Ryder lowered her tired body to the floor of the clawfoot bathtub. Every part of her ached, and the thought of standing while she showered seemed like a new form of punishment. She pulled her knees up wrapping her arms around them. Closed her eyes and held her face up to the warm water.

This had become her favorite moment in the day, to be allowed to be alone, to not be thinking about the elements all around her, supposedly waiting to spring into action at her command. Nope, right now she could simply enjoy the warm water, that came from the working faucet.

Pure bliss, she thought and let out a deep sigh. Two weeks, she had been drowning in this absurd experience. Two God damn weeks.

As if the days weren't stressful enough, she was being bombarded by dreams at night. She wasn't even able to relax in her sleep. Most dreams she couldn't remember but others she remembered all too well.

Tairin began to stay with her at night. Which was innocent enough, both seeming distracted by their own thoughts. His warm body had become a beacon for her when the nightmares began to drag her down into their swirling depths. Unfortunately, the dreams were becoming stronger, and Tairin's 'heat beacon' was becoming lost in her storm. When she was trapped too deep in a nightmare her body thrashed in reality, and Tairin would have to shake her awake. She had given him permission to slap her if shaking didn't work, he had looked at her like she was crazy and tried to laugh it off as a joke. But she was not joking, a slap was nothing compared to the torment of the dreams.

During the day Ryder worked through sparring, and elemental lessons, neither seemed to be progressing. She was too tired to really care about learning how to use a sword, and she only had flickers of power during her elemental lessons, which she was grateful for. She had no desire to relive the explosion of chaos that had burst from her that first day with Jade. It had felt like her deepest, darkest, feelings had burst forth and were exposed to the world like a bare nerve. It had been painfully terrifying, while at the same time strangely liberating. To simply experience the emotions, and not be desperately trying to hide everything raging inside of her, to not be attempting to be perceived as normal. To simply exist in the state that she resided in, regardless of its nature.

When she had held the explosion of energy on the edge of destruction, in a state of numbness, she had thought she had heard whispers seeming to encourage her to lose what little hold she had left on herself. To let the voices be free to do what they knew she wanted. But she had held onto her humanity. Some deep embedded piece of her knew that giving into a momentary desire and discarding all consideration of consequence was not right. She had to be stronger than her unbridled emotions. With that thought the whispers had abandoned her. Everything evaporated, and she found herself cold and, in the mud. With no connection to anything, not even herself.

Ryder leaned back against the bathtub and pushed away her thoughts. Not wanting to analyze anything anymore. She let out a deep sigh and turned the faucet with her toes. A silly huff escaping her lips at the act of using her feet as hands, the way she had done when she was a little girl. I guess I really haven't changed that much, she thought. As she watched the steam rise and swirl above her she drifted off to sleep.

Ryder ran through the dense forest, her bare feet gripping the log as she jumped off of it. The trees braking to a clearing filled with a medieval battle.

She watched as men lost limbs, and others fell dead. Just when she thought she couldn't stand to see anymore; a soldier caught her eye. It was the way he moved, so fluid, as if the mud did not hold onto his feet the way it did for everyone else. He cut through his opponents, his grey blue eyes seeming to pierce the other soldier's souls before his blade did.

"Graynin?"

Terror overpowered her shock as opposing soldiers made their way towards him. She screamed to warn him, but he didn't seem to hear her. She began to panic as five men closed in around him, his attention only focused on the two standing in front of him. She screamed again, but he didn't react.

She had to help him, the horror of watching him die would utterly destroy her. Without thinking she threw her arms up. Streams of fire erupted from her fingers. It connected with the muddy earth and blazed straight towards the men approaching Graynin from behind. She felt the power pouring from her soul, but instead of feeling strained like she did in her lessons, she began to feel stronger, exhilarated. She felt alive.

Voices in the back of her mind began to pull her from the beauty she was creating, almost like a nagging voice from another room. She tried to ignore them, but the voices kept hounding her. Then she felt the horrible sensation of falling into the black abyss.

Ryder's eyes shot open. She felt the heat before she saw its source. When her eyes finally made sense of her surroundings, true horror set in. There was a wall of fire. The curtains around the bathtub were completely engulfed, the flames licked the ceiling leaving black streaks. She heard the voice calling to her again, "Ryder! You need to calm down."

Through her panic she realized it was Athos yelling from the bathroom doorway, but she couldn't see him through the burning curtain.

She pulled her knees to her chest, trying to make her body as small as possible, the cocoon that seemed to be holding back the devastating heat followed her. She merely felt warmth, nothing scorched her bare skin. As her heartbeat rose so did the flames, turning from an orange-red, to a yellow-blue, with spiking intensity.

Athos voice broke through the crackling of the flames, "Ryder, you must stay calm. I cannot get to you if you panic."

But Ryder was already lost to panic, tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her head was buried in her knees, her instinct to hide overpowering commonsense.

Cool hands wrapped around her, breaking through her cocoon, and effortlessly lifted her out of the bathtub. Not able to leave her child like instincts, she buried her face in a white shirt, still not daring to look at the once beautiful bathroom that now looked like a scene in Dante's Inferno.

The person carried her much farther than her bed. When she was finally put down she instantly let go of the white shirt and returned to a fetal position on the leather sofa. She was afraid she might hurt anyone she touched.

A soft cashmere blanket was draped around her, her hands instinctive clamping down on it, holding it tight in her fist. She had forgotten she was naked, and even with the realization she didn't care, she pulled the blanket in for comfort rather than concealment.

The cushions shifted under her, as someone sat down on the opposite end of the couch.

