Chapter 193: 193-Like the great mother
Varitreya’s attention suddenly shifted when she felt Maisa. The connection was faint but unmistakable, no longer blocked by the terrible silence that had separated them. Her eyes widened.
"Maisa?"
Across the courtyard, Maisa began to cry.
Not the silent, frozen grief that had consumed her before, but tears of relief and disbelief. She could feel them again. All of them.
The white-haired girl withdrew her hand from Maisa’s chest. "The flower is sealed," she explained. "It will remain within you, and the poison of the suppressants you took will no longer contaminate your blood."
Maisa wiped her cheeks. "My blood..."
"Is clean," the girl said and proceeded to snap her fingers.
A faint crimson shimmer passed through Maisa’s body, then vanished beneath her skin.
"Whatever was poisoning your blood has been cleansed. Your blood signature will no longer trigger the contamination that brought you here."
Maisa stared at her. She remembered Regina’s accusations, the detention room, the threat of the Dark Forest. She remembered being dragged through the academy while guards insisted that she was dangerous.
Now, the evidence against her had disappeared.
She was no longer a biological hazard, no longer cut off from her mates and the flower that had nearly destroyed the academy had returned to the safety of her chest.
Yet none of those miracles could compare to the woman still lying on the stretcher.
Maisa turned toward Evelyn.
"You promised," she whispered as her gaze landed on Evelyn. "Bring her back."
The white-haired girl followed her gaze.
"I did promise just like you’ve promised me your first born child."
She approached the stretcher and placed one hand above Evelyn’s heart.
For the first time since she had taken over Taratoya’s body, her expression became entirely solemn.
"Death is not a door that should be opened carelessly," she murmured. "But there are exceptions."
She lifted her other hand. The flowers surrounding her hair began to bloom more brightly.
Tiny petals drifted through the air, gathering above Evelyn’s body. They spiraled into a delicate canopy, their colors shifting between green, gold, white, and crimson. Wherever they passed, the stone beneath them sprouted thin vines and tiny blossoms.
The courtyard transformed. Cracks in the pavement filled with green shoots. Pale flowers opened between the fallen weapons. Even the air seemed to grow sweeter, carrying the scent of rain on fresh earth.
Maisa stood motionless. She had never witnessed magic like this.
It wasn’t merely the manipulation of an element or the command of a bloodline. It was as though the natural world itself had recognized the girl and offered her everything it possessed.
The white-haired girl lowered her palm. A soft green light spread over Evelyn’s body.
For several seconds, nothing happened but before long, Evelyn’s fingers twitched.
Maisa’s breath stopped. ’OMG, please work.’
Her aunt’s chest rose. Once, twice, thrice... a faint heartbeat sounded beneath the silence.
Maisa stumbled forward. "Auntie?"
Evelyn’s face began to change. The unnatural pallor receded, warmth returned to her cheeks, and the wrinkles that death had left behind gradually disappeared. Her hair regained its familiar color, and the lines around her eyes softened until she looked as Maisa remembered her.
Alive and not an imitation or a body controlled by someone else’s will but truly alive.
The white-haired girl opened her palm again. A single drop of crimson blood appeared above it, glowing with an intensity that made every vampire in the courtyard instinctively turn toward it.
"This," she said, "will complete the transformation."
The blood floated downward. It touched Evelyn’s lips and for one moment, the entire courtyard seemed to hold its breath.
Then the crimson liquid vanished into her body. A pulse of energy passed through Evelyn from head to toe. Her veins briefly glowed red beneath her skin, and the scent of blood filled the air.
Not the scent of a human or of an ordinary vampire but something new and between two worlds.
The crimson light faded. Evelyn lay still, breathing softly.
The white-haired girl stepped back. "Done."
Maisa stared at her aunt. "What did you do?"
"I brought her back as a mixedblood vampire."
"But she was human," Maisa said in disbelief, just like her, her aunt didn’t have a choice on the turning and it was irreversible.
"She was. Now, she’s a vampire, true and true."
The girl glanced toward Evelyn. "The crimson blood has made her a mixedblood. Not one born through the usual blending of bloodlines, but one made by my hand."
Maisa’s mouth fell open. She remembered the ancient texts she had read at Veris Academy. The earliest records of the first vampires, the stories of the Great Mother who had created the first bloodlines and shaped the boundaries between life and death.
Those accounts had always sounded like legends yet what she had just witnessed mirrored them with frightening precision.
The flowers, the earth responding to the girl and the crimson blood she managed to weaponize without breaking a sweat and the transformation of a human into a vampire without the ordinary process of turning.
Maisa looked at the white-haired girl with renewed awe. "You..." her voice trembled. "You did what the Great Mother did. Your magic is just like hers."
The girl’s smile returned. "Did I?"
Maisa stared at her. "Who are you? How do you have power over death?"
For a moment the girl’s expression became difficult to read but she covered it up with a smile.
"It’s still not time for you to know."
She leaned closer, her white hair brushing against her shoulders as the flowers around her head swayed. "The day I come to you, you’ll know who I am."
Maisa swallowed. She had many more questions but no power or ability to press the girl to answer her.
"But..."
"Not today, little one," the girl lifted one finger to her lips. "Today, you have more important things to do."
She looked toward Evelyn. "Your aunt will awaken in two hours. Her body needs time to settle into its new existence. When she wakes, she will remember who she is, and she will still be the woman you love."
Maisa’s eyes burned. "Can I stay with her?"
"Of course. But not here."
The girl raised her hand. The flowers around Evelyn’s body gathered into a gentle spiral, wrapping around the stretcher like a cocoon. A moment later, the stretcher and the woman lying upon it vanished.
Maisa gasped. She quickly rushed forward and found the spot empty and turned towards the girl. "Where did you send her?"
"To a safe place."
The girl reached into the air. A small piece of paper appeared between her fingers. She held it out to Maisa.
"This is the address. No one will disturb her there, and she’ll be safe until she wakes."