1 I was a Nine-Life Lynx, consort to the Celestial Realm's God of War. In the third year after my death, he finally remembered me. He descended to the mortal world, intending to tear another tail from my body to save his childhood love. The little girl I had once rescued was now an old woman, her hair a cascade of white. She told the God of War that I was already gone. He just scoffed. “If my memory serves, she has two lives left. If you’re going to lie to me, at least make it believable.” He added, his voice dripping with condescension, "Tell her that if she saves Seraphina, she can remain my consort." Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, fixing on the boy hiding behind the old woman, a boy with a face so strikingly like my own. The child’s expression soured. “Well, well,” Kaelen sneered. “Ten years in the mortal realm and she’s already managed to pop out a child. Since she refuses to show herself, I suppose I’ll have to take it out on her little bastard!” A torrential rain hammered down from the heavens, but where the God of War, Kaelen, stood in his immaculate white robes, not a single drop touched him. He was an island of perfect dryness in the storm. With a brutal tug, he ripped my son from behind Linda. A cruel smirk twisted his lips. “Hah, the resemblance is uncanny. Lyra has done well for herself, hasn't she? Ten years down here, and she even has a child to show for it.” His voice turned to ice. “When I find out which gutter rat fathered this thing, I will tear him limb from limb!” He extended a finger, tracing a line along my son Finn’s arm. A crimson wound bloomed instantly, weeping blood. Finn let out a piercing wail. As he cried, the gash on his arm slowly began to knit itself closed. “He’s Lyra’s son, all right,” Kaelen declared. “If she won’t crawl out to see me, then I’ll just have to take the tail from her boy instead!” Trembling, Linda threw her cane aside and collapsed to her knees before him. The cold rain soaked her white hair, plastering it to her wrinkled skin. “Lord Kaelen, Lyra… Lyra is truly dead! How can she possibly come to see you?!” Kaelen’s brow furrowed in annoyance. “Dead? Don’t be absurd. She has two lives left! Don't play these pathetic games with me. She heard Seraphina was injured and now she refuses to help. It's just one tail. It’s not as if I’m asking for her life!” I floated in the air above them, my heart—or the ghost of it—aching with a familiar pang. It was strange. I’d been dead for three years, yet the pain was still so real. My heart ached for Linda, and for my little Finn. Linda crawled forward on her knees, wrapping her frail arms around Finn. “My lord, I am not lying. Lyra died three years ago.” Kaelen’s laugh was a cold, sharp thing. “So, you choose the hard way.” He seized Finn, lifting him into the air with an invisible force. He then bellowed towards the small cottage, “Lyra, I am giving you one chance. If you don’t get out here right now, I will take it out on your son. They’re both Nine-Life Lynxes. One tail is as good as another!” Suspended in the air, Finn choked on the driving rain, his small hands clawing desperately at nothing. “You’re a bad man! A monster!” Linda scrambled through the mud, clinging to Kaelen’s immaculate boots. “My lord, please, he’s just a child. Let him go, I beg you.” With an indifferent flick of his wrist, Kaelen sent Finn crashing to the ground. The boy coughed, a spray of blood staining the mud. “I will give Lyra one day,” Kaelen announced, his voice booming over the storm. “If she doesn't appear before me by tomorrow, she can’t blame me for being cruel. And when I’m done, this bastard she had with her lover will be punished alongside her!” He turned, his white robes swirling, and vanished. Linda and Finn clung to each other, their sobs lost in the deluge. “Auntie Linda,” Finn whispered, his body trembling, “who was that? He was so scary.” Linda’s gaze darkened. “He is no one, Finn. No one at all.” 2 I clenched my spectral fists, a bitter sorrow welling within me. Kaelen, you couldn't even recognize your own son. Her lover? The thought was so bitter it was almost laughable. But then, why would he know? He never cared about me. He never would have guessed Finn was his. Even if he knew, he would probably just pour all his hatred for me onto our son. Linda helped Finn back into the cottage and immediately began to pack. “Finn, we have to go. We can’t stay here anymore.” A wave of relief washed over me. She remembered my words. Before I died, I had begged her: if Kaelen ever came looking for me, she had to run. Run as far as she could. I drifted behind her, wishing I could rest a hand on her shoulder. Linda, I’m so sorry. I’m the one who brought this trouble to you. She clutched the moonstone locket I’d given her, her eyes filled with a deep, aching nostalgia. “Lyra,” she murmured to herself, “you gave me this life. Don’t you worry. I will protect Finn with everything I have.” As I watched her face, shadowed and