The word hung in the air like something solid. Like something that could be touched.
Mother.
Rika's voice had been barely a whisper. Barely a breath. Barely anything at all. But Lanine heard it. The wind heard it. The stars still slowly unbending from their impossible curve seemed to pause and listen.
The woman—Seraphine—smiled.
It was the saddest happiest most complicated smile Lanine had ever seen. It held three hundred years of searching. It held hope that had nearly died a thousand times. It held love so fierce and so desperate that it made his chest ache just looking at it.
"Yes little one," she said softly. "I am here."
Rika's legs gave out.
Lanine caught her. Lowered her gently to the ground. Her eyes were still fixed on Seraphine. Drinking her in. Memorizing every detail. Like she was afraid the woman might vanish if she looked away.
"You died," Rika whispered. Her voice was broken. Like glass that had been shattered and put back together. "They told me you died. When I was a baby. They said there was an accident. They said you were gone. They said I should not hope. They said—"
"They lied." Seraphine knelt. Brought herself to Rika's level. Her hand reached out. Hovered near Rika's cheek. Did not quite touch. Like she was afraid too. Like she thought Rika might be the one to vanish. "I was taken. Hidden. Kept from you by enemies who wanted to use you against me."
"Three hundred years," Rika breathed. "You said you have been searching for three hundred years."
"Yes."
"But I am only sixteen."
"Time moves differently in different places. Different realms. Different prisons." Seraphine's eyes glittered with unshed tears. "For me, it was three centuries of searching. For you, it was sixteen years of growing up without me. Never knowing. Never understanding why you felt empty. Why did you always feel like something was missing?"
Rika's hand moved. Trembling. Touched her mother's cheek.
She was real. Warm. Solid.
"You are real," Rika said.
"I am real."
"I am not dreaming?"
"You are not dreaming."
Rika's tears finally came.
---
Lanine sat back. Gave them space.
His own eyes were wet. He did not care. This was too big. Too raw. Too human to pretend otherwise. He watched mother and daughter hold each other for the first time in sixteen years. The first time since Rika was an infant. He felt like he was watching something sacred. Something he should not be seeing. Something private and holy.
The stars slowly returned to their proper places. One by one they stopped bending and went back to where they belonged. The pressure in the air faded. The world had decided not to end tonight after all.
Minutes passed. Or hours. Lanine could not tell. Time did not matter here.
Rika cried against her mother's shoulder. Great heaving sobs that shook her whole body. Sixteen years of grief. Sixteen years of not knowing. Sixteen years of feeling like a piece of her was missing. All of it is pouring out.
Seraphine held her. Rocked her. Whispered things Lanine could not hear. Her own tears fell silently. Three hundred years of searching. Three hundred years of hoping. Three hundred years of never giving up. Finally over.
Eventually, the sobs became quieter. Eventually, they stopped.
Rika pulled back. Looked at her mother's face. Touched it again. Like she still could not believe it was real.
"You are really here," she said.
"I am really here."
"I am not going to wake up?"
"You are not going to wake up."
Rika laughed. A wet shaky laugh. But real.
"This is the best dream I have ever had."
"It is not a dream." Seraphine cupped her daughter's face in her hands. "It is real. I am real. We are real."
---
Seraphine looked up at Lanine. Really looked at him for the first time.
"You," she said. "The one who has been with her."
"Lanine."
"Lanine." She tested the name. "You ran toward me. Without knowing who I was. Without knowing if you could help. You ran toward a woman who bent the stars just by arriving."
"She is my partner."
"Partner." Seraphine's eyes searched his face. "In seven days?"
"Seven days is a long time when you are running for your life."
A pause. Then Seraphine laughed. A sound like water over stones. Like waves against a shore. Like something ancient and powerful and yet completely human.
"You are good," she said. "Genuinely good. I can see it in you. I can see it in the way you look at her. In the way you put yourself between her and danger. In the way you ran toward me with no power and no hope of winning." She looked back at Rika. Still clutching her like a lifeline. "She chose well."
"I did not choose anything," Rika mumbled into her mother's shoulder. Her voice was muffled. But Lanine could hear her. "He just showed up. Would not leave. Kept saying we were partners."
"Sounds like a choice to me."
