There once was a witch who chased flame like a moth, she almost deserved her predictable fate.
Consciousness returned in fragments, like shards of a shattered mirror slowly reassembling themselves.
At first, there was nothing but a blur, a fog of confusion where thoughts struggled to fit together. Then, gradually, pieces began to click into place. A faint memory flickered, sounds, a sensation of warmth, the weight of sleep pulling at her limbs.
The world outside her mind reappeared in jagged pieces, each one clearer than the last, until the reflection of reality was whole again. She blinked, disoriented but whole, as the shards of her thoughts finally settled into a coherent picture. The world was back, and she was part of it once more.
Who could have guessed that she would return to the past?
'Going back so far into the past, only a supreme being could achieve such a thing, but why would someone like that send someone as insignificant as myself back in time?' Zulie wondered as she was being held by her mother.
One month had passed since her rebirth and Zulie still couldn't comprehend her situation.
She, a powerful witch who burned everything in her path with blazing glory was back to being a helpless baby unable to even support the weight of her own head.
Still, although her fall from power was tragic, this was an opportunity. With such a big headstart she could regain her former power in at most fifteen years, by the time she caught up to her former age of one hundred and twenty years she would be at least several dozen times stronger.
But those were all things for the future, for now, Zulie had to focus on growing up faster.
Looking up at her mother, Zulie raised her small arms and reached out for her mother's breasts.
Zulie's mother, noticed her daughter's movements and brought her daughter to her chest and moved her clothes aside, allowing her daughter to feast for the fifth time this morning.
Amira, Zulie's mother looked down at her daughter with her brown eyes full of both love and worry.
Being a mother in this world made her fated for hardship. Zulie was her eighth child and she only hoped she wouldn't have the same fate and leave her early like four of her children already had.
Zulie's large appetite was a good sign but her constant silence and refusal to cry ever since she was born made her worry.
She had consulted some of her friends but none of them had ever heard of such a case, even mute children would still make sounds it was just that they couldn't speak.
Amira's worry for her daughter mounted, unaware of her daughter's current thoughts.
'This method is too inefficient, if I had a cauldron and a few ingredients I could use one of those blood path methods I got from that old man and just turn my mother into an elixir to raise my vitality and accelerate my growth.' Zulie thought as she sucked on her mother's already swollen breasts.
Although a person having such thoughts might be considered evil, so what? In this world, good and evil, hero or villain, such words were merely labels, if a person had overwhelming power, no matter how evil or heinous they were, they could simply suppress all opposition using their own power.
'Seek neither reputation nor wealth, Seek strength, the rest will follow.' the image of a greasy bearded old man flashed past her mind.
Zulie chuckled and Amira's eyes widened. Zulie paid her no mind as she went to sleep.
A few months passed and Zulie was now a year old. Her efforts weren't in vain as Zulie could now walk and even talk.
Sat in the living room, Zulie's three siblings played with her as their parents sat near the lit fire place and watched.
Zulie had three older siblings, the two eldest were the twins Elwyn and Alwyn who were 12 years old, both took mostly from their father, inheriting his black hair, eyes and long, horse like face.
They had yet to fully mature however so they still couldn't match his tall stature and wide muscular shoulders.
Julie, Zulie's older sister was seven years old and always doted on her in her past life. She had platinum blonde hair similar to Amira and blue eyes similar to Zulie.
Each of the siblings sat at a corner of the room in a triangle as they took turns calling for Zulie who would toddle towards them, once she reached one of them, they would cheer and and hug her before sending her to the next siblings.
They played like this for a few minutes before it was time for bed. Zulie and her siblings all slept in the same room while their parents slept in their own separate room.
Once Zulie felt that everyone had gone asleep she opened her eyes and looked around. It was pitch black but Zulie could make out her siblings' sleeping figures.
Clasping her hands in a praying gesture Zulie took a deep breath, and relaxed her entire body.
Today, Zulie would finally start her journey to strength once more, meditating and awakening her spiritual sense was the first step.
In this world, there were countless paths to achieve great power, but whether they be elemental wizards, body strengthening wizards or soul refining wizards, all paths relied on a person's spirit, a powerful spirit allowed for superior senses, faster thought process and even the ability to control the elements themselves.
As a powerful rank 5 fire witch in her past life, Zulie's spiritual power was strong enough to weave great firestorms powerful enough to burn down a country.
Unfortunately her spiritual power now was only a fraction of the original if her original spiritual power could be compared to a blazing sun, the current amount she had was merely a candle flame, still, that small flame would be enough to start meditating and embark on the path of fire once more.
Zulie felt her light body get even lighter as she sank deeper still into her own body, darkness wrapped up her consciousness in its embrace before slowly giving way into a world full of colour like suddenly exiting a dark tunnel.
What she saw at the end of the tunnel gave her enough of a shock to immediately break her out of her meditation.
Suddenly broken out of her meditation, Zulie immediately suffered a backlash as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she lost consciousness.
A/N: please feel free to give me some advice if you find something unsatisfactory.