The transition between Tristessa's fourth Death and her return to Life was instantaneous, with the growing Darkness beneath the ocean of stars like an almost imperceptible conduit.
Not even the ethereal Chains of Gold had time to made themselves apparent around her bound soul.
In a split second, the girl's eyes adjusted to the new light of the past, and she was back in the atrium of the former House of Royal Hunters, with that stuffed varg staring at her from the other side of the glass, its mouth open and ready to bite her face off.
"W-wha...?"
The moment she opened her mouth, confused by her own presence there, she felt gravity pulling her down. After all, her body was in a state of reset, remembering what it felt like to be alive.
With her hands occupied with the tray holding the tea set, she had no way to stop the fall, and her back hit the floor covered with the exotic rug filled with illustrations from the continent's monarchical antiquity. Of course, the cup and teapot flew through the air, and the sound of porcelain shattering echoed throughout the entire ground floor.
"In the name of the Goddess, did you really break the only teapot in this house?!"
"M-Miss, are you hurt?"
Tristessa didn't hear Tiara and Lucahn's voices. Before, her body was struggling with all the oversaturated memories of pain that her dark soul brought from the nonexistent past; her heart was beating smoothly, her fingers and ribs weren't broken. And her leg was connected to her body again, just as it should be.
It was the fear of Death that made Tristessa tremble to the bone. Those fateful last seconds that lasted an eternity and made her replay all that unbearable pain and feeling of utter loneliness.
"I failed... Everything turned out in the worst possible way..." she thought, feeling a poisonous contraction in her throat. All that bitterness and anguish, due to her utter helplessness. The laughter of the Coven witches, of Daiana Mercer-Archeos, the deaths of those who now held a place in her heart. "And now…"
"I am your Nemesis."
With a hand on her chest, the extreme cold of her Baptism in Ruins now brought with it a constant sense of paranoia. Images of black armor and a full helmet shrouded in Discord.
"Defeat me."
The Dullahan. The fruit of Endrel and Margules' union, taken from Earth mythologies and brought to Nekrom, had left its message imprinted on her: returning from Death had consequences. Marked for Death, Tristessa felt she would meet the phantom knightess again very soon. And one of them would die at the hands of the other…
"Don't think for a second I'm going to wait for Severus to bring me a new tea set months from now! I'm going to squeeze every soul-jewel out of your useless body no matter what to pay the first caravan that…!"
Tiara had approached the field of shrapnel and the girl clutching her right leg tightly. Her threat lost its intensity when she saw Tristessa's depressed, lost expression.
"Miss?" Dropping his book to the floor, Lucahn dodged the broken pieces of the tea set and, before Tiara could scold him for risking injury, he crouched down beside Tristessa to get her attention, concerned. "Are you all right?"
"L-Lucahn…"
After so much horror and hostility she had experienced at the hands of the Coven, that child's voice was the exorcism she needed to expel the vile demons that were tormenting her. Tristessa blinked and turned her gaze to meet the boy's adorable, hopeful face, as he extended a hand to help her up.
"Miss?!" he exclaimed, seeing her shed fresh tears.
"I'm fine, Lucahn. Thank you for worrying about me," she assured him, wiping her cheeks and eyes with the sleeve of her white shirt.
Tristessa couldn't tell him how much she needed a gesture like that. Holding onto those tiny fingers helped soothe the cancerous feeling of desolation in her heart. Neither he nor Tiara, confused by the way she tried not to burst into tears again, could possibly understand the despair she had suffered and was still gushing from the unrepairable wounds dealt to her spirit.
Seeing that boy alive, with his dreams intact beyond the difficulties of living in exile, gave her hope.
Knowing that Jin would walk into that house hours later, the day's catch hanging over his shoulder, gave her hope.
Imagining Severus in the main city of End-World, negotiating to buy a black-scaled demon's head at half price gave her hope.
Even seeing Tiara there, someone she didn't care for, standing with her hands on her hips, seething with rage...
"I want to save them all... I want to save them!"
A desire she discovered at that very moment, burning in her heart to counteract the sepulchral cold of her dark mark that covered almost her entire chest. A determination that gave her courage, even a little, in the face of so much adversity, enough to stand up with Lucahn's help.
"I have to prevent that inescapable future. No matter what, I have to do it," she thought, unable to shake off all that anxiety drawn by the doom that was coming. "I have six days to change the course of history. If I don't use everything I've learned through Death and Resurrection… Not only will I not save anyone, I won't even be able to save even myself… And we will be doomed to repeat this ruin over and over again, without end."
But first, she had her first obstacle to overcome in front of her right now: Tiara Archeos, who tortured her for days in the previous timeline, judging her with all the distrust a person could have toward someone, and not just for breaking her only teapot.
"Lady Tiara… I'm sorry!" the girl said, lowering her head and taking the woman by surprise. "I'm totally broke, not a single coin at all in my power, but I swear I'll make it up to you someday!"
"I don't know what a coin is, but raise your head and stop embarrassing yourself," she urged, pulling a damp rag from the pocket of her smock and throwing it at his feet. "Wipe all that up and make sure there's not a single speck of porcelain left, or I'll have you lick the floor and carpet clean."
"Y-yes, ma'am."
"And you, Lucahn, don't even think about helping her! Actually, come with me, let's clean the vegetables."
"But I want to help her!" he complained in return.
"No, no, leave it to me!" Tristessa hurriedly picked up Lucahn's book—a tome too heavy for a child to carry around, and the same one he'd used to smash her face to pieces in another timeline—and handed it to him with a smile that hid the terror brought back from her memories. "Seriously, I can do it myself. Then if you want, you can read me some stories, yes?"
"O-of course!"
Excited at the idea of sharing his book with Tristessa, Lucahn trotted into the kitchen, leaving the newcomer alone to begin gathering the pieces of porcelain with the rag.
"…"
She never lifted her head, crouching down as she cleaned up the mess, aware that Tiara was watching her from the kitchen entrance: she felt her penetrating gaze on her, a feeling extremely familiar, after experiencing it so many times before.
"Come on, leave me alone," she thought. Pursing her lips, she swallowed hard. She felt a deep bitterness, like her emotions toward Tiara. "Sooner or later, you have to let your guard down…"
"Mommy, what are you doing!? Come here!" Lucahn shouted, his voice carrying through the atrium, and Tristessa smiled inwardly.
"…"
Without saying anything, Tiara returned to the kitchen. Following the sound of her footsteps, Tristessa focused, and as she finished gathering the last pieces of the broken tea set, she heard the chatter between mother and son, angry shouts followed by laughter.
"Good. I don't have time to waste," she thought, frowning, scanning each display case in the atrium. "I must get out of here as soon as possible."