In The Holding Cell: A Dream IV

Maya withdrew immediately from her mother's touch. It was the right path. The voice would be the same if it wasn't playing in slow motion.

But the words-the explanation was all wrong. It had to be. You couldn't go to the tree of souls unless you were dead.

And she wasn't dead. Her heart was hammering loud-too loud. The pain in her body was real. She had been poisoned.

Maya knew it was still burning through her system. And how could that be if she had been healed properly? Where was the greatest healer her people had ever known? Surely, the latter would not have allowed poison to remain in her body, no matter what the risk to herself.

She pulled her shirt from her body and stared down at the scars on her chest. Her kind is rarely scarred. The wound was over her heart, a jagged, ugly scar that spoke volumes. A killing blow.