Evelyn found herself standing atop the palace with Parker's entire family spread out around her—Maya, Tessa, Nyxavere, Zhang Ruoyun, Helena, Annabelle, Noctavine, and others whose nas probably filled entire phonebooks.
She looked at them all, these people who sohow felt familiar despite being strangers, but her soul was doing sothing weird.
Pulsing.
And not the gentle, rhythmic pulsing of a normal soul going about its business. This was raw, violent waves of energy that made the air around her shimr like heat rising from sumr pavent.
Above them, the soul of Ma'at was pulsing too, hovering over the massive statue of Judgnt like a golden heartbeat made visible. The two souls were responding to each other, sending out waves of power that made reality itself hold its breath.
Pulse.
Pulse.
Pulse.
The waves synchronized, growing stronger with each beat.
"One of the Three," Evelyn muttered, the words falling from her lips before she even knew she was speaking.
And then the mories hit.
Not gently. Not like a gradual awakening or a slow dawn of understanding. They slamd into her like a cosmic freight train loaded with ten thousand lifetis of experience.
She rembered being Ma'at, standing in judgnt over the dead, weighing hearts against feathers with the kind of perfect balance that could make the universe weep with its beauty. She rembered the satisfaction of feeding truly terrible people to Ammit, the soul eater, and the gentle joy of guiding good souls toward paradise.
But deeper than that, older than that, she rembered being Judgnt itself. One of Parker's oldest companions, forged in the fires of creation when the universe was still figuring out the difference between right and wrong. She rembered standing by his side across nine lifetis, through wars that spanned galaxies and quiet monts that lasted centuries.
She rembered being whole.
The sheer weight of it—lifetis upon lifetis of mory, cosmic purpose, the responsibility of being one of the fundantal forces of existence—sent her crashing to her knees like soone had just dropped the entire weight of creation on her shoulders.
Before her family could step forward to help, before anyone else could react, Parker was already moving. He went down on one knee beside her and pulled her into his arms, and she was shaking from within like her soul was trying to vibrate itself out of existence.
The warmth was so familiar from the new mories flooding through her, but so unfamiliar to her current self. It felt like coming ho to a place you'd never been before.
But it felt good. Safe. Right.
The Evelyn of this life had been in love with Parker since they were kids—even when he used to beat her up during their childhood, even when he was being a complete ass, even when logic said she should probably find soone who didn't regularly get into fights with cosmic entities.
She snuggled into his embrace like she was trying to disappear into the safety of his arms.
"Well, isn't this fucking adorable," Ere said from her perch in Annabelle's arms, her voice dripping with the kind of sarcasm that could cut through dinsional barriers. "Look at that. Half-soul gets a cuddle session while the rest of us just stand here like background decoration."
Annabelle, who had her own complicated feelings about Parker and wasn't exactly thrilled to watch soone else get the affectionate comfort she'd been hoping for, couldn't help but add, "So people get all the luck."
But even as she said it, Annabelle's mind was drifting back to her own mories—the day when Parker had hugged her too, after she'd received punishnt for sothing she couldn't quite rember.
He'd called her sothing specific, a na that had made her feel special and safe and loved. What was it again?
The mory was right there, just out of reach...
Bella, anwhile, was having her own mont of sibling rivalry. She hadn't expected her sister to be the first one to get Parker's full attention and affectionate comfort, especially since Bella was usually the clingy one.
She stood there watching, trying not to pout about the cosmic unfairness of it all.
As Parker held Evelyn, the soul of Ma'at began to descend from above the statue, moving with the slow inevitability of a sunset. It drifted down like liquid gold made of pure justice, approaching Evelyn with the gentle insistence of sothing that belonged exactly where it was going.
The mont it touched her, the integration began.
Evelyn's body glowed from within as the soul of Ma'at rged with her essence, two halves of the sa cosmic entity finally becoming whole again. The light was warm, golden, and carried the weight of absolute justice tempered with infinite compassion.
Above them, the massive statue of Judgnt began to crack.
Not breaking, not crumbling, but shedding. Like the outer shell was just a cocoon that had served its purpose and was now ready to fall away. Pieces of crystallized starlight and divine justice fell to the palace roof like cosmic snow, each fragnt dissolving before it could hit the ground.
Maya and Zhang Ruoyun smiled as they watched the awakening unfold. They knew what this ant, knew what was coming, and they were as ready as anyone could be for the return of Judgnt herself.
But their smiles carried a hint of sothing that might have been nervous anticipation.
"Unfortunately," Maya said quietly, her voice carrying the weight of soone who could see probability threads stretching into an uncertain future, "or fortunately, depending on your perspective, no one is ready for Ignisra and Nyxara and Selzara."
She gestured toward other parts of the palace, where more statues waited in cosmic slumber.
"The two Phoenixes and the Primordial Dragon. They're going to be woken up too. And not just them."
Zhang Ruoyun nodded, her flas flickering with sothing that looked like excitent mixed with cosmic dread.
"The awakening has begun," she said softly. "And once it starts, it doesn't stop until everyone is ho."
Around them, the air itself began to hum with anticipation, as if the universe was holding its breath for what was about to unfold.
The cosmic family was about to beco a lot bigger.
And a lot more complicated.
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