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Lila's memories shifting....
Young Lila sat at her family's worn kitchen table, its surface cracked and splintered along one side where her father had slammed his fist during one of his many outbursts. The small house they called home in the poorest district of the village barely kept out the rain, but tonight it was dry, and the modest aroma of a simple stew filled the air.
Her mother, Loran, moved quietly around their meager kitchen, her delicate features belying the strength that had endured years of hardship. Despite everything, she maintained a gentle smile for her daughter, though Lila had long since learned to recognize the fear that lingered behind it.
"Are you ready to eat, Lila?" Loran asked, her voice soft as she ladled stew into a chipped bowl.
"Yes," Lila replied, watching as her mother placed the food on the half-broken table, careful to avoid the unstable edge.
Loran sat down across from her daughter, her hands trembling slightly as she placed her own bowl down. She glanced toward the door before leaning forward, lowering her voice.
"Lila, I must tell you something," she whispered. "We must find a way to leave. Leave your father."
Lila's spoon paused halfway to her mouth. Though she had fantasized about escape many times, hearing her mother speak the words aloud made her heart race with both hope and terror.
"We mustn't get caught," Loran continued, reaching across to grasp Lila's small hand. "We don't know what he'll do if he finds out."
A heavy weight settled on Lila's chest as she considered her father's rage. The beatings had grown worse lately, and the look in his eyes had changed—become emptier, more distant. Sometimes, when he came home late at night, reeking of alcohol, she barely recognized him at all.
Loran leaned closer, her eyes intense with purpose. "Tomorrow, when he leaves for work, we'll gather only what we—"
A sudden chorus of shouts erupted from outside, cutting her mother's words short. Screams followed, punctuated by the sound of breaking glass.
"Stay here," Loran commanded, rising quickly from her seat.
But Lila couldn't obey. She followed her mother to the door, peering around her skirts as they stepped onto the porch.
In the center of the village square, illuminated by flickering torchlight, stood her father—his stance unsteady, clearly drunk—facing off against a stranger. The man was tall and gaunt, dressed in unfamiliar attire that marked him as an outsider. Something about him sent a chill down Lila's spine.
"You think you can come here and—" her father slurred, throwing a wild punch that the stranger easily avoided.
The two men exchanged blows, her father growing more enraged with each failed attack. Then, with a fluid motion that seemed too precise for a tavern brawl, the stranger pulled out a strange dagger. The blade caught the torchlight, revealing intricate symbols etched along its surface that seemed to shimmer and shift as Lila watched.
Before anyone could intervene, the stranger plunged the dagger into her father's chest—once, twice, a third time. Her father collapsed to his knees, blood darkening his shirt. But instead of ending there, the stranger continued, stabbing her father's lifeless body repeatedly with mechanical precision.
Then, impossibly, her father's body began to convulse. His skin bulged outward, stretching and tearing as though something inside was fighting to get out. With a sickening, wet sound, his corpse exploded.
Demons—there was no other word for the twisted, chittering things that emerged from what had been her father—scattered across the village square. Their forms were nightmarish amalgamations of claws and teeth, moving with unnatural speed.
Loran grabbed Lila by the shoulders, dragging her back inside and slamming the door shut. Her mother's face was ashen, eyes wide with terror.
"Grab as much as you can," she ordered, her voice breaking. "We must leave NOW!"
Lila nodded frantically and turned toward her small room, but a strange noise—a wet, sliding sound—made her look back.
She would forever wish she hadn't.
A demon, its body a mass of glistening black flesh and too many limbs, loomed behind her mother. Its grotesquely elongated jaw had already engulfed Loran's head, rows of needle-like teeth sinking into her neck and shoulders.
"MAMA!" Lila screamed, her voice shattering the air between them.
But the creature only pulled her mother deeper into its maw, consuming her whole as Lila watched in helpless horror. Blood splattered across the floor, across Lila's face, hot and sticky and smelling of copper.
