Adea's heart was racing in her chest. What Lyda could be talking about, she had no idea, but any hope of putting a stop to these relentless nightmares was good enough for her. Adea jumped out of her bed almost immediately after Lyda had left the room. She hurried to the wardrobe they shared next to the doorway and pulled out the fur jacket she wore during the colder seasons. Lyda told her to meet her outside, so it seemed wise to wear something warm.It was at that moment that Adea froze where she stood. She could not help but question why Lyda could not do what she wanted to do in the comfort of their cottage. Why did they need to go outside in the cold? The more she thought about it, however, the more she began to resent being alone in the darkness of their room.Adea threw on her coat and stepped outside her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She shuddere

Returning to her side, Adea was standing before the most peculiar and unnerving sight she had ever seen. In a small opening in the brush, a series of small stone slabs were standing perched in a circular pattern. There were seven of them, and they were positioned around a cleared space that looked large enough to fit a full-grown person. Just outside the circle of stones, there were three larger slabs perched the same way evenly spaced apart from one another. She looked over at Lyda, whose face was lit up with excitement."Do you know what this is?" Lyda said, more to herself than to Adea. "I think this is the site where the ritual was performed by our ancestors!""This is where we're supposed to do it?" Adea trembled."I think so. Come on!" She pulled Adea into the circle of stones. They both sat down in the middle

Matthias was beyond ashamed. He could not believe that he never saw this coming. Mara had been depressed for years but she never showed any abnormal signs that might hint at thoughts of suicide. Matthias placed a hand over her forehead and used his thumb to gently lift her right eyelid. As expected, her pupil was dilated and did not react to the candlelight around the bed, and as he feared, the color of her eye, though faded, was still giving off that same unsettling shade of yellow.Matthias had many thoughts rolling through his head. It had been three years at this point since Mara had noticed the return of this sickness, but it usually faded away within the year. For it to still be affecting her, she must have been suffering all this time until she could not bear it any longer. He did not understand why she never said anything to him.While Matthias somberly

The five of them hiked through the trees and straight as they could across the ridgeline. The last of the morning fog had lifted by the time they stepped back out of the trees and the great hills of the south became visible. They called them the Dividing Mountains; an enormous, rugged mountain range that stretched east to west for many miles, separating the northern territories of Ravenna from the south. It was not often that Lyda and Adea came this far south to get a good view of the mountains, at least not on their own, and Adea was soaking it all in.The sun was nearing midday as they made their way into a clearing atop the southern ridge, following a large, running creek that flowed out of the trees and cut down into the rocky clearing before splitting off toward opposite ends of the ridgeline. Adea found it to be a stunning sight with the mountains in the distance, and they decided this was the perfec

It took Lyda's mind a few minutes to regain her full consciousness. She kept her eyes closed and took in several deep breaths, which sounded as though they were echoing all around her. When she finally opened her eyes, she looked around to see that she was still sitting by the fire, exactly where she had nodded off to sleep. The brightness of the fire seemed to be toned down, and she could no longer feel any heat coming off it. In fact, the entire environment around her appeared to be drained of much of its color. That was all the confirmation Lyda needed to know that she was no longer in the conscious world. This was a dream.Lyda stood to her feet. This was not like any of the other dreams she had made for herself thanks to the ritual. She was not like her sister. She was not as interested in the blissful dreams Adea constantly rambled on about. More than that, Adea would never have dared to enter her ow