Elena awoke floating in the sea, her body weightless, drifting with warm currents like silk threads pulling her through the dark.
She wasn't afraid.
In fact, she felt… nothing at all.
No ache. No pulse. No burning scar. Just silence. Just peace.
The only thought she could hold was soft and clear:
Esperanza, don't cry. I know it wasn't you.
She let herself drift. The water caressed her skin, glowing gently with mana-light. And from below, memories began to rise like bubbles. Brief, bright, and sharp as glass.
Making love in the chapel below deck, laughing into Niegal's moans, her hands tangled in his hair.
Finding Esperanza in the temple, just to wake up in chains.
Her little girl, dazed, eyes half-lidded, raising the shaking dagger.
But what no one else knew, what she felt in her bones, was that Esperanza had missed her heart. Narrowly. Barely. But it had been enough.
She had faltered. She had fought it.
Elena prayed Niegal would forgive her. He was her soul's twin, but he was also wrath in flesh. She knew him too well. She felt him, even now, grieving in his silence.
And then-
From the depths, the great serpent emerged.
Guabancex, divine and terrifying, nose to nose with Elena in an instant. Her body the size of a mountain range, lava pouring from her jaws, the sea boiling around them.
Elena smiled.
She pressed a kiss to the snake's nose, and Guabancex let out a thunderous, rumbling hiss, almost laughter.
"A small thank you for your help, mi diosa," Elena murmured.
Guabancex only stared at her with immense, glowing violet eyes, nodding once. Her coils rolled through the water like the shifting of tectonic plates.
Elena folded her arms, her floating body posture now impatient.
"Please tell me there's a way out of here. I need to get back." Her voice softened. "Esperanza… I can feel her guilt. She shouldn't have to carry that weight."
Guabancex's expression turned darker.
The lava fountained higher from her mouth, the sea churning more violently.
"I disagree. There are consequences to actions, my vessel. Even unwitting ones."
Elena's brows rose. "Really?" She clicked her tongue. "You're the Mother of Storms. Of calamities and floods and divine wrath. She was drugged. She was compelled to steal you from me."
The serpent hissed louder, tail lashing. Then, in one great motion, she coiled around Elena, holding her aloft in the water, squeezing. Not to harm, but to force stillness.
"I AM WRATH AND VENGEANCE, CHILD."
Elena didn't flinch. She just stared up at the serpent with narrowed eyes and exasperated defiance.
"And what good is our wrath when it's displaced to a child?" she snapped. "I'm disturbed that you would blame my daughter for something so clearly out of her control."
For the first time since Guabancex had entered her body… Elena pushed her back.
Not with force. But with will.
She didn't shout. She didn't curse. She simply stared her goddess down and pushed her away.
The serpent froze.
Thunder cracked in the distance, far and low.
Elena floated away, her curls drifting around her head like a halo.
"This is the kind of nonsense I buried the Inquisition for," she said. "If you can't see the difference between vengeance and cruelty, then what good is being the vessel of divine wrath?"
Guabancex didn't answer. She merely grew smaller and smaller before her, coiling into shadow.
As she floated, she could've sworn she felt a heartbeat in the water match her own.
Elena closed her eyes.
And opened them.
She was lying in bed.
The familiar curve of the wooden rafters above her.
Her chest burned, each breath like glass in her lungs. Her throat tasted of blood and mana. But she wasn't alone.
To her left- Niegal. Slumped over in a chair, one of his large hands curled protectively around her own like a lifeline.
To her right-
Esperanza.
The girl was weeping in silence, clutching her other hand so gently, her silver eyes swollen and red.
"Mami," she whispered. "I swear it wasn't me. I'd never hurt you like that, please come back? Papa can't stand to look at me now. No one will let Phineus near me. They think I'm cursed, mami… what do I do?"
Elena's heart broke. She hadn't the strength to speak just yet, but her fingers moved.
They squeezed.
Esperanza gasped.
Her mother was smiling at her, lips trembling, her breath shallow and ragged. "Mija… I'm here. Don't cry."
"Mama," she whispered, a smile trembling onto her lips. "I thought we-"
"GET AWAY FROM HER."
The roar was instant.
The lion had awoken.
Niegal surged upright, golden light pulsing from his skin, fangs flashing, eyes wild with divine fury as he snarled at his daughter.
She froze. Elena tightened her grip.
"Niegal. Enough."
He didn't listen. His whole body was trembling, gaze locked on the child as if she were still holding the blade.
Elena's voice broke with pain, blood bubbling at her lips, but she roared louder than he did, each word a gasp from her aching chest-
"She had no choice! How DARE you blame her for choices out of her control?!"
The goddess screamed through her blood, an audible hiss escaping her throat.
She coughed hard, her chest shuddering. Too much, too soon. Niegal instinctively reached out, glowing with green mana to soothe her-
She slapped his hand away.
The slap barely landed, but the intent did.
Niegal froze.
"Elena, you-"
"No," she rasped. "Go. If you can't see reason-if you can't see her innocence- you should not be here."
It was the first time in their life together that Elena had ever told him to leave.
Niegal's jaw clenched. But he obeyed.
He stood slowly. His eyes never left Esperanza's.
The girl swallowed, face pale. "Papi's right, Mama," she whispered. "I should go. You need to rest."
She kissed her mother's forehead, lips trembling, her hand holding on so tightly it was as if she didn't want to let go for her own sake, then walked out. She never once looked at her father.
Niegal followed. Quietly. He didn't speak. He didn't touch Elena again.
The door clicked shut behind them.
And Elena lay there, angry tears streaming sideways into her pillow.
The burn in her lungs was unbearable.
But nothing, nothing, hurt more than the look in her daughter's eyes.
The serpent stirred softly within her chest.
"I think I understand now," the goddess whispered.
Deep within Elena's body, despite the burning in her chest, she felt that strange heartbeat again.
Elena said nothing.
She just lay there and wept.