The world this story resides in and all within it belong to Mercedes Lackey.

I only claim this story and a few odd characters.

Chapter 1 Waking Dreams

I'm not sure if the accident was the cause of what's happening to me now or it was the

result. I only know that since I woke up in the hospital, I can see things. Things that no

one else can see. At least I assume they can't. I haven't gotten the courage to ask. I see

people looking at me with pity already and I don't want them to think that my mind is

broken as well as my body.......

From the journal of Annalise Trelain

Anna lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. The headache throbbed in time with the

ripples she could see in the air. This day was particularly bad. She could almost see shapes in it. It looked a bit like the way heat shimmered off the road on a hot day.

The energy of it threaded through everything. There was nothing to distract her from it

now that she was back home from the hospital. At least then, there had always been someone stopping by to check on her. Now today she was alone.

Almost recovered from her accident, she only had a slight limp that would never leave

and this distracting dance of the air wherever she looked. If she tried, she could stop seeing it for a time, but it always came back.

It was the strain of trying to push away her awareness of it entirely that was giving her the headache. With a sigh she gave up the fight. Closing her eyes she rolled to her side and tried to relax. She needed to take the time for a nap this afternoon or she would never have the energy to last the day.

Maybe she could sleep off her headache as well. The pain did appear to lesson as she drifted off to sleep.

Green leaves rustled in the wind. The tickle of an ant crawling over her hand woke her. With a start Anna sat up and rubbed her eyes. Where was she? A shiver ran down her spine as she realized that she was in the garden that she had been dreaming of the last few weeks. "It's real" she whispered to herself. She looked up as she heard several voices speaking a language she didn't recognize.

Hunching down so that she wouldn't be seen, Anna looked through the leaves of the bush next to her towards the voices. Several brightly dressed young women were walking down a path about three feet beyond her bush.

They laughed and chattered to each other not noticing their observer. Once they were gone she sat up and looked around her. The air shimmered again before her eyes and she saw her room in it. Anna broke a rose from the bush beside her before reaching for her room. She twisted the energies and she rolled onto her bed.

The pain of a thorn in her tightly grasped hand awoke her from her shock. Opening her hand, she looked at the rose. Anna sat up and swung her legs off the bed, then grabbed her cane with her free hand. She made her way as quickly as she could for the kitchen.

Once there the rose sat on the table in a glass of water. Anna sat there with a glass of her own and looked at it. "Proof" she said to herself.