It had been a truly terrible night.

The dizzying sickness refused to let up, which made sleeping difficult. What made it even more difficult was the constant noise. On Cyclonia, the only sound that could be heard at night was the muffled howling of the wind that gave the terra its name. Here, there was a cacophony of chirps, croaks, trills, and growls from the creatures that made the swamp their home, many of whom were, unfortunately for her, nocturnal.

And so she was still awake when she heard Lamiya get up. She listened, still hidden away beneath the blanket, as the woman lifted the creaky lid of a chest and rummaged through it before standing and walking over to her cot. Lark jerked, surprised, as something was dropped on top of her.

"Ah, you're awake," came Lamiya's amused, unsurprised voice. "Big day, today. I'm taking you on a tour of the terra."

Lark poked her head out from underneath the blanket, squinting at the window. It was still dark, and raining harder than it had been the evening before, from the sound of it. She sat up. A stray lock of hair fell into her eyes, and she irritably blew it out of the way.

"It's raining."

"Get used to it."

"I still feel sick."

"As I said yesterday, get used to that, too."

"Why?" Lark groaned, flopping back down and squeezing her eyes shut, as if that would make everything go away.

It did not.

Lamiya pulled the blanket away from her. "My, my, and here I thought your grandfather had been the grumpiest child I'd ever met. Now your father, your father was quite cheerful in comparison. But he would be, wouldn't he? As perceptive as a brick wall, Typhon was, but such a handsome young man …."

Lark stubbornly kept her eyes closed, but the woman refused to shut up. Finally, Lark pushed herself off the cot. Immediately, Lamiya stopped the mindless prattle. "There are clothes for you," she said, pointing to the floor, where the bundle of clothing that had been dropped on her earlier had fallen in a scattered jumble when she had been so rudely relieved of her blanket. "No arguments." With that, she swept out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Lark to get ready.

She dubiously retrieved the clothes from where they had fallen. They consisted of a pair of pants, a shirt, and a jacket, all in tones of mottled green and brown. The pants and jacket had the slightly slick feel of waterproof material, with a softer, warmer lining within. Everything looked a bit too big for her, and smelled musty, as if they had been packed away in that chest for far too long.

"This is going to be a fun day," she muttered sarcastically to herself, as she changed into them. Snapping the jacket closed, she went downstairs. Shoving her hands into her pockets, and discovering that the ensemble also came with a pair of gloves, she slouched into the kitchen, where Lamiya was sitting at the table, which was set with a modest breakfast.

Lamiya looked her over with a grin. "It may not be up to your courtly standards, but it'll keep you warm and dry."

Lark slumped into the other chair, crossing her arms.

"I suggest you eat something," Lamiya added.

"Not hungry."

"You will be."

"Doubt it."

"Mind over matter, m'dear."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's all in your head. The sooner you begin learning how to overcome it, the better."

Lark thought of the previous night, and frowned. "I'm not imagining it."

"I didn't say you were."

She sighed, confused. Why must the woman be so difficult? Taking a piece of toast, she only managed to eat a few bites before dropping the rest onto her plate, pushing it away.

"Suit yourself." Lamiya stood from the table, picking up a knapsack, thrusting it at Lark. "Pay attention to what you see, today. I expect you to be able to tell me what sets this terra apart from others by the time we get back."

Frowning, Lark raised the hood of her jacket before taking and shouldering the pack. Lamiya expected her to know how Terra Mire was different from other terras? She'd never set foot on any terra but Cyclonia before coming here. There were hundreds of them. Thousands! The woman was crazy if she actually expected her to be able to answer this question.

Lamiya moved towards the door, and Lark followed. "Wait, you're going out like that?" she asked, as the woman stepped outside. She was dressed in the same odd, light robe as she had been inside. She hadn't even bothered adding a cloak, let alone bundle up against the elements as she had had Lark do.

