She looked just how I remembered - Perfect and simply beautiful. Of course she did. My eyes mentally eye rolled at how frustrating it was to look upon her perfection.Isla gave me a large smile when she looked up from her desk, a pair of slim glasses atop her nose.“Kida?” She tried to hide the shock from her expression, but I felt it. She either didn’t expect me, or didn’t expect me to come to her looking like I did. I was more than sure if was the latter, certain I probably looked a mess.“Isla.”“How good to see you.” She removed her glasses and indicated the chair in front of her desk.I nodded at Wells, who had escorted me to see her, before taking a seat in the chair. It was hard backed and highly uncomfortable, probably intentionally done to keep the other person on edge the entire time. It was very clever, really.It hadn’t taken me long to find them. After all, I knew if I found

The woman sitting in front of me stared with a cold, calculating gaze. Others had their hands over their mouths, shaking their heads in disbelief. Was it so hard to believe? “Are you certain?” the woman said, her voice sharp and clear. The power within her was almost overwhelming, and even her stare sent small shivers along my arms, leaving goosebumps to form behind it. I leant back in the chair, tugging nervously at my sleeve. I had been sitting in this chair for almost an hour now, and it was unsettling. Not to mention they had waited a whole day before responding to my request to meet. The girl was slowly dying and they had dragged me up here for what? Just to talk around in circles about the same thing, and never actually get anywhere with the conversation. They were wasting my time. Most of the time had been spent trying to find the words to describe what exactly Jaida and I thought was going on. Many on the Council had looked on in horror as I recounted

After training with Raena and Pollis, I knew I had to go back and see the girl.   I felt awful at having to call her ‘the girl’ and that I didn’t have an actual name for her. A part of me wondered if I had her name, and I was able to actually speak to her, that maybe she might respond to it. That she might wake from her strange sleep, but the rational part knew the problem ran much deeper than that. And the continuous thought that kept looping itself through me, was that I was running very swiftly out of time. It often stopped me in my tracks while I was studying for Alana, or training with Raena and Pollis, and made me feel an extra layer of guilt on the already mountainous pile that precariously lay on my shoulders. Taking a quick moment to myself, I stopped by my room to wash and change, hoping to rid myself of the horrid thoughts in my head. The image that had angered me the most was my own. A disturbing thought in itself. When I fin

The voices washed over me like waves. It was the same things over and over again. How stupid can you be? Why didn’t you tell anyone of your suspicions? Why are you so rash? Do you realise what could have happened?I would have answered some of their questions if I knew it would change anything. But more than anything in my life, I was certain it wouldn’t. They believed they knew better and they were sure telling me their opinions on it now.After what felt like hours of allowing them to berate me, for I lifted my hand, ceasing their lecture. It was becoming tiresome. This earned me an outraged glare from Blake and a huff from Alana.“What does it matter?” I asked pointedly, glancing at each of them in turn. “Elanora is fine, I am fine. That’s the important thing, right?”Blake gave me a dark scowl, his gaze burning and intense. “Are you kidding me right now, Kida? That’s all that you have to say? You c

The hawk-eyed woman, whose name I learned was Enda, stared me down, her eyebrows raised incredulously. They were so high they almost disappeared into her hair, something I found rather amusing. “Tell me again, what exactly you are going to do about her?” she asked me, her tone dripping with annoyance. I sighed, frustrated. “Her name is Elanora, and she will stay with me in my suite,” I responded smoothly, trying my best to keep the anger from my voice. It was difficult considering she had asked me with several times already, never using her name but always calling Elanora a ‘her’. It was driving my anger slowly upward, until I knew I would be unable to control it anymore. Once again, the council had demanded to see me, but the meeting had been going for hours now, around in circles. My stomach rolled in discomfort. I was starved. “That doesn’t really answer my question,” Enda reminded me, her voice pinched. Her frustration fluttered along my skin. I wanted to smile. I was almost en