The Ecliptic Goddess

Chapter 1: Lucy and Lenore

—July 1st, X767—

In the warm summer of July 1st, X767, I awoke to my new life to the sounds of pained screaming. My body, unusually awkward and totally uncooperative with anything I wanted to do, felt weirdly cold and wet, and I felt more than a little unsecure with how vulnerable and exposed I felt at that moment. I felt so unprotected, even as large, warm hands quickly helped clean me up before wrapping my tiny form up in a soft blanket of some kind.

Couldn't I just go back to that nice, safe place I was before?

Sounds fluttered through my ears, but my brain had trouble focusing on them even as the woman's screams started up once more. Attempting to focus, her voice died down only to give way to the wailing two newcomers, babies if I wasn't mistaken.

As some semblance of clarity slowly trickled back to me, I belatedly realized that one of those voices actually belonged to me and quickly ceased my caterwauling, which seemed to have a ripple effect as the other one gradually ceased their crying too. Thus, this allowed for me to finally pick up on the other voices in the room, unfocused as my mind was.

"Oh Jude! They're absolutely flawless," the woman was cooing, voice breathless and full of warm love. She sounded close-by and thankfully seemed to be done screaming too.

"You did wonderful dear," a man said, his voice just as tender and filled with something akin to awe.

Struggling a little, I did my best to force my eyes to open, wanting to get a look at my new environment. But oddly enough, all I could see were blurry shapes.

"Jude, look! She's opening her eyes!" the same woman gasped with breathless excitement, speaking softly. My vision was blurry at best, but I could just barely make out the halo of gold surrounding the angelic face smiling down at me. She looked stunning. "They're so beautiful."

"Just like their mother," the deeper voice, the man, Jude, said softly. He spoke in an equally tender voice like the woman but with an almost reverent tone in it.

"Oh stop it dear! I look like I just tried to run ten miles and am covered in sweat. Doubtless, I am hideous right now and you know it."

They bickered lovingly some more though their words were lost on me, distant and distorted like the fluttering of butterfly wings through my ears. Still, you could hear the love the two had for each other in their voices, and it...made me happy and yet nostalgic at the same time.

I think I tuned out a little after that. My attention span was the equivalent of a knat's, and every little sound that I picked up with my new, limited hearing drew my interest.

Luckily, I focused back on the conversation in time to hear the most interesting part.

"What are we going to name them?" the man, Jude, asked softly.

Names? Them?

Then I remember the other voice I had heard earlier, similar to my own cries, but it had quieted down when I had stopped crying.

"...Lucy? Like the guild where we first met 'Love & Lucky'?" Jude asked.

Oops, looks like I lost track again.

Layla laughed softly, and Jude soon joined her with his own deep baritone. The two of them sharing a fond smile.

"Perfect. And the eldest? What are we going to name her?"

With my poor eyesight, I felt more than saw his gaze on me as I wondered briefly if they were talking about me.

Layla seemed to think about it for a moment, then she said, "Lenore. We'll call her, Lenore, because she and her sister are the light of our lives."