A few weeks after Rou finding himself in the crystal –

"Where is he?!"

The shout of frustration echoed down the halls as Shiela attempted to force her way past the various safeties that were put in place. The one who blocked the way currently was one of the cardinals of the Church within the royal capital. An oracle within the Church had received a request from a God to ask the King to block passage into the hall for the time being. Specifically, they were not told why. Just no one, /No one/, was allowed to pass. Even the parents of the one within.

"Shiela, calm." a voice spoke from nearby, causing the red panda to jerk and see the Queen standing close by. Caught between a habit of wanting to bow and the anger of the mother in her, Shiela settled on what she felt was a polite middle ground and asked again, this time not shouting, "Where is my son."

"You know the answer to that, but for the time being, the Gods have s–"

"ENOUGH!"

Shiela's sudden yell startled the Queen and set the various soldiers nearby into protect mode as they surrounded the Queen to protect her. "I am sick and tired of hearing about the Gods opinion regarding my child, he is my child, not theirs! My gratitude can only extend so far if they keep interfering between us!"

The fury in her voice was palpable, and even when Dominic finally arrived from his attempt to learn more, she snapped at him too, clearly not in the mood to be placated.

Suddenly, from not far away, an elderly voice spoke. "Enough is enough. I will settle this accordingly."

An old mouse, whiskers sagging and a beard practically to the floor appeared out of nowhere. Everyone seemed confused before it became evident that the mouse was most certainly not a normal being. Why was that known? Because the cardinal who had been trying to do his duties was now flat on the ground, not even kneeling but prostrating.

Everyone else knelt or bowed, but Shiela stood her ground and glowered at the elderly mouse. "Give me a reason not to force my way inside." she declared.

"You may follow me, but I warn you, I will brook no nonsense from you. I am doing this out of kindness, and because I understand this is confusing for all involved. I suggest you do not test me, Shiela Erial." Before she could open her mouth, the elderly mouse went from where he was near the wall to in front of her. It wasn't speed, or teleportation, it was a shift in existence. "Consider this a kindness. Not to you, but to your child. How would he feel to discover his mother overstepped her existence and was no longer around when he returns?"

Though a primal terror ran through Shiela, her legs and whole body shaking, she once again stood her ground and stared the being down.

"Hmm hmm hmm. Come along then." and he was gone, moving from in front of her to somewhere else, only seen as she turned and caught sight of him descending the stairwell that was previously blocked off.

–

Eventually the King and Queen, as well as Rou's parents and the old mouse, stopped in front of the giant door that led to the room that housed the crystalized dragon heart.

"Now…" the elderly mouse led off, "I will make two things clear. If any of you opens their mouth and interrupts me, I need not warn you what will happen."

He waited a moment to make his point, then continued.

"Within is the boy, Rou. He was offered a reward by the King and independently asked for a complete set of magic crystals to study. When the King asked if he wanted anything else after believing the reward for helping report the recent Black spore infestation, Rou asked if he could instead try and use the kingdoms most powerful crystal to try and sublimate it. He had been experimenting with magic, as you well know, and was curious."

"The King denied the request at first, but was placated by Affection and Rou was allowed access. By pure chance, the clever little thing managed to stumble into a legacy within the crystal that no one managed to despite over a thousand years of generations of the royal lineage trying. He is within, and is currently in the process of undergoing both sublimation of the crystal, as well as passing on of the legacy. It is a precious time."

While everyone was full of different emotions, the mouse looked at Shiela. "However… you are his mother. He may hate you for it, or he may respect it, I could not say, but I will give you the choice. You will make it now, and the choice you make will not be questioned further. And if you make the choice now, I will not hear you lament it either."

Shiela shivered, looking to be in tears.

"You're asking me to choose between being with my son and forsaking his future, or abandoning him to give him a better one?! How can you ask that of me?!"

She finally broke down sobbing, Dominic trying to comfort her what he could, clearly letting her make the choice. Sure, he wanted to see his son again sooner rather than later, but such a chance was something he'd likely never have again.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

But Shiela was the one who would suffer the most. The mouse said nothing as he stood there, quietly, waiting. Though finally the mouse looked up and closed his eyes, sighing softly.

"Affection and Aether both think I am being cruel to you. Let me clarify something. Rou did not know what this process would entail. Not because of his age, or a lack of understanding, but because he stumbled into a dragon while trying to touch a lizard so to speak. This opportunity was gained through his effort alone, and was not the doing of the Gods. So let me set your mind at ease and perhaps that will grant you some measure of peace to choose."

The older mouse walked forward and stood in front of Dominic and Shiela. "You know me as Creation. You are seemingly under the impression this is the 'doing of the Gods', but in fact, it is quite the opposite. Originally Aether and Affection would have helped guide him through this process and he would have likely achieved little to perhaps a bit of reward but nothing in comparison to what he has obtained now. I cut them off. I cut him off from all the Gods, and gave it to him as a test. What he obtained with his own hands, with his own cleverness and his own luck would be what he received."

His annoyance softened a bit as both of Rou's parents finally calmed down.

"Your boy accidentally solved a thousand year old riddle left by an ancient, dying dragon, who wanted to leave his legacy to his progeny. Instead it was found by the ancestors of your King here. His ancestors, until even the current him, were too inept and failed this riddle. Your boy, in his cleverness and kindness, advanced where they did not. What will it be?"

Finally Shiela stood up and looked at Creation flatly. "You stated the Gods had no doing in this. Can you… prove this to me?"

