A Silicon Sorceress

Being Reborn

Selina Belle Whitehall, the adopted daughter of Duke Callan Whitehall, remembered her past life as Annabelle Garrison(Belle). Annabelle was a successful Silicon Valley engineer.

Despite being content, she had led a solitary life, having lost her parents before she started college. Although she dated casually, settling down had never been a priority for her. 

She wanted a love match in her life and nothing less. 

Her guilty pleasure was watching cheesy rom-coms on weekends and reading slow-burn romance novels, giggling to herself.

On the day of her death, Annabelle saw a young child chasing a ball into the path of an oncoming car; Belle instinctively rushed to save him. Embracing the child tightly, she shielded him from the car impact, and the next moment, everything went black.

Dying felt like drifting into slumber.

When Belle reopened her eyes, she found herself in a new world, as an infant cradled in the arms of a woman with otherworldly beauty but deathly pale, smiling down at her with tears. The woman had warm eyes. Her hair was the colour of flaming red flames. And she had charming freckles.

Another woman who looked quite similar to the one holding Belle took her and placed her in what looked like a baby crib. The room looked like a nursery. Someone had started painting stars on the ceiling and rainbow and clouds on the walls beside the large window but left incomplete.

Though Belle still remembered her past life and had the mind of an adult, her body was of an infant. She soon fell asleep in her new comfy bed.

_ _ _ _ _ _

When Belle next woke up, she was in a carriage. A horse-drawn carriage! The woman from before was holding Belle in her arms, and something told Belle this woman wasn't her mother.

Was she being kidnapped?

Who kidnaps an infant from her mother!

Belle tried to speak, but of course, her vocal cords hadn't developed enough, and she just made baby noises, which alerted the woman that she had woken up. The woman was now smiling down at her.

Even keeping her eyes open was a task; everything was too bright. And she was pretty comfortable in the woman's arms. Belle couldn't see or talk, but she could think. What to make of this situation. She knew this all was real. It wasn't a dream; she could feel the carriage move, the musty smell of a forest(?), and the smoothness of the fabric she was wrapped in.

In frustration, Belle started crying; now she knew why the babies cried so much. These adults were so frustrating to deal with.

To her surprise, the woman looked happy.

She was talking to someone in the carriage. Belle turned around and saw a man sitting across from them in the carriage. He was dressed in complete mediaeval armour with a cape and held a long sword with a beautiful hilt in one hand. He had short green hair like an army cut. Green hair! Belle thought she was at the shooting of some film set.

"She is finally crying. She hadn't cried since last night, and I was getting worried. Seems like she is ready now to mourn her mother's departure."

The soldier, a young man, nodded to the woman's thoughts. He looked at Belle with pity and protectiveness(?).

Belle couldn't figure out what the lady meant by "mother's departure".

Did her mother leave her?

Was she abandoned now?

Was the lady taking her to some orphanage?

And where the hell was she?

The lady took out a bottle and fed Belle, and sleep overtook Belle.

- - - - - -

They spent what seemed like a long time travelling in the carriage and camping at night. The weather changed from full spring to peak winter. Belle saw snowcaped mountains and the latter half of their journey took double the time to cover the same distance.

As they reached their destination Belle found herself in a room with a high ceiling with paintings of men riding horses up a hill and a group of people dressed in white like the Pope singing, some women dancing and more beautiful scenery.

Belle tried to look around the vast room and saw she was in some kind of a throne room. The light was too much, so she closed her eyes and snuggled to the woman holding her.

The lady holding her had her head bent, like in a bow. So had the other people in the room, except the few soldiers standing at attention around the room.

There was a sound of soft but firm footfalls.

Someone was walking towards the lady and Belle.

Belle looked around the