'Ugh, my head.' Slowly opening her eyes, Aurora got back onto her feet, her vision still hazy from her sleep.
'Just who was she? I feel like I should know who that woman was.' With her head still a bit fuzzy, the small fox looked around the room, looking for the fox woman.
Unfortunately, no matter where she looked, she couldn't find her. However, she did find something, or rather, someone.
'Rejoke? How did you get here?' Aurora blinked twice, making sure she wasn't just seeing things. But after the black wolf didn't disappear from her view, she realized that it really was Rejoke and not just an illusion.
The wolf was looking at her with worried eyes, clearly worried about her safety. He wasn't sure if she was fine, but when he got here, she was already sleeping on the floor. But now that she woke up and was seemingly fine, a lot of the wolf's worries had disappeared.
After the conclusion of Aurora's battle with Aurelius, it still took some time for Rejoke to shake of the remaining feeling of dread that loomed over him. When he finally managed to calm down, he quickly rushed into the hall that had managed to fully repair to its original state in the meantime.
He looked around the spacious and grand hall, but even after checking every single corner of the large room, he didn't manage to find the white fox he was desperately looking for. And since he saw no other option, the wolf didn't hesitate at all and quickly jumped into the golden mana swirl.
Thankfully, as soon as he emerged on the other side, he found what he was looking for. But at first, his worries were far from gone. If anything, seeing Aurora lying motionlessly on the floor, he got even more worried, thinking the worst has come to pass.
Back then, he immediately rushed forward to check on his alpha. Thankfully, she seemed to be mostly fine and only appeared to be sleeping. This finally lightened the wolf's worries a bit, and he sat down a few meters away from the small fox and waited for her to wake up.
Seeing that he was still worried about her, Aurora's gaze softened a bit, and she gave him a light nod, telling him she was fine. Surprisingly, she really was fine.
The damage her soul has suffered has completely healed up, and she was back at her peak. Although she had no idea what that woman did, it must have been something really special for her to heal from such an injury instantly.
'Seems like that flame was speaking the truth after all.' Aurora thought silently as she began to once again wonder what the deal was with that speaking orange flame.
"Of course he spoke the truth. Why would he lie, dummy sis?" Aurora's eyes went wide when she heard a playful, cheeky voice speak in her head.
She quickly looked around, trying to find the person who spoke. However, no matter how or where she looked, she found nothing, earning her a playful giggle from the voice.
"You won't be able to see me like that. If you want to find me, you'll have to look elsewhere." The voice said once again, causing Aurora to frown slightly.
'Look elsewhere? Like where?' She asked, to which the voice giggled again and responded.
"Look inside your soul. I'm sure the current you is capable enough to do that." The voice explained, patiently waiting for Aurora's reply that never came.
Instead of saying anything, Aurora merely closed her eyes and tried her best to somehow see her soul. Surprisingly, it took her but a moment to look inside her soul, which appeared to be a vast icy wasteland covered by bright red flames in some places.
"This is my soul? Wait, I can talk!?" She exclaimed, feeling that this was all too strange.
"Of course you can talk. Here, you aren't just a fox. Here, you are you. Here, you're the truest essence of your being. Basically, while you still look like a fox, since you know how to talk, you can." The sudden appearance of the voice behind her caused Aurora to turn around, searching for the source of the voice.
"You are?" Once her eyes fell on the small white fox that looked just like her physical body, Auroea couldn't help but feel she already saw the fox before. Despite looking exactly like her, she knew it wasn't her, at least not completely.
"Hehe, let me introduce myself. If I go by the name our mother gave to me a moment ago, you can call me Yuki. Though, 'sister' or simply 'sis' is fine as well." The little fox named Yuki giggled softly with a smile on her adorable face.
"Yuki? Wait, actually, what do you mean by our mother? And sister? I'm a bit lost." Auroea muttered at the end, the amount of questions she currently had on her mind increasing further.
"Calm down first, sis. There are lots of things you have yet to learn. But now that I finally managed to connect to you, at least partially thanks to our mother's help, I can explain those things to you." Yuki flashed Aurora a soft, reassuring smile, trying her best to calm Aurora down.
"Right, right..." Aurora took a deep breath, nodding her head twice to calm down. "Alright, slowly this time. First of all, who are you, and why are you calling me 'sis'?"
Seeing her quickly regain her composure, Yuki smiled further, happy to see that despite all that happened in such a short time, Aurora was still able to keep her head straight.
"As I already said, my name is Yuki. Yuki Snow, that's my full name. As for the reason why I call you my sister, well, it's because you kind of are." Yuki explained, or at least she tried to do so. But seeing that Aurora wasn't really satisfied with such an answer, the small fox sighed and continued with her explanation.
