Liliana tilted her head back, feeling the thick waves of her hair spill over her back, tickling against the skin of her bared arms before it pooled on the grass behind her. An inky spill against verdant green, sparkling with silver and deep blue in the light.

The summer sun caressed her skin like the touch of a lover as she relaxed on the Academy grounds. Around her she could hear the sounds of Academy life. Whispered conversations, shouts of happiness and annoyance, laughter rolling across the grounds. It all twisted together in the warm summer wind, twining around her. The smell of fresh grass, crushed under the feet of students rushing around filled her nose. Summer flowers carefully cultivated around the Academy added a sweet scent to it all.

It smelled, it felt, it sounded like home.

At first, the Academy had been nothing more than a school to Liliana. A novel experience, new and fascinating, but nothing more than that. A means to an end. But over time, the Academy had slowly transitioned from being simply an institute of learning, of being a tool Liliana was using to grow her power, into a place that had an emotional attachment for her. A place that gradually became synonymous with happiness, with safety, with comfort. It became a home.

Liliana opened her eyes carefully, the light spilling across her sight. Not painfully, but enough to wash everything white for a moment before images came back to her, sharpening. The edges were still hazy, almost like a heat mirage, shimmering on the edges, her eyes naturally straying away from the inconsistencies. Her gaze danced across faces and bodies she recognized, familiar presences.

Slowly, more inconsistencies appeared to her. The badge on one uniform was not quite right, the number of stars on another was wrong.

“Ah,” Liliana said finally, head nodding with a languid sigh, “I’m dreaming then.” She finished, looking around as the colors melted away, dripping like candle wax.

The familiar sounds of the Academy petered off in her ears. The sun dimmed as the bodies of her fellow students faded. Liliana looked around, curiously but not fearful. Dreams had often been used as a vehicle for warnings in her experience. Those she was lucid inside of, at least. She couldn’t help but wonder what this dream would give her.

The grass beneath Liliana was no longer so vibrantly green it bordered fantasticality but instead washed out, like an old polaroid picture from Earth. It crumbled beneath her weight, dirt raining after her as Liliana tumbled into the dark hole. The thin light above her vanished as she fell and twisted, unable to even tell she was falling with nothing but unfathomable darkness around her. No wind whistled in her ears, nor ripped at her skin.

Images appeared around her, flying away as Liliana continued her free fall. Memories played out on the walls of the bottomless pit she was tumbling down. Snippets of her life.

Her entire family, dead. Blood on her hands. The murder weapon in her hands. A feast, decaying, soaked crimson. A door opening, a small head poking inside.

“You can call me Vita.”

A shattered mirror, each shard showing a different version of her. Who she was. Who she could be. Unending possibilities. Kindness, fear, hunger, want, cruelty, obsession, insanity reflected in hundreds of different sets of sapphire blue eyes.

A garden maze, covered in flowers. The phantom sensation of a loving smile on an unbearably beautiful face, one with Liliana’s lips, her cheekbones, her jawline. Chestnut brown hair spilling over thin shoulders, warm hazel eyes.

A wolf made of darkness. Teeth so white, they glowed in the darkness. Biting. Ripping. Death in its eyes. A yelp, a scream.

“You’ve lived a hard life. It won’t be the last.”

A moment of stillness, a shimmer in the air above a babbling brook. Predatory eyes locking on her own as a form rippled into view. Huge. Powerful. Deadly. Feeling hope that maybe she truly could change her fate for the first time as she faced down a beast that could kill her as easily as breathe.

Dead and dying bodies were all around her. It wasn’t just a game anymore. A dagger shining in the darkness between trees. Her body moving without her even having to think. Pain erupting through her as she took the dagger meant for someone else. Calculation in golden eyes. And worry.

Slipping out of a room turned suffocating, the heat and weight of so many eyes on her beating her down. A lonely form silhouetted in the moon’s light, turning her ethereal as her white hair fluttered around her like a snowy halo.

“You’ve suffered so much for so long.”

