Sonder could no longer feel her hands. That was the first thing she noticed.
She could barely feel anything at all.
Maybe she was gone.
Or maybe she was still there, but felt as though she wasn't.
Only a fraction of a moment had passed since Sonder drew the power from the mask, yet the light was already leaving her hands.
It was over.
But the man in the bed did not move.
Dust had fallen from the ceiling. Books had fallen from their shelves. Windows and doors rattled in their frames.
But the tower was still standing.
Sonder could not take her eyes off Vell.
All the power she had to give had left her and been given to him.
She was left only with the evil the mask had to give.
The mask had been loose on her face when she put it on.
Now it felt tight.
Deadly cold.
Her hands flew to her face. She searched for its edge and pulled, but it did not move.
It did not want to give.
She pulled again, harder, until the pulling became tearing.
But it was of no use.
Her fingernails scraped against the edges to no avail.
The mask gave a faint, almost imperceptible twitch.
It felt like something was moving beneath her skin.
Crawling along her cheek and neck.
Like hundreds of tiny fingers searching through the flesh of her face.
The mask was changing.
The hard relic that had once rested against her face was becoming warm and pliable, sinking into her.
Its edges began to soften against her skin.
She staggered backward and stumbled against a wall, clawing at her face.
The mask would not come away.
And she felt the crawling move toward her eye.
A seam of cold ran across her forehead.
She could not cry out.
Could not even scream.
Her being was muffled beneath the mask, and she had no power to fight against it.
A whisper came to her.
She did not hear it.
It was simply there, inside her mind.
It rattled her to her core.
Then she could not see.
She wanted to yell for help.
For the Yellow Mage to do something.
To help her.
To get the mask off.
But it did not seem possible.
She had no power to do so.
And in the few moments when she had transferred the power, she had noticed that even the Yellow Mage had given some of his own.
If he was as she was, he had no power to do anything.
Heat washed over Sonder, as though she were bathing in boiling water.
The edges of her thoughts began to blur, as though they were being rubbed away.
Then suddenly, something moved.
Against her will, she jerked at the sound.
She still could not see.
But it was as though the mask could.
The mask pulled itself deeper into her face.
Something was coming for her.
And the next moment, it was beside her.
Something closed around the side of the mask.
Fingers pressed against it.
Then pulled.
A scream sounded inside her mind.
The edges of the relic began to peel away from Sonder's skin.
And as the mask was torn from her face, she collapsed.