"I want you to get out when you are done," I said, causing Miza to stiffen. I clutched the chains above my head, praying that they would hold. "I want you out of the cell. You can still be in the dungeon if you want."

"Why?" he asked, his voice cold. He tightened the ones around my ankle.

"If I do break out, I don't want you to get hurt," I replied. I took a deep breath. "Trust me, it could happen."

Miza grunted but nodded his head. He finished tightening them before standing. He had a grave look in his eyes, and I knew that this would be painful to watch. "Are you ready?" he asked, causing me to nod. He nodded and took a deep breath. "Then let us begin."

Magic filled the room as he called on both his and my powers. The room glowed a soft blue and goldish color as our magic clashed and weaved together.

Miza stood behind me and started to say stuff in an ancient tongue that I didn't understand. His voice was firm and hard, and it caused the hair on my arms to stand up at attention.

I gritted my teeth as this prickling feeling came over my body. It started to make its way through my toes and all the way up my body.

Payton shifted uncomfortably but stayed silent. Her whole body was tense, and I could feel the warning growls vibrating from her chest. Her tail was flicking back and forth, and I could tell that she was very wary of this situation.

A loud gasp of pain escaped my lips as Miza stabbed me in the back with something, causing me to drop with only the chains holding me up.

My eyes rolled in the back of my head as my body started to shake. I wanted to scream, wanted to tell him to stop, but I couldn't make a sound.

I was at his mercy and at the mercy of this pain. And, I had no idea how I was supposed to stop it.

The blood rushed into my ears, roaring and causing my hearing to stop to work.

I tried to hold on, tried to fight the darkness that was closing in, but I couldn't. I wasn't strong enough.

And, the last thing I had heard, over the roaring in my ears, was, 'it has begun. Good luck."

After that, everything went black.

***

The worst feeling in the world was probably having your identity taken away from you. You think you know who and what you are, but then life throws you a curveball, and you can't hit it, no matter how hard you try.

You are pulled in different directions, directions that don't make sense in your everyday life. You think you know what makes you, but you don't. And, you are left scrambling to fix the pieces that make sense. But, nothing makes sense anymore.

That, that was how I felt when Miza had done the spell. Truth became lies and lies became truth. The people that I thought I knew were the same, but my viewpoints on them had changed.

Memories that I thought had happened didn't, not in the way that Mahlaka had made them. Some of the memories that Mahlaka had given me were fake, tearing away at the identity that I had known before all of this.

And this, this changed my identity too. It ripped me apart at the seams, and I knew that I would have put myself back together piece by piece.

At least, the people that did care about could help me find the truth. All I need to do was survive this.