A suffocating weight, the air feeling like it turned to water as Liliana locked her knees. She was drowning with no water in sight. Looking into cold, hard blue eyes. The twin of her own, but so different. A man turned into a monster, his heart frozen in his chest long before she was ever born.

Warm, beloved arms wrapping around her. Feeling safe for the first time in so long as she collapsed against the one person she always knew would be there for her. Mother, guardian, guide, Astrid.

“This life will not be easy either.”

A whispered warning in her mind. Danger in the night. Her hands seeking out a calloused, warm grip as three young teenagers huddled together, frantically trying to plan a way forward. Feeling so alone, knowing her time was running short. Knowing she was being forced onto a chessboard, into a game, she was too young to join in, but no longer had a choice. She could be a pawn or a player. There were no other options left for her now.

A shape slipping into her rooms. Panic, the cold, painful chill of true fear as she realized she was going to die. Desperation, a deal struck in a moment of panic without understanding the consequences. Relief, and then a fierce desolation when she realized what she’d given up. More blood staining her hands that would never wash out.

Shining fangs dripping in poison, glittering in the weak light of the stars as they struck. No time to run. A body, pushing her out of the way. Her heart shattering before she even heard the pained cry.

“Accept my offer, or leave your fate to chance.”

Hard glittering scales surrounding a ravaged heart. So much pain. So much grief. So much hatred. So familiar in the flavor. Understanding. Acceptance. An offer of companionship, of a family. A chance to regain what was lost.

So many dying. Her brother retreating behind thick walls and masks as he watched on, only his hands flinching with each fall of the blade. Blood pooling so thickly, Liliana wondered if the wood would ever be clean of the crimson stain. She knew her soul never would be.

Snow sparkling brightly in the morning sunlight. An icy chill in the air that only served to further invigorate her. Snow flying through the air, bursting against laughing and stumbling bodies. Happiness soaking through every bone of her body beside the pervading chill.

The sound of glass shattering. The thump of a body hitting the ground. Somewhere deep inside of her, something tearing itself apart. Knowing, already, that the worst had happened. Then her heart withering, burning, shredding. Grief, so consuming, she let it smother her. She welcomed the dark waves that dragged her down and prayed they’d drown her, so the pain would stop. She hoped for oblivion.

“Change the fate of this world.”

Desperation. A part of her turning to cold stone. A want to destroy, to rain hellfire and suffering on everyone around her. Uncaring of the costs to herself, as long as her vengeance was finally had. Silver eyes, staring at her, beseeching. Full of pain that mirrored her own. Full of fear, of love. For her. Collapsing and finally letting someone else pick her back up, rather than slicing herself on her own broken pieces.

Vicious, cruel glee filling her as furious golden eyes locked on her. Understanding filling them beside the hatred. The power that flooded her, knowing victory was hers. Then the guilt when a young voice cried out for a mother who would never return. A war inside of her, knowing finally that doing the right thing didn’t mean no one would suffer. There was always a cost to be paid. No victory came without casualties in war.

An entire queendom spread before her. The masses bowing at her feet. Admiration, adoration, shining on thousands of faces. Power unmatched at her fingertips. A darkness behind her, its hand gripped on her shoulder, sinister satisfaction rolling through her.

“Be careful, little dancer.”

Firey orange eyes regarding her, guarded and hiding the thoughts within a too clever head. Yellow eyes, like that of a predator, grinning up at her disarmingly. Light blonde hair framed bright green eyes, like the first new spouts of spring assessing her, before a charming smile spread across tanned skin. Cornflower blue eyes, gazing at her imploringly, breaking down any defenses Liliana tried to erect. Bird-like eyes gazing at her with mischief and something deeper, secrets hidden within feathers but a deep trust building despite it all in between the music of battle and the melody of a flute.

Reluctantly finding herself trusting new faces. Connections carefully offered and gratefully grasped. Her heart expanding to fit these new faces, new names, new people inside of her. The warmth of tentative love soaking into her as she smiled, and laughed, and let herself learn what it felt like to finally be a child. Not broken, not the unwanted daughter of a duke, not the weapon chosen by the gods. Simply Liliana.

