When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded in darkness. The void surrounding me a pervasive, disgusting, cold place. Holding myself close as I quietly waited, I briefly wondered why Fane was so quiet. I knew I was in a dream right now, or something like that. Perhaps what I was just in was a nightmare, and I was finally waking up?

"Fane." I called out. Silence. Total silence in response. "Fane." Calling out again, my voice didn't even echo. It just went on for infinity. My feet touched a floor, and my head turned around to try and find him. Sighing, I imagined the void around me turning into a meadow... it didn't work. For the first time in all my life, my dream didn't mold to my desires. Straightening my back, something felt off. "Fane?" Confidence drained out of me slowly, but then I heard a footstep, and chuckled. "Yeah, alright, funny. So, Fane, what do you think..."

Turning around, I saw Fane, but... wrong. No, it wasn't just wrong, it was like everything about him was contorted and put in the wrong place. My eyes widened as Fane's body twisted and cracked and was crumpled into a mess. I froze in place, reaching out my hand towards him in horror. But then there was a wet sensation on my chest, and it distracted me. Looking down, I saw a gaping hole where my heart had been, and I dropped to the floor on my back, gasping as I covered it with my hand, beginning to panic.

I heard more footsteps in front of me now, and looked up, only to see a demon. A demon whose smile, so gentle and motherly, was twisted into a vile grin that made my spine crawl. Unable to faint, my eyes just stared at them in terror, before they raised their gun to my forehead.

"W-wait no, I—"

BANG

Again. I was shot, again. Clutching my shoulders as I was suddenly in a new void, the sound of the pistols hammer cocking back became a constant sound that replayed every time it ended, followed by the deafening, banging thunderclap of it firing. I could hear my teeth chattering and I bit my lips instead, feeling everything falling out of control. This wasn't how it was supposed to go! They should have been stunned for a couple minutes, enough for me to get the message out and go!

"AAAGH! FUCK! GOD... DAMNIT!"

In the end, I couldn't do anything, and I died. My voice thrown out into the limitless expanse of the void all around. The all-encompassing darkness left me, feeling like I was going mad. And perhaps I already was, and that's why I had Fane. If there had been a chair, it would have been tossed across the floor. My hands went to my head and I pulled at my hair in anger, so furious and angry that there was nothing else that I could have done.

Collapsing to my knees, I punched at the floor until my hands should have bled no matter the material. I swung, hit it with my knuckles, beat against the warm floor until I became exhausted. It happened so quick, and I curled up into a ball, biting my lip in desperation. "Fane... talk to me... please..." Silence. I was met with a silence and a dull sensation in my head. Curling into a ball on the floor, I was enveloped in a disgusting warmth, and I shut my eyes as quiet sobs began to wrack through my body.

No matter how I begged or pleaded for Fane to talk to me, I was met with complete and total silence in response, and soon enough, I didn't have the energy to calm cry.

Suddenly, though, there was a light. A light, in the darkness, and I laughed to myself. I was going to see the pearly gates without my other half... it felt almost comical. And despite how firmly I kept myself to the floor, I was constantly being pulled to that light, until I gave up and just let it take me. Curious to see what heaven looked like, I opened my eyes and...

Hm...?

Why are my arms so heavy, and my eyelids? Why is it so cold... and what's that stench?! I opened my mouth and tried to talk, but found that my voice wouldn't come out, and I didn't have any teeth.

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Was... was I not dead? Was I in a hospital? No, even then...

Taking a look around through my barely open eyes, I wasn't even in the dingiest hospital from the outer sectors' slums. Wherever I was had to be completely barbaric and pre-modern. Like... what even ARE those walls made out of? It looks so... rugged? And this noise in my ears, it's like talking, but the voices are so grating on the ears, and the language sounded so rough. How anyone could talk with that language for any amount of time bewildered me. Nevertheless, I tried to talk again, and the other voices stopped, as if eagerly waiting for my words.

