Elirya Solenne

I. The Child No One Wanted Before the heavens knew her name, before her feet touched clouds and stars sang her sorrow, Elirya Solenne was nothing more than a burden. Not a miracle, not a gift—just a consequence. She was born beneath thunder, in a broken-down shrine at the edge of the Hollowreach Forest. Her mother, Virelya, once a powerful seeress of the Moon Order, had fallen from grace for reasons whispered but never known. Some say she consorted with a demon. Others claimed she saw too far into fate and tried to change it. Whatever the truth, her punishment was exile—and Elirya was the living reminder of her shame. Virelya never touched her daughter with love. Not once. “You were never meant to be,” she would whisper coldly. “You tore me from the stars. You devoured my destiny.” Elirya grew up hearing those words like a lullaby made of knives. She was kept out of sight—hidden like a wound. The villagers who lived near the shrine spoke of her as a ghost child, pale and silent, with hair like frost and eyes too wise for her age. When they passed by, they left offerings—not out of kindness, but fear. Children who wandered near the forest sometimes came back speaking Elirya’s name without knowing how. She had a gift, inherited through blood—the Sight—but it only brought her pain. When Elirya was four, she saw a vision of a fire swallowing the village. She tried to warn them. No one listened. When it came true, they blamed her anyway. “You cursed us,” they spat. Her mother beat her that night, not for lying—but for speaking. --- II. Years of Cruelty Virelya used Elirya’s power for coin and survival, forcing her to read futures for cruel strangers. They came in secret—soldiers, merchants, nobles dressed as beggars. Some touched her without permission. Others left crying after what she revealed. None looked at her like she was a child. When Elirya tried to resist, her mother would lock her in the root cellar with no food or light for days.