{Raven}
Raven had an odd dream, next ti she was set to go to class.
It was split into two distinct halves, both opposite to one another.
In the first half, it was business as usual. Raven stalked her prey through the twisting, nightti streets with lethal efficiency.
Her target was a faceless figure, cloaked in shadows and moving rapidly, but not quite fast enough. Raven couldn't hear them, but it didn't matter. She could sense their fear, their panic.
Raven was relentless, though, her steps sure and silent as she closed in for the kill.
When the mont ca, she struck with brutal precision, her blade finding its mark easily.
It hadn't co quite so easily before, no. Raven had these scars for a reason.
But this one, after all her mistakes in the past, was chanical. Automatic.
The figure crumpled, a puppet with its strings cut, and Raven felt a cold rush of satisfaction.
Another mission completed. Another victory for the Shadow Mages, and for the greater good they served.
For the order that they alone worked to maintain.
But even as the thought ford, the dream shifted, the edges of her vision blurring and warping like a reflection in a rippling pool.
And suddenly, lisa was there.
Not the real lisa, Raven knew dimly, but a dream version, soft and hazy around the edges.
Raven found herself back in their shared dorm room, her clothes splattered with the crimson evidence of her night's work.
But Dream lisa didn't seem to care. She looked at Raven with eyes that held no judgnt. No fear or revulsion.
Only a deep, burning intensity that made Raven's breath catch in her throat.
All of a sudden, Raven was feeling like the target.
lisa stepped closer, her hands coming up to cup Raven's face. She wasn't there, Raven understood.
She was dreaming, she told herself.
And yet, it felt so damned real.
And then, without a word, she leaned in and pressed her lips to Raven's in a kiss that seared like a brand.
Raven gasped into it.
She reached up and grabbed lisa's wrists, but her body would not move no matter how hard Raven pushed it away. Her voice muffled by the girl's mouth, Raven tried harder.
It was like nothing she had ever felt before.
As the kiss deepened, as lisa's hands began to roam over her body with a bold, possessive assurance, Raven felt the blood on her clothes, on her skin, begin to lt away.
It was as if lisa's touch, her very presence, was washing her clean.
The thought sent a shudder through her.
No matter how hard she pushed, it didn't matter.
So, Raven stopped pushing.
But even as she reached out to pull lisa closer, to lose herself completely...
Raven woke with a gasp, her heart pounding and her skin flushed with a heat that had nothing to do with the warm cocoon she'd made out of her blankets.
For a mont, she simply lay there, staring up at the ceiling as she tried to catch her breath and slow the racing of her thoughts.
[What... what was that?] she wondered, her mind still fuzzy.
But before she could even begin to untangle those images, all of them slowly slipping away now that she'd woken up, she realized sothing.
[Huh?]
The bed across from hers, the one that belonged to lisa... was empty.
Raven sat up, her eyes wide and her heart suddenly hamring for an entirely different reason.
[Where is she?] she thought frantically, her gaze darting around the small, shadowed room. [She's always here when I wake up, always...]
But even as the thought ford, Raven caught sight of the small, chanical clock on the bedside table.
And felt her stomach drop with a sickening lurch.
[I... overslept?]
It was a concept so foreign, so utterly alien to her reginted, disciplined way of life, that for a mont Raven simply couldn't process it.
She, Raven Nightsong, up-and-coming right hand of the Shadow Mages and model of perfect control and efficiency...
Had slept past her designated waking ti.
She had allowed herself to beco so lost in the labyrinth of her own subconscious, so ensnared by those false images...
That she had neglected her routine.
The realization sent a wave of sha crashing over her, hot and bitter.
[AGH! How could I let this happen?] she berated herself, already throwing back the covers and leaping to her feet with a jerky, agitated movent. [How could I be so undisciplined?]
If Linner heard of this, her master would never let Raven hear the end of it.
[Focus,] she told herself firmly, gritting her teeth as she forced herself to push the feelings aside. [Dreams are nothing. Illusions and smoke. Focus on what's in front of you.]
And, with that, she got ready for the day, pretending as though nothing had happened.
---
Raven stood in that empty gym-like space where she and lisa usually trained. The sounds of hers and lisa's wooden swords clashing filled the air.
Across from her, lisa stood at the ready, her stance wide and her grip firm on the practice blade.
"Again," Raven said, her voice cool and even. "Rember, keep your guard high and your feet moving. Anticipate my strikes, and counter with your own when you see an opening."
lisa nodded.
Raven took a mont to study her, to note the way her muscles tensed and her eyes narrowed with focus.
[She's improving,] Raven thought, a flicker of sothing that might have been pride sparking in her chest. [Slowly but surely, she's getting better. Stronger.]
But even as the thought ford, Raven pushed it away.
Because the truth was, she wasn't teaching lisa everything she could.
She wasn't giving her all the tools and techniques that Raven herself had spent years mastering.
How could she, when she knew that one day, very soon, she would be the one facing lisa on the battlefield?
When she would have to end lisa's life?
[Unfortunate,] Raven thought. [lisa is talented.]
But she pushed that away, forcing herself to focus on the present mont, on the task at hand.
"Ready?" she asked, raising her own sword in a defensive stance.
lisa nodded, her lips pressed together in a determined line.
And then they were moving, their blades clashing and darting in a deadly dance of parries and strikes.
Raven let herself fall into the familiar rhythm of it, her body moving on instinct and muscle mory.
She blocked and dodged, countered, and feinted, always staying just a step ahead of lisa's attacks.
But even as she fought, even as she lost herself in the flow and the rush of the battle...
Raven's mind began to wander, began to drift back to the dream that had haunted her the night before.
To the image of lisa's lips on hers, soft and warm and infinitely tender.
To the feeling of her hands, her touch, her very presence washing away the blood and the guilt and the stains on Raven's soul.
It was like a fever, a sickness that had taken root in her mind and refused to let go.
A constant, nagging distraction that pulled at her focus and made her heart race with a longing she couldn't na.
[Stop it,] Raven told herself firmly, gritting her teeth as she parried a particularly vicious strike from lisa. [It was just a dream. A aningless, fleeting fantasy. It doesn't an anything.]
But even as she repeated the words, even as she tried to banish the mories and sensations that clung to her like cobwebs...
Raven could feel herself slipping, could feel her concentration beginning to fray at the edges.
And then, in a mont of distraction, of weakness...
She felt a sharp, stinging poke against her chest.
Raven's eyes widened, her gaze snapping down to see the tip of lisa's wooden sword pressed against her sternum.
For a mont, she simply stared, her mind struggling to process what had just happened.
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And then, slowly, incredulously...
lisa's face split into a wide, triumphant grin.
"I did it!" she crowed, her voice ringing out across the training yard. "I actually did it! I got a hit on you, Raven!"
She was practically bouncing on her toes, her eyes shining with a fierce pride.
And despite herself, despite the shock and the chagrin and the sudden, sinking realization of just how badly she had slipped...
Raven felt a small, traitorous part of herself wanting to smile back.
But she couldn't. She couldn't let herself get caught up in the mont.
Because lisa was her mission. Her target. The endpoint of Raven's current quest.
Raven knew that she could never let herself forget that.
"Raven?" lisa asked, her voice soft and tentative. "Are you alright? You seem... distracted."
Raven swallowed hard, forcing herself to et lisa's gaze with a calmness she did not feel.
"I'm fine," she said, the words sounding hollow and unconvincing even to her own ears. "Just... just a montary lapse in focus. Prepare yourself. It won't happen again."
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