"I have my ways," Lamiya smiled, stepping out from under the protective awning over the door, and out into the rain. Only, she wasn't in the rain at all. The drops splashed a few inches above her head and ran harmlessly down to the ground without touching her, as if an invisible dome surrounded her.

"Oh," was all Lark could say. She stepped away from the awning, and immediately felt the large raindrops patter against her hood. "Okay." She tugged her hood further forward, under the pretense of guarding against the rain, as she stared at Lamiya. She wasn't using a crystal. Lark could tell. If she was, the shield would be glowing faintly in response to each drop. But there was nothing. Lark shivered slightly. The more time she spent with this woman, the more questions she had, and the less she trusted her.

Turning, Lamiya started off along the causeway. Lark followed at a short distance. The sky had lightened, though it was still a deep, stormy grey, and the glow from under the water was still apparent, shimmering eerily as the water rippled from the rain. Lark looked away, focusing on Lamiya's back.

They did not speak, and when Lark tried to joke, a little nervously, about Lamiya making a terrible tour guide, her attempt was met with more silence.

Eventually, the causeway gave way to solid ground, or as solid as one could hope for on this terra. Mud squelched unpleasantly underfoot as she stepped off the wooden boards. It was the thick, deep kind of mud that made travel difficult. Equally inhospitable was the plant life that greeted this new leg of their journey. Gnarled and overgrown, it had long since erased all trace of any path that may once have existed. The terra seemed choked with it all. The smell of rot and mildew was stronger here than at the house, and if she looked carefully, she could see plenty of brown and black and cottony white underneath the overwhelming green.

Unperturbed, Lamiya unsheathed a long knife she kept at her side, and chose a blazer crystal from the pouch at her belt. Fitting the knife with the crystal, she activated it, and began hacking through the foliage, cutting them a more effective path than Lark would have thought possible, though travel was still slow, annoying work.

Before long, Lark's mind started to wander, thinking of Cyclonia, and wondering how long she'd be stuck here. Her musings didn't last long, however, as the toe of her boot got caught in a gnarled root, tripping her.

She pitched forward, throwing her hands out in front of her to break her fall. She landed hard as one forearm struck another root, while her other hand hit the mud, sinking in and scrapping painfully against something sharp and unyielding just below the surface, the gloves offering little protection against abrasions.

"Ugh." She retrieved her hand from the mud, frowning as the unmistakable glow of crystal shined up at her before the mud resettled, hiding it from view once more.

She looked up at Lamiya, as if the woman might say something, but she had only paused long enough for Lark to begin struggling back to her feet before turning and walking on.

It was as if that one accidental revelation opened her eyes. As they walked along, she spotted more and more crystals littering the ground, as plentiful as rocks. Around midmorning, they stopped. Lamiya took the pack from Lark and sat on a fallen log. "We'll take a break," she said, speaking for the first time since they left. "You hungry, now?"

Lark shook her head. As she did, her peripheral vision caught another strong light glowing off towards her left. "Can I go have a look around?"

"Don't go far."

She didn't have to go far. Almost immediately, she came upon a large fissure leading into a subterranean cave. It was the cave itself that was casting the brilliant light she had seen. A staircase seemed carved from raw crystal, and she took them, descending down. She stumbled and nearly fell as she reached the bottom. The entire cavern seemed made of crystal. The walls glowed, great columns jutted up from the ground and down from the ceiling, each of them crystalline.

The cave was amazing, massive. But despite it all, she suddenly felt horribly claustrophobic. There was a presence here, and it pressed in on her; overwhelming, suffocating, invasive. She fell back against the stairs as her head swam. She couldn't think properly, couldn't move properly. She tried to stand, but could only manage a few useless, jerky motions. For one brief moment, she had a strange moment of clarity as she thought back to a time when she had nearly shorted out the Attribute Allocater completely. It had looked how she felt. The image made her panic. She found it in herself to shut her eyes, drawing in on herself. She found her center, and mentally built a wall around it to shut out the chaotic world outside. Slowly, she imagined that wall being pushed back outward.

