"Ross!"

Tora strained against the invisible walls crushing her body. Ross yelled, scrabbling onto the wall and dangling over the edge by her fingertips. With only a few storeys between her and the ground, there was more than likely chances she'd sustain heavy injuries, if not die. Cyrus laughed, a clear, crystalline sound, his eyes crinkled at the edges. He appeared to revel in her despair.

"You monster!" she yelled. Blood pounded in her ears. A headache smashed repeatedly against her skull. Rage coursed like wild fire up and down her back and in her blood. She screamed and thrashed against the force field, to no avail.

"Save your energy, Lilitha. She's just a little fly in the way."

"She's my friend!"

Cyrus snorted.

"Friends are for humans because they're too weak to fight for themselves."

Tora could feel the time ticking away. Ross would fall at any minute.

She closed her eyes and reached into the golden liquid. Instead of dipping it in and using a tiny amount, she immersed her whole mind into it. The gold surged through her mind, filling all the crevices and exploding with energy. Power coursed through her cells, filling everything with life. Tora opened her eyes.

The world seemed crisper, more colourful. The sun overhead was dazzling; its rays reflected off the metal of the scattered bins and she could see every scratch on the surface and every bump on the stone ground. Surprise flitted across Cyrus's face. Tora saw his eyes and sensed his demon inside him. She didn't see the golden-haired boy and his angelic features. She saw the deadly red eyes, the rough leather-like dark skin, and the long claws. She saw the strong muscle-bound hind legs, shaped like a horse's, and the pointed tail. She saw the demon.

Tora snarled. With one blast of energy, she ripped Cyrus's forcefield apart. He grunted, doubling over. Tora landed on the ground, panting, exhilarated. She licked her fangs, bloodlust bubbling in her mind. A flurry of thoughts coursed through her head: meaningless images, the joy of hunting, the fearlessness, the gore. She could do with a good meal, sinking her teeth into hot flesh, tasting the sharp tang of blood, tearing through the sinews...

Ross's face flashed across her mind. Tora stopped. Cyrus straightened up, a grin on his face replacing the pain. His appearance still alternated between demon and human.

"You know who I am, now?" he said in a soft voice, his eyes a blend of scarlet and yellow.

"Ci...Cimerus?" Tora whispered. Yes, that was his name, but why was it so familiar? This face and his other face, this name – they were as at home as headquarters – no, even more at home, if that were even possible. The boy's face became human again, but his features were less savage. His eyes glowed.

He lifted his left hand and ran a finger down the air. Following his fingertip, a silver line appeared, trailing downwards and then spreading. The rip undulated like the waves of the ocean, its edges causing a distortion in the area surrounding it. Beyond the veil lay a black world, darker than any abandoned caves Tora had ever been in.

Cimerus put one foot in it and eased his body in. At the last moment, he turned to her with a gentle smile and beckoned.

Tora took one step towards him. That one gesture promised home and safety. It reminded her of the horror of the world, of the destructiveness of the humans and the sentences that await them when the day came of their discovery. It assured her of acceptance, of a world without rules and limits, of a world where she could be who she truly was.

But what was that?

She hesitated. She was no human, but she was no demon. She was a Seeker.

Cimerus saw her stop. He raised an eyebrow. Sinking further into his portal, the break started to heal. Soon, there would be nothing. This was Tora's last chance to delve into the unknown and discover her true self. The amnesia making her such a liability would be gone.

Ross's scream reached her ears, reminding her of what was at stake. Blinking back to reality, Tora turned without another look and ran to the other side of the rooftop. She didn't have to glance behind her to see Cimerus's disappointed shake of the head as the veil sealed itself. Ross's hands were gone from the edges. With each second passing, the lieutenant was closer and closer to becoming minced meat. Dipping her mind into the golden liquid again – and feeling that subtle surge in feral impulse – Tora took a deep breath and dived off the edge.

For a split second, she was weightless, staring down at the empty overflow car park beneath her. The white lines marking out parking spaces seem so small, so delicate. The whole scene could be made from a child's toy bricks. The ground was in perfect focus. Tora could see each tiny pebble resting on the floor, and two floors below her, her hand still outstretched in the air, was Ross.

Ross's hair had come out of its hair band and flew wildly around. Her mouth was opened in a surprised 'o' shape, replacing the usual anger that pinched the edges and made her lips disappear. Her eyes were glossed over and overwhelmed with desperation, although as Tora fell along with her, resignation settled in. Ross knew she was going to die and she prepared herself for it.

