Page 67 of Forsaken Secrets

Her korra was bright, but I could feel the energy slipping away.

Panic twisted in my stomach. This felt all too similar to when Uncle Calix was sick …

A cool hand pressed into my elbow and I looked over to see Eli standing there, hand outstretched. "Try using this."

I held my hand out, curious, and gasped when the small relic from the cliff fell into my palm.

I picked it up gingerly, turning the warm stone in my hands as I tried to figure out what to do with it.

The relic's korra was a swirling mass of colors and life, but I had no idea how to actually connect it to Lunei!

"Feel for the life inside, Kaiya. The same way you use your intuition to "know" where relics are." Eli's voice filled me with a strange calm.

He was right. I could sense relics, and this was just a relic!

I closed my eyes and expanded my view of the relic's korra until I ‘saw' both it and another set behind it. The relic and Lunei?

But what did I do with it?

Suddenly, another set of eyes stared up at me from my memory, green and clouded with fever. The panic in my stomach shifted to my chest, and my breath stuck there.

My skin prickled with sweat, and I had to lock my knees to keep them from collapsing.

I'd failed him. I was going to fail Lunei, too.

Eli and Lynk said I had magic, but who the fuck knew what it could do? Wouldn't Eli be better for this?

"It's okay if you can't heal me, you know. I … I just don't want the knives and hands touching me anymore."The small voice quivered with sad resignation and the second cloud of colors pulsed to the same rhythm, bright blues and greens tangling with each other over and over.

My heart ached for her, but what could I do to help?

I felt powerless …

"Death is a kind of freedom, too,"the small voice spoke again. "I've seen my sisters go, and I think they're happier there than they ever were here."

She was right, but far too young to know that truth.

No. I wouldn't let history repeat itself. I wouldn't let this young vrytra suffer any more for the human's greed.

Determined, I pulled on the relic's korra and pushed it toward Lunei's.

A delicate silver strand followed the path I set.

Oh gods. Was it actually working?

Green light pulsed along the connection, spreading from the relic to Lunei. But her korra was still fading.

The connection was too weak.

Again? What if I did it again? Surely it couldn't hurt anything!

I pulled strand after strand to Lunei's korra until it was a deep pulsing cord. A connection between her, the relic, and me.

"Fuck."Eli's voice filtered through the darkness of the korra realm, pulling at my focus. "Stop, Kaiya. You aren't strong enough for this."

I fought his voice, but it reverberated through my mind, breaking the focus I needed to stay with the relic and Lunei.

My mind slipped back to my body, and exhaustion crashed over me like a tsunami. Legs trembling, I opened my eyes and reached for the metal table.

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