flickering in the lamplight, my mind drifted back fifty years. I saw her again, a little girl who had fallen from a cliff while gathering herbs for her sick mother. I had been passing by and saved her on a whim, healing her mother as well. Such a small act, yet she had carried the weight of that gratitude her entire life. She always said it was a debt she could never repay. Ten years ago, when Kaelen cast me out of the Celestial Realm and his enemies hunted me, it was Linda who took me in. We had lived as fugitives for a decade. I thought Kaelen had finally forgotten me, had let me be. I never imagined that even in death, he would not grant me peace. Linda packed quickly, and under the cloak of darkness, they slipped out of the yard. She paused, looking back one last time at the home we had shared for ten years, and sighed. Then, without another moment’s hesitation, she turned and led Finn away into the night. The moonstone locket would guide them to a hidden cave within my tomb. It held the last vestiges of my arcane power, enough to shield them from Kaelen’s senses. But it would only last for a week. Still, it should have been enough. Kaelen would never waste more than three days searching for me. But they hadn't gotten far before he appeared, blocking their path. He stood there, an oppressive aura of power rolling off him in waves, crushing down on them. Linda and Finn collapsed, blood trickling from their lips. I flew at Kaelen, my ghostly fists and feet passing right through him. "Kaelen, you bastard! How can you do this to an old woman and a child?! And you call yourself a god, a savior of the realms!" But he couldn't feel my blows or hear my screams. I was filled with despair. I knew that for his precious Seraphina, there was nothing he wouldn't do. He looked down at them, his voice a low growl. “And where do you two think you’re going?” Linda struggled to speak. “I… I was just taking Finn to buy some things.” “Oh? To buy things? With all your belongings packed? It looks to me like you were trying to run!” His voice cracked like a whip. “Fools! I already gave you a chance!” Suddenly, a surge of power erupted from Finn. Lynx claws burst from his fingertips, and he lunged at Kaelen. “You monster! Don’t you hurt Auntie Linda! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” My spectral heart leaped into my throat. “Finn, no!” I shrieked into the void. If Kaelen was angered, he would kill Finn without a second thought. It wouldn't matter that he was his son. Because he was my son, Kaelen wouldn't care. Kaelen, caught by surprise, didn’t react in time. Finn’s claws tore a deep gash in his arm. His eyes instantly turned to shards of ice. He grabbed Finn by the throat, lifting him effortlessly. “You’re just like your mother,” he hissed. “A defiant little stray.” Finn glared at him, spitting out the words with all his might. “My mother was the best person in the world! You don’t get to talk about her!” Tears streamed down Linda’s face as she began slamming her head against the rocky ground, over and over, until her forehead was a bloody, pulpy mess. I spun in the air, frantic with helplessness. Kaelen, you animal! A cold, pure hatred bloomed in my chest, a feeling I had never truly known until this moment. Kaelen, I was finally, truly beginning to hate you. 3 “My lord,” Linda choked out, her voice thick with blood and tears. “Please, let him go. I told you, Lyra died three years ago.” Kaelen’s grip on Finn’s neck tightened. “Did she now? Well, if she’s dead, her son’s tail will have to do! I refuse to believe she’d stand by and watch her own child be mutilated!” Finn’s face was turning a deep shade of purple. Linda’s lips trembled as she forced out the words. “My lord… Finn… he’s your son.” My gaze snapped to her. How did she know? I had never told her the truth of Finn’s origins, and she had never asked. Perhaps she saw the faint echo of Kaelen in my son’s features. Kaelen merely arched an eyebrow. “You’ll say anything to save that woman, won’t you?” He clearly didn't believe it. A sphere of golden flame materialized in his right hand, and he pressed it against Finn’s arm. Finn screamed in agony as the Celestial Fire seared his flesh, the wound burning black and refusing to heal. Kaelen’s bloodline carried the divine power of Celestial Fire. Our lynx regeneration, no matter how potent, was useless against it. The wounds would not begin to mend until the last spark of his fire had been extinguished. Twenty years ago, after Seraphina had framed me, Kaelen had burned me with that same fire for an entire hour. My body was a ruin of charred flesh. It took me five years for the scars to fade. And Finn… Finn was not even ten years old. How could he possibly withstand such a torment? Kaelen sneered. “He can’t even endure my Celestial Fire, and you dare claim he’s my son? It seems ten years of suffering in the mortal realm haven’t changed Lyra’s vicious, deceitful nature one bit!” Finn was too young. The War God’s