"Ross!" Tora yelled. The wind carried her voice away, streaming through her matted dark hair. The lieutenant didn't hear.

The fall took an eternity. It was almost a relief, feeling the breeze dry the sweat and blood on her skin. Tora's eyes watered. The golden liquid coursed through her entire body, fuelling her powers. She reached forward, forcing with all her might to create a forcefield around Ross. It formed without much trouble.

Tora gritted her teeth. The surface of the invisible forcefield strengthened. She layered it, imagining bulletproof casing over the sphere. It gleamed for one moment before settling into the telekinesis. Another layer. Another layer. Her mind strained, pushed to the limit. Keeping demons contained was one thing, catching a Seeker from a multi-storey fall was another. As the ground rushed up to meet her, Tora realised she'd forgotten to protect herself.

Realisation hit her like a wall – she thought ironically how hitting the ground would hurt more. She reached for the last of the liquid. Her mind touched the bottom. She didn't even realise the power had limits. Without another thought, she spun a tight forcefield around herself, locking it tightly with her mind. This was it. All or nothing. She would die attempting, at any rate.

The crash sent a shuddering jar through her mind. Ross hit the ground first. Tora felt like a trident was speared through her head, each of its prongs tearing through the various parts of her brain and fracturing her skull. She screamed in pain, grasping in a last desperate attempt to keep her own shell intact. Her hands grasped her hair, attempting to hold her brain in one piece. She hit next. The impact shattered her forcefield. Stars exploded in her eyes. Agony ripped her body to shreds. Her rebound sent more pain ricocheting through her body, snapping bones and rupturing organs. Something warm and wet dripped out of her nose.

She collapsed in a heap, stunned by the sheer magnitude of pain and disability. Nothing made sense. Her senses died on her. Numb. Silent.

Tora was sure she was blinking, but her world remained bathed in darkness. Her ears rang. Her brain was numb, drained, the pot standing empty on its side in the back of her mind. In her head, a little girl laughed. No, it wasn't a little girl. She could see her leathery grey skin and her golden eyes, with slits for pupils. She ran totally naked through a marsh against a dark and stormy world. Thunder clapped and lightning threw a split second's worth of blinding light onto the ground. Little critters ran after her, screeching in her wake. The girl giggled and then shifted, turning into a long-necked winged creature with a forked tail. It let out a scream that echoed throughout the lands, soaring through the skies without effort. After a few tumbles in the dark clouds, it shot to the ground, landing with a splat and splashing mud everywhere. It shifted again into a four-legged creature with crystalline skin and raced across the fields, its legs a blur of light blue and yellowed grass.

Tora saw all this through a distant pair of eyes, and yet she could feel that demon's joy and freedom. She heard the thrill in the laughter and the surge in energy. The images faded. The sounds drifted away. She reached out, hoping against hope to bring back the nostalgia that came with them, but they disappeared. An empty parking lot swam back into focus. Glaring sunlight bounced off the white building to her right. A few metres away, a redheaded girl lay on the ground in a puddle of blood, not moving. Tora licked her lips. The enticing metallic smell of blood reached her nostrils. Her stomach rumbled.

She reached her shaking hand out, like she had in the vision. But instead of fingernails and five digits, her skin was leathery, dark grey, with thickened knuckles and sharp claws.

Tora sucked in a breath. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. No, they were still there.

"What the hell...?" she whispered. But even her voice was not her own. Her tongue was thick and filled up her mouth. It flopped awkwardly, not pronouncing the syllables she wanted. She couldn't move. Her elbow bent in a strange angle and her fingers didn't flex in the right direction. Tora tried to get up, but either her spine was shattered or she didn't know how to work her lower limbs, either. Breathing heavily, she laid her face on the floor again, not feeling the rough rubble against her thick leathery skin.

What happened? What was that vision? Did something take over her body when she used the pot too much? Was that the price to pay?

She glanced up at Ross. The lieutenant hadn't moved. Probably dead. She had failed, after all. All that effort, and she could have gone after Cimerus, learned the truth about herself. Instead, she'd given in to selflessness and her conscience rather than what felt true and right. She'd given her life away and it failed anyway.

Footsteps approached behind her. Humans.

Tora closed her eyes, waiting for her judgement.

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