She wasn't allowed to go out so Liv went shopping for her cloths. Where? She had no idea. During that time, she explored the manor and memorised every corner and hidden doors. Read books in the library and got to know more about the new world. She flew around on the Griffin and trained with Dimitri. She became close friends with Liv in that short period. Mr Hartridge gave her more books on the realms and she studied them.
The wolves, elementals and mind weavers were more human than the shadow. The shadows were strict and military like. The wolves and elementals were nice and carefree while the mind weavers were often arrogant. Every power/ability was unique in it's own way.
"People arrive tomorrow." Liv groaned as she walked into Kara's room.
Kara glanced sheepishly at her with a frozen crystal in her hand.
"Close the door" she whispered and Liv did.
Liv peered at the crystal in amazement and rubbed her hand on the surface. It was smooth but biting.
"Its cold. Like frozen stuff cold." She said still staring at the crystal.
Kara nodded and dropped the crystal on the floor, making Liv gasp.
"No... wait it didn't break?" she said, confused. She crouched down but avoided touching it. Her hand still hurt.
The girl nodded. "Yes. I've tried everything possible to break it but it won't. I can't unfreeze it and I can't ask Dimitri cause I'm not supposed to use my powers. But how do they expect me not to!"
She stood up from the floor and began pacing. Her anger had spiked suddenly and she wasn't able to calm herself down which annoyed her all the more. Desperately she rubbed the locket on her neck and stopped to stare at it.
"Maybe we'll talk to them about it. Besides, I want you to learn something. Come sit." Liv said and tapped the floor in front of her as she sat.
Kara looked at her thoughtfully and sat. She was trying to understand something but Liv distracted her.
"There are mind weavers in school that can be very nosey. The first thing they'll do is try to tap into your mind. Wolves are easy to tap into but sometimes hard to understand for some reason. Elementals are easy also but some of them have learnt to use their powers to block the mind weavers out. I think you should be able to block them out with yours." Liv explained and stared intently into her electric blue eyes.
She felt uncomfortable but obliged. "So what do I do?"
"For amateurs, you can feel when they crawl into your mind. It's like the slight brush of fingers along a surface. Focus and try to grasp where they are. Imagine your mind is a house and houses have fences right... so imagine the fence as a force field and build it to keep unwanted people out."
Kara closed her eyes and imagined. She felt like she was going into the back of her mind. She saw the house, it was dark, gloomy and chilly. Then she saw the fingers... they were like roots crawling towards the house. Focusing, she began pulling her powers from wherever they laid and building her force field. It was like she could feel it flowing on her skin and inside her body. At first it was a bit hard but soon she got the hang of it. She pulled it up and sealed it.
Then she turned and began mending her force field. She could see how it looked. It was blue, electrifying blue that felt cold and thick beneath her hands. Looking closely, it was like there were really tiny lines zipping around. Running her hand through she thickened the entire force field such that she couldn't look out and see anything beyond it. With one last glance at her dark house, she opened her eyes.
Liv was sweating profusely yet shivering. Her eyes held fear which she masked before Kara could notice.
"How did I do?" Kara beamed.
Nodding, Liv stood up. "You did very well. Too well even but I think that's good."
She wouldn't say it had scared her. What she had seen had chilled her bones. When she'd crept in, she'd seen the house. Dark and dull. She'd began moving slowly but a girl had showed up... not just any girl, Kara. It was Kara and it wasn't Kara. The girl had full snow white hair and eyes. She had moved fast and built the wall, but had also attacked her. Liv had felt frozen in place as she watched Kara mend her walls till she could see nothing through them. She'd felt cold and fear but she'd been drawn to the wall. When she got free of the hold the place had on her, she placed her hand on the wall and had had to swallow back a scream. It was like a thousand needles pricked her and zapped through her hands, giving her excruciating pains. She hadn't touched it like an amateur, she'd used everything she had. It had all ended in a few minutes but it had felt longer.
But looking at Kara now, she saw none of that girl. The girl before her looked hopeful and happy, the girl before her smiled at her like she was her best friend. She was probably her first friend and Lily wasn't going to ruin that. She wouldn't tell father either, not yet.
Kara's mood changed and she stared at her hands.
"Tonight is a full moon isn't it." She stated more than asked but Liv nodded anyway. It still amazed her how easily Kara had accepted all of this.
Kara sighed and stared at the crystal on it floor. It was blue but in a captivating way, if that made any sense.
"I'm on edge. My skin feels tingly like its ready to burst. I feel this way every day of a full moon but this time its amplified. One minute I'm happy, the next I'm angry and it's frustrating me." She said clenching fists.
The temperature of the room dropped as she stood up but neither girls noticed. Kara pulled off her top after locking the door and turned her back to Liv.
"I never bothered looking in the mirror since miss Humphrey told me to keep a low profile and make sure I wasn't noticed. To make sure I was covered entirely, my hair also. I never paid attention to my body but today I did. " she hissed through gritting teeth.
Her back had colourful lines drawn around to her arms. It looked like the work of a grand artist.
"The lines... I can feel them... I'm aware of them that I can imagine them and I never noticed this. I can feel where they start and stop. From the middle of my back to my arms." She stumbled over her words but kept talking. Her heart was pounding. "See my hair. Its white at the edges. See the front here, its white. Just this part but the rest is black."
She pointed at each part and ran her hands through them. She could hear her heart beating loudly in her ears. Suddenly, she clutched the skin on her chest and moved back. Her breathing became laboured. Liv tried to touch her but she stopped her.
"Something is happening." She trembled and gasped for air, it felt like her throat was closing up.
Liv didn't know what to do so she mind linked her father.
Father help. Something is wrong with Kara. Hurry please, I'm scared.
She felt him respond and focused back on her friend.
"Everything is going.. going to be alright." She stammered to Kara and tried stroking her arms.
Kara wasn't hearing her anymore. She fell to her knees and screamed as the first wave of pain hit her. Her senses told her there were people around her but she couldn't pay attention. She felt herself being dragged around but couldn't still focus. A growl came from her lips and her eyes cleared for a bit.
It was dark but the torches on the wall made her see where she was. She was in a room and had been chained down like an animal. She began to panic and strained to hear the distant voices.
"She's changing for the first time, its bound to be different." She tried placing the voice, it was principal Hartridge.
Her hands trembled and her knees shook as she tried to stand up. Everywhere throbbed with pain laced inbetween. She looked down and saw hair growing slowly. It was white. Alarmed she tried to scream but got blinded by the next wave of pain. This time it felt like her heart stopped.
With a crack, her right leg twisted awkwardly and she fell to the ground. She screamed as the second leg twisted painfully. Tears fell from her eyes as she kept screaming. It was like every bone in her body was breaking. She tried to push the pain to the back of her mind, tried to make herself not feel it.
Kara pictured herself running to her mind house, running away from the pain chasing her but even that didn't stop the pain. She pictured herself entering the gloomy house and locking the bolts on the door, even then the pain came but this time it was different. It wasn't as much this time and she felt like it was over.
Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she went limp.