Kaylee more or less ignored Richard and Mayleen, idly wandering deeper into the lightly forested park. Michel trailed behind her, as ever. Her older brother, and, in a way, her guardian angel, was always vigilant, although he lacked his kin's uncanny observative expertise. In more ways than one... Kaylee thought distantly. She sometimes wondered whether she should consider her clairvoyance a blessing, or a curse that only worsened the disease that sapped her strength day by day. She rolled up her sleeve and stared at her arm, stopping. Her skin was pale, almost unnaturally so. And she didn't need a dread mirror to know her eyes were out of sync. The gray that was now a trademark of the deathly plague stained one of her irises. Sighing, she continued to walk aimlessly, taking in everything around her, for once, instead of purposefully shutting out sensory input. She remembered everything she saw, everything she heard. Most would consider it a boon, but that was simply because they did not understand. It was an ability beyond their ken, and they could not know what drawbacks it brought. Idly, the girl knelt, staring at a peculiar flower. I've never seen a plant like this before... She pondered. It appeared to be some kind of lily, but none Kaylee had ever seen or read about. Carefully, she plucked it from the ground. After staring at it in her hand for a moment longer, she entwined it in her hair and stood. Distantly, she proceeded with her wanderings. The park was a beautiful place, the kind of calm beauty not often witnessed in this troubled age. Governments locked down cities, placed curfews and strict laws. Misguided idealists plotted to splinter the nation with no thoughts to the consequences. Outlaws and looters roamed the abandoned places. The world was in chaos, yet it all seemed so far away in this little garden in the safest city in the country. It would be easy for the people in Vodigrad to pretend that terialis didn't exist, that it wasn't their problem. It would be easy to ignore it. But a threat ignored will only creep up on you. Even if Kaylee's own group hadn't spelled the arrival of the disease, it would come soon enough.
Kaylee suddenly snapped out of her reverie as she almost walked into a stream. She stepped back quickly, almost tripping over Michel, who was already reaching out to keep her from falling. The peculiar flower in her hair was jarred loose, and she could do nothing but watch as it drifted through the air, to settle into the water, sending out ripples that distorted the mirror's reflection that troubled her so. As the reflected image of a twisted world and a dying girl was warped, the lily fell apart, it's petals floating on the surface of the water.
Kaylee could do nothing but stare.