A VISION PLAYED IN Toirien’s mind. She was traveling head first down a tunnel, carried on a breath of warm air toward a welcoming glow. She knew that everyone she’d ever loved, everything she’d ever wanted in life, lay at the end of that tunnel, bathed in the gentle light. Tears ran from her eyes and down her face, and they dripped from her chin before the balmy breeze lifted them and bore them away. She reached out with her arms, eagerly speeding herself on, anticipating the moment of arrival. The limbs she saw before her weren’t her own. Her muscled, freckled forearms had been replaced with long, lithe, tapered specimens, just like the arms of someone modded for physical perfection.
She burst from the tunnel into the light, which was as warm and comforting as a mother’s embrace. Joy suf
