of stormy seas and sparkling streams.
Do you believe in an afterlife?
When Brydda arrived at the safehouse, the sheer magnitude of the emotions bubbling behind his tired features was almost enough to bowl her over.
The hatred was what she felt first, boiling red rage, and it burned her questing mind. But his eyes immediately softened when he saw her, the storm behind subsiding briefly as he dropped to one knee to make himself the girl's height, and after a moment, she ventured forward to lean against the big rebel.
All Talents are enhanced by physical contact, and Dragon's senses were overwhelmed once more by feelings so complicated she could barely begin to comprehend them.
There was guilt, heavy guilt that bore down upon her, causing her shoulders to sag.
Frustration and anger assaulted her, ripping at the edges of her mind.
Leaden despair dragged her downwards, and she was sure the floorboards could not long hold such a weight.
And the grief; that incredible, dreadful feeling that something had punched a hole in her chest, had taken away a vital part of herself, and she could never be whole again.
The tears poured down Dragon's cheeks, an outlet for the inner tempest that Brydda himself could not allow.
That was the day they learnt about Idris.
When you die, you go back to the mindstream.
Dragon knows this, because she asked Roland once and he told her about the river that runs through the deepest level of every mind, from which everything is born, and to which everything returns in the end.
There is peace by the mindstream, Roland told her. No more pain or suffering, only calm and acceptance.
Dragon knows this, and a part of her is glad, but another part - another part of her can't help but wonder at the unfairness of it all.
There is peace by the mindstream, but for those left in the waking world, there are only more storms.
When Brydda arrived at the safehouse, the sheer magnitude of the emotions bubbling behind his tired features was almost enough to bowl her over.
The hatred was what she felt first, boiling red rage, and it burned her questing mind. But his eyes immediately softened when he saw her, the storm behind subsiding briefly as he dropped to one knee to make himself the girl's height, and after a moment, she ventured forward to lean against the big rebel.
All Talents are enhanced by physical contact, and Dragon's senses were overwhelmed once more by feelings so complicated she could barely begin to comprehend them.
There was guilt, heavy guilt that bore down upon her, causing her shoulders to sag.
Frustration and anger assaulted her, ripping at the edges of her mind.
Leaden despair dragged her downwards, and she was sure the floorboards could not long hold such a weight.
And the grief; that incredible, dreadful feeling that something had punched a hole in her chest, had taken away a vital part of herself, and she could never be whole again.
The tears poured down Dragon's cheeks, an outlet for the inner tempest that Brydda himself could not allow.
That was the day they learnt about Idris.
When you die, you go back to the mindstream.
Dragon knows this, because she asked Roland once and he told her about the river that runs through the deepest level of every mind, from which everything is born, and to which everything returns in the end.
There is peace by the mindstream, Roland told her. No more pain or suffering, only calm and acceptance.
Dragon knows this, and a part of her is glad, but another part - another part of her can't help but wonder at the unfairness of it all.
There is peace by the mindstream, but for those left in the waking world, there are only more storms.