I lay, broken and defeated on the side of the highway.

The car slowly burned not too far away.

And my mother, bless her, would not give up. As I watched, immobilized, she crawled slowly, painfully towards me.

She was saying something, but it wasn’t a language I recognized.

Whatever she said, it was her last words, and I watched helplessly as the light faded from her eyes…and burned into mine.

Suddenly strength poured into me. I was able to move, and I did, running to her, shaking her.

“Mother! Mother!”

In the rigger mortis of death, her hand released a swallowtail butterfly. From whence it came, I had no idea.

But no sooner had it disappeared into the night, I heard footsteps.

I guarded my mother, tho she was past help, as the footsteps grew closer, I put up my guard, the strength of my mothers last gift giving me courage.

“Be not afraid,” a woman came into view. “For I bring glad tidings. You who neither live, nor die, are destined to bring second life. You shall be our High Priestess of Ageha.”