Snippet #2546566

"I..." Cinaed hesitated, "The mirror. I looked into it, and there was... fire, heat. Everything that was... me, embodied in the shape of a flaming bird. I felt a connection with it, but when I reached out to it..."

He shuddered at the memory. "It burned. I've never... felt burning before. No heat has ever hurt me. But I couldn't pull away." He looked across at Amethea, "That's when you ... you smashed it, didn't you? And then everything went cold. I've walked through a blizzard in the icy peaks to the point of exhaustion and never felt a chill. But now ..."

Cinaed shivered. "I feel like I'm frozen to the core. Even here next to the fire. I feel ... empty. That mirror took part of me away. Something that made me what I am. Even though I've never known what that is, I know it's gone now. It's horrible. It's like I've been gutted."

The teen wrapped his arms around himself as though he were still sitting in the snow, and there was a glint of moisture in his eyes, his expression miserable. His endless wellspring of positivity had, it seemed, run dry.