Luna was in the middle of explaining to Olivia why unicorns couldn't actually eat glitter ("Trust me, kiddo, the sparkly poops aren't worth it") when Sarah came home early from work. Again. These surprise afternoon returns had been happening more frequently lately, and Luna was starting to suspect they weren't entirely accidental.

"Girls, why don't you go play upstairs for a bit?" Sarah suggested, setting down her designer laptop bag that somehow always looked both professional and effortlessly cool. Luna still couldn't manage that level of style coordination even with her enhanced Charisma stats. "I need to talk to Luna about something."

+50 points: Recognizing important moments

Emma, ever the observant one, caught her mother's tone immediately. "Is Luna in trouble?"

"No, sweetie. Grown-up talk."

"Is it taxes?" Olivia asked with all the gravity a three-year-old could muster. "Daddy says bad words when he does taxes."

Luna bit back a laugh. "No taxes today, promise. How about you two go work on Operation Rainbow Room? I heard your dollhouse needs some redecorating."

Once the girls had thundered upstairs (Olivia somehow making twice as much noise despite being half Emma's size), Sarah settled onto the couch, her usual graceful composure slightly frayed at the edges.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about something," she began.

Luna's carefully enhanced heart rate picked up. She'd spent actual reincarnation points on Emotional Intelligence for this exact moment. Time to put those attributes to work.

"Whatever it is," Luna said gently, "I'm here to listen."

Sarah rubbed her eyebrow with her thumb - a nervous habit Luna remembered from Before, when they were kids and Sarah (then Parker) would do it during tough math homework sessions. Back then, Piper had thought it was just concentration. Now she recognized it for what it was: anxiety about never quite being able to be herself, even in those small moments.

"It's about my past," Sarah said. "Something I usually wait much longer to tell people, but... you're different. The way you are with the girls, how you just... see people for who they are..."

Luna's point counter dinged softly: +75 points: Creating safe space for truth

"The girls have been asking about their aunt," Sarah continued. "About family photos. About why there are gaps..."

"And you're worried about how to explain?" Luna kept her voice soft, open. All those soul rehabilitation files she'd processed were finally paying off.

"I had a sister," Sarah said. Then she laughed, but it wasn't a happy sound. "Well, technically, she had a brother. Before I... before I became me."

Luna's hands trembled slightly. She'd rehearsed this moment countless times, spent literal eternities processing similar stories. But now that it was happening...

"Thank you for trusting me with this," she said, the words coming naturally despite her racing thoughts. "It means a lot that you feel safe sharing your truth with me."

+100 points: Responding with authentic acceptance

Sarah's shoulders relaxed slightly. "You're not... surprised?"

Luna smiled. "Sarah, you're one of the most authentic people I know. The only surprise would be if you weren't exactly who you were meant to be."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

A crash from upstairs, followed by Olivia's voice: "THE UNICORN DID IT!"

Both women laughed, the tension breaking slightly.

"I should probably check on that," Luna said, but Sarah shook her head.

"Let them create chaos for a minute. I... I need to tell you the whole story. About my sister. About why those photos are cropped."

Luna settled back, her heart aching with the weight of what was coming. She'd lived this story from the other side, had spent an entire afterlife processing her mistakes. Now she had to hear it from Sarah's perspective - had to understand exactly how much damage Piper had done.

"Her name was Piper," Sarah said softly. "And she was... she was my hero, you know? Growing up. She protected me from bullies, helped me with homework, made me feel safe. Until I told her who I really was. Then she just... stopped. Stopped being my sister. Stopped being anything."

Luna felt tears pricking at her eyes. Even with all her enhanced attributes, controlling her emotions in this moment was nearly impossible.

"The last time I saw her..." Sarah's voice caught. "It was at our cousin Rachel's wedding. I'd spent weeks picking out the perfect dress, doing my makeup just right. I thought... I thought maybe if she saw me, really saw me, how happy I was being myself..." She shook her head. "She spent the entire reception pretending I didn't exist. Walked right past me at the buffet like I was a stranger. Asked Aunt Helen how 'the family' was doing, meaning our parents, meaning everyone but me."

Luna felt her chest tighten. Try as she might, she couldn't remember this moment - one that had clearly carved itself so deeply into Sarah's heart. Had she really been so caught up in her own righteousness that she'd completely blocked out her sister standing there in a carefully chosen dress, heart in her hands?

"That was almost ten years before she died," Sarah continued. "I kept trying after that - letters, calls, even that wedding invitation, I sent her like 4 of them, and they weren’t cheap ones either.. But it was like throwing messages in bottles into a void. Then one day Mom called to tell me she'd died. Just like that. Smoking on her back porch and she just… died. They said it was a massive blood clot. And all those things I wanted to say..."

*+250 points: Bearing witness to unremembered wounds*

Luna fought to keep her voice steady. The memory gaps were the worst part of reincarnation - knowing there were moments, important moments, that she'd carelessly discarded in her previous life while they'd shaped Sarah's entire world.

"Did you ever get to say them?" Luna asked softly. "Those things you wanted to say?"

Sarah's laugh was hollow. "What would be the point? Tell a gravestone how much I needed my big sister? How much it hurt that she could just... stop loving me? That she could throw away our whole childhood over who I really was?"

*+500 points: Understanding the true weight of past choices*

Luna opened her mouth, trying to find the right words, but was interrupted by thundering footsteps on the stairs.

"LUNA!" Emma burst into the room, looking panicked. "We were looking for more rainbow paper in Dad's office and Olivia found the craft box and—"

"SPARKLE EXPLOSION!" came Olivia's delighted voice from above, followed by what sounded suspiciously like a container being upended.

Sarah's eyes widened in horror. "The craft box? You don't mean—"

"The one on the top shelf that says 'DO NOT OPEN - SERIOUSLY - THIS MEANS YOU OLIVIA'?" Emma nodded grimly. "She used the unicorn castle blocks as stairs."

Luna was already moving. "How did she even—"

They reached the office doorway to find Olivia standing triumphantly atop a precarious tower of plastic blocks, empty glitter containers scattered around her like fallen soldiers. She had somehow managed to cover not just herself, but David's entire desk in a layer of craft-store apocalypse.

"I made everything better!" she announced proudly, small clouds of glitter puffing up with each bounce. "Now Daddy's boring papers are pretty!"

Sarah stared at her youngest daughter, torn between horror and amusement. "Those boring papers were next week's client presentations."

"Now they're SPARKLY client presentations," Olivia corrected, as if this was a significant improvement.

"At least it's not in the carpet?" Emma offered helpfully, then looked down at her socks, which were leaving glittery footprints. "Never mind."

"A cleaning service," Luna said quickly. "I know a cleaning service. They specialize in... craft disasters."

"Do they handle business document decontamination?" Sarah asked weakly.

"And possibly college fund garnishment?" Luna added, eyeing the designer carpet that now resembled a disco ball explosion.