Even more slowly, she became aware that she could move. She was shaking terribly, drenched in sweat, but she managed to stand. She felt drained, but the sickness and the vertigo were gone.

Then she became aware that she was not alone. She looked around, and found Lamiya staring at her with a surprised look on her face.

"Let's get you out of here," she said, picking her up as if she was nothing. Lark protested being treated like a child, causing Lamiya to laugh and point out that she was a child, and to stop arguing. Lamiya carried her up the stairs, and back to the log. Setting her down, she sat beside her.

Lark broke the silence. "This terra, it's filled with crystals, more than any other terra," she offered as an answer to the question posed earlier that morning. It seemed so long ago, now.

"Made of them would be closer to the truth," Lamiya replied. "Far more crystal than earth forms Terra Mire." She dug a sandwich out of the pack, and offered it to Lark, who took it gratefully.

"I don't understand what that has to do with what's been happening to me," she said, taking a bite of the sandwich.

"Energy. Think of a crystal as a magnet, only instead of iron, it attracts and traps energy, keeping it stored up until someone comes along, refines it, sticks it in a machine, and drains it."

"Uh huh," Lark said, still not seeing the connection.

"Think of Terra Mire as Atmos' largest magnet, then. If you could see the energy swirling around this terra…words cannot describe it. It rages like a maelstrom. That cave is a particularly strong focal point."

"See the energy? That's impossible."

"No, it isn't."

"Huh?"

Lamiya laughed. "Why do you think you are here? For the fresh air? You possess a rare sensitivity to the universe's energy. As do I, and your grandfather. Your father had some miniscule ability, though hardly worth the effort it took to train him. Unfortunate, that. It is an inherited trait that runs particularly strong in your family, as it does in mine, and in a handful of others, most of whom never develop it."

"Why not?"

"That sensitivity, in its highest developed form, allows you to manipulate energy, without a medium."

"Why would people not want to develop that ability?"

"Most people consider such power to be unnatural."

"But they use crystals. It's the same thing, isn't it?"

"Not entirely," Lamiya answered slowly. "Think of energy as water flowing downriver, and as crystals as the lake that water will fill. Now, think of someone manipulating that energy as them damming up the river and redirecting it elsewhere. Even in the case of mere water, such activity can drastically change the landscape of the areas in question. In the case of something as monumental as the driving force of the universe, well, you can understand how people would be wary."

Lark nodded, but something was still bothering her. "You say that you can see the energy. Why can't I?"

"You have, before. And did what every infant who has such abilities does; you blocked yourself off from it. It's overwhelming. No one can live with such constant chaos and remain sane. The reason I chose this terra as my home, and as a training ground for others, is because it lends itself so well to reawakening the gift. No natural defense mechanisms can stand up to this place for long." She grinned suddenly, "Though you look like you're going to give us trouble in that area."

"What do you mean?"

"Your little episode back there in the cave, of course. As I said, it's a strong focal point, one I use to jumpstart training. Bombards the senses. Quick and dirty tactic, I'll admit. When I allowed your grandfather to discover that cave, I had to haul him back to the house, unconscious. He was out until the next morning. But it worked. You, on the other hand, managed to shore up your defenses even further. Never seen anything like it. Do you remember how you did it?"

"I think so."

"Good. First thing tomorrow, we'll begin working on undoing it."

Lark felt suddenly apprehensive. Lamiya must have seen it on her face, because she spoke, not unkindly.

"To gain control, you need to let it go, just once. Reopen those pathways in your mind, and you'll be able to open and close them at will. Until you do, your time here will be a constant battle with this terra, and I can tell you right now, you won't win. You'll save yourself a lot of pain by cooperating."

Lark frowned. She wasn't some sort of control freak, if that's what the woman was implying. She wasn't trying to be stubborn or difficult. Really.

"First thing tomorrow," Lamiya repeated.

Lark nodded, and Lamiya stood. "Good. Let's go home, then."