Instinct took over. Lila ran, bursting through the door and into the chaos outside, her small legs carrying her as fast as they could. She didn't look back at the screams echoing through the village, didn't stop when other villagers called her name. She ran until her lungs burned and her vision blurred with tears, ran until the village was nothing but a distant nightmare behind her.
The memory shifted, dissolving like mist in sunlight, replaced by another moment—one tinged with peace rather than horror. Lila found herself walking through a field of lilacs under a night sky, the full moon casting silver light that transformed the flowers into a sea of ethereal purple. Beside her walked Kaipo, his presence comforting and solid in a way that grounded her.
This was the night before their first mission with Squad Seven. The gentle breeze carried the sweet scent of lilacs as they walked in comfortable silence through the field.
"It was said that a fragment of one of the nine jewels had been spotted, stirring unrest in the region," Kaipo said, breaking the silence as they discussed their upcoming assignment.
"Jewels?" Lila asked, looking up at him curiously.
"Yes, the Nine Jewels are like the holy grail of power," he explained, his voice animated with excitement. "Each Jewel gives its user a very unique and strong power. Even a fragment can be used to bestow its user a lot of power."
Lila chuckled softly. "I didn't know such things existed."
Kaipo laughed as well, a warm sound that seemed to meld perfectly with the night air. "Man, the moon looks good tonight, and the air, it feels amazing."
"Yeah," Lila agreed, her eyes drawn to the way the moonlight illuminated his profile.
A comfortable silence fell between them again, broken only by the whisper of the breeze through the lilacs. Then Lila voiced a question that had lingered in her mind since they'd first met.
"Why did you decide to save me back in the Labyrinth of Illusions?"
Kaipo shrugged, his expression thoughtful. "I'm not going to sit and watch someone suffer," he said simply. "I believe that through teamwork and alliance, the toughest and most impossible battles can be won. So I thought if I saved you and we both worked together, we would be able to easily complete the Labyrinth of Illusions—and that's exactly what we did."
Lila wasn't satisfied with his answer. She pressed further, needing to understand. "But why me? There were hundreds of other mages trapped in the Illusions of their darkest fears, but instead, you chose me. Why is that?"
The night air seemed to still around them, the moonlight reflecting off the lilacs creating a shimmering halo that surrounded them both. Kaipo was silent for a long moment, as though carefully considering his words.
"I'm not sure," he finally said, his voice softer now. "I'm still trying to figure it out myself. It was like I was automatically drawn to you. It's like the path I chose throughout the Labyrinth somehow led to me stumbling upon you. Maybe it was fate that led me to you."
"But why?" Lila persisted, unable to understand why someone like him would be drawn to someone like her. "Why would fate lead you to someone like me?"
Kaipo sighed, hesitating as he took a deep breath. "Maybe innately it's something that I wanted. Maybe somewhere in me or my heart, I... I felt your presence and was innately drawn to you. I can feel your pain, and somewhere in me, that makes me feel more connected to you. It's hard to explain."
Lila smiled, warmth spreading through her chest at his words. She didn't reply immediately, letting the meaning of what he'd said settle between them. Then, to break the growing intensity of the moment, she nudged him playfully.
"Well, next time, don't yank me so hard," she said teasingly. "And don't squeeze my hand so hard. It started to get numb."
Their laughter joined the whisper of the wind, carrying across the field of lilacs as the moon watched silently overhead.
Lila's memories shifted once more, taking her 33 years forward in time from the field of lilacs. The gentle moonlight and sweet scent of flowers faded, replaced by the sterile environment of a hospital room.
Vitanova Prime, the foremost medical planet of the "Seventh" Universe, housed the most advanced healing facilities known. Its gleaming white medical towers were renowned throughout the cosmos for pioneering treatments and lifesaving procedures. Yet despite all the technology and knowledge gathered within its walls, some conditions remained beyond their reach.
Lila sat beside a hospital bed, her hand gently clasping her mother's. Loran looked peaceful despite her condition, her face lined with the gentle marks of a life well-lived. The thirty years they had spent together after everyone's resurrection had been precious beyond measure—a gift neither had ever expected to receive.
