When the city of Newport shattered, its skies ruptured by grief, its foundations burned with love and anguish, the force didn’t just tear buildings. It split the veil between realms. Magic, memory, and emotion collided in a single, soul-bound detonation, and everyone who perished rose again, not undead, but unforgotten. They continued, quietly. Streets remembered laughter. Flowers rebloomed. And over the years, as survivors lived out their mortal span, each one returned to find the city waiting. Whole. Familiar. Undimmed.
Alo’ene Larson rises among them, still pregnant, still fragrant. She walks through restored gardens and alleys stitched with memory, holding her stomach and speaking gently to the life within. Not just of places and names, but of presence.
She waits for Spencer, the man whose heart shattered that fateful night. And when his time comes, when his final breath carries him through the veil, he steps into Newport not as a mourner, but as beloved,greeted by neighbours, old friends, and the scent he thought he’d lost forever.