Magdalena

"What would you do if you were gifted a second chance?"

It was a question posed by a goddess; a means of recompense, an olive branch of peace after multiple lifetimes of pain. Magdalena looked to her thoughtfully, their translucent bodies shifting in varied states of evaporation only to have strings of stardust mingle together in an ethereal touch. Every ounce of her energy had been spent on revenge and hate, but she knew in her heart of hearts -- damaged and blackened though it was -- that it was a chapter that needed finishing. 

She would begin anew: reborn of sky and wind, of tree and rock, in a place far from any she'd ever walked. 

"Will you keep the scars?"

Yes -- a reminder of what was, and what might be lest she reminds herself daily of what can happen when the poison sets itself too deep. She sighs, a heavy and relieved sort of sound, and it carries away on the air as Hoshiko begins to break her apart in gentle, even measures. Magdalena would be remade in her youth from from the land of her birth, and her lifetimes of suffering would be but a memory of the past. She would live, renewed and reknit, as she should have lived in her first life. 

"Be reborn, but do not forget."

And she wouldn't.