"Ahh..." Immediately, my mind was taken back by the fact that my voice was not mine. It was higher pitched, and almost sounded like a baby's babble. And as my eyes slowly became adjusted to the surroundings, I notice there was at least ten people in the room, and without turning my head, I wasn't sure if there was more, but it sounded like there was, maybe two or three at the most. Without much time to catch my thoughts, I was shifted around with ease. Too much to be a human, yet too natural to be machine, which confused me immensely. But then I was brought face-to-face with someone who seemed to eclipse me. Was it a screen? No, looking to the side of their head, I noticed it wasn't a hologram or a screen.

And the moment they spoke to me, it felt like my ears were being subjected to someone scratching a fork upon a plate. Such a rough language was only seen in recently elevated species who hadn't yet been inducted into the Empire's grasp. Everything I was experiencing was completely illogical, and I struggled to even move my head to look away, before I felt them pull me closer and kiss my forehead before looking into my eyes.

The longer I remained in this situation the more I began to panic, but I had managed to free a hand and lift it up. Only to... see a fat, tiny palm with pudgy fingers. And my mind went blank.

"Fane? Fane talk to me. I'm freaking out. FANE! Fane don't you dare play this game with me!" Silence. Something was wrong, not just one thing, but so many. I felt my heart racing fast, and looking into the eyes of the woman who was holding me—who at least seemed human at first glance—I saw the exhaustion in her eyes with the joy and curiosity. No... this is a weird nightmare, that's it. A dream inside a dream. That had to be it. "FANE!" I screamed mentally, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it beat against my ribs, and I began to hyperventilate for a few moments, before I passed out.

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—Unknown Womans PoV—

It had... been an exhausting time. I never thought giving birth to such an angel would be so difficult. Of course, I've done it before so I knew I would have a hard time, but this time they fought to get out. And when they were finally brought into the world... I was so happy. So beyond elated that I had to thank the Lords and Ladies above for the gift of bestowing me another child. A wide grin spread on my face, and despite the exhaustion coursing through me, I held my baby tightly, happy that they were in my arms. Wrapped in a towel they may have been, I could see the curiosity in their eyes as they looked around at the servants.

"Ahh..." Everyone went silent, their quiet congratulations cut short as they listened to the adorable babble that came from my little girl. I bit my lip, holding back tears of joy before shuddering out a sigh. She was so adorable. Her cheeks were so plump, and I almost pinched it on reflex, but I learned after Amadeus that babies didn't like that. Giggling, I lifted her up and turned her around, kissing her forehead and looking into their eyes. Such a beautiful blue, just like Silas'. I love all my children, truly, but something about her, about the little girl in my arms, spoke to me like it was clawing at my heart strings. She was playing me like an instrument and she made just a single noise.

But when she looked into my eyes and seemed to think of something, her face went pale. Through her tiny body, I could feel her heart racing, and I expected her to cry like my other children, but... no. Something terrible happened and my heart stopped, my blood ran cold and more than exhausted, I felt like my world was crumbling. My baby went limp in my arms. Silence filled the room to the point I felt I had gone deaf.

"Wh...at?" Tears dropped down my cheeks as the doctor rushed to my side and put his fingers against my girls neck lightly, put his hand over her forehead and then dropped to his knees with a sigh.

"She is fine, My Lady... it seems she was just exhausted, and perhaps surprised by being surrounded by so many people." Those words did comfort me slightly, but... it didn't seem right. No, it felt like she was terrified, not surprised. I felt her heart racing so fast I thought it would pop. I looked from the doctor to my little girls face and saw that my tears had fallen onto her face, and I wiped them away.

"Ahh... my little girl... My Lorena..." I quietly whimpered a prayer to the gods to give her the happiest life I could, to allow her to do as she pleased, to be surrounded by people who love her, and to never feel unloved. "Mommy will always love you, so please don't make that face again..."