The intruder moved silently through the dark room, careful not to wake anyone. His breath caught when his eyes landed on the sleeping figure of little Amo—peaceful, soft breaths rising and falling in rhythm. But something was wrong.
Another child was there.
A second baby—nearly identical but somehow... sharper. This wasn't Amo. This was Kale's clone. Its golden eyes were open and glowing faintly in the dark, a slow smile curling its lips. Before he could react, the clone raised one tiny hand and fired a searing beam of cosmic energy. The beam tore through the air, pierced the intruder's chest, and blew a hole clean through the room's stone wall.
The thunderous blast shook the building. Everyone stirred from sleep.
Liora's heart raced. Kale's voice rang in her mind, clear and cold: "Don't turn on the light. Not yet."
She stilled. "Why?" she asked silently.
"There's blood everywhere in the room. Amo will see it. Take him to another room before he wakes up. Let him remain innocent a little longer."
Liora nodded, speaking aloud calmly, "Everything's fine. An intruder tried to kill us. I handled it. I'm taking Amo to another room. Clean this one and bury the body."
Her voice was steady, but her hands trembled. She picked up little Amo and quietly moved to a neighboring room. There, she gently coaxed the sleepy boy to pee in a bucket, then fed him slices of sweet fruit. Her body ached, but she smiled through it. Beside them, Kale's clone watched, expression unreadable.
Surprisingly, when Liora offered fruit to the clone, it didn't resist. It ate.
Kale spoke again in her mind, softer now. "I can't taste food if you feed my clone."
"Does that mean your clone isn't truly you?" she asked.
"Yes. You could say I'm 90% of Kale. The clones are only 10% each. I have a soul core—they don't. So if their soul is ever damaged, they can't regenerate. They're... temporary."
Liora fed both babies silently. She smiled at the new child.
"What's your name, little one?"
Kale chuckled faintly. "Let's call him... Enormous." Liora say, "From now on, Amorien and Enormous will be brothers."
But Enormous shook his head, frowning.
Kale speak in her mind "No.Enormous can be Amo's father "
Liora laughed, unable to help herself. "A father? Born from the son's blood?"
"Hey," Kale snapped, "I just merged with Amo's blood to form this body. But that soul, that clone—it belongs to me."
Liora couldn't stop giggling, even as her wounds ached.
Kale stayed silent, letting her laugh. Letting her forget , just for a moment.
Then the pain returned.
Kale's voice grew urgent. "Liora, you need to eat more coconut. Use the money from Amo's old home. There are still magic stones left. When you feel pain, I feel it too. And Amo—he senses it. He isn't just a normal child. If you suffer, we all suffer. Don't be afraid to use the money. It's for us."
Liora said nothing. She just drank the coconut water he recommended. She wanted to deny it, to argue—but her heart had no strength left for battle.
She thought to herself: Even if no one in this world remembers me, I have two aliens who do.
She turned to Kale. "What about you?"
"I'm fine," Kale said. "I can heal slowly. And my clone is undamaged."
But she knew the truth. That battle had cost them far more than they were letting on.
"If I heal faster," she asked quietly, "will that help you heal faster too?"
There was a pause. Then, softly: "Yes."
"That's why you're worried about me."
"I'm sorry," Kale said after a pause. "If I hadn't taken the blood, I wouldn't have Enormous now. But now that we have him, he can stay with Amo. You'll have more freedom to do what you want."
"I don't trust devils," she muttered.
Kale fell silent. Liora drank until her stomach ached. She lay down again and pulled the babies close. One girl, two alien infants, and a wolf cub which is also a alien—all huddled under the same blanket.
---
Morning came.
Liora, still stiff and bruised, dragged herself out of bed and began baking simple bread over a small flame. As the smell filled the air, she noticed a little orphan girl sitting alone in the corner of the courtyard, her eyes hollow.
Liora picked up a stick and scribbled into the dust beside her bread oven: Give the orphan some emotional support.
But she didn't go to the child.
She couldn't.
She didn't know how to comfort them. She could barely keep herself together. She wasn't a mother, or a leader, or a saint. Just a wounded girl with too many burdens.
Instead, she took 1000 gold coins from her pouch and quietly placed the rest into the orphanage's help box. Everything in this city was too expensive anyway.
With her limited coin, she bought every coconut from a vendor in the marketplace—ten gold for the lot. She returned home and drank the water one by one, methodically, desperately. Then she crawled back into bed.