"You see, currently, your soul is incomplete. It was always that way. As of now, your soul is more of a half soul, with me being the other half." Yuki began to explain in more detail, and seeing she had Aurora's attention, she continued.
"Originally, the two of us were a single soul. But due to some events that I am not sure of what they were, our soul split into two parts. These two parts are naturally you and me; hence, I call you my sister. Even if we should be a single being, we aren't, so calling you my sister isn't exactly wrong." By the end of her explanation, Yuki gave her 'sister' a small smile.
"I see..." After muttering those words, Aurora fell silent. She said nothing even after ten minutes, clearly processing all the information she had just heard. Yuki didn't rush her either; after all, she knew that this must probably be quite a shock to her sister.
It was only after a total of fifteen minutes that Aurora finally broke the silence.
"So, Yuki, you said something about our mother, right? D-do you know anything about her?" Aurora asked, her tone getting shaky when she talked about her mother. It seemed that, for some reason, the topic was quite heavy for her.
"Mother... I do not know much about her." Even Yuki's voice was low, almost hesitant. From her voice alone, it was clear that she didn't really wish to touch on this topic.
"Just like you, I have never met mother myself. I know very little about her, be it from stories or from the knowledge we were supposed to have." Yet, despite finding the topic to be unpleasant, Yuki didn't dismiss Aurora's question.
"I merely know that she was a fox like us, however, a much stronger one. From what I know, there weren't many in the whole universe who could stand up against our mother; that's just how powerful she was." Though her words were quite vague and didn't really tell much, there was one detail that made Aurora's heart almost freeze.
"W-what do you mean she 'was'? From the way you say it, it sounds like..." She didn't even finish her sentence, now willing to utter such words.
"Indeed." Yuki nodded solemnly, as even without her saying it, she perfectly understood what Aurora wanted to say.
"Our mother is no longer with us. And before you ask, what you saw before falling asleep was a mere specter. A remnant, a small piece of her soul that she left here for us to find." Although she appeared calm on the outside, it was obviously that Yuki was incredibly sad at the moment.
Despite never meeting her mother, she still felt great love for the woman who created her. Aurora was the same. Despite having no idea who her mother was, she just felt a strong bond towards her even if she had no idea who she was.
"I-I see..." Aurora looked down, her ears droopy in sadness and regret. Sadness because she lost someone who would probably be very dear to her. Regret because she couldn't even meet that person.
"Don't blame yourself, sis." Completely understanding her 'sister's' way of thinking, Yuki gave Aurora a weak, clearly forced smile. Even she, who was always so playful and cheerful, was feeling a great deal of grief.
"There was nothing we could have done. Our mother was probably already gone before our soul even got separated. We didn't even have physical bodies back then. Well, not that I have one now, but you get what I mean." However, despite being very sad herself, Yuki tried her best to cheer her 'sister' up even a bit.
At the very least, she didn't want Aurora to blame herself for something she naturally had no control over. For heaven's sake, their mother was one of the most powerful beings in the entire universe! What could they, a small and weak soul, do to help such a grand being?
"You're right. It's just that... I don't know. I just can't come to terms that my mother, the most important woman of my life, was already gone before I could even meet her." Aurora said in a weak tone. Unlike before, when she was physically weak and exhausted, this current weakness of hers stemmed from her emotional state.
Learning that you were the daughter of one of the most powerful beings in the whole universe was obviously a surprise to her. But that surprise couldn't compare to the hit she received when she learned that her mother, that same unbeatable existence, was already gone. It did some extreme damage to Aurora's psyche.
"Look. I know that there's nothing wrong with mourning over a lost close one, but would our mother truly wish for us to mourn her?" Suddenly, Yuki cut Aurora's train of thoughts as she spoke in a determined voice.
"Our mother used everything she had to help us. Even after her demise, she saved your soul and also allowed us to finally connect, even if just partially. She gave her everything for us; would it truly be right to mourn her sacrifice rather than going forward as she would want us to?" Her words seem to penetrate deep into Aurora's heart, awakening her from the trance she lost herself in.
"You're right. There's no point in being sad over something there's no reason to be sad about. Our mother wanted us to grow; she wanted us to reach the top she was once at. And for that, we must face forward and stop before nothing!" Aurora exclaimed, her face lighting up again after losing all its glow.
"Yeah! Let's reach the top together! Right, sis?" Yuki asked with a bright smile on her small face, to which Aurora responded with a smile of her own.
"Of course. We'll walk the path ahead of us together, no matter how thorny that path may be." With those words, the two identical foxes pledged their promise to each other, a promise that would one day become a reality.