The woman felt the strength being drained out of her and passed out with her newborn daughter in her arms. She couldn't bring herself to hate Kritana. How could she find fault in a child who never asked to be born? Her father might be a monster, but only time can tell if her daughter will take the same form. While she dozed off, the baby tried to wiggle out of her arms with wide eyes. 'How did I come back?' The baby seemed to say through her eyes. To a normal passerby or doctor she might have seemed like an ordinary baby, but her tiny body had the memories of two past lives. This truth was shoved down her throat and this time she had to accept who she was and that she was reliving her first life and was destined to die.
In anguish from knowing the future, Kritana began to wail loudly. The woman who was holding her barely had the strength to move, but managed to open her eyes and pat her back. At her soothing touch, Kritana calmed down and surveyed her current situation. She found a mysterious book in her apartment and then died after a night of drinking and somehow regained the memories of her first life after being sent back into the past.
'Then this must be-' Kritana began to choke up but no tears came out of the newborn's face. It was her mother. In her first life, her mother was the only blood relative who treated her warmly. She could have escaped, but she ended up staying after the duke threatened her with Kritana's life and died when Kritana was five. Under her protection, Kritana lived happily during her early childhood and these memories stayed with her during the nights of starvation and abuse. They were her only happy times during her childhood in her first life.
***
"Mommy. Where's daddy?" A young Kritana says expectantly. "We never leave this dusty manor because you said that he was going to pick us up." Her mother smiles momentarily at the young girl's face full of innocence and pats her head.
"He's busy playing with your older sister." The distressed mother says with a frown. 'She should never meet that man.' Shivers flow down her spine, but the mother manages to keep her composure and tries to change the subject. The child pouts at her mother and rolls her eyes at the blatant changing of subjects and persistently carries on. "I have a sister? Is mommy her mommy?"
The mother sighs and mutters, "That damned half-blooded child." Kritana immediately senses that mentioning her sister is a taboo and lowers her head in apology. Noticing the young girl's change in attitude, the mother's eyes soften and she soothingly says, "No, mommy is not her mommy. Her mommy left, so your father plays with her more than you."
The girl claps her hands and giggles. "That means I don't have to share mommy with sister!" The mother giggles along with her daughter and pinches her chubby little cheeks. 'My baby is already four. The duke will come for her soon.' At this thought, the mother's face darkens and her complexion pales.
The mother is left bedridden for the next few days while the child cries at her bedside. "Mommy." The girl wails. "Mommy, don't die."
1 year later
The mother sits on the ground by the bed with her child in her lap. 'They stopped sending food five weeks ago.' The mother and daughter are confined to a manor and are unable to go outside, but they have always been sent food on the duke's whims. In his eyes, they are like pebbles on the road, but they are useful pebbles that haven't been used yet. "Why hasn't he sent food? Doesn't he need my daughter to stay alive!?" She desperately pulls at the mana obstructing chain, but it won't budge.
She can't bear the sight of her daughter's face which is starting to show signs of starvation. She is willing to beg the duke to keep her daughter alive, but she has nothing to offer without her mana, and the only thing the duke values is his first daughter and usefulness. The kitchen is completely empty and they are only able to survive by drinking their bath water.
While the mother desperately thinks of ways to keep her daughter alive, she feels the child move around and wake up. "Mommy?" the child says with a weak smile. The mother's heart breaks at the sound of her daughter's once cheerful voice and impulsively blurts out, "No matter what, you must stay alive. "
The little girl looks at her mom's face in confusion. "Why? Where are you going?"
The mother forcibly exerts her mana and the energy from the mana obstructing chain and her mana collide. The mother groans in pain and whispers, "This is your first lesson. Magicians who try to remove mana obstructing chains with their magic or release all their mana are declaring their deaths. It's how they commit suicide."
Those are the mother's last words to Kritana. Soon after, the life is drained from her eyes and her body goes cold. By the time the little girl figures out what's going on, it's too late. "Mommy? Mommy!!" The girl starts shaking in her mother's cold arms and sobs wildly. 'No matter what, I must stay alive…' The girl wipes away her tears and stares at the dead body. "Stay alive." With a new resolution, the girl digs into her mother's corpse and pulls away a piece of flesh. She begins to gag at the smell but continues to bite into her mother. Once she is done, she's sitting in a pile of bones, blood, and flesh. Her crimson eyes glisten as she swallows down her vomit and wipes her mouth. "No matter what."
***
The woman's eyes open to the sound of crying from her newborn daughter, Kritana, and her eyes widen. White hair is starting to grow from her head. It's only been a few hours since she was born and yet signs of her blessing is already showing. "Isn't it too soon?" She whispers.
Kritana quiets at the sound of her mother's voice and reaches out to her mother with tears in her eyes. 'I thought I lost you again,' her eyes seem to say. Her mother holds her to her chest and sighs. "It's too early for your magic to awaken, little one." At the word magic, Kritana's body stiffens. Her magic only awakened after her mother's death in her first life.