Amo woke up soon after. Liora take out 100 loaves of bread and fed him all of them. Then 100 coconuts. He ate them without slowing, like a bottomless pit.
Liora stared, half in disbelief. He's not even full.
"If I gave him a magic stone," she whispered to herself, "he'd finally stop eating."
But she knew what Kale would say. Magic stones risked corruption.
So she made a choice. Let him stay hungry. Hunger, at least, wouldn't turn him into a monster.
In her personal space, Enormous sat cross-legged, eating the corpse of an awakened monkey that Liora had stored . His body had grown visibly. He was almost as big as Amo now.
At last, Liora had nothing else to do.
Amo could go to the toilet on his own now. Enormous didn't need anything.
The pain in her bones began to settle like dust in her lungs.
So Liora just... lay on her bed. Silent. Motionless. Resting in a strange, fragile peace.
For now. A sudden knock on Liora's door sent a shiver through the quiet evening air. A little boy, cheeks flushed from running, peeked inside.
"Someone's here to see you," he panted.
Wiping flour from her hands, Liora followed him into the guest room—and froze. Standing before her were five figures she knew all too well:
Lina, the wind mage, hair dancing on an unseen breeze.
Hessa, the gentle healer, cloak soft around her shoulders.
Kallen, spear in hand, eyes steady.
Corven, shield strapped to his back, stance protective.
Haris, sword at his side, jaw set.
Liora crossed her arms. "Why are you here? I don't recall owing any of you a thing."
Lina swallowed. "We didn't come for debts," she said quietly. "We came to apologize." She glanced down. "In our town, when someone edges toward corruption, we… abandon them in the forest. We believe it's mercy, not punishment."
"I'm not blaming you," Liora replied, her voice cool but not unkind.
Hessa stepped forward. "I can help you." She sat beside Liora, placed a comforting hand over her own, and closed her eyes in concentration. A warm glow pulsed through Liora's body as Hessa worked, stitching together bruised ribs and torn sinew. When she finally drew back, Hessa offered a small smile. "Your injuries were deep. You'll heal, but it will take time."
From a satchel she produced forty-two glimmering vials. "Take two with every meal. In seven days, we leave again for the hunt.If you want to join meet us in the mission Hall. "
No one lingered after that. Liora watched the door swing shut, silence settling around her like a blanket.
---
In the days that followed, she just recover alone. Kale also don't speak. Like kale isn't in lioras body.
Liora buy 200 coconut at dawn, bought for ten gold coins, its sweet water a reminder of life's small comforts.Little amo drink 100 and liora drink 100.
Liora read alone at the town's library. Studying a field guide on edible wild herbs—knowledge to keep herself safe in the deeper woods.She never see any reader in the library.
The librarian, eyes weary from loss, surprised her one day. "This place is drowning in debt," he confessed. "I'll sell it for 250 gold."
Liora considered the peeling shelves and the dusty volumes. "230 gold," she countered—and the deal was done.
---
Five days later Liora negotiated another purchase: the little house beside the orphanage. A mother of three, desperate but hopeful, asked only that her family be allowed to stay and 50 gold coin. Liora agreed without hesitation.
That night, liora get all book from the old library. Books piled in the corner lifted, shimmered through space, and vanished—reappearing on neat shelves in her new library. In the morning, she opened the doors:
> The Orphanage Library was born.
The woman with three children approached, shy and curious. "May I… be the librarian?"
"I'll provide you and your children with three meals of fresh bread each day," Liora said firmly. "No coin, just your care."
And so she taught the woman how to:
Acquire knowledge: Purchase informative books for 1–10 gold each.
Encourage storytellers: Buy adventure-novel chapters at 10 copper apiece—each no less than 1,000 words.
Reward success: Pay authors a bonus when their chapters prove popular.
Sustain the library: Pay anyone who can edit 1 gold coin per completed book he or she edits or rewrites.One silver for anyone who copy the book.
Serve readers: Sell physical books for 1 gold each, or offer monthly unlimited reading for 1 gold.
Liora added you can edit, copy and rewrite while you are free.
---
On the seventh night, under a blood-red moon, Liora stepped onto the library's porch—and froze.
Figures in black cloaks crept through the shadows, blocking every path to the orphanage. Their intent was clear: they meant to trap the children and the books within.
Liora's heart pounded—but she did not falter. Bread was still in the oven. Children slept safely inside. And behind her, shelves groaned under the weight of worlds waiting to be read.
She took a steadying breath, tightened her cloak—and prepared to meet the threat head-on.