Creation looked at her rather flatly. "My word is existence. I am Creation. Prove it yourself." finally she had annoyed him and Shiela realized she was being petulant.

"Sorry. That was… rude of me. Obviously you have no reason to lie, you did not even have to come here. I am just tired of hearing about gods and want to be with my child and enjoy my life. But… I will not destroy his future over this. Can we not be there with though? See him?"

"No. Stepping inside would risk killing not only you, but him as well. I have sealed this chamber to avoid any injuries to those without, but if anyone opens it… woe be to you." And with that, Creation turned and waved his hand at the chamber, causing a rope to appear on the handles, binding the doors. And in front of it, a little statuette of an elderly, bearded mouse. And then he was gone between the blinking of eyes.

–

"Reincarnated? Of course, it is a basic tenant of the Church. All life reincarnates in an eternal circle."

Fifteen some-odd years later, after Rou and Affection accepted each other as they did, Rou sat in his parents home and spoke with his mother and father.

"Oh, right, I forget… how to explain this."

They were all in the main living area in their capital home, and were seated on a couple of couches that were facing each other in a quiet corner of the room.

"All souls reincarnate. As part of that process, the old lifes memories are washed away. The souls grow firmer, stronger, and are in turn reborn into a new life. But not all souls can do this. Rarely, some are naturally malformed by coincidence. My soul was one of them. My soul is not… from this world. The gods of another world discarded me to this world because destruction of souls is a taboo and there was nothing left for me there as I was ineligible for traditional reincarnation."

He was going through the process of trying to help his parents understand how his life had gone from when he first came to this world until now. "Thus I was given in this form I am to the gods of this world. My soul was not the first to be transferred in this way, but by chance, Affection was chosen as the next to steward the process. Hence her involvement. My soul was never cleansed of my past life's memories. Unlike others, I remember everything of it. And of this life. As for details… mm."

Rou closed his eyes and added, "I will let Affection fill in this part."

He opened his eyes again and repeated after Affection. "I had a list of candidates whom I was considering to have him be born to. Ultimately I chose you, because you two were roughly perfect for a stable, comfortable life for him and honestly, I thought you two were cute for how affectionate you were with each other. But with you being barren thanks to that old injury of yours, I thought perhaps you could use a bit of a kindness. The others were capable of birthing on their own. You two… I had a hand in that."

Dominic and Shiela were surprised by this, especially Rou's mother who looked a bit upset. She'd been so angry at Affection for so many years, and yet… it was Affection who gave her the chance to be a mother? "I'm… sorry, Affection." she said finally.

"How could you know? I certainly never told you and until just now, Rou's knowledge of this was limited too." Perhaps it was strange to hear Rou speak of himself like that, but his parents knew he was speaking for the goddess. What they didn't know was that he was simply speaking for her, and not her speaking through him.

"I took a pinch of his soul, and one night after the two of you coupled up and you slept, I took a pinch of your souls and melded them together, and put you with child. However, your body was not capable of the birth. You should know this. Your pregnancy and delivery almost killed you. It would have, to be honest, if I had not insisted otherwise. So your pain, your trauma, was my doing. But I do believe you are happy even to this day despite it, for the opportunity?"

Shiela nodded, in tears. The chance to have a child was worth it all for her.

"But it also means that you will never be able to have another child, not even with my help. At least without your current body being healed in a way not even your current level of magic in this kingdom can. Perhaps one day Rou can figure something out for you, but there will be no second miracle birth."

Affection's honesty did answer another point that Rou wasn't aware of. His mother had been praying, near daily, for another child since he was in that crystal. Not to replace him, but something, anything, to focus her love on. And no prayer was answered. So that was why.

"But as for Rou here and his reincarnation… your child, and Rou now… were always the same. That bit of his soul and your souls were the child you gave birth to until the day you noticed his fur patterns change, along with his eyes. The day you came to find out he was involved with me. That day was the day his old soul, the one from the other world, rejoined the bit that grew within you and became your child. They merged. Neither replaced the other, nothing was lost. If we had placed his aware, memory-filled soul fully into your body, left him trapped during gestation, forced through the process of birth and a childhood with the body of a baby, it would have left him mad. …we know the hard way why that is from other souls in the past that were like his."

Rou shivered a little at the thought involuntarily, his parents disturbed but clearly understanding her point.

"I, Affection, hope you will not… hold it against Rou here for having his past life's memories. He has struggled greatly with guilt for depriving you of these last fifteen years, as he had not planned for it to happen. He expected a few days of being busy at best, and instead he was nearly gone for the rest of your lives."

And with that, Rou blinked and shivered again before looking towards his parents. "So as you can tell… my life, our lives, was never normal. And largely it's my fault. I was happy, grateful to have a chance at a childhood again. To live a life again from the start. But all this with the crystal heart, it… was my fault even if it was an accident. I can't give you back that time, but hopefully we can still be a family? I was happy being your child. Even if I'm like this now after so many years." He raised an arm and looked himself over.

–

It took his parents an hour or two to sort it all out, but ultimately, Shiela came over and that lingering despair she had was washed away. She didn't care if Rou's history was so different than she'd ever expected. She gave birth to this body, to him, and that was enough for her. And her anger at the gods, at everything, her despair, her frustration at her inability to have another child… pretty much every problem she's had in the last fifteen years aside from frustrations with her parents and their family, were cured and she felt as if she finally had her child back.

"As for the fur color on my finger that looks like a ring, Affection and I are now… together, in a sense. Nothing so formalized as marriage of course, but… close enough all said."

"..."

Both Dominic and Shiela stared at him in disbelief.