Lyerin's heart pounded in his chest as the courtroom-like chamber seemed to blur around him.
He had been standing there, trying to hold back the tidal wave of emotions that had been building inside him since he had been brought back into this world. But the sight of the woman who now stood before him nearly shattered his resolve.
His mother, Lina, was there, her eyes filled with a mixture of love and concern.
Lina's appearance was as he remembered, yet different in ways that made his stomach twist.
Her once-lustrous hair, the same deep black as his own, now fell in disheveled waves around her shoulders. Her face, though still beautiful, bore the faint lines of exhaustion and pain. Her eyes, so full of warmth, had a shadow in them that hadn't been there before. She wore a simple dress, its fabric worn and threadbare, as if she had been through countless hardships.
