Grace approached the edge of the pool, knelt, and touched the surface. The ripples moved outward, and with them came visions - flashes of herself in another time, another form, dancing naked in the rain, covered in ash and petals. She gasped and fell back, and Stella caught her, smiling.
"It's truth," Stella whispered.
Jude moved closer, heart pounding. He looked down and saw not himself, but a version of himself painted in light, skin marked with golden lines, eyes glowing like Rose's. He turned away, shaken.
Rose stepped up behind him, her hands sliding around his waist. "That's what you can become."
"What if I don't want to?" he asked, voice barely audible.
"Then you don't. This isn't conquest. It's communion."