As the pounding of Ryder's heart settled she was able to hear more people enter the room. She peeked up from her knees to see Graynin sitting on the other end of the couch watching her, his grey blue eyes meeting hers as she peeked up. There was no judgment in his eyes, which she was grateful for.

Her wet hair stuck to her back as she slowly turned her head to take in the rest of the silent room. Pierce stood near Graynin, his eyes holding more of a curious interest than Graynin's had. She felt uncomfortable, so she looked to the others. Jade was standing very close to Tairin; both were against a bookshelf. It was clear Jade was in charge of keeping Tairin back. Ryder locked eyes with Tairin's, which held concern, but she could also see fear.

She couldn't blame him, she still didn't even know what she had done. She felt a pang of guilt as she thought about what might have happened if she had done this when they were both asleep in her bed. Her eyes began to sting as tears of guilt pressed against them. Her intensifying connection with Tairin was broken as Athos stepped between them.

Her gaze made its way up the Healer's loose grey robes and settled on his light blue eyes. For the first time she felt not like his student, but the anomaly she knew she was to him.

Athos broke the silence, "What happened Ryder?"

Ryder felt like a puppy that was being scolded. She didn't want to talk about any of it, she wanted to retreat under the blanket and hide. But Athos' eyes held her firm, he would not let her slink away so easily.

"I don't know." She whispered.

"Come now Ryder, tell me what happened." Athos softened as he stroked his predominantly white beard, then knelt in front of her. "It's ok child. You did nothing wrong. No one got hurt. Let us help you, there is no need for you to attempt to bare all of the burden on your own. That is why we are here, to help."

Ryder felt the tightness in her chest loosen, but she still wasn't ready to bare her unaltered dreams to all of them. "Can I just tell you?" She asked.

He gave her a soft smile. "Of course, my dear." He looked to the others, they all understood and made their way from the room. Jade had to whisper to Tairin, who seemed to be arguing to stay, but in the end conceded. Offering Ryder a weak look of encouragement before disappearing through the door.

Athos stared at Graynin who had not moved from his corner on the couch. Ryder watched as a power struggle seemed to transpire between the Healer and her repeated rescuer. After a few tense-filled seconds, Graynin slowly stood from the couch, never breaking his withering eye contact with the Healer, and silently went to the door.

When the heavy door clicked shut, Athos finally turned, and went rummaging through a small closet next to his large cluttered desk. He emerged with a dark maroon robe. "Something for you to put on, so that you are a bit more comfortable while we talk. It's an apprentice robe. I always have a few extra in all of my offices for when an unexpected pupil comes into their gift. It can be a surprise when a new Healer's powers emerge."

Ryder could tell this was meant to comfort her. She returned his soft smile and reached to accept the robe. She cleared her throat to indicate she was decent, and Athos turned to face her.

"That is a very nice color on you." He said as he motioned to the couch for them to sit again. Ryder took the same seat, but left her feet on the ground, wanting to face the conversation with some strength rather than hiding from it. Athos took a seat in a chair next to her, sitting in his effortlessly proper way.

"Tell me what happened in the dream." He asked pointedly.

Ryder was taken aback, how did he know it had stemmed from a dream? She decided it wasn't worth questioning, it actually would have been more surprising if he hadn't known. She took a deep breath and told him everything.

Athos listened attentively. When she had finished they sat in silence for a while, both in their own thoughts. Ryder soon found herself wandering down a dark path and couldn't handle the silence any longer, "What happens now Athos?" she asked.

Athos brought his eyes from the empty fire place and looked to her, "I am not entirely sure my dear." As if sensing her fear, he added, "I have some ideas, but I need to work them out before I share them. There is, however, one thing I know for sure that we must do as a safety precaution." His ton made it obvious that he knew she wasn't going to like it.

"And what's that?" She asked cautiously.

He couldn't hold back the curve of his lip, "Graynin must be your new companion at night."

Ryder's jaw went slack, "Why?"

Athos could no longer hide his amusement, "It's really not that bad my dear. He will simply sleep on the couch, he will not share your bed."

Ryder felt the heat rise to her cheeks at Athos' implications, "But why him?"

"Because my Dear," The humor in his face disappearing, "he is the only one strong enough to contain your power if you have another unintentional episode. If he had not been here tonight, and you had not been able to calm down, no one here could have braved your fire. You would have emerged unscathed, but the house would have been burnt to the ground and there would have been little any of us could do other than standby and watch it burn."

Ryder swallowed hard, "I'm sorry." Her eyes fell away from his, too embarrassed to maintain eye contact with the owner of the house she had nearly incinerated.

A hand clasped her shoulder, she looked back to Athos.

"It is fine my Dear, this is all part of coming into your power. And you have a great deal of power." He gave her a sympathetic half smile.

"What am I?" She asked, hearing the desperation in her own voice.

"I cannot answer that question for you Ryder, I am sorry. When you are ready your soul will reveal that to you."

"I had a feeling you'd say something like that." She let out a big sigh. "Can you tell me anything?"

His wise eyes held compassion for her predicament, "I will give you some wise words that you should hold onto as you continue down your difficult path. The past does not dictate who you are to become. We choose every day, every moment, who we are. Do not be afraid of what you may become, or who you were, but be who you are now." He reached forward and took her hand that was resting in her lap. "And remember to try and enjoy the moment."

A laugh of solace escaped Ryder. "Okay Athos, I'll try and remember that."

"Well, should we invite the others back in and explain the sleeping arrangements to them?"

Ryder's stomach churned. "Um... Actually, how about we tell them separately. Maybe you tell Graynin, and I could explain it to Tairin." She had no idea how Tairin would take the news, and she had no desire to be around when Athos explained what needed to happen with Graynin. Her cheeks began to heat again just at the thought.