The Reunion of Loved Ones

31. Inner demon

Lana opened her eyes and sprang upright. She was in a place as white as snow. As far as her eye could see, she could only see white sand plains and a white sky. Believing she was still asleep, she rubbed her eyes. The scene before her did not change. Afraid she had gone blind, she reached her hands out in front of her, but she could see them clearly, as well as the rest of her body. In short, her eyes were functioning fine. It just seemed as if the rest of the world around her had disappeared. Both sight and sound. She listened to the silence.

A new fear gripped her heart. Had she perhaps died? Dana had told them that a white light had surrounded her when she almost died in the battle with the Shadow and had stood at the threshold of the Realm of the Dead. Their grandparents had awaited Dana, but she had chosen her sisters over their deceased grandparents. Lana looked around nervously, afraid that Agnes would soon walk towards her. However, she saw no deceased loved ones; she was completely alone. Did this mean she wasn't dead? Or had she fallen out of favour with the gods due to the recent cruel days, and they were punishing her with eternal loneliness?

Her heart skipped a beat at this horrible, oppressive idea, and she began pacing to have something to do. Did she still exist? She couldn't say for certain. Did time pass with her thoughts, or was time a concept that didn't exist here, just like sound?

She pinched her upper arm and made a face when a sharp pain shot through her arm. She did exist. She was more than bodiless thoughts because her body was still here. She had seen it and now she felt it. Moreover, she was clearly walking over something. That meant her sense of touch was also intact and that the environment she was in also existed. Wherever that was... She was clearly not asleep, because then she would have woken up now. Fortunately, she was also not dead, because there should be no pain in death. Speaking of pain...

Now that she was approaching the end date of her transformation, this bright expanse should hurt her eyes incredibly. Her eyes should be burning and tearing. Her skin should feel as if hot coals were on it. Her insides should be boiling, as she had felt before Dana had enchanted her. However, she felt nothing now, leading her to quickly conclude that this landscape was not real. But if she was neither dead nor in the real world, what dimension was she in?

Lana thoughtfully pinched her nose bridge. It had to have something to do with the spell Dana had cast. Had something gone wrong with Dana's spell? That was almost impossible. Dormio meant nothing other than "sleep." Besides, Dana was the smartest of the three of them. It was unlikely she would cast a spell she didn't know how to perform or whose consequences she didn't understand. Moreover, Dana would never want to send her to another dimension. So what had happened?

Hesitantly, she started running. She half expected to wake up, almost tumbling off Icarus' back. However, this did not happen. She kept running without falling off the edge and waking up in Icarus' saddle. The landscape around her didn't change, and the colour white continued to surround her. Lana felt as if she were walking through a white cloud cover.

And where were her sisters? She was completely alone here and saw no movement from anyone approaching. Icarus and her sisters' two dragons were also nowhere to be seen. Panic gripped her heart, and Lana did her best to ignore her fear. Completely overwhelmed, she plopped down in a cross-legged position and tried to reach her sisters through her thoughts. They could surely tell her where she was and then free her from here. What Lana didn't expect was that her mind remained completely blank. She heard neither her sisters nor the familiar buzzing when she hit a barrier in their thoughts. It was as if she had no gift at all.

Lana gasped. What if she had no gifts in this strange place at all? Tense, she held her hand outstretched and tried to form a fireball in her palm. She concentrated on her outstretched hand, but nothing happened. There was no sign that she was trying to use her magic; no spark, no flame, nothing at all.