“When I was pregnant with Anos, I was examined with magic. That was when they told me he wouldn’t be born healthy, and it would be better for me to give up—that the baby would be happier that way...” Mom smiled gently. “But I knew our little Anos was alive in my tummy, and I couldn’t give up no matter what. It didn’t matter if he was a little different, if he couldn’t study well, or if he was weak—I would love him the way he was, with all my heart. I would give him happiness.”
Before I knew it, dad was standing beside mom.
“Do you remember what you said back then, dear?” mom asked him. “You said that it wasn’t up to us to declare this child unhappy. Being different didn’t mean he couldn’t be happy.”
Dad nodded. “But when Anos was in his mother’s tummy, he was in a worse state than we thought. He almost died at one point.”
“Even with magic, there was nothing the doctor could do. I prayed every day asking for Anos to be born safely. I promised to raise him lovingly, no matter what.”
“What happened then?” Sasha asked.
“Anos’s heart stopped,” mom replied. “The doctor told us he’d died. But I couldn’t give up, so I prayed even harder for anyone, good or evil, to save my baby. Then, his heart started beating again.”
If we were to be absolutely precise, the child mom conceived had died. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that it had never lived to begin with. The doctor’s diagnosis had been correct. Mom’s body was incapable of bearing a child, and that child had never had a source to begin with.
Only a body had existed within mom’s stomach, and that body had been destined to die before it was born. However, my reincarnation into that existing vessel had brought it back to life.