Esther felt the truth of it settle into her bones.
Not a spell. Not a discipline.
A lineage.
She glanced down at her own hands—older now, scarred, trembling—and wondered how long her mother had carried this knowledge alone. How many nights Estella had stared into the dark, knowing precisely what she would lose.
She never tried to escape it, Esther realized.She just prepared me to survive it.
The thought cracked something open in her chest.
Estella’s breath trembled. “I can accept the healing. The fire. The… occasional resurrection accidents. But visions?”
“What do you see?”
A pause. Then—
“My daughter. And that I will not live to raise her.”
Esther’s breath caught.
Aaron nodded, solemn. “You cannot prevent your death. But you can prepare her.”
“How?”
“The visions aren’t warnings. They are opportunities. Seeds to plant now so she may thrive later.”
The world rippled
Stonehaven reformed around her. Younger. Cleaner. Brighter.
Estella sat on a bench, cradling a baby in her arms. Basil stood guard, sharp and stern, rather than exhausted.
A young succubus girl with starlight hair and twitchy wings bounced beside him.
“Can I hold her?” Luna begged.
“Stop avoiding your lesson,” Basil scolded.
Luna poked baby Esther’s cheek anyway.
“It’s important you learn to hide your talents,” Estella said gently. “Power does not always need to be seen.”
Esther felt the warmth of the moment, the softness in her mother’s voice, the future friendship she never knew existed.
And then it dissolved.
Esther lingered in the warmth even as it faded, heart aching with the ghost of what she had never known. Basil’s stern watchfulness. Luna’s unfiltered affection. A version of the world where she was… cherished.
They were always there for me,she realized, even when I didn’t remember.
The knowledge was both comfort and grief intertwined.
This wasn’t just her mother’s legacy. It was everyone’s.
The orphanage appeared—bright, uncrowded, hopeful.
Charon, young and energetic, guided a tiny bandaged girl forward. She supported herself on crutches, pulling a limp leg behind her.
