The blood rushed through her veins like a still river that falls over a cataract. It was weak and slow, barely moving at all until that waterfall came into view and sent it spraying and splashing in every direction with such force that the water felt as if it had sprouted wings to fly.

In this way did Neha's adrenalin quicken as the Nostro Lumine coursed through her bloodstream and renewed her heart with something that had previously faded— hope.

As the roof of the flaming building began to fall through and the muffled calls of people outside shouted, Neha, in her weakness, let go of the memory that hid her pain.

Holding her breath as she braced herself for the pain, yet a vastly different sensation flooded her heart. It lifted her up and in her hour of pure hopelessness and strife, filled her with exhilaration.

It coursed through her blood and with each breath, healed her. Neha's skin was mended, and her blisters and scraps were repaired without a scar. Her singed hair had regrown with the strangest speed.

The only thing was... it did not regrow with the same brown color her human body had remembered. Instead, it was the flaming red that burned like the fire.

However, that was not all that changed as the Nostro Lumine restored her health. Healing her pale skin, it caused a sort of light to make her glow and her wings found their way into the human world.

No longer hiding anything, Neha glowed with such a great light that people outside the house craned their necks to see what was going on inside.

Her eyes shot white sparks, her fingers glowed, her heart raced, and her flaming hair caught fire but did not burn and the flames did not dare touch her perfectly white skin.

As her wings fully came to her body, she could feel everything seem right again. Her heart raced so quickly that the young girl felt as if she could... fly.

As another part of the ceiling fell through, Neha could see the smoke-filled blue sky thirty feet above her. Without another thought, she gave all of her borrowed strength to her wings where they thrust her into the sky for the last time.

They pushed with such great might that it only took one strike of her wings to the air to take her from the first floor of the burning house to out through the attic.

Not a flame or speck of ash dared touch her glowing skin as she shot upward, and even though all was burning and chaotic around her, she glowed with such a great white light that one would have thought her a saint.

As her eyes shot dazzling, sparkling, spectacular, white lights she felt like an angel, hovering above the burning house in the chaos.

On the front lawn, Neha could see a few men who had come with buckets of water and... Asaliah, Leo, and baby Maria. They all stare at her, open-mouthed with sparks in their eyes of fear and admiration.

Yet out of all the eyes that were glued to her, two of them were the ones she met. Baby Maria who lay in her mother's arms did not make a noise. She did not cry at the fire and white light, nor laughed. Instead, her eyes were glued to Neha with a look in them that no baby should know.

It was a look of serious understanding and approval. It felt to Neha that little Maria could almost understand and for one split second, Neha could have sworn she saw a flash of fire in the little girl's brown eyes.

"For bravery, your last litterae is A," a voice hissed throughout all the trees, shaking the forest with a breeze that took the leaves off the ground and sent hats and scarves flying around in a cyclone-shaped circle around the flaming house Neha flew over.

Pausing for a second, Neha took a deep breath and looked into the little baby's eyes and whispered her human name. "Maria..."

And with that, she was gone. Swept through light and wind with dazzling sparkles and glistening rays. As Neha admired the Nostro Lumine and the beautiful rays it held her in for the last time, she nearly forgot where she was headed.

Swirling and flying through the warm, golden light, Neha could not help but laugh with joy. The sensation tickled her fingers and toes and made her feel as if she could do anything.

As soon as it had all started, it was over, and Neha was finished; finished with all of it.

Looking around the white snow her bare feet stood in, she knew where she was and nearly ran into the house with excitement. Yet, just after she took a few steps away from the place where the Nostro Lumine had taken her and then returned her, she whispered the two simplest words.

"Thank you." Her breath fogged the night air as she looked up into the sky at all the marvelous midnight diamonds. Although there was no response, Neha could feel in the darkness of the forest that her words had been heard.

Taking one look at the world around her, she breathed in the icy-cold air.

"Maria, darling, get out of the cold! You'll freeze to death!" A surprisingly familiar voice called at her from a doorway behind her.

And that is when it all hit her. Looking down at her feet she was wearing shoes now and could feel a large red coat covering her shoulders, mended and bright, that she had not felt previously. The house was new looking as if it had been built in the past twenty years and was in the exact same place as the one she had watched burn minutes ago.

Memories of a happy childhood with a mother and father filled her memory yet she did not forget the terrors of the life she had lived before or even the adventures of her time being a Kellestri like she was supposed to.

Even the midnight sky seemed to morph into a late afternoon, and it was then when she felt how cold she was.

"Come, it is dinner time, darling!" Asaliah called again from the doorstep and Neha turned to smile at her.

"Coming, mother!" She smiled and came running through the snow onto the front porch of a house that looked very much like the old one.

Inside, the house was nearly identical to the build of the old one. A fire burned in the fireplace next to a fuzzy, bear-blanket and pictures filled the walls of a happy family of three.

"Go and change, Max is coming over for dinner, Maria," Leo, her father, said from the kitchen as he set the table.

Running up the stairs, she could not help but smile. Yet once she reached the top of the stairs to enter the room she somehow remembered to be hers, she froze.

Turning, she slowly walked down the hall in the opposite direction of her bedroom, she came to the small room at the end of the hall.

Hesitating slightly before she turned the knob, Neha opened the door to the room Gordon had trapped her in and where she had started the fire.

Turning the knob, she opened the door and entered the little room. Flicking on a light switch that had not been in the old house, Neha's eyes drifted around the room.

In that room, it was entirely empty except for one object that sat on the mantelpiece. Walking a little closer to see it clearer, Neha could not help but smile as her eyes set on it.

Admiring the fire-scorched wooden frame, the cracked glass, Neha could not help but love the picture of baby Leo and his family. It was the frame she had saved from the fire. It must have fallen once the Nostro Lumine took her.

Going to change and taking off her wet clothes, Neha came down the stairs in a white dress with a red hem.

As she sat down at the kitchen table, the doorbell rang and her mother, Asaliah, opened it and assured a boy named Max to the kitchen table.

The boy sat down next to her and as soon as her eyes met his, her whole body froze. It was as if the very wind had been sucked out of her lungs and she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat.

Raziel, she thought to herself as her eyes gazed into his. His eyes were no longer gray, and his hair was not as black as night, yet his features were the same.

Her heart fluttered with happiness and she had to withhold tears of happiness that he was alright and that she could know him in her lifetime.

Dinner was lovely and after it was all cleaned up, her mother offered for Max to stay the night several times which he refused each time before he left back to the orphanage.

It was a peaceful evening and as Maria lay in her bed that night—warm and full without a scrape or bruise on her strong, healthy body—a tear rolled down her cheek.

Yet it was not a tear of fear, nor a tear of pain, nor a tear of anger, but instead of happiness. As her eyes gazed up at the roof above her head, she closed her eyes to fall asleep.

However, just before she fell asleep, she sat up once more and looked out her window at the stars and the moonlit snow.

"Dear God, uh, I... I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for all of this."

And with that, the girl fell asleep with a smile on her lips--not a care in the world or another world on her mind.

The End