Kolo looked Azvalath up and down. “Creation?”

Azvalath grabbed her shoulders. “The Masters aren’t going to believe this. We’ve got to show them. Kolo, do you think you can do it again? Anything. No matter how small.”

“I don’t understand.” Kolo backed away. “How’s it any different from what anyone else does here? You all have special abilities. I’m just a…”

Azvalath snapped at her. “When in the hell are you going to wake up and realize you’re not just anything? You’re here for a reason. Master Xigon sent me after you for a reason! Can’t you tell me what it was? Why I risked everything to bring you back here, sacrificed what shred of honor I had left? Was it even worth it?”

Kolo shook her head. What little memory she had of anything about herself was all warped and hazy. “I don’t know!” She grabbed her lightningfisher tooth necklace. “I don’t know where this came from, where my name came from, my power, my anything. I didn’t even know until, what – yesterday? – that I’m over two hundred years old! So don’t ask me what it was all for. I can’t tell you.”

Azvalath looked stunned. “That necklace. I didn’t notice it before.” His expression shifted to one of concern. “But that might be how you survived whatever killed the entire village of Howl Hollow. Are you really sure you don’t remember anything?”

Kolo blinked. For a split second she saw a ghoulish smiling face. She jolted and clenched her teeth together.

Azvalath squinted at her. “Well?”

They stood there and stared at each other in awkward silence until Xigon came to the door. “There you two are. I thought I sensed some strange energy. Kolo, what were you doing?”

She turned and raised an eyebrow. “I was just showing Aza what I could do.”

“Which, apparently, includes creation.” Azvalath pointed to the ball in Kolo’s hand. “Did you know about that?”

Xigon stepped closer. His crutches clicked against the floor. Kolo looked up at him. Xigon’s eyes were wide with wonder like a young boy. He looked down at her and smiled. “You really are something else.”

“I wouldn’t know.” Kolo tried not to shiver. “But Aza says you can do something similar. Can you show me?”

Xigon handed his crutches to Kolo. She took them awkwardly. Somehow, it felt wrong, like he had just detached his own limbs and asked her to hold them for a second. Then Xigon put his hand on Azvalath’s shoulder and leaned so their foreheads touched. “Thank you, Azvalath. Now we’ll learn the truth of things.”

Azvalath trembled. “Yes, Master.”

Xigon let go of Azvalath and turned to Kolo. “I was hesitant at first, Kolo, to do what I’m about to do. Now, I can’t deny its necessity any longer. I have to reconstruct your mind.”

Kolo stiffened. “What?”

Xigon took the ball from her hand. “You used creation power to reconstruct this ball, didn’t you?”

She nodded.

“It’s the same idea. Right now, your mind is like cracked ice. I didn’t want to risk cracking it further. But with a power like yours, you have to know who and what you really are.” Xigon knelt in front of her. His eyes turned from brown to deep red like hers, then to a dazzling indigo-violet color. Kolo gasped. It was like looking into a god’s eyes.

“Be strong, Kolo.” Xigon’s eyes widened. He clasped her head between his spidery hands. “This will hurt. I’m sorry.”

Azvalath threw himself toward them. “Wait, Master! NO!”

Xigon touched his forehead to hers. White sparks erupted between them. It was like being struck by lightning.

Kolo screamed at the top of her lungs.

The world around her shattered into glittering splinters. They pooled around her like sand from a leaking hourglass. They gleamed like jewels in the sun. Then she realized they weren’t jewels, but eyes. Thousands and thousands of eyes, and every single one of them stared at her.

She shook her head. Then they all meshed together to form one gigantic blue eye, like the one she had seen during what should have been her death. She stood in the center of its deep black pupil. The Iron God’s words came back to her.

I have been waiting for you since I lost my heart.

Her own heart hammered against her ribs. Kolo looked down and saw a harsh blue glow pulsating through her chest. She raised her hands to her face and saw her skeleton through her flesh, brighter than the sun. The light scorched her eyes until boiling tears streaked her cheeks.

She burned with the heat of a god. Why, then, was she so small?

That grinning horror flashed in front of her for a split second. Then there was an explosion of white sparks. Dazzling indigo-violet eyes. Hands on her head. Kolo hit the floor so hard she nearly blacked out. Xigon looked down at her. Azvalath yanked him back. All three of them lay panting on the floor for a second.

Xigon sat up and brushed himself off. “That’s enough for today. Process everything and come back to me tomorrow. I can’t bring everything back at once without breaking you.”

Kolo blinked. Her necklace was scorching hot against her chest.