Page 177 of Daughter of the Serpent

The cord hissed, twisted, then snapped.

The dark energy curled into smoke, rising into the sky like a wail carried off on thewind.

It was done.

As the last thread of darkness dissolved, Sylvie gasped, her entire body trembling. Her chest felt impossibly light, as if the stone that had sat there for so long had finally been rolled away, crumbled into dust. Her limbs, once heavy, now floated weightless.

Her soul swelled with something radiant, something new.

A warmth shimmered through every fiber of her being. Pure light spilled over her, bathing her soul in a weightless glow that consumed every inch, like feathered wings wrapping around her like a living shield. And somehow it went beyond touch. It was remembrance. A recognition that pierced beyond flesh and bone.

Something stirred within her.

Not a memory, not quite - but a knowing. A truth too ancient to name. As if somewhere, long ago, she had been here before. As if this moment had been waiting for her all along.

Golden rivulets of light - like threads of sunshine - reached down from the heavens and kissed her skin. They danced across her cheeks and flowed through her chest, not burning, but warming from the inside out. She felt drawn to them, tethered by something deeper than thought.

The sun… yes, the sun.

Sheknewit.

Its rays curled around her like old friends returning after a long absence. She swore, if she reached far enough into the space between memory and soul, she could call each one by name. They knew her too - these tendrils of golden light - and they came to her willingly, drenching her in warmth, recognition, and grace.

Her body trembled as she surrendered fully.

The last threads of sorrow unraveled, slipping from her like worn fabric falling away. And in their place: lightness. A quiet, golden stillness.

She knew her body, far below, was weeping - tears spilling down her cheeks like quiet rivers, not of sorrow, but of joy. Ofoverwhelming elation at their reunion. To these parts of herself that had finally been returned.

But here,above, wrapped in soul not in flesh, there were no tears.

Only the profound sense of being seen. Known. Held.

Wholly accepted.

Entirely loved.

She was everything, and everything was her. The earth. The sky. The heavens and stars and the winds. She existed in all of it, suspended in a place where no fear could follow.

Her spirit soared, boundless and unbroken. Her breath synced with the pulse of the universe. There was no time here. No form. No name. Just light and freedom and the quiet bliss of oneness.

It felt like hours passed, maybe years. Maybe lifetimes.

But then - a voice, sharp and urgent, sliced through the veil of light.

Wake up.

It rippled through her, jarring and unfamiliar.

She drifted, resisting.

Why return? Why leave this place of beauty, this eternal stillness?

Sylvie. Wake up.

Her name rang out like thunder, commanding. The bliss began to crack at the edges. She clung to the light, aching to stay. She didn’t want to return - not to pain, not to weight, not to the world she’d left behind.

Wake up. NOW.