Rika pulled back. Wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. For the first time since the test, there was something in her face besides pain. Confusion yes. Overwhelm definitely. But also hope. Also, something that looked almost like peace.
"Mother," she said. Testing the word as it might break. Like it might shatter if she said it too loudly. "What happened? Who took you? Why?"
Seraphine's expression darkened. The light in her eyes changed. Became harder. Colder.
"Enemies," she said. "Beings who wanted leverage against me. Against our bloodline. They knew that if they could control you they could control me. So they hid you where I could not sense you. Could not reach you. Could not even dream of finding you."
"Who were they?"
"Powerful beings. Ancient beings. Beings who have existed longer than your friend's entire planet." Seraphine's voice was flat. Controlled. But Lanine could hear the rage underneath. "They took you hours after you were born. I searched everywhere. Every realm. Every universe. Every hidden corner of existence. Nothing."
"But you did find me."
"The Evolution Treaty. Newland." Seraphine gestured at the world around them. "This place exists outside normal rules. Outside normal time. Outside normal space. When you arrived here. When you touched that stone—" Her voice caught. "I felt it. Across continents. Across realms. Across dimensions. I felt you. For the first time in three hundred years, I felt you."
"The stone showed nothing," Rika said bitterly. "Everyone thinks I am broken. Everyone thinks I am worthless. Everyone thinks I am nothing."
Seraphine's eyes flashed. Not with anger at Rika. At the very idea.
"The stone is blind," she said firmly. Her voice was steel. "It measures up to a certain level and no further. Tier Five is its maximum. Fifty is its limit. You exceeded its limits so it showed nothing. You are not broken my daughter. You are the opposite of broken."
"What do you mean?"
Seraphine took a deep breath. Let it out slowly.
"Your constitution is Tier Ten," she said. "Value over one thousand. In our bloodline, such constitutions appear once every few generations. Once every ten thousand years. You are not just talented. You are not just rare. You are a once-in-a-millennium treasure. You are precious beyond measure. You are—"
"A monster," Rika whispered.
"A treasure." Seraphine cupped her daughter's face in her hands again. Firm this time. Forcing Rika to look at her. "Never say otherwise. Never let anyone make you feel otherwise. You are my daughter. You are my blood. You are everything."
---
Lanine whistled softly.
Tier Ten. Value over one thousand.
He was Tier Three High. Fifteen times multiplier. Varn had practically worshipped him for it. Goro had been stunned. The whole village had celebrated.
What would they do if they knew about Rika?
Probably explode. Or try to kidnap her. Or both.
"Does anyone else know?" he asked. "About her constitution?"
Seraphine shook her head. "The stone showed nothing. The detection array showed nothing. To anyone watching she is a blank. A void. A nothing." She smiled grimly. "Our enemies' hiding method worked almost too well. Even I could not sense her until she touched that stone."
"Almost," Rika said.
"Almost."
Another silence. Different this time. Not sad. Not heavy. Full of questions waiting to be asked. Full of possibilities waiting to be explored.
"What happens now?" Rika finally said.
Seraphine's expression softened. The hardness melted away. She looked at her daughter with nothing but love.
"That depends on you little one. I have waited three hundred years. I can wait a little longer." She glanced at Lanine. "You have a friend here. A life starting. I will not tear you away from that if you are not ready."
"But you want me to come with you."
"I want you to be safe. I want you to be trained. I want you to have the future that was stolen from both of us." Seraphine's voice was gentle but firm. "The Depthless Abyss Sect on Aquaris is one of the strongest on the continent. With your constitution, you could rise faster than anyone in centuries. You could become—"
"A monster," Rika said again. This time she almost smiled.
"Yes." Seraphine smiled too. "A monster. In the best way."
Rika looked at Lanine.
He knew that look. It was the look she had worn when she asked if he would be her partner. The look that said I am scared but I am doing it anyway. The look that said I need you to tell me it will be okay.
"Go," he said.
"What?"
"Go with her. This is—" He gestured at everything. At the crater. In the sky. In the whole impossible world. "This is your mother. This is your family. This is three hundred years of searching. You cannot just—" He stopped. Swallowed. "You cannot go."
"But the sect—"
"I will handle the sect."
