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'𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬' ═══════╝
━━ -ˋˏ★ˎˊ- ━━
. . . THE WORLD BETWEEN WORLDS
𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄.
There was a new emptiness in this place. Darkness shimmered and shone like a mirror, a black lake swimming with memories. Slices and slivers of white light still illuminated the portals, but there was no one there to watch over them. Freedom for a guardian at last.
Her chest heaved, and Lyra fell to her knees with an empty sob. Don't make me stay here. In this emptiness where I am nothing more than a chasm between time and space. A place where I am no longer connected to life or death. At the end of a lifetime of regret and blood, she had assumed there would be something more waiting for her.
"Lyra."
The voice was a memory come to life.
"Mom?"
Lyra found it easy to stand. No flame burned within her. Nothing threatened to consume her. It already had, she supposed.
Cora Grené stood as if she had been waiting in the same spot for years, waiting for the day her daughter came home. Her dark hair hung in glossy waves, her cheeks were flush, perpetually as old as she was the day she died.
Lyra rushed to her, and in the moment Cora's arms wrapped around her, comfort flooded through her veins. She felt so small and so empty, but she was here now, in the end.
"Mom," Lyra repeated, fresh tears falling down her face. "Mom, there's so many things I need to tell you."
Cora laughed, a sound Lyra hadn't heard in years. A sound she thought she wouldn't deserve to hear again. "Love, there will be time for that. More time than you can even imagine."
Wynnetka Adairi emerged. She still held the staff in her hands, but it now looked to be made of a simple metal rather than of light. "Lyra, you fought well."
"You're free to move on," Lyra said, incredulous to see her here. "Why did you come back?"
"I'm here by my own volition now. This place answered to me for many years. Now, it answers to itself once more. Balanced," she said with a small sigh. "It is a nice reprieve."
Before Lyra could say anything else, the scene around them shifted into full color, and the darkness gave way to Naboo in a lush green summer. Songbirds flew overhead and Lyra could have sworn she smelled flowers blooming around them. It might have been imagined but the breeze ruffling through her hair felt vividly real.
