Somewhere out in the dreamscape, an 8-year-old deaf witch came upon a blue-flame candle-lit hallway. How Lyn Avalyn arrived, she couldn't say, and as is the nature of dreams, she didn't wonder how, only at her surroundings.

The walls were stone-carved images of exciting battles and wondrous creatures.

One wall showed the story of a lone woman. A great big hand pushed the woman from a high place. She fell for a long time, landing in a small, dark pit.

A handsome and strong man with bat-like wings came to the lone woman. He touched her head, and she grew wings like his.

At the end of the hall was a single door depicting two winged beings wrapped in each other and holding a baby.

Something was summoning Lyn from the other side of the door. Its call was irresistible, yet frightening.

Lyn turned the knob and stepped into a spacious chamber.

It was darkly lit with no windows. Graphic murals covered the walls. In the middle of the room were two ashen grey figures. One was lying down. It was terrifying and monstrous, with bat-like wings and fangs that jut out in all directions, and it appeared to be dying.

The other, sitting next to the monster, caressing its terrible face as a mother might comfort a sick child, was a beautifully scary woman. Her skin was grey. Full waves of black hair cascaded down her back and shoulders. Leathery wings wrapped around her chest and body.

She regarded Lyn first with shock, then suspicion, then finally curiosity.

'How have you come here?' the woman asked. Her voice was sharp and threatening.

Lyn jumped, wide-eyed, touched her ears, and stammered, 'You can - I can hear you!'

The woman's demeanor softened, then a dawn of understanding. 'We're in a dream, darling, and we aren't bound by physical limitations here. Now tell me, how have you come to this place?'

Lyn wondered. 'I don't know. I remember Rowan tucking me in with Apple. I think a bird-man took me. I don't know where I am.'

Lyn locked eyes with the dying monster. It reached for her weakly. The monster was calling to her, and she was calling to it. Lyn stepped forward to hold its clawed hand.

The ashen woman watched with rapt attention. Even as the winged monster evaporated into so much thin air, the woman watched.

Suddenly, Lyn fell to the polished stone floor. Everything hurt. Her head, her stomach, her chest, and her limbs. It was as if her very blood was on fire. The pain was intense, and she screamed in vain.

Then just as suddenly, the ashen woman scooped Lyn up in her strong arms and laid Lyn on the same bed the creature was resting on but a moment earlier. She held Lyn close, whispering soft affirmations and telling her the pain would soon pass.

The pain lasted for quite a long time; at least, it felt that way to Lyn, but eventually, the agony did subside.

And throughout the harrowing event, the ashen woman held Lyn close and hummed a gentle song.

When Lyn could finally see through the pain, she asked the ashen woman, 'what happened?'

The woman said, 'Someone took you and a child of mine and did something to both of you. I'm not sure what, but I think you're... like me now.'

Lyn tried to sit up but something was holding her down.

The woman noticed Lyn struggle. 'You'll wake soon,' she said. 'I've kept you as long as I could. My darling girl. I've watched you grow from afar. I'm Lilith. Think of me as your mother now. Listen close, and do as I say.

'You carry Cain's curse now, and forevermore, you will thirst for blood. Keep your wits, remember what Rowan taught you, and when the time is right, kill the one who did this. Drink their blood, and it will nourish you.'

Lyn had so many questions, but before she could ask a single one, she opened her eyes to an aether-lit room.

Still groggy, she blinked several times and looked around. One door, no windows, and a tall man wearing a dark feathered outfit and bird mask.

He was examining samples from behind a desk covered in delicate-looking Garden devices.

Medical instruments hung along the walls, which were otherwise bare and sterile.

Lyn was tied to a bed in the center of the room, alongside the same winged creature from her dream, only dead. Lyn almost screamed, but she kept her wits. Somehow, she had to break the binds and kill the bird-man.

She tested her strength against the straps on her arms, waist, and legs. They were designed for people much bigger than Lyn. She could almost slip her hand out of its bind, but first, the bird-man noticed her awake.

Lyn could only see the man's eyes behind the bird mask. He was probably saying something, but Lyn wasn't listening.

