"Eclipsa."
The word echoed, heavy and resonant.
"This shall be her name" he declared,"Morana Eclipsa Morvaelis."
The mana surged in answer.
And for the first time since my rebirth, I felt it clearly.
The moment the name left Vaelor's lips, the temple changed.
The air thickened, pressing against my skin like a second layer. The faint hum beneath the stone floor deepened, resonating through my bones. The incense smoke stilled mid-curl, suspended as though the world itself had paused to listen.
Morana.
Eclipsa.
A pulse rippled outward from the altar slow, deliberate passing through my cradle, my parents, the pillars, the very walls of the temple. I felt it move through me, not like pain, not like warmth, but like recognition.
As if something ancient had finally found its mark.
My mother stiffened.
Kael's sharp intake of breath was the only sound in the vast silence.
Even my father looked startled.
Elyndra was the first to speak.
"…Eclipsa," she repeated quietly.
Vaelor did not withdraw his hand.
"It fits," he said, voice low. "More than it should."
My mother's grip tightened around me. "Father," she said carefully, "that name hasn't been used since..."
"since the age before the war," Vaelor finished.
The weight in his words settled deep.
Eclipsa.
I searched my memory desperately.
The novel had mentioned it.
Briefly.
Almost carelessly.
A term buried in history texts, glossed over in favor of battles and heroes.
Eclipsa was not a family name.
It was a title.
"The Eclipsa were those born beneath converging forces," Elyndra said softly, her gaze never leaving me. "Light and shadow. Creation and ruin."
Vaelor nodded. "Children whose existence bends probability. Whose presence causes divergence."
My heart hammered.
That wasn't good.
"That kind of power attracts calamity," my mother said, tension threading her voice. "The last Eclipsa nearly tore the continent apart."
"Or saved it," Vaelor countered.
"At an unbearable cost," she replied.
Silence fell again.
I felt it then, something subtle, something wrong.
The mana around me was not receding.
It was settling.
Threading itself into me like roots sinking into soil.
"She reacted," Elyndra said quietly. "The name anchored her."
"She accepted it," Vaelor agreed.
Accepted.
As if I'd been given a choice.
Eclipsa.
In the novel, Eclipsa-class beings were anomalies. Rare enough to be dismissed as myths. Dangerous enough that records were intentionally obscured.
They did not follow the rules.
They disrupted them.
"She exists at a fault line," Vaelor continued. "Where futures split."
My father finally spoke. "Does this mean..."
"Yes," Vaelor said calmly. "Her presence will change the course of what should happen."
My breath caught. So I wasn't just a forgotten background character.
I was a variable.
A deviation the story never accounted for.
Elyndra leaned closer, her voice lowering so only family could hear.
"Morana," she said, testing the name gently. "Bearer of twilight. Neither dawn nor dusk."
Her eyes softened just a fraction.
"Child of endings," she added. "And beginnings."
The magic pulsed once more, deeper this time.
I felt it settle into my chest.
Heavy.
Permanent.
I understood then.
Why I felt wrong when I woke up.
Why my soul had resisted this body.
Why the story itself seemed to hesitate around me.
Because I was never meant to simply exist.
I was meant to interfere.
And somewhere, far beyond the walls of the Temple of Origins, the future shifted.
____________________
The ceremony ended without fanfare.
No applause. No proclamations.
The mana receded as quietly as it had arrived, leaving the temple hollowed and still. The air lightened, the incense resumed its lazy curl, and the weight pressing against my chest loosened just enough to breathe.
I was carried out the same way I had entered.
My name echoed softly inside me, no longer foreign. No longer heavy. It fit in a way I hadn't known I was missing like a missing piece finally sliding into place.
My grandparents did not stay long.
They stood apart from the rest of us near the temple gates, their figures framed by ancient stone and fading light. They spoke quietly with my parents words I couldn't hear, advice meant for emperors and empresses, not infants.
When they finally turned to leave, Elyndra paused.
She approached me one last time, her expression gentler than before.
"Live well, little twilight," she murmured. Her fingers brushed my forehead light, fleeting. "And do not rush toward the future. It will come for you soon enough."
Vaelor only nodded.
A warrior's farewell. Final and absolute.
They had retired long ago, long before my birth, handing the empire over to my father decades earlier. Now they lived beyond the capital, removed from politics and power, watching the world from a distance they had earned.
And just like that, they returned to being legends again.
The carriage ride back to the palace felt different.
Lighter.
My mother held me close, her posture finally relaxed. My father's gaze lingered on me longer than before, as if committing something to memory. Kael leaned over when he thought no one was watching, smiling softly.
"You have a name now," he whispered, like it was a secret meant only for us. "I'll make sure everyone knows it."
Morana.
Every time someone said it, something inside me settled more firmly into place.
I was loved.
My family held me because they wanted to. Watched over me because they cared. Smiled at me not out of duty, but affection.
In my previous life, I had known none of this.
No mother's warmth. No father's steady presence. No brother sneaking smiles and promises into quiet moments.
I had been an orphan.
Alone in a crowded world.
Here, I was surrounded by people who would grieve if I cried, who would worry if I fell ill, who would fight for me without hesitation.
I had a family. A name. A place where I was wanted.
And for the first time since I woke up in this unfamiliar body, the fear loosened its grip.
The future was uncertain. Dangerous. Twisted by forces even my grandparents treated with caution.
But for now, I was Morana Eclipsa Morvaelis.
And I was not alone.
___________________________________