Novel Full Chapter 990: Blue Flower
Chapter 990: Blue Flower
“Playing innocent pranks is okay, but not now when your mother is distressed. Have some respect.”
“Y-Yes, Daddy!” Rosie chirped immediately, her leafy body tensing like a soldier receiving orders. She saluted dramatically, then plopped herself onto the top of his head as if it were her rightful throne.
And with a dramatic inhale…
“Hiya!”
She clapped her hands together.
*BOOM!*
Magic exploded from her in radiant waves. The air twisted and shimmered with dryadic essence. The light pulsed and converged on the little blue flower at the center of the glade. It flared with color.
The little blue flower pulsed once.
Then again.
With a final rush of energy, the petals curled outward, glowing brighter than ever, until *shink!* the stalk cracked upward like a sapling sprouting from spring soil.
Before their eyes, the flower bloomed, not into more petals, but into a tree. Or rather, a miniature tree, barely the size of Rosie herself. Its trunk was thin while its leaves were teal, crystalline in texture, and luminous.
And from within its trunk… something stirred.
A soft shimmer blinked into existence.
Then, with a burst of pollen and a puff of sparkling light, a tiny fairy girl who was glowing blue popped out of the tree.
She hovered in the air with fluttering translucent wings, blinking her wide sapphire eyes with innocent bewilderment. Her hair was wavy and cloud-soft, her cheeks round like mochi, and her expression screamed one word:
“Scared.”
“E-Eeeek!” she squeaked, glancing around at the big, unfamiliar faces surrounding her. She zipped through the air in a panic, before immediately darting toward the one person who felt “right”.
“Big sis Rosie!!”
The little fairy threw herself behind Rosie’s hair, hiding there like a spooked bunny behind tall grass. Her head peeked out with a trembling pout, eyes watery and wings buzzing.
Rosie, still perched proudly on Quinlan’s head, giggled and reached back to pat her tiny sister’s face reassuringly. “There, there~ There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“B-but big sis Rosie!!” the fairy whimpered in strong protest, clutching her leafy curls tightly with trembling hands.
Rosie pointed with her finger dramatically, like a princess introducing her court. “That scary-looking guy there? That’s your father!”
The little blue fairy’s wings froze.
“Eh…?”
“And that,” Rosie added while pointing at Serika, “is your sister!”
The fairy’s entire body jolted. She blinked. Then blinked again. Then once more. Her blinks increased in speed until they were practically a blur.
“So Rosie’s my sister, and she’s my sister too?”
“Yes! But to me, she’s my mother and my father is upon whose head I’m seated!”
The blue creature became more lost by the second. She placed a finger on her chin, deep in thought, trying to wrap her head around it all. “So that means he’s also my papa? And she’s my sister… and papa’s my papa… so she and papa… but then… if Rosie is his daughter, and he’s her papa, and Serika is her mama, then…”
Her little hands shot to her cheeks as her brain overheated.
“D-Does that mean my sister is mating with my sister’s papa…!?”
She turned even bluer, if such a thing were possible, and buried her face in Rosie’s hair again.
Rosie blinked. “Huh?”
“Enough with the family ties for now…” Quinlan grunted and reached above his head to get a hold on Rosie underneath her armpits and pulled her down so he could look at her, and by proxy, the new entity. “Is it fair to assume she’s what remains of Lysandra?”
“Yes!” Rosie nodded proudly. She did the same as Quinlan did to her, which was to reach behind herself and catch the blue girl before bringing her forward and showing her off to Quinlan.
“Resurrection in Thalorind is impossible because the souls are governed by the Goddess! Not even you, Papa, can harvest the souls of the dead and bring them back, save for your Necromancy powers, but that’s not resurrection!”
Quinlan nodded, understanding it thus far. Seeing it, Rosie continued. “But Lysandra has never entered Thalorind! She died in Zhenwu.”
“And that’s a special world… Outside of the universal laws…” Quinlan muttered.
“Exactly! Rosie believes that the residents of Zhenwu don’t have a soul in the sense we do, because there’s no residing God or Goddess who administers the world!”
“There cannot be a soul ecosystem without an administrator,” Quinlan nodded. “The world would run out of souls, and no more children would be born.”
“But then why did God Venthros invade us…?” Serika joined in. She visibly struggled to come to terms with reality. “He came to steal the souls.”
“The Soul Records asked me if I wanted to bring Zhenwu into the broad universe by taking away its self-contained world status once I became its ruler,” Quinlan spoke up.
“If he instead became the ruler and did that, then the citizens of Zhenwu would receive their souls, I’m guessing. He could rule over it like the Goddess rules over Thalorind, getting to do whatever he desires with its soul reserves.”
“This is a bit too hard for Rosie to understand, but she believes that Lysandra still had her unawakened or unactivated soul in her body, as there was no administrator to receive it.”
“So because Zhenwu has no divine administrator…” Quinlan muttered, “Its people technically don’t have ’activated’ souls. And because she died there, Lysandra’s soul just… waited?”
“Yup!” Rosie beamed. “Rosie found it lying dormant. So she planted it like a seed! And in Papa’s Soul Realm, where real souls can grow, it bloomed!”
“She doesn’t remember anything from her life as a human, does she?” Rykar asked softly.
Serika flinched at the question.
Quinlan glanced down at the little blue fairy clinging shyly to Rosie’s hair, then met Rykar’s gaze. “That’s how it should be. Souls don’t carry memories the way our brains do. A memory is a function of the mind, of the body. But the soul is more than that. It’s not a diary or a storage device. It’s what we are at our most fundamental.”
He spoke gently as he continued.
“A soul doesn’t remember facts or names or places. But it remembers… tendencies. Instincts. Emotion. If a man lived with hatred festering in his heart, that rot would stain his soul. If a woman lived with compassion and light, that too would be etched into her essence. Souls retain the flavor of who we are, not the chronology.”
Serika covered her mouth with one hand as tears brimmed in her eyes. Her voice came out fragile. “So… so that means… in a way… she is still my sister?”
Quinlan turned to her and crossed the distance. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
“She’s not the human Lysandra you grew up with. But yes… she carries her essence. Her light. Her truth. She is Lysandra reborn, not in flesh, but in soul.”
Serika trembled. The sob that escaped her lips was a soft, broken thing. More joy than grief, more hope than pain.
Not being able to keep herself upright anymore, she fell to her knees and her dams were fully opened.
But then, a fragile, confused, and a bit fearful blue girl descended toward the crying woman.