Smoke and FireTris woke, feeling groggy and strange and somehow different.
The images of the dragon were still fresh in her mind.
I was complete, it bellowed.
Whole. Finished.But it seems I have one last task. Come to me, child.The dragon beckoned; it compelled her forward. It swallowed her, whole.
Tris shuddered, wishing she could shake away the memories like a bad dream. How long had she been out? The morning sun streamed through the windows, and her stomach growled. Long enough to be hungry, then.
An apple formed suddenly in her hand, and she almost shrieked in surprise.
She had thought of being hungry, and the apple had appeared. The dragon, she realized. It had given her some kind of power, and she was supposed to do something with it. But what?
Naturally, she turned to the library for answers.
The bookshelf gave way as she reached for a book, revealing a hidden room behind it. The books here were far, far different.
She thumbed through the one on the podium. Love spells, fireblast . . . no, no. Ah, resurrection! It looked tricky, but the magic inside of her felt strong--ancient.
Tris scrawled the spell down in a corner of her notebook, and headed to the mausoleum in the basement. She took the urn from its corner and placed it gently in the center of the room.
"Well," she muttered. "Here goes nothing."
Fire and smoke filled the room as she finished chanting, and Tris jumped back.
"I AM SAMURA," a voice thundered through the room. "SHE WHO--"
The voice cracked.
It tried again. "SHE WHO HAS WALKED FOR--"
The voice cracked again. It sighed petulantly.
The smoke cleared, and a child stepped forward.
"You know," Samura pouted, "this wasn't
exactly what I had in mind when I lent you my powers."