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A sudden flash of light caught Taima's eye, and her wings shivered as it brought with it an unnatural chill that cut through flesh and bone and resonated with her core. She wanted to veer away from it, to find somewhere to perch until this feeling went away, but she caught sight of the trail of shards and the tower it led to. She knew her goal was in sight, and it was much more important than her feelings; she would finish what she'd set out centuries ago to accomplish and deal with everything else later.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw the other minis following the path below her, seeing not a mixture of students, hunters, and horsemen in the same predicament she was, but adversaries and traitors out to keep her from success. They would have to be dealt with, she decided as she glided into the tower.

As if in answer to her thoughts, a large, inky dragon appeared. Taima perched on a high beam and watched as the other minis threw themselves at it. Her eyes narrowed in bloodthirsty glee as she waited for the dragon to tire of their feeble efforts and retaliate. If the dragon ate them all, it would make her task that much easier--and serve them right for getting in her way in the first place.

Her feathers ruffled in irritation as the dragon crumbled, revealing an owl that told them all to go away, to go home. Well, the others could go where they liked--the farther away, the better--but Taima wasn't going anywhere. Not until she had finished what she set out to do. She swooped down from her perch, fully intending to take the shards the other minis had thrown at the owl and be on her way, but wheeled as a mini that looked disturbingly like her flew into her path and hovered there.

"Get out of my way," she hissed at it.

"No!" Taima shrieked, tucking her wings and diving. She led with her beak as she collided with her reflection in midair. "I can't go back--I won't go back--and I won't let you or anyone else stop me!"

"I can't leave yet," Taima hissed at her reflection, pecking and beating it with her wings until it got off of her. She rolled quickly to her feet, her wings flared as she pressed her attack. "I haven't completed my mission!"

"They said you would say that," Taima replied, her eyes narrowed hatefully at her reflection. "They told me everything."

"No!" Taima shouted at her reflection, her resolve weakening, but her stubbornness as strong as ever as she fought back until her double was no more, and all she had left to fight was a vague sense of guilt and a sudden understanding--a real understanding--that this was only the beginning; the worst was yet to come.