“Sometimes, when the darkness descends, you need to let it. Nighttime is important too; you need time to rest and recover.” ~ The Dark Truth

The next time a hazy sense of comprehension dawned, Serena was absolutely bewildered,

not surprisingly. If memory served correctly, she should have been burned alive by her kin. Yet after coming to, she was somehow inside a massive stone building, getting her mouth wiped by a boy who looked about four years old. If this was a hospital, then a safe assumption could be made that she had been saved from being burned alive. Blurry vision could be explained by injury as well.

Now that her eyes could see clearly in the lighting, she could make out the various people in odd clothing. Some were heavily armored, while others were dressed in body-fitting suits.

And the unusual illumination apparently came from anachronistic mana infused stones on the walls, unless things were not what they seemed.

“Serena, dear, say ‘ahh.’”

At the same time, Serena noticed a bizarre lack of technological devices nearby. In the civilized society of the celestials, manatech was used every day by everyone. However, this room was devoid of electronics yet riddled with items long considered antiques. Are they people from another realm? But...why? What am I doing here with them?

“Serena!”

The situation was a difficult one to grasp. The confusion only deepened.

“Come now. Won’t you open your mouth for me, dear? Serena?”

I don’t understand. That was precisely the problem. That was why she hadn’t noticed the spoon the boy held out. But of course. Even if it had, never in a million years would she have dreamed of eating the proffered food. Surely the spoon was meant for this “Serena, dear.”

But while all these thoughts were swirling around, the boy finally lost her patience.

With a sweet yet stern smile that brooked no argument, he stuffed the spoon into her mouth.

“You mustn’t be picky. Open up!”

It was a scoop of vegetables that had been stewed into mush. But that single spoonful also thrust the truth at hitherto uncomprehending “Serena.”

Stewed vegetables. That’s all the boy had stuffed into her mouth. But for the person in question, the action only made things more bewildering.

Then the rush of memories assaulted her, and she wanted to curl up.

She couldn’t even do that, and so, Serena began to cry. Much to her horror, the sound of another baby crying soon joined her.

The strange boy soothingly rubbed her back, comforting the young babe. Her body soon tired itself out, with the fight temporarily leaving her. Her captor went back to feeding her, which her body responded to naturally.

So, I have been incarnated? Or would this be reincarnated?

Reincarnation was a normal occurrence back home, or at least could be expected to happen. The soul would be cleansed of memories with the barest abilities or knowledge lingering as innate talents for the next life.

Incarnation, on the other hand, was far rarer. They were usually powerful celestials or corpseborn whose powers lied more in the soul and the mind than in the body. They would be able to retain their knowledge and abilities and awaken to memories of their past life over time.

It was one of the major reasons why it was so difficult to destroy celestials and corpseborn. Often, another and even stronger, one of their kin would have to be present or even give the final blow. As for corpseborns, it is best for another one of them to give them a final death.

Her mind ground to a halt as she realized that neither Senku nor Loras directly harmed her. In fact, they advocated for her being unharmed. Even her death would be more pageantry than purpose. They would have known that killing her in such a way would have likely just hurried on her second life.

The reason the deal was struck at all was likely to move her outside the next few generations of her kind.

That would lead me to be incarnated about four generations into the future, but how long was a generation for a celestial again?

The strange boy picked her up once he was done feeding her and brought her over to a dark wooden crib. He gently placed her down beside a rather purple-looking boy who stared back at her with the strangest look.

If Serena had to explain it, it would be shock and puzzlement caused by something unexpected happening. Nothing negative, in and of itself, but it didn’t belong on the face of a baby. Then again, she imagined her looking so bewildered wouldn’t belong on a baby’s face either.

“This is your brother, Serena. His name is Kalani.”

Her lips curled into a grin at the name’s meaning. Royal One or Heavenly. Fitting for the sibling of an incarnated royal celestial.

Brief darkness covered her thoughts as she realized that the Lord of Lies did allow her to keep her name. If he did that much, what else did he decide to keep of her random, and snarky musings?

Serena was already too tired to deal with things and she might as well have been only a few days old. She focused on her twin, and for the moment decided to do her best to make him not be a homicidal lunatic like Loras. There will be no Kinslaying Two:Electric Boogaloo, as the Earthfolk say. Not if she had anything to say about it.

It was always a good idea to have people you can rely on around you, and she needed every little bit of help to survive whatever situation she was in. Serena had no idea where she was, what was going on, or how screwed her situation was. She was completely blind and in unknown territory.

She reached out with her chubby little baby hands, which were horrific to think about, and laid them on top of her brother’s cheek. His gaze darted to them before returning to her, and Serena smiled as bright and cheerful as she could.

It took a few moments but a tiny fraction of the wariness left him. What replaced it, she didn’t know or care, as long as it didn’t end up with her dying or being burned alive again.

Serena was pretty sure that she was going to get a freaking trauma from fire and being lit up like fireworks. She wouldn’t know until she was introduced to fire if she would freak out, but the feeling of her flesh melting away would haunt her dreams for a long time to come.

Alright, kid. Let’s you and me be friends.

If someone told her yesterday that she would be removed from the Top Ten Hunters and be put on babysitting duty, Marama would have burst into a laughing fit before chewing the speaker out.

Literally.

The gods had a strange and fickle sense of humor as the moment she was caught, she had been brought before those money-grubbing bastards of the council.

She wasn’t one of the projects they made from orphans and the hopeless children of the Mainland. No, she had been a leader of a massive criminal ring smuggling well into her twenties when she had finally been caught. The Mad Dog had been caged and was going to be publicly executed.

Moira stepped in to conscript her to be their hound, and so she never bought into their propaganda that they peddled the distraught hunters and huntresses. Marama was a devout follower of the Man In Black and knew a deceiver when she saw one.

Still, she knew better than to bite the hand that was feeding her. If that meant she had to raise these kids herself, then so be it. They seemed to have drawn the gaze of a wealthy benefactor, so at least they won’t have to sacrifice their lives needlessly.

Arima would be sad, but at the very least he would be alive.