bloodline hadn’t awakened in him yet. Kaelen, you monster! He shouted into the surrounding darkness. “Lyra, I’ve changed my mind! This is your final chance. If you don’t show yourself, I won’t just take your son’s tail. I will burn him with Celestial Fire for three days and three nights!” Desperate, Linda lunged forward to shield Finn. But she was only a mortal. The moment her skin touched the divine light, her entire hand dissolved into ash. Her shriek of agony echoed through the forest. I wanted to tear Kaelen apart. I was consumed by a rage so profound it felt like it could shatter my very soul. Kaelen, Kaelen, I hate you. I hate that I ever met you, and I hate myself for ever loving you! Kaelen dismissed the flame, but Linda’s arm was gone from the elbow down. Finn, ignoring his own searing pain, crawled to her side. He bit into his own wrist and let his blood drip onto her wound, and only then did the bleeding stop. He turned to Kaelen, his voice raw with a grief beyond his years. “You fiend! Who are you?! Why do you hate my mother so much when she’s already gone?!” He screamed, his small body shaking. “My mother is dead! I am her son! Whatever you want, take it from me! I don’t know what she did to you, but please, I’m begging you, don’t hurt Auntie Linda!” Kaelen’s expression flickered for a moment. He opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it. He likely couldn't bring himself to admit that I, a "lowly" lynx, had been his consort. He had always seen me as a source of shame. Linda’s face was deathly pale. After a long moment, she managed to catch her breath. Using her one remaining hand, she propped herself up with her cane, struggling to her feet. The fear in her eyes was gone, replaced by a chilling, hollow mockery. She looked straight at Kaelen and laughed. “God of War,” she said, her voice steady. “You wish to see Lyra? Then follow me.” Kaelen, completely oblivious to the change in her demeanor, assumed his display of power had finally broken them. A triumphant smirk touched his lips. “You should have just led me to her from the start. You could have saved yourselves so much pain.” As Linda walked ahead, she laughed again, a soft, broken sound. She murmured, so low I could barely hear her. “Lyra… oh, Lyra. Is this truly the man you once loved so deeply? I grieve for you.” I’m sorry, Linda. I’m so sorry. I wished I could turn back time, back to the day I first met him a century ago. I would have turned and walked away without a second thought. I would have ensured our paths never, ever crossed again. 4 After a short walk, we arrived at my tomb. It was built into the face of a sheer cliff. Linda took out the moonstone locket I had given her. A simple squeeze would shatter it, and the rock face would open. The moment Kaelen saw the locket, his composure faltered. He snatched it from her hand, staring at it for a long moment before speaking, his voice laced with a strange, biting anger. “Hah. She never took this off. Now that she has a new lover, I see she gives away her treasures so freely.” Linda’s eyes flashed with contempt. She snatched the locket back and squeezed, but her strength failed her. Frustrated, she hurled it to the ground, and the moonstone shattered into a thousand glittering fragments. Kaelen roared, grabbing her by the collar of her tunic. “How dare you!” “You wanted to see Lyra, didn't you?” Linda said, gesturing to the opening that had appeared in the cliff face. “She’s in there.” With a cold snort, Kaelen dragged Finn inside. But the cavern was stark and empty. There was nothing. He realized he’d been tricked. A malevolent energy radiated from him, and the temperature in the cave plummeted. Linda leaned against the wall, shivering violently. I rushed to her, trying to shield her with my ghostly form, but my arms passed right through. A mortal would freeze to death in this cold, especially one as old and frail as she was. But Linda seemed not to notice the chill. She reached out, stroking the cold stone of the cavern wall with an aching tenderness. “Lyra,” she whispered. “It’s been too long.” It had been. My body had become one with the mountain itself. Kaelen flicked his wrist. Finn’s form shimmered and shrank, until he was nothing more than a small lynx kitten, mewling in his grasp. “Fine,” Kaelen snarled. “You’re all as defiant as she is. You think my patience is endless? Then I’ll offer her bastard son to the heavens!” He raised his hand, preparing to rip away Finn’s single, precious tail. “Hah, one tail? You’re a liar, just like your mother! Pathetic little mongrel.” I howled, throwing myself at Kaelen again and again. I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I screamed anyway, begging him to spare my son. I was a Nine-Life Lynx, but giving birth to Finn had nearly destroyed me. Finn was just an ordinary lynx spirit. He only has one life. Kaelen, are you really going to murder your own child?!
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