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I took a hesitant step forward, not exactly liking what I saw beforeto think that lossy surface, but to think about all the people I loathed in the sawat flashed across the ether, of course, since I didn’t think they could actually exist apart When Morrigan appeared on the round to a halt Theface of Stuart Gray

And therein lies the test, I realized It was one thing to walk over hot coals--quite literally--for the people you loved But another thing entirely to endure such torture for enee, I realized Not in that way If soht back But I don’t get to allow sood

I’d never liked Job’s ind And that’s ould happen if I allowed Phaedra to win She’d rouse the creature, destroying the East Coast And then she’d destroy even more with the power she won

So I walked forward The pain was brutal, but I gritted my teeth and I endured I kneasn’t "real" pain--no s I’d survive this test, but Rockabill itself wouldn’t survive if I failed

Finally, Ioff at nored him as I pushed at the mirror Okay, in all honesty I sort of fell forward onto it, but it worked

Swinging the door open, the rooed forward into nothingness

This ti s like it was a beach wedding

I was still on my hands and knees where I’d landed Hard There were definitely going to be so htHe was the one who always healedover my body made me miss hiht of what Blondie had said We need the creature’s power

Stus This new room was just as stark, white, and unnatural as the other one had been Although, instead of an oval of lights, this room was dotted by four enorures stood so tall--I barely made it to their knees--that it took

It’s those ancient Alfar, I realized Melichor and Tatiana stood on one side of the square, looking as forbidding as their ghostly shapes had before Across from them, forever their seconds, stood Glynda and Straif

As I walked into the rooic swirl around me The statues all turned, as one, to look down I froze, blinking in their gaze like a deer in the proverbial headlights, but they didn’tstone, but one never knew

Once the statues had finished ht shone down from above to land smack in the ht floated what looked like a pedestal

I e hand reaching down to sot to where the pedestal stood, I stared in confusion

It wasn’t really a pedestal Instead, a thin, gilt rapier floated horizontally, looking from the side like the pedestal top And under that floated a vertical scabbard It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this testthe rapier into the scabbard