“It is beginning.”

A dirty body pressed into her. A knife at her throat, biting, slicing. Blood pouring out of her, hot against fear-chilled skin. A promise. A threat. A collar around her ravaged throat. Shackles around her feet, manacles on her wrists made of her mistakes.

Fear. Uncertainty. Guilt. Confessions, defeat. Drawing back, drawing away. Hardening her heart, only to have it melted by a love that refused to be broken. By ties that could never be severed.

Hot sands under her feet. Cheers in her ears. The taste of victory thick on her tongue. Confidence infusing every inch of her. Finally, feeling powerful after so long of feeling anything but.

Two sets of eyes, so young, so precious, so beloved, staring up at her as if she held all the answers. A gentle love, a protective one, aching in her heart as she watched her young wards growing before her. The years smoothing the scars their past had left on them.

“If you do not act, then all you love shall be consumed.”

Golden eyes shining at her, white teeth so starkly contrasted against rich umber skin. Long braids jingling gently as he shook his head, the charms she’d woven into the braids creating a beautiful accompaniment to his laughter.

A blade slicing across a palm. Blood breaking free, dripping down. The bright light of an oath, the burning on her finger. A bond, forged in magic that could never be broken. The final walls she’d erected shattering under the force of a love and loyalty she’d never deserved but would die before she relinquished.

Soulful red eyes staring at her, probing. Hopeful, so hopeful it hurt. Begging for Liliana to answer prayers she didn’t even dare to speak. A lonely princess asking for a friend in the only way she knew how to.

“Remember your quest, for your time for idleness runs short.”

Liliana blinked as the swirl of memories faded from around her. She was lying against something soft, and there was a subtle light around her she couldn’t detect the origin of. It draped her in grays, subtle shifts in the shading giving the barest illusion of surroundings.

“What was that?” Liliana asked, finding that when she was aware in her dreams, she’d more often than not find her questions answered if she dared to ask them.

Perhaps she should be afraid. The last time something had meddled in her dreams, she’d suffered nightmares for years. But fear felt like such a distant thing, enshrouded as she was in the haze of sleep and dreams.

“A warning.” A voice replied, coming from nowhere. Everywhere. Inside of her, around her. It sounded like the end, like the beginning. Like salvation and damnation. Chaos and order. It was familiar and foreign. She’d heard that voice her entire life, yet never before. It wasn’t Vita, it was someone else. Someone she knew, someone her soul knew like an old friend.

“Who?” Liliana asked, turning and finding nothing but more shades of gray sprawling out before her.

“Remember your task, child of destiny. Chosen of gods.” The voice returned. Liliana climbed to her feet and twisted around, trying to find where it came from but finding nothing as the light gradually dimmed, cloaking everything in shifting shadows.

“How are you doing this?” Liliana asked. Lines of light broke through the shadows, like cracks in glass.

“Wake.” It was an order and as the sound of the voice faded, the world around her fractured, shattering. As the light overtook her, Liliana felt something brush against her, through her.

It tasted like Death.

Liliana’s eyes flew open, and she took in the room with a startling clarity she rarely found immediately after awakening. Warm, late morning sunlight dripped through closed curtains, motes of dust dancing wildly through the beams with every breath she let out.

There was a weight curled on her chest, another draped around her throat, and a last pinning her legs down. The familiar comfort of her bonds’ presence calmed something inside of Liliana as the memories of the bizarre dream played through her mind. Already parts of it were fading, going fuzzy along the edges.

A warning, Liliana thought, shivering despite the heat of so many bodies and blankets around her. She couldn’t help but feeling like she was hurdling towards something she wasn’t sure she was prepared to face, but she couldn’t stop the collision that was nigh.

Something was coming.

The sound of soft music gently tugged Liliana from her dire thoughts. It played through the air, dancing with the motes of dust, twisting and twining around her. Distracting, entreating, guiding her still sleep soothed mind in.