The bird-man stood over Lyn, checked her pulse, and then began a thorough examination. He took extra interest in Lyn's teeth. Moving her tongue, Lyn noticed she had grown long, sharp fangs. Lyn also noticed the bird-man's mask had several tiny holes where air could enter.

And an idea came to Lyn. She quickly channeled the aether light in the room into several small but bright balls of light, and then Lyn directed the lights into her kidnapper's mask.

He recoiled from the sudden visual assault, shaking his head in vain. He ripped his mask off, but it did no good. The little balls of light continued to float just in front of his green eyes.

While the bird-man was distracted, Lyn slipped a hand out of its binding, quickly grabbed the man's hair, pulled his head down with surprising strength, and ripped into his throat with her razor-sharp teeth.

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The bird-man struggled and squirmed and even struck Lyn twice, but his life's blood was gushing out so fast Lyn couldn't drink it all, as it ran down her face and neck, pooling on the bed around her. The strikes hurt, but the blood was rapture, and as it flowed down her throat, she felt it heal and strengthen her, as Lilith said it would.

Soon the bird-man was limp on top of her. Only after his last heartbeat filled her throat did Lyn let go of his hair, letting the body fall to the floor.

She lay there for several minutes, feeling the blood course through her body; a strength unlike anything she'd known or imagined; like she was on fire, but in a good way. Lyn ripped the other binds off and sat up in bed.

Now what? She wondered, looking around the room again. Everything seemed so detailed. Colors were more vibrant than before.

Tubes and needles were attached to her arm and connected to a fluid-filled bag hanging between her and Lilith's child. She ripped the tubes out.

Then Lyn pushed herself off the bed and onto the floor and her own two legs. She felt strong and undamaged. The places the bird-man struck her were unbruised. Even the needle wound had healed.

But more than all that, she felt new. It was as if Lyn, the 8-year-old girl, was gone. Now she was someone else. Something else? She turned to look at the body of Lilith's child. The bird-man had killed it. Them? Or he or she? Lyn never even got to know their name. Was Lilith's child with her now? Had the bird-man made them one?

But no. Gwendolyn Avalyn remembered her name. She remembered Morgan and Rowan and Rafael and Papa. Lyn was still herself, only more; more feral, more powerful, and more deadly.

She barely noticed the corpse of the bird-man, limp on the ground in a puddle of blood. The smell strangely intoxicated her. She felt no guilt or remorse for having killed him and briefly wondered at what darkness that hinted. He had kidnapped her, experimented on her, and killed Lilith's child, to whom she was unexplainably connected. His death felt right and proper, so she turned from the grim scene and walked away.

Cracking open the door, Lyn peeked out to see a long, aether-lit, windowless hallway. Nobody.

Lyn didn't know where she was or where this new hallway would lead, but with one way forward and nothing but death behind her, Lyn stepped into the hall, covered in blood, and ran as fast as she could to the end.

Lyn stepped out from behind a bookshelf and into a Shaman Kroeser's mortuary.

Morgan stood in the center of the room as if she had been waiting for Lyn. Morgan didn't seem at all concerned by the blood covering Lyn's face and clothes. She simply smiled and opened her arms, and waited for Lyn to run into Morgan's embrace. Big smile.

Something felt wrong, like a rancid smell or the taste of something gone sour.

Lyn was disoriented by the vibrancy of colors and the new crispness of her vision. Was it in Morgan's eyes? Something unrecognizable looked back at Lyn from behind Morgan's eyes.

But it was Morgan! And Lyn just went through something traumatic. There was no one on Eden Lyn would rather comfort her now than her big sister. Lyn put her doubts aside and slowly went to embrace Morgan. The hug was brief and stiff.

Then Morgan stood and looked at the secret opening Lyn had revealed. She went to inspect it, but Lyn grabbed Morgan's hand and held it, shaking her head no.

'Don't go in there,' she signed.

Morgan ignored her, ripped her hand away, and turned from Lyn, leaving her alone in Kroeser's mortuary. Lyn was stunned to numbness.

