Time/Date: TC1853.01.10-11 (Night to Evening, Day 1-2)
Location: Grandpa Coop's Safe House, Craftsman's Quarter, Ring 6
The garden materialized like a dream, becoming solid.
Soft grass beneath her. She could move again—the paralysis had vanished. The bone-shattering agony retreated to background noise, present but no longer all-consuming.
Raven sat up slowly, disoriented. Cherry trees in full bloom scattered petals across manicured paths. A pond reflected clouds that moved too slowly. Everything was soft and peaceful and wrong, because her body was broken somewhere else.
"Mama?"
The voice stopped her heart.
A little girl stood beneath a cherry tree. Six or seven years old, with dark hair and eyes that were heartbreakingly familiar. Raven's eyes in a face shaped by Kael's genetics.
Novara.
The daughter who would never exist. Who Raven had erased by choosing a different path.
