The Court of Souls?

“Memory is the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Encoding allows information from the outside world to be sensed in the form of chemical and physical stimuli. In the first stage the information must be changed so that it may be put into the encoding process. Storage is the second memory stage or process. This entails that information is maintained over short periods of time. Finally the third process is the retrieval of information that has been stored.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Semper Fidelis***

***Elona***

“Oh, I am so excited about the ceremony!” I twirl Seria around and a cute giggle escapes my daughter. “Faster, Mom!”

It has been five years since Moonray's escape and while Shade and I were busy with creating a new society, Seria grew past the stage of a toddler. Everything happened so quickly, I honestly didn't notice the passage of time. And in just a few weeks it will be time for Cylus, Seria's brother, to take the ceremony.

“Are you really sure that we should allow this?” Shade asks with desperation in his voice. “Seria never was so well behaved. Such a nice child, her current personality is that of an angel. In fact, we should try to find a way to stop her from remembering her previous self!”

I use one my wings to pull Seria closer and shield her from Shade. “You are just afraid that she remembers her time as Legna and holds a grudge against you. And if she gets her memories back you can't play the benevolent teacher to her. Seria will get the same chance at remembering her previous lives as everyone else.”

“In fact, the ceremony is flawed, I can do a much better job at bringing back her memories.” He reaches for Seria, but I whip my tail at the back of his hand, causing him to retreat.

Then I cross my arms in front of my chest and raise my chin. “You will not meddle with our daughter's mind. I remember a lot of things about mind magic, and Doreen's ritual is a gentle way to make old memories resurface. There is no point in bringing back everything at once. Especially if the person in question is still in the body of a child.”

Doreen joins the discussion and waves her hand at Shade. “Don't worry! It's a little different from person to person, but normally the earliest memories come back first. So it will be a long time until she remembers her death as Legna. If at all. Her last lifetime was particularly short and violent. Such a memory has to be very strong to resurface earlier.”

Shade mumbles something, but I ignore him. Instead, I pick up Seria and place her in the chair across from Doreen. My grandmother is, by tradition, the person who performs the ritual on every child once they reach the age of five.

Seria doesn't really understand what's going on, though I tried to explain it to her. Well, I guess the nature of this world isn't very gentle towards the innocence of children. If we were to allow Seria to grow up without this ritual she would lose her previous memories once her real personality surfaces.

Doreen places both hands on the sides of Seria's head and starts chanting. Soon afterwards Seria closes her eyes and falls into a deep trance. I take Shade's hand and wait impatiently for the ceremony to end. It is normal that the only people present are the parents and the person who performs the ceremony, so we retreated to the palace's study room. I have no doubt that Doreen has a lot of experience in introducing new immortals to this world. It's certainly much better than Shade's and Legna's first introduction to the slavers.

Though I feel a little sting in my heart for losing the cute, innocent Seria.

Is this how my parents felt when they had the ceremony performed on me? No, they didn't even know who their daughter would turn out to be. Shade and I have the advantage of knowing that our daughter will be a decent person. Though Cylus will be an entirely different matter. I hope he won't turn out to be some kind of unacceptable character.

Doreen stops her chanting and lowers her hands. Then she snaps her fingers in front of Seria's face. My daughter opens her eyes and reaches for her head, grimacing in pain and confusion. “Who? Where?”

My grandmother smiles. “I am Doreen, your great-grandmother. Do you remember who you are?”

Seria blinks. “I am Seria, the goddess of and life and death! And you are not my grandmother! Where am I?”

Doreen chuckles. “So you remember. That's good. You were reincarnated into a new world, Dedessia. We think that this is a new version of the multiverse after the demise of the old one.”

Seria's eyes search the room until they land on me and Shade. “And who are they?”

“Those are your parents, Elona and Shade-” Doreen's words are cut off by an unholy shriek. And the next thing I notice is that Seria flies past me and right into Shade's face, scratching and biting. I didn't even know that her petite, new body had so much strength, let alone jumping power. It seems like the joining of Shade and me had a positive effect on our children's strength. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Having a baby cost us a lot of mana. If I put the required energy for Seria's and her brother's creation on a scale, then I would end up with several nuclear explosions.

“You killed me! And you have the impertinence to capture my soul and resurrect me with some whore! Wait until I find my real parents! I'll take your soul and then I'll offer you to them as a sacrifice!” Seria's shrieks reverberate through the room.

I place both hands on my cheeks and feel my heart warm up again. “She is such a loyal daughter, isn't she? She sees us as her parents in mind and soul, no matter the ties of blood.”

Doreen's face paled and her jaw dropped. If it was possible, it would surely reach the ground. “I never had such a reaction! Never! We have to help Shade!”

Using my tail, I separate Seria from Shade's face and secure her to the point of being unable to move. She struggles, but is unable to break out of my grasp. “I am so glad that you are yourself again, Seria. And you immediately remembered us! I can't describe the warm feelings in my heart.”

I close my arms around her and hug her tightly. “Don't be fooled by our new alias. I am Celes.”

At last she stops struggling. “Mom!? Then that means...”

“Yes, I am Angrod!” Shade gets back to his feet, his face full of scratches and a bite mark on his nose. But the injuries don't seem to concern him. He looks more heartbroken than anything else. “I am sorry!”

“You better be! I doubt I ever had such a traumatizing event so far! Being killed by the one person who I trusted the most!” Seria calls out and then she blushes. “And to think that I even had a thing for you! This will haunt me for years!”

I ruffle her hair and smile. “I gathered that much from Shade's account of the events. Both of us worked hard to make it up to you. You can have a normal childhood. Dedessia is no longer the unforgiving world you knew. Though there is still a lot of work to do.”

I hurry to the window and open it to show Seria our new crystal city. It's a real, modern city with parks and plants. “Welcome to the realm of Dedessia! And this is its capital! The Crystal City! We created an entire set of closed environments to keep the dangerous wildlife outside and grow food. Shade and I are thinking about using gravity magic to rework our society into a Dyson sphere, once we have enough people. But that step is still a long time in the future. For now, you can bask in the pleasures of being the first princess of Dedessia's new royal line! We thought about using a democracy or something like a technocracy, but why should we allow anyone else to tell us what to do?”

“A dyson swarm of many independent cities would be much more feasible,” Shade interjects.

Seria stares at the blue, glittering city which spreads out around the palace. “So it's back to being a princess? Again? Oh, joy. Can't we pretend being normal, just once?”

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