Morgan investigated the room where The Bad Thing happened for a long time. Meanwhile, Lyn became overwhelmed by negative thoughts. For the first time since her flight from Castle Moondial, Lyn started crying. She wanted Apple. She wanted her daddy. She sat and sucked her thumb and sobbed.

But she wasn't alone for long.

A puddle of darkness pooled on the floor, from which three figures emerged. They fell up in the air, and as they landed, the puddle disappeared.

Lyn was so stunned she stopped crying. It took a second to recognize Rowan with two people she didn't know; an eerie, grey-skinned man wearing dark clothes; the other, a local cliff kid with wild hair.

Rowan ran forward to embrace Lyn tenderly and wipe some of the blood off her face.

'You're okay,' Rowan signed. 'We're together again. Let's go. We'll take a bath.'

Lyn erupted with a thousand questions and stories. Rowan couldn't follow most of what Lyn was signing because she signed so fast, but they seemed to understand when Lyn gestured that Morgan was behind them.

Rowan's face fell in resigned misery. They turned to face Morgan as she crossed the threshold, slipping a notebook into an inside pocket of her long jacket. Big smile.

Far away and from her seat in the dreamscape, the real Morgan watched everything with a shattered heart.

It was wrenching to see Lyn again, unable to comfort her, only to abandon her immediately.

Morgan saw the room where the raven serial killer experimented on her little sister. Morgan saw his corpse on the floor.

As Azazel read the madman's notes, Morgan read along, too.

But it wasn't until Azazel walked Morgan back to the mortuary that she knew true despair; because Azazel was thrilled to find Rowan and two other figures standing next to Lyn. Both loose ends in one place for easy snipping.

With a flick of Morgan's wrist, Lyn became enveloped in a bright sphere of hard light, which carried her swiftly across the room and into the hallway behind Morgan. One loose end accounted for. Next, to kill the others and bring Rowan's head to Adam.

Morgan tried to resist, but she was powerless to control her body, as Azazel threw a solid light spear toward Rowan's chest.

The grey-skinned man quickly summoned a barrier of solid shadow, but his dark wall barely slowed Morgan's light spear enough for Rowan to narrowly dodge it.

Rowan and the man exchanged fearful glances. This was a death match, and Morgan's light magic was uniquely effective against the dark man's shadows. Even three-on-one, they were at a disadvantage.

The man turned to the third figure, a youth with chain weapons at the ready, and said, "This is too dangerous for you. Wait outside." A pool of shadows appeared beneath the youth, who inexplicably fell into it as if the ground had given way to the man's shadows. Once the youth vanished, the pool disappeared, and the man returned his attention to Morgan, who was rushing forward wielding a hard light blade.

Rowan had no weapons to defend themself but years of agile combat experience to draw from. Besides, Rowan taught Morgan how to fight. They knew her every move, but Azazel was something else entirely.

The fallen had somehow tapped into a latent magical ability no one knew Morgan possessed by conjuring hard light. Without even glancing, it summoned bright weapons and barriers, which deflected Samaal's shadow weapons with ease.

Rowan's attacks were even less effective since they were reluctant to use full fire against Morgan. But Rowan wasn't trying to win. They were trying to survive and distract for long enough that Rowan could rescue Lyn.

Meanwhile, the light and dark magic wielders both seemed a mix of surprised, intrigued, and awed by the other's existence, testing each other, or maybe the fallen was toying with them both.

An opening! As Morgan turned her attention to Samaal, Rowan ran to where Lyn was still captive in a sphere of hard light, crying hysterically to be let out, banging her fists in vain. Rowan quickly tried to cut the barrier with a knife, burning it, and even brute strength, but the hard light sphere was impenetrable.

And it was too late, besides. A spear landed in their chest, and they fell to the ground. Stunned, Rowan looked back to see Samaal, also on the ground. Both of his legs had been severed below the knees.

Morgan stood over him, smiling broadly. Big finish.

As Azazel brought Morgan's hard light blade down to cleave Samaal's head, he submerged into a pool of shadows on the ground.

The hard light blade buried itself into the stone floor.

Morgan looked up and scowled. Rowan was gone, too.

But Lyn remained, screaming in rage and fear and sadness and captivity.