Devlin awoke to a glorious sunny day, well-suited to the Trials ahead, with its cloudless lavender sky and strong yet refreshingly cool breeze. Unfortunately, his physical and mental state did not match the sparkle of his environment. Despite his desire to get a good rest, the night had failed to meet this critical need. His sleep had been plagued with nightmarish visions of his sister, undergoing horrible, physical distortions, similar to those she had suffered in reality but much more gruesome and ending in a horrific, painful death. He had woken intermittently, but rather than relief from the nightmares, he had suffered the agony of guilt-laden thoughts. Thoughts that kept circling back to his own part in provoking his sister’s alteration and the uncertainty of her future. He was troubl
