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I was still staring at her face, unable to comprehend how she was so different yet so much the same… when a much younger voice broke out in a disbelieving, shocked cry.

I turned, just in time to see a small body running towards me.

A child, younger than Aura had been when I’d last seen her, but roughly the same age, ran towards me at full speed. I only managed to get a bare glimpse of her appearance before she launched herself into my arms. I caught her like Nick had with me, more in reflex and confusion than affection, at least in those initial moments.

Then I just stood there, holding her in my arms.

She had shoulder-length black hair, dyed silver at the tips. When she looked up at me, her eyes were a bright, ice-blue, almost the same color as her hair.

She looked at me with so much love and adoration, tears threatened.

More than that, I could feel something on her, in her light, something that felt like a punch to the chest. I stared at that beautiful, small face, and I could only clutch at her.

“Mom!” She said the word with so much, my throat closed, I couldn’t breathe. My mind shorted out. “Mom! You’re alive! You’re alive!”

I froze, still gripping her in my arms.

I looked over to Black, who stared at me with the girl, his eyes wide and panicked, his jaw clenched. He turned then, as another person walked up towards us much more cautiously, a tall, lean seer with long black hair and two different colored eyes. He stared at Black, then at me, then back at Black, then back at me. His eyes held nothing but stunned shock, right before they filled with tears.

Then the young man walked up to Black and wrapped his arms around him.

He hugged Black so hard, tears came to Black’s eyes, too.

“Dad,” the young man said.

So much relief filled his voice, I choked on it.

Relief filled his voice, his light, everything about him, making him sound and feel far younger than whatever his years must be. He also choked on the words, and then he was crying, sobbing against Black’s chest.

I stared at the young man, who looked to be roughly in his early twenties in human years. Like the girl in my arms, he was unmistakably seer, though, which meant that couldn’t be his age. I could feel their lights swirling around both of us, clouds of intense structure and brightness––so bright, it made my throat clench even more.

I looked at Black and he looked at me.

Neither of us could manage to speak.

When I looked at Nick, he looked as shocked as we were.

He stared at the two people in me and Black’s arms, and from the look on his face, he obviously knew them both, and knew them well.

Then the woman who’d gripped his arm in both of her hands released him.

I watched her, followed the direction of her stare, and saw her staring at Manny and Yarli. She stepped away from Nick, walking towards them gradually, almost fearfully.

She walked until she stood right in front of them.

She looked at Yarli, taking in her face and eyes and hair.

Then she looked at Manny, and he smiled at her.

“Are you… are youmyparents?” the woman who had been Aura asked.

Her voice was so hollow, so filled with disbelief, it sounded like shock.

Unlike the girl in my arms, she didn’t sound relieved so much as like she might pass out. I was still staring at the three of them standing there, bewildered looks on all of their faces, when the woman with the blue-green eyes burst into tears.

Nick got to her so quickly, I didn’t even see him move.

I felt the movement of the air, and then he had his arms around her.