The door slid open as Dr. Renwick, one of the head physicians, entered the room. His expression was compassionate yet clinical as he reviewed the monitors displaying Loran's weakening vital signs.
"It's a shocker you survived this long, ma'am," he said, addressing Loran directly. "A lot of the people who came through our hospital that were brought back through Lord Kaipo's Universal Resurrection have only lived around twenty years. You have lived thirty—you should be real grateful. It's unremarkable."
Lila looked up at the doctor, her eyes pleading even though she already knew the answer to her question. "Are you sure there isn't anything that can be done about this, sir?"
Dr. Renwick's expression softened as he shook his head. "No, unfortunately not. I have been talking to the researchers over on Nexus Scientia to find out why people are only living twenty years after Lord Kaipo's Universal Resurrection. The pattern is puzzling—initially we thought it only affected those who had died before the resurrection, but that doesn't explain cases like yourself and your mother. You died prior to the resurrection yet you have lived 30 years already and have zero signs of the illness. Even more confusing, we've observed that people who were alive before the resurrection are also dying around the twenty-year mark. The researchers are baffled—the best theory they have is that it was an unintended limitation in Lord Kaipo's process when he attained the Pure Heart." The doctor paused, considering his words. "But that's just speculation for now. Who knows—Kaipo could have made it that way himself for reasons beyond our understanding, and here we are wrongly attributing it to error."
Lila's expression fell slightly. The thought that Kaipo might have intentionally limited the lifespan of those he resurrected had never occurred to her. It seemed incongruous with everything she knew of him.
Loran squeezed her daughter's hand, drawing Lila's attention back to her. "Look at me, Lila," she said, her voice weak but determined. "We still were able to spend thirty years of time we never could have imagined we would get back. Be happy—these thirty years were amazing, and I couldn't thank Lord Kaipo enough." A knowing smile touched her lips. "It's too bad he couldn't be here to keep you company now that I'm gone, or it's too bad you were captured and killed. From your stories of the time you both had together, it seems you were both getting along realllllllllll wellllllll."
Lila felt heat rush to her cheeks. "It wasn't like that," she protested, embarrassed by her mother's remarks in front of the doctor. "We were just really good friends."
Loran gave her daughter a look that clearly said she didn't believe that for a moment. Her eyes, despite the illness that clouded them, still held the sharp perception that had always seen through Lila's deflections.
"Anyways, Doctor," Loran said, turning back to Dr. Renwick, "I think we should get this over with."
Lila's composure cracked at those words, tears welling in her eyes.
Dr. Renwick nodded solemnly. "Okay then, let's begin. Thanks again for letting us and the research department use your body so we can try to figure out what this illness is that is causing all these same-time deaths."
Lila wrapped her arms around her mother, burying her face against Loran's shoulder as tears flowed freely. "I don't want you to go," she whispered, her voice breaking.
Loran stroked her daughter's hair gently, the same way she had when Lila was a child. "I will always be with you," she said softly. "Plus, there is no way I would miss you becoming Queen. I know it's still some time away as Queen Erisa is still kicking it, but you must be ready, because the time you become Queen could be sooner than later."
With those prophetic words, Lila and her mother embraced one final time, holding onto each other as if to memorize the feeling. Then, gently, Dr. Renwick helped Loran into a wheelchair, ready to take her to where she would be peacefully put to rest before the illness could claim her in a more painful way.
As the door closed behind them, Lila stood alone in the sterile room, her mother's last words echoing in her mind. The path ahead would be walked without Loran's physical presence, but her strength would live on in the woman Lila had become.
Queen Lila's memories faded, bringing her back to the present moment in Luminaris Hall. Tenzin stood before her, the traitor who had once been loyal to the 5 Universes, his words cutting through the air like knives as he demanded her surrender.
But Lila was no longer the frightened child who had fled her village, nor the uncertain apprentice finding her way. She was Queen Lila of the "Seventh" Universe, forged by loss, love, and destiny.
Her eyes, once filled with uncertainty, now blazed with resolve as she faced her enemy.
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