"Our promise—"
"Still stands." He met her eyes. Held them. "We will find each other again. Wherever you go. Whatever it takes. However long it takes. We will find each other."
Rika stared at him for a long moment. Her eyes searched his face. Looking for doubt. Looking for hesitation. Looking for any sign that he did not mean it.
She did not find any.
Then she crossed the space between them and hugged him. Fierce. Desperate. Real. Her arms wrapped around him so tight he could barely breathe.
"You better," she whispered into his shoulder. "You'd better find me."
"I will."
"Promise me."
"I promise."
---
They talked through the night.
Seraphine told them about Aquaris. The floating cities that drifted on clouds. The endless oceans that went deeper than any map could show. The Depthless Abyss Sect with its secrets and traditions that stretched back ten thousand years. She told them about cultivation paths Rika could take. Techniques she could learn. Heights she could reach.
Lanine listened. Asked questions. Stored information. He wanted to remember everything. Every detail about where Rika was going. Every name. Every place. Everything that might help him find her someday.
Rika listened. Held her mother's hand. Slowly began to believe that this was real. That she was not dreaming. That she had a mother. That she had a future.
When the first sun crested the horizon Seraphine stood.
"I must go soon," she said. "My presence here will attract attention. Attention you do not need. Attention that could be dangerous."
"How will we find each other again?" Rika asked. Panic in her voice. "How will I know where to go?"
"When you are ready come to Aquaris. Seek the Depthless Abyss. I will be waiting." Seraphine looked at Lanine. "Both of you. When you are ready."
Lanine nodded.
Rika hugged her mother one last time. Longer. Harder. Unwilling to let go.
"I will find you," she whispered. "I promise. I will find you."
"I know you will." Seraphine kissed her forehead. Held her close for one more moment. "You are my daughter. You have already found me across three hundred years and a thousand worlds. What is a little distance compared to that? What is a little time?"
She stepped back. The air around her began to shimmer.
"Lanine."
He looked up.
"Thank you. For keeping her safe. For being good. For being the kind of person who runs toward danger instead of away." Her eyes held his. "When you come to Aquaris—and you will come—there will be a place for you too. Remember that."
The light took her.
And then she was gone.
---
Rika stood at the crater's edge. Staring at space. At the spot where her mother had been just moments ago.
"She is really gone," she said.
"She will be back. Or you will go to her." Lanine stood beside her. Close enough that their shoulders almost touched. "Either way this is not goodbye forever."
"I know." Rika wiped her eyes. "It just feels like it."
They stood together. Watching the sunrise.
Three suns rose over the mountains. Painting the sky in shades of gold and orange and pink. The world was beautiful. Even after everything. Even after the longest night of Rika's life. It was still beautiful.
After a long moment, Rika spoke again.
"Tier Ten," she said. "Value over one thousand. I am still trying to process that."
"Yeah. Me too."
"I spent two days thinking I was broken. Thinking I was nothing. Thinking I was worthless."
"I know."
"And now—" She laughed. Wet and shaky but real. "Now I am the special one. Not you."
"Never said I was special."
"You did not have to. Your hands have been glowing for three days."
Lanine looked at his hands. Still glowing. Still faintly pulsing with light under the skin.
"Huh," he said. "I forgot about that."
"How do you forget your hands are glowing?"
"Busy night."
Rika laughed again. Real this time. Warm and alive and full of something that sounded almost like joy.
"What do we do now?" she asked.
"Now?" Lanine thought about it. Looked toward the village. Toward the life waiting for them there. "Now we go back to the village. We tell Goro you are alive. We figure out how to explain last night without explaining last night. And then..." He shrugged. "I guess I join a sect."
"And me?"
"You go with me. For now. Until you are ready for Aquaris."
Rika nodded slowly.
"Partners?" she said.
"Partners."
They walked back toward Axo Stone Village. Side by side. Shoulder to shoulder. As the three suns rose over a world that had just become much bigger and much stranger than either of them had imagined.
Behind them, the crater smoked gently. Evidence that something impossible had happened here.
Ahead of them the village waited. Unaware of what had occurred. Unaware that one of their own was worth more than the entire region combined.
Lanine and Rika walked toward it together.
Partners.
Always partners.