At last, the night of birth arrived.
She was alone in the room, battling the pains of labor,
yet she was smiling.
At last, she would be able to touch her son's hand, hold him, and breathe in his scent.
At last, the dream had become reality.
She held the pendant that had never left her side, and whispered:
"Ravaz… I miss you so much.
Can I visit you…
as I used to before?"
A glowing light burst from the pendant, gently surrounding her.
It pulled a part of her soul and consciousness,
and transformed it into a shimmering white light.
And suddenly, she found herself…
in Ravaz's home.
Ravaz was asleep,
but he felt her presence without a single word.
He jumped up, his eyes scanning the room wildly, searching for her desperately.
Stephanie said:
"Ravaz… I'm here now."
He ran toward her, unable to restrain his longing, and held her tightly.
But then, he noticed something strange.
She was not alone.
There was another soul… accompanying her.
His voice rose in panic as he pushed her spectral form away:
"Are you… pregnant?!"
Stephanie smiled gently, placing her hand on her stomach:
"I am a mother now, Ravaz… this is my son."
His eyes widened in fear:
"Go back. Wake up, Stephanie…
you will die!"
But she did not move. She stood there, confused.
Ravaz trembled and pushed her harder, shouting:
"Wake up… now!"
Stephanie was thrown backward, her body bending as she floated in the air…
Then she woke up.
In the hospital bed,
still gripping the pendant tightly.
She did not know that it was not just a dream.
It was the spark…
of a sorrow that would sink far deeper.
Even though she had not gone to Azaveria with her body,
her journey had happened through a part of her soul.
It was like a dream
alive, real
But what she did not realize was that this part carried with it a fragile little being growing inside her: her unborn child.
That fleeting moment in Azaveria
a world of pure light and strange energy
was enough to leave an irreversible effect on the small life's soul she carried.
That energy was more than a new, fragile human soul could endure.
The bleeding began suddenly. Sharp… terrifying.
Stephanie was rushed to the operating room, as panic filled everyone's hearts.
Her condition was critical.
A decision had to be made.
The doctor looked into Steve's eyes and said in a low, heavy voice:
"We cannot save both. A decision must be made."
Despite the pain and fear, Stephanie did not fully grasp the severity at first.
Would she lose her child?
Was it because she had taken him, even unknowingly, into Ravaz's world?
Her voice came out broken but firm:
"Don't ask him.
This is my body… this is my soul.
The child is mine. I will choose."
But her voice quickly collapsed:
"This is my fault… my fault alone.
I am the one who put him in danger.
What kind of mother am I?"
She broke down in tears.
As she was taken into surgery, while Steve held her hand, his face pale with fear,
she kept repeating through her tears:
"Save my child… please… save him…"
The operation was a small miracle
she and her child survived.
But baby Adam… was not well.
He was placed in an incubator, with very little hope of recovery.
His tiny body barely moved,
his breathing was shallow, and his heart was weak.
As if the weight of the entire world pressed upon a life too small to bear it.
Stephanie never left him.
She kept touching him through the incubator opening,
her eyes never leaving his closed ones.
She blamed herself endlessly.
Guilt was killing her from within.
She felt like an empty shell
a body without a soul.
Then, without realizing it, she began whispering to Ravaz:
"If you can hear me… do something.
Please, save him.
You told me your world is more advanced than ours…"
What she did not know was that Ravaz, from the moment he sensed another soul within her, had understood the danger.
He did everything he could.
Advanced doctors, hidden technologies, secret interventions
Their survival was not a miracle…
but the result of something beyond human capability.
Yet even so…
they could not keep Adam alive for long.
The spiritual damage that occurred in Azaveria
could not be repaired.
After seven days…
Adam lost his battle with life.
Stephanie collapsed.
The grief that devoured her was unlike anything she had ever known.
She had never understood what it meant to be a mother—
until Adam came and lit within her a light she never knew existed.
He was her light in the darkness.
She would have sacrificed the entire world for him.
She sat frozen before the incubator, holding his lifeless, cold body.
Her eyes were not just crying
they were breathing pain itself.
Every memory of love with Ravaz had now become a curse.
A beautiful memory turned into a dagger buried in her soul.
She wondered:
Why now?
Why did longing for him lead me here?
How was I able to cross worlds to reach Azaveria?
I begged for it so many times…
just to see him.
Even a single glance would have been enough.
Each time, I asked
for the pendant's light to carry me to you.
Stephanie cursed that moment.
She cursed her love for Ravaz, which still lived within her.
And she cursed fate for taking her child.
Days passed heavily,
each hour felt like eternity.
Life was no longer the same.
She had lost something that could never be regained.
The home that was once warm
had become silent, bleak,
echoing with the cries of a child who was never meant to live.
Every time she woke from sleep,
she touched her stomach, thinking she was still pregnant,
then remembered…
that he was there
and then gone.
She remembered his small face, his delicate fingers, his struggle with death…
and then she broke down.
She kept repeating in front of Steve:
"I am a bad mother…
how could I not protect him?"
And she said, in heart-wrenching pain:
"He was in my arms…
his pained eyes looking at me, begging.
He was taking his last breaths…
and everything in his gaze was screaming:
'Do something!'
But I couldn't…
All I had were my tears,
falling onto his lifeless body."
Steve tried with everything he had to hold her, to comfort her,
but walls began forming between them without awareness.
The soul he was trying to reach was no longer there.
Stephanie was always distant.
A part of her died with Adam,
and the part that remained no longer wanted life.
One night, she sat before Steve and said in a calm, firm voice:
"Steve… I'm sorry."
He looked at her in shock, tried to hold her hand, but she gently pulled away.
"I can't continue.
I have wronged you.
I should never have agreed from the beginning.
I haven't belonged to myself for a long time."
She lowered her head, her voice trembling:
"We cannot continue."
Steve remained silent, stunned, but did not interrupt her.
She continued in pain:
"I thought I could start over with you,
but I wasn't fair to you
or to myself.
I tried, believe me, but what's inside me…
I can't control it.
Please don't hate me."
Days later, Stephanie left the house in the morning,
carrying several bags,
leaving behind a life she had hoped would succeed, but failed.
She didn't know where she was going,
but she was certain of one thing:
She had to start over.
She had to make peace with what she had lost.
To face it… not run from it.
After leaving the city and finalizing the divorce by mutual consent,
she decided to return to her childhood home
the place that held her memories.
It was the only place where she felt she truly belonged.
There, she had met Ravaz for the first time,
and there, she had lived her days with her beloved grandmother.
From time to time,
she visited the hospital
specifically, incubator number ten.
She would stand silently behind the glass,
speaking to the void,
whispering… then leaving.
The doctor who supervised her cesarean operation watched her silently.
She knew that what Stephanie had gone through was not easy.
Gradually, a slow but genuine friendship formed between them.
One day, the doctor said seriously:
"Stephanie, I am forty years old, and my ovarian reserve is very low.
I must hurry. I want to become a mother… desperately."
For the first time in a long while,
Stephanie felt something resembling the warmth of conversation.
She felt the doctor's words were sincere,
and sensed that they shared many things in common.
Over time, Stephanie realized the doctor was truly kind,
though she hid behind a mask of seriousness.
As days passed, Stephanie matured more,
approaching her twenty-eighth year.
She learned how to adapt to a life she had never wished for.
Until that day…
the day she never expected.