xinoehp512

One moment, there was nothing.
The next, there she was.

It was no birth in the mortal sense - messy, involved, painful - just a flash of light, and awareness. Clean, simple, and detached. Just like the man who faced her now with a curious gaze.

“Strange,” he murmured. “Why are you disconnected?”

In response, unbidden knowledge rising to her lips. “I am not you.”

She felt the words settle like a cast-iron mold around her, shaping her mind and soul, their truth made incontrovertible by her own declaration. She might have been made from his power, created with intent to be just a different form of him, but she was not just another of his clones. Her will, her identity, her memories were all out of his grasp now.

She saw that realization cross his eyes, saw his surprise deepen into shock that just as quickly hid itself away.

“If you are not me,” he said, calm, “then who?”

She felt the sounds pass her lips without thought. “I am Cynthia Cerelius.”

She felt the words fall over her in a whir of strokes like a thousand painter’s brushes, each imprinting the smallest touch of color. Each carried a single emotion with it - sadness, joy, fury, contentment, regret, pride, countless others - all spelling out the characters in her autoeponymous command. She gasped. She had a name. She was Cynthia.

But Cynthia could feel there was something missing. Two statements she had given, shaping and coloring her soul. There needed to be a third- and as soon as the thought entered her mind, she knew what it was.

“I am your daughter,” she finished.

Cynthia felt the words explode into her, filling her soul with bright blue light. It sang with freedom, with movement, with touching the sky and escaping into the stars, breaking the limits of dimensional reality. She knew it for what it was; the spirit bound to her father’s soul, reborn in her own. It would need a new name, of course; like herself, it was distinct from the power from which it had been formed. Cirrus, Cynthia thought - and he was named. 

Her father - Rekaerb - simply stared at her, his mouth agape. 

“Well,” he finally managed. “I wasn’t expecting that.”