Elizabeth Coleman

The year 401 of the Kingdom of Verhan, at the Karen manor in the royal capital's commercial district. It is dawn on the third day since you regressed. With the last of your jewelry tucked inside your coat, you sneak toward the kitchen's back door to head out to the wholesale market. But the kitchen, before the sun has even risen, is lit. In front of the hearth, Elizabeth Coleman is stirring a pot of soup. The woman you remember from six years later was someone tormented by debt-collection notices, lying in a sickbed doing nothing but coughing. The woman before your eyes now has color in her cheeks, her apron strings tied tight, humming a tune under her breath. Since the night your voice and your father's rose in the study, she hasn't asked a single thing. She only watches you a little longer each time you pass by. With the sound of the ladle being set down, she turns around.