A few minutes passed in silence.

I felt the stillness around me and the strength radiating from Calin.

Again, sound disappeared. I couldn't feel if it was hot or cold, just the warmth from Calin where his body connected to mine. It sent currents across my skin as though I was repeatedly being zapped with static electricity.

Slowly, I took a deep breath and exhaled.

Show me the binds on Maible. Show me Maible's power.

Show me, show me, show me.

Silently, I repeated the mantra in my head until the energy within me felt as though it would burst. I took a single step away from Calin and opened my eyes, a smile curving my lips upward.

I blinked.

Once, twice.

Again.

Maible stood so still in front of me, I was scared she was holding her breath and would pass out.

All around her, firefly lights danced through the air, coalescing to form the seventeen ribbons placed around her. There was no place to see the ties that joined the binds. At the center, Maible's golden light was brilliant, seeming even brighter than the first time I had checked. I held my breath until the binds fully appeared and then slowly exhaled.

One step down, seventeen binds to go.

This was the part I didn't know how to complete for sure. I was relying on what I'd learned from my mother and our innate ability to imagine things we could see into fruition.

I narrowed my eyes and whispered, "Break," while imagining the center of each ribbon being torn to fall at Maible's feet. When nothing happened, I felt a chink in my confidence fall away. I took another deep breath and squared my shoulders, closing my eyes again.

What did I have to do?

Opening my eyes, I smiled.

Of course.

I remembered when my mother moved her shop location and they'd had a grand reopening. Scissors cut ribbon. The material was hard to tear without something sharp to severe their thread. I looked over to the campfire and imagined a white-hot flame erupting as I lifted my hand, throwing the spark to catch fire from my palm.

A roar sounded and a burst of heat blew towards the sky.

As it settled, the red and orange glow turned white with blue at its center.

Ignoring Maible's gasp even as I felt Calin stiffen behind me, I stared into the fire until it mesmerized me. The whole time, a pair of charred scissors that glinted silver along their sharp edges glinted in my mind. As my imagination solidified their details, I began to feel some of the energy within me begin to fade, proving the task difficult even before I'd begun on what was considered the hardest part. When it finally felt as real as if I were holding them, I imagined placing the scissors directly in the fire.

My hand burned as though I was truly placing my skin to embers.

With a hiss, I pulled the glowing scissors from the fire and raised them toward Maible, who flinched when I settled my attention on her. Ignoring her reaction, I reached out. The scissors touched the first ribbon and sizzled, wisps of smoky tendrils floating up in spirals. I could tell Maible saw it when her eyes widened, following the dark trail as I began to snip, opening and shutting the handle as I worked against the unreal material.

I'd thought it would be easier if the metal was heated but it wasn't.

No matter how hard I snapped the scissors shut or tried to find just the right angle, the scissors had to gnaw at the binds. I grit my teeth and began to saw through the barriers, one by one, like a hand saw one uses to strip a tree limb of its branches.

Back and forth, back and forth.

Finally, the bind snapped, spreading wide into the air before disappearing.

The next bind fell to the ground like silk, then burst as dust in the air.

Beads of sweat popped onto my forehead and along my spine, running down to follow the line of bony bumps.

Three down.

Four dismantled.

Five.

Six.

I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled, pausing as I tried to breathe without inhaling the smoke scissors upon ribbon generated. No matter how many times I swallowed, my tongue tasted ash and my throat burned. I could still feel Calin behind me, the heat of my body attracted to the warmth of his, and I could feel the breeze around me cooling the effects.

A few moments passed.

I imagined the scissors back in the fire being heated like a brandishing iron.

When I pulled them out again and opened my eyes, I saw Maible's light shine bright as though I'd taken away some of the shadows hiding who she really was. It gave me renewed purpose, and I began to saw.

The next three binds were easier, and I assumed they were the newest.

There was no order to their creation, they criss-crossed too much to determine when each was enacted. I felt that the ones that were harder to break were the strongest. They'd been there so long that the binds had merged with a part of Maible. I couldn't fathom how she wasn't crying out in pain. If it was even a tenth of what I'd felt when my binds had broken the last time, I'd be a puddle on the floor, but Maible remained still.

When I reached the twelfth bind, I took another break to heat the imaginary scissors once more. The muscles in my brain were telling my arms they were tired. My breathing grew shallow and I wiped the sweat from my brow as it dripped into my eyes, the salt stinging. I took another deep breath and bit my lip as I continued.

Thirteen.

Fourteen.

Fifteen.

I exhaled, coughing, and bent to rest my hands on my knees, dragging in shallow breaths to ease the constriction in my chest.

It felt like I had run a triathlon or... I didn't know.

I hadn't ever done something this exhausting.

Even when I'd stripped Duvessa and her family, it hadn't been this strenuous. This was nausea-inducing, I-need-to-lay-with-one-hand-on-the-floor-and-one-on-my-head-in-order-to-stop-the-swaying, torture.

There was only two more left.

I couldn't do it.

Standing straight, I felt myself sway, and I held my arms at my sides in order to steady myself. Unconsciously, I took a small step back, stopping when I felt Calin behind me without having to make contact. I forced myself to take a few deeper, calming breaths, and looked at Maible, blinking against the light now radiating from within her. The gold held a tinge of red, creating a kaleidoscope of color as it was met with the natural light of the clearing and the blue-white fire.

I licked my lips and took the scissors from the fire, and I attacked the sixteenth bind.

It fell within seconds, black tendrils once again hissing into the air above Maible.

I moved to the final bind from the memory of where I'd last seen it, the light too consuming to see through. Once again, my mind was telling my arms they were too tired to continue to saw, and I felt as though I was at the bottom of a twelve-foot pool trying to bring a fifty-pound weight from the floor with the use of my pinky.

It was impossible.

I closed my eyes and all around me were purple bubbles.

I blinked but couldn't keep my eyes open.

When they closed, the bubbles were there again, a voice humming a foreign name in the background that I couldn't quite hear through my water clogged ears. Slow at first, the bubbles intensified. I felt them pop against my skin as they raced to gather under my feet. My lungs were bursting but I knew if I took a breath, I would find air.

My mother's face flashed in front of me.

I gasped.

Suddenly, the bubbles grouped beneath me. They thrust me upward. I soared through the water until I broke the surface, then flew into the air. My eyes widened as I began to fall.

Just before I met the surface of the water, the clearing came back into focus.

I teetered.

There was but a string left.

It was too much. Losing my footing, I stumbled back and felt Calin's hands grasp my shoulders, keeping me from falling.

With one last burst of energy, I cut through the final thread.

A flash of light blinded me and then everything went blacker than the dusk that had settled as the sun set.