“What is it that you want with me!” Aeliana shouted agonizingly as she felt the white-hot brutal pain of her mother’s sword sear through her hand. She attempted to evade the ghastly nature of whatever it was that had stricken her, but it seemed as though her entire body, in all its fleshly form, was in the midst of enduring all the immeasurable pain that Raina had chosen to inflict upon her.

The intensity was all too much for Aeliana to bear. And yet, she, somehow, stood for ...