Elena walked deeper and deeper into the ocean waters, thunder clapping in the skies above like war drums from a distant heaven. Her arms and body glowed with a golden-green light beneath the waves, the color gleaming softly in the dim water like sacred fire sealed beneath glass.
At first, the sting of salt and cold made her pause.
She gasped, sharp and shivering, breath caught in her throat.
Pain still clung to her skin like chains. Her limbs ached with exhaustion. Her vision swam.
But her voice did not shake.
"For Niegal. For Esperanza."
She whispered it fiercely into the wind—no longer a plea, but a vow. The sea answered with a ripple.
With each step into the sacred deep, the pain lessened.
The fire dimmed.
The world grew still.
Until, at last, her feet left the earth completely.
And she floated.
Her body weightless.
Her soul unbound.
She smiled faintly as a distant memory bubbled up;
Seamus, years ago, teaching her to swim beneath the jagged cliffs of the old estate.
They had laughed then, young and free, dreaming of a wedding, of a home, of a future not yet stained with war.
Elena exhaled. The memory drifted away like seafoam.
The present reclaimed her.
The water now clung to her skin like liquid silk, swirling gently around her as if remembering her shape. A current curled along her back, threading through the spiral scars left by the storm.
And then-
the healing began.
Her burned flesh softened beneath the water's touch.
Blackened skin turned to gold-lit pink.
The bones beneath her arms reknit, glowing briefly as they sealed with grace.
Flakes of ash lifted gently away from her like petals in a windless garden, dissolving into the sea.
She gasped softly.
Not from pain, no, but from relief.
From the sheer gentleness of it.
A restoration.A resurrection.
Her eyelids, once swollen and sealed, fluttered open with clarity.
She opened her mouth and let the last of her breath rise as bubbles toward the light above.
When she looked again, her arms were whole.
Two shades darker than before-
marked, not marred.
The skin around her eyes shimmered violet-blue like the edge of a stormcloud.
She smiled through tears.
"Thank you," she whispered to the sea, to the sky, to her daughter, to the gods.
Somewhere beyond the depths, Esperanza had called her back.
For the first time in what felt like eternity the pain was gone.
"Maaami…"
The voice came again, sweet and lilting.
"Papi is waiting!"
Elena's lips curved into a joyful, radiant smile.The currents buoyed her upward like hands.
But something stirred below.
Dark and smooth, it floated past her like a dream.
Her hand moved instinctively, catching it.
A black pearl.
It glowed faintly with an inner shimmer, like moonlight trapped in obsidian.
When she held it to her chest
it sank into her.
Gently.
Deliberately.
Willingly.
A burst of violet light exploded through the sea, painting the water with swirling glyphs and glowing spirals. The sound of waves fell away.
All that remained was light- and a hilt.
A gold-and-black pearl hilt slowly emerged from her chest, as though the blade had been waiting, plunged deep in her heart all along.
She gasped.
Not in fear.
In awe.
The water sang with electric stillness.
Every grain of salt, every current, every memory paused to bear witness.
Then came the voice.
Not Esperanza.
Not her own.
But something older.
Wider.
Woven with wind and storm.
"A gift," said the voice.
Thunderous. Feminine.
As soft as thunder on the edge of a lover's sigh.
As sharp as the eye of a hurricane.
"The Blade of Boinayel."
"Forged by rain. Tempered by grief. Piercing through shadow and illusion."
"You are not reborn, daughter. You are revealed."
"Hold nothing back."
"You know what to do. So let it be."
It felt warm.
Heavy.
Like it had always been hers.
And then, without a shred of hesitation-
She pulled.