---- My boots created ripples on the waters surfaceit looked like a tranquilke.


    "Who are you?" I asked the empty air.


    Above me, glistening constetions shiftedstars dancing across an endless sky.


    "am your mother...


    your creator.


    And I need your help, my Selenia.


    In your hands lies my redemptionthe key to correcting the past...


    your present...


    and the future." Js this the Calling?" My heart pounded erratically.


    I thought...


    I thought that with Grandma Gabrielles sacrifice, the Selenias would no longer be treated likembs to the ughter.


    "Lets just say this is a special Callingone only you can fulfill.


    And if you seed...


    it will be thest sacrifice of any of my children." Thesitated.


    Silent.


    Acertain someonewhose name started with Z and ended in K had once told me that the Goddess was a deceitful liar.


    I will not force you...


    but I will show you a glimpse of what is toe." And then I saw it.


    All of it.


    The blood.


    The victims.


    ---- afternoon tea with Grandma right now.


    smiling, I walked happily toward the old well.


    No one used it anymoreit had dried up years ago.


    Holding my bouquet of lilies, I whispered the incantation, swinging my leg over the edge before throwing myself into the voidjust as I had done countless times before.


    Inever imagined that, at that exact moment, the sun would vanishpletelyplunging the world into absolute darkness.


    1 fell deep.


    The shadows devoured me.


    My legs should have touched gravel near the ck Lake by now.


    Instead, they plunged into icy watera hungry beast that began swallowing me whole.


    I struggled, kicking my legs and thrashing my arms, shocked, panicked.


    Everything felt unreal, I called upon my magicsummoning every ounce of my Selenia power, roaring in my veins And nothing.


    Nothing worked.


    Water rushed into my mouth, bubbles escaping in bursts, my lungs burning in their desperate fight for oxygen.


    I clutched my throat in terror, deaths icy ws creeping closer until light flooded my mind.


    "Sigrid, my child..." Istood ina strange, brilliant ce.


    ---- 187.


    THE OTHER ME SIGRID "What is this? Oh, fuck" I huffed, staring at what I had grabbed in my rush.


    Iwanted to smack myself.


    They were blueprints for a magical artifactone that allowed you to enter someones dreams, leave messages,mands, or even torment them with their worst nightmares.


    What am I supposed to do with this now? Sneak into Daves dream and mess with him for a bit?" I muttered, considering it but then discarded the thought with mild irritation.


    All that effort for nothing.


    He had let me read every single one of his booksexcept this one.


    And curiosity was eating me alive What the hell was so forbidden about these writings? I walked toward the hidden well deep within the forestalways shrouded in dark mist, a ce no one dared to enter, standing at the very edge of the pces borders.


    Years ago, I had created a teleportation spell hereone that allowed me to instantly travel to my fathersnds.


    My eyesnded on a cluster of ck lilies.


    Mom loved them.


    So, I started picking some for her.


    She was probably having