"To Link, you must feel what the other feels. Not just in soccer — in everything," Selene instructed. "Stand facing each other. Close your eyes. Now, recall your most painful memory."

The ball didn't travel in an arc. It became a liquid comet, twisting between Dune's fingers, around the Sand Serpent's jaws, and into the net.

From the shadows stepped a girl no older than Arion. She had silver hair that shimmered like liquid mercury, eyes the color of twin comets, and a faint, translucent aura around her — like a Soul that hadn't fully awakened. She wore the tattered cloak of a Faram Dite scholar.