray realized too late that she had once again overestimated her control over her Light, and her jump launched her far farther than planned.

  Instead of leaping across the river and landing safely on the paving stones on the other side, the ground vanished beneath her.

  With all her concentration, she barely managed to let the Light flow through her body and fortify it. As a result, she hardly felt the impact when she crashed into the grass near the pond, her body carving a deep furrow into the earth and hurling soil everywhere, the air bursting from her lungs in a sharp, voiceless gasp.

  The plainhoppers nearby screeched in alarm and scattered.

  Despite her fortification, Ray could feel that she had sustained several injuries, which were now slowly being healed by the Light still pulsing through her body. As always, it felt good, a warm pressure blooming beneath her skin, and the distant pain caused by the impact was almost completely dulled by her inner radiance.

  Even so, it took her a while to groan and pull herself back to her feet, breathless. Nonetheless, she knew she possessed vast reserves, probably more than anyone else here.

  Except for Stirleo, of course.

  She coughed and wiped the dirt from her face, once again lamenting the fact that even with her powers, it would still take a long time to truly internalize bodily fortification and make it instinctual.

  Damn it, I really need to train my defense more, Ray cursed inwardly and blew one of her golden strands out of her face.

  For more than four hundred evenings now, she had begun every one of her cultivations with an extensive fortification exercise. Still, little had changed, and she continued to need far more concentration than she would have liked to strengthen her body, every lapse punished by a sting of pain she pretended not to notice.

  Defense simply was not her strength.

  Why was it so easy for her to create spears, ropes, swords, and other glowing forms from her Light, so easy to control them simultaneously within a considerable radius?

  Yet when it came to protecting herself…

  “You’re too outward-focused. You spread your Lucidity too far,” Lance had once murmured to her, and she had clenched her teeth to keep from snapping back with something harsher than the situation called for.

  It irritated her to be reminded that she still was not the mistress of her Lucidity, even though she knew Lance bore no fault for that, nor did anyone else.

  By now, she even missed him a little, him and his bluntness. He had been gone for more than a hundred days, wandering through the eastern regions of the Dream beyond them.

  “Are you serious, Ray? They had just calmed down! The poor little things!” Demoa’s voice hissed.

  Ray looked around and saw the young woman stomping toward her, blades of grass bending sharply under each step.

  Over the past Hundreds, she had changed slightly, appearing more mature, more grown-up, and she had begun braiding her hair. The hairstyle she wore today was particularly intricate, and between that and her biting tone, Ray could guess who else had been nearby.

  “Demoa, sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb the plainhoppers any more than you and Rad!” Ray replied, more sharply than she had intended.

  The color drained from Demoa’s red cheeks.

  “He just left again. You missed him. Too bad, isn’t it?” she snapped.

  “Yeah. A real shame,” Ray said, unable to suppress a pleased smile.

  Demoa grimaced.

  “What would you know? You never liked him. Maybe that’s why he’s still so… distant. Because he’s afraid you’ll interfere and…”

  She trailed off, thinking out loud, and to Ray’s unease, it was clear that Demoa meant it.

  Over the past Tens, Demoa’s mood had continued to worsen. She simply could not seem to open up to Rad, even though she insisted she was trying everything.

  Ray was not exactly unhappy about it, yet she sympathized with Demoa as much as she could.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Dio remained far away in the back of her mind, likely lingering in that place in the Dream where he had waited for her for so long, and his Light had pulsed only twice, briefly.

  “Seriously? I’ve told you a hundred times already, I’m not getting involved. I have more important things to do, like…”

  “…saving the Dream from evil?” Demoa finished mockingly.

  Ray pushed herself fully upright and stared at her, tense.

  “Yes. And you? What are you doing? Even Rad says you should be preparing more for combat. And what do you do instead? You dance around here with these critters and with your lover. I do not even want to know what exactly you two are doing!” she snapped back.

  Ray had had enough.

  Every day, she worked herself to exhaustion, while Demoa wandered around, cultivated a little, fed these stupid animals, and then slipped off with Rad.

  She had so much Light within her and did not use it properly. She was not pushing herself, not developing further.

  And yet, Ray still felt Demoa in her thoughts, a warm glow that now flickered slightly, almost as if it were bracing itself against a pressure Ray could not see.

  “Yes! And I enjoy it. What is so wrong with that? Why does it always have to be about things that have not yet been? I do not care what might happen in three thousand days. Stirleo has merged with this entire place, and no darkness will ever fall here again. I have talked about this with him many times!” Demoa said, folding her arms.

  Her lips trembled.

  Ray raised an eyebrow, confused.

  “The Abbot? What do you have to do with him?” she demanded irritably.

  Secretly, however, the answer interested her more than she cared to admit.

  In all her time at the Monastery, she had seen Stirleo only a handful of times and had never truly spoken with him, as he was always withdrawn in his chambers. Only when someone set out on a Pilgrimage, something that happened every few Tens, did he appear for longer.

  “We meet sometimes down here. He appreciates my calm, and at least he has something else to talk about besides Nightmares and fighting. But you? You are almost obsessed!”

  “I do not want them to be caught off guard by the things out there! What if the Abbot cannot manage it anymore one day? What if he fails?”

  Demoa scoffed contemptuously.

  “You think you know better than him? Do you have any idea how much experience he has? How many ideas and truths he knows? He does not share them often, yet when he speaks about such matters, it becomes painfully clear to me every time how little you understand when I compare his words to your silly speeches…”

  “Then I will stop bothering you! I only ended up here by accident anyway. I have better things to do than sit under some tree, water flowers, and feed plainhoppers!” Ray hissed, turning away.

  “Then do not come back here at all. I am sick of it. Always fighting, fighting, war!”

  “A war in which you could be the first victim if you are not careful!”

  When Ray glanced over her shoulder, she saw Demoa staring back at her, chalk-pale, her fists clenched.

  “I can take care of myself. You should be careful instead. You think you have everything under control? You do not. Remember Elga? Or have you forgotten her as well?”

  The name stung, and sickness welled up inside Ray, partly because Elga’s sacrifice still tore at her, and partly because… indeed, she sometimes forgot even that.

  Ray gulped, trying to find the right words.

  “More than—”

  “Then show me! Come on. If you manage to get any of your Lucidity closer than ten feet to me, I will train with you and prepare.”

  Ray stared at Demoa in disbelief and shook her head.

  “No. Absolutely not. That is far too dangerous.”

  “Afraid? Afraid you will lose control again? Burning my eyes out one more time would not make much of a difference, right? So come on!”

  Nausea rose in Ray’s stomach, and she felt the blood drain from her face.

  “Stop it,” she said quietly.

  Inside her, something roiled. The Light gave her strength, yet she had to focus intensely to keep her anger from pulling her off balance.

  “All right. Twenty feet closer to me, then. I am feeling generous. You should be able to manage that much, at least, shouldn’t you?”

  A shimmering flower grew upward from Demoa’s sandals, first ten, then twenty feet tall.

  Sparkling dew coated the plant, and a radiant yellow blossom burst from its tip, opening to reveal countless black seeds.

  The enormous leaves of the glowing sunflower formed a circle that loomed over Demoa, almost mockingly. It was even more beautiful than the small ones Demoa used to grow occasionally nearby, and that only made the darkness at its center feel more obscene.

  “Come on, try it. If you hit the center, we train. If you scorch the petals or do not reach it, you finally leave me the hell alone to do what I want. Still, this should pose no challenge to you, will it? Considering how full of darkness the center of my sunflower is!”

  Ray had had enough.

  Not only was Demoa refusing to take the approaching threat of the Nightmares seriously, she was also choosing her words deliberately to hurt her, something she had never done before.

  On top of that, she was mocking the very symbol Ray had brought to the people so they could stand against the dark.

  Your stupid love for sunflowers does not matter. Enough.

  Slowly, Ray extended her hand toward Demoa and pointed at the blossom.

  A brief shiver ran through her when she noticed just how unsettlingly dark the center truly was, though in the end, it only fueled her anger further.

  Those disgusting black seeds. Why can sunflowers not simply be radiant, like the Light?

  A thick, yellowish fluid burst from her fingers, quickly forming into a floating bubble that gleamed in the sunlight as it shot toward the blossom.

  I will erase this darkness as well. I will show Demoa how important it is to prepare, and that one should never underestimate that…

  Suddenly, Ray lost the will to continue.

  This place was so beautiful, all the plants and scents and animals. Why fight?

  It was stupid, laughably foolish.

  The bubble frayed apart and dissolved with a soft pop, leaving not a trace behind, as if the intent itself had never existed.

  I really should not attack her. This is pointless…

  Ray swallowed and took a step back.

  “Well? Done already? I am waiting!” Demoa said, a smug grin spreading across her lips, which sent Ray into another surge of rage that flushed away all the calm and clarity she had just found.