“Once so fragile she had to learn to stand tall

Her strength was all she had, she never had it all

Though her fate was set in stone, she'd make her own way

Reborn anew she'd face the world, and never look away.” Corbin’s voice flowed over her as he sang the lyrics, voice low and almost crooning.

Liliana turned her head and found the bard, sitting on the ground, back pressed to Lelantos’ side as the tiger slept. His fingers strummed over a stringed instrument, the notes lifting the lyrics, building a magic that filled the room. Something different from the magic of the System, or the magic that thrummed in Liliana’s veins. Something more. The magic of music. Transcendent, a magic even the System paled next to.

“Liliana, Liliana, born from love and pain

Liliana, Liliana, fated to be the one to blame.” Corbin’s eyes flicked to hers as he spoke her name, seeming unsurprised to find her watching him, enraptured. Corbin’s voice gained strength with an audience.

“Liliana, Liliana, born from love and pain

Liliana, Liliana, fated to be the one to blame

Born from love and pain

Born from love and pain,” Corbin’s voice faded, a few last strains coming from his instrument before they too drifted away. Liliana took in a deep breath, startled to discover she’d hardly breathed the entire time Corbin had sung. As if too deep a breath would’ve shattered the spell he’d so carefully woven around her.

“I still need to work on a bridge, but it’s coming along. Don’t you think?” Corbin asked, head tilting and a charming smile stretching his lips. Liliana could only stare at him as she came back to herself.

“You wrote a song about me?” Liliana asked, voice soft, thin, reverent. She’d know Corbin had spoken of writing a song about her in jest, but she had never thought he’d truly do it.

A more cognizant part of her mind pointed out that she should perhaps be uncomfortable with the fact that Corbin seemed to see far more of her than she’d ever meant him to.

Born from love and pain. The sordid history of how she was born was no secret, even if its popularity as gossip had faded over the years, overshadowed by the talk of her potential, her power. But it meant he’d had to research her. To wonder, to seek, to ask questions. She hadn’t thought he’d ever care enough to do so.

“Who better?” Corbin asked her, as if it was obvious.

“Surely you could find a better muse,” Liliana murmured, annoyed to feel her skin flushing, finding herself of all things pleased. Flattered, in a way she rarely ever felt.

Compliments, gifts, these were things she was used to. Had become numb to when so many of them were given with the expectation of some kind of payment. Of debt. Nothing more than tools used to manipulate her. But this. This was different. A compliment was a weak comparison to a song being written in her name. Written about her as if she was something worthy of being memorialized through songs.

“So you say.” Corbin shrugged, but it was not an agreement.

There was a hint of amusement in his uncanny eyes as they flicked over her face, taking in the rosy tint to her golden skin. Pride shimmered at the edges of his lips as he smiled at her. And for a moment, something unbearably fond shifted over his features before it was banished. Corbin rose, his stringed instrument disappearing into his storage as he stretched out his body.

“I’ll go tell the others you’re awake. We need to discuss our plans,” Corbin informed her, giving her a sweet smile, but unlike when he smiled at others, this felt far more truthful. As if for a second, Liliana was looking beneath his carefully crafted mask.

His words hit her and Liliana was finally fully removed from the spell his song has wrapped her in. Memories of the fading dream came back to her and Liliana’s flush faded, features going solemn. Corbin picked up on it, body freezing in place as clever eyes took her in, his form shifting from a relaxed posture to one more suited for a fight.

“Send Emyr up, alone. I need to talk to him.” Liliana instructed him and Corbin stared at her for a long minute, his gaze piercing as he tried turned her words over. Trying to figure out what she was hiding. What new threat had appeared.

“Did something happen?” Corbin asked, not even bothering with disbelief, which Liliana was thankful for. Many would hesitate to believe some new information or threat had revealed itself to her in her sleep, though she knew Emyr would understand only too well.

“Of a sort,” Liliana admitted evasively. Corbin’s eyes narrowed and his lips thinned, but he didn’t push. His head dipped in a sharp nod before he strode out of the room, all lazy ease from his song erased now. Liliana couldn’t help but feel a small sliver of mourning for that. It vanished when she remembered her dreams.

A warning.