Estoria stirred from her slumber, jolted awake. "What was that?" she gasped, her breath caught.
The haunting words from her dream reverberated: "Do you truly believe someone can love a person like you?"
"...It's a bygone memory; I'm in an entirely different world now," Estoria reassured herself, her composure gradually returning. She reclined on the bed, easing her eyes shut.
"I haven't heard that voice in quite some time," Estoria mumbled before surrendering once more to the realm of dreams.
***
Estoria found herself enveloped in a blindingly white panorama.
"Where am I?" she questioned, scanning the pristine surroundings—white ground, unreachable walls, and an endless white sky.
"You made it!" a voice declared.
The ethereal voice materialized into a figure, a presence almost as pallid as the surrounding walls. Clad in a concise black dress, the enigmatic girl stood with cascading, light golden locks flowing down to her bare feet. Yet, it was her eyes that seized attention—unsettling, they were a disconcerting, blank white, lacking the presence of pupils and iris.
"I was anticipating your arrival. I nearly abandoned hope of our meeting," the girl, seemingly of Estoria's age, approached.
She had godly features of perfect ratio, but the way her eyes were staring at Estoria, with nothing in them, was kind of creepy, to say the least.
"Who are you? Is this a dream?" Estoria inquired, pinching her cheek, on her guard.
"You didn't recognize my voice? We are in our consciousness," the girl responded.
While the voice sounded familiar, Estoria struggled to place it.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am your guardian angel. I endeavored to reach you in your dreams, yet you consistently ignored me. Did my words not reach you?" the girl, also the guardian angel, explained.
"The voice in my dreams was you?" Estoria raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
"Why didn't you answer if you heard me?" The angel asked, tilting her head.
"I never thought it was someone trying to talk to me... let alone a guardian angel."
"I'm not just a guardian angel; I'm your guardian angel, created specifically for you."
"Can you elaborate?" Estoria requested, bewildered.
"I was made to protect you because you earnestly wished for a guardian angel. I was born from your true wish. Not everyone has a guardian angel, but if someone wishes for one with all their heart, an angel is born to be their protector," She explained calmly.
"When did I wish for a guardian?" Estoria grumbled.
"During your childhood at the orphanage when you were the only one..." Estoria covered the angel's mouth.
"I remember now; you don't have to say it!" she exclaimed.
"Very well, I shall refrain from mentioning it again. That is not the purpose of my presence here," She stated.
"Then what's the reason? Do you know how I came into another world?"
"Yes, I placed your soul in this body," The angel admitted proudly.
"...?" Estoria reacted with her squeezed brows.
"Do not regard me with such skepticism. I exerted every effort to save you as your guardian angel. I preserved you and crafted a new world exclusively for you," She defended herself.
"You made this world for me? But what saving did I need? Did I die while sleeping?" Estoria gasped.
"Yes, a fire broke out in the building; your apartment was the first one to burn down while you slept peacefully," She revealed.
"So I did die... rest in peace?" Estoria said, still unsure.
"What do you mean you're alive? I saved you! As long as I live, you will live and only die of old age, you hear me!" She shouted furiously in a careful tone.
"I'm not even living in the real world right now; this is just an imaginary world," Estoria stated solemnly.
"Why do you think this is not a real world? Just because I took some inspiration doesn't make this a fake world. This is just as real as your previous world." The angel said.
"How? Didn't you make this world for me? Then how is this a real world; it's just your imagination." Estoria asked.
"Imagination is the most potent force an entity can possess. Solely by envisioning it, one can construct an entire new world," She asserted.
The angel sighed softly. "Think of it this way: the world you believe to be real, where did it come from? Someone else imagined it before it became the world you know, just like this world. The only difference is that I created this world, and the world you used to live in was created by another being. There isn't just a single world in this universe; there are countless.
I get that you're used to the previous world. I tried to make this world as similar to it. I also made some things easier, like the languages; everyone speaks a single language, and I took inspiration from others only because I was in a hurry. Your soul was going to be taken, I had to act fast."
"The only language thing you did, it's because it was easier for you, right? Also, the setting too," Estoria said nonchalantly.
"I said I was in a hurry; try making a new world in 10 minutes!" She retorted.
"Nah, I'm good," Estoria replied.
"I have to go now; I'll be gone for a while, so I won't be able to protect you anymore..." She sounded defeated.
"What's your name?" Estoria asked.
She looked up, a little surprised. "Ilona," Ilona said with a smile.
Ilona was reincarnated when Lillia was 5 years old. The guardian angels are reincarnated souls, but they don't remember anything from their previous lives. They're born as newly as a newborn baby.
Ilona was also mentally 5 years old when she came into being after Lillia's wish. The wish is used as the foundation of the guardian angel. Even without knowing anything, the guardian angels have a strong will to protect the person whose wish had given them a life again.
Ilona followed Lillia ever since then; she saw everything that happened at that time. The orphanage was situated in a back city town. It had barely enough space for a hall with a dining table and 2 rooms—one for the kids and the other for the caretakers at the orphanage.
The 3 caretakers were previously the kids who lived at the orphanage and decided to continue living there and became the next caretakers unexpectedly. There was an old man who managed the expenses and other things; he rarely visited the orphanage while the women took care of the children.
There weren't many kids at the orphanage. The women did the bare minimum for the children to survive, and they didn't accept any new kids because of the low budget.
As time went by, the children at the orphanage got adopted one by one. As Lillia watched each of her friends take off with their new families, she was happy the first day for her friends, but the next day she would cry loudly, missing them. This went on for a few days before Lillia would come back to her usual self.
The caretakers knew of Lillia's habit, and they were tired of listening to her cries day and night. At the time, there were only 2 kids left—one was Lillia, and the other was a boy named Jake.
They got along well with each other; they would play all day long inside their small room, which only had a single bunk bed now and some toys.
Ilona wasn't fond of the caretakers at the orphanage, but she couldn't do much about them either. She would stay beside Lillia whenever she cried alone at night. It wasn't that Lillia forgot about her friends; after a few days, she would still remember them from time to time and cry silently at night.
Although Lillia seemed like the ignorant type of kid who paid no mind to others, she was the total opposite. She knew the people around her didn't like it when she cried; even Jake ignored her when she would cry, nevermind the caretakers who would throw harsh words around to threaten Lillia to stop her weeps.
The years went by with everything as it was until one day when Lillia was 7 and Jake was 8. At the time, a family came to adopt Jake. Ilona was really worried for Lillia this time; Jake was the only one left with her. Even the caretakers knew Lillia wouldn't take it as crying for a few days this time and cursed themselves for being stuck with her.
The day Jake left the orphanage for good, Lillia only smiled that day. She didn't say a word; she ate her meals on time and slept through the night without a sound. But the caretakers knew what was waiting for them, so they decided to leave early morning the next day.
Lillia woke up on time; breakfast was usually given, but when she went out of her room, there was no one at the orphanage. It was as silent as an abandoned house. She still sat at the dining table, which had nothing on it, and the other 5 chairs were also empty.
Lillia didn't move from that chair for the whole day; she sat there in silence and stared at nothing. When it was late at night, only then did she move to go back to her bed.
Ilona tried to make the people outside come into the orphanage in case they would give Lillia some food to eat, but the caretakers had locked the doors before taking off, so she was also helpless as she watched Lillia sit in silence the whole day.
It wasn't just the fact that Lillia didn't do anything, but she also didn't cry as she did in the past, which had Ilona even more worried. She didn't know what was going on inside her as she could only watch her.
That night, Lillia slept like nothing was the matter. Ilona watched her all night by her side, but Lillia really did sleep through the night without shedding a single tear.
The caretakers returned in the morning and brought back a lot of new stuff for their room and groceries for the day. It was time for breakfast; one of the caretakers placed the food at the dining table.
"Should we go check on her? She hasn't come out yet."
"Go do it, but it's not like she would die without eating for a day."
Lillia was awake at the time, and since the orphanage wasn't that spacious to begin with, she could hear the voices outside of her room clearly. She pretended to keep sleeping, shutting her eyes close. The caretakers entered the room.
"See, I told you she was fine; she's even sleeping peacefully."
"She seems to be breathing, so let's just leave her be; she will come out when she's hungry."
After the caretakers left the room, Lillia opened her eyes again. Ilona watched those eyes that seemed to have no life behind them as a tear finally dropped from her left eye.
"Are you going to cry? Yes, just cry; let it all out, it's alright," Ilona spoke, even though her words didn't reach Lillia.
Lillia cried silently under her sheets that day and night fell again.
"Lillia, let's at least drink some water; I'm worried sick that you'll die of dehydration like this!" Ilona said.
The next day, Lillia finally came out of her room and sat at the dining table at breakfast time.
"See, I told you she would come out when she wants to," the caretaker said.
"Are we your servants, Lillia? You think you can do whatever you want now, is that right!?" The other caretaker shouted.
"I'm sorry," Lillia said with her head hung low.
"Whatever, just eat your food and get out of my sight," the caretaker gave Lillia the food from the previous day.
Lillia drank a whole glass of water and ate her food without nitpicking at it quietly and went back to her room.
"I think she came to her senses after being left alone for a day; look at her being so submissive now."
The laughing voices surrounded Lillia in her room as she tried to close her ears with her hands.
The years went by again like this until Lillia came of age and moved out of the orphanage. She wasn't adopted a single time during her stay and left without saying anything one day.
And the day she moved to her apartment was the day she died. Ilona couldn't accept her death like this; the fact that Ilona was her guardian angel but still couldn't help her at all was unbearable for Ilona.
She used everything in her to reincarnate Lilia's soul in a new world, which was created by her being the creator of the world that Lillia was now in. Ilona could actually protect her this time.
She didn't let a single harm fall upon her unless she harmed herself, of course, and helped her with anything she could. For example, the time Estoria wanted to find Asher.
Although Ilona created the world, some things were still not in her hands; the world was also alive with billions of other people. She couldn't control every little thing and could only watch over Estoria without interfering with the events unfolding in the world. As she chose the world of someone else's imagination, the events were also unexpected.
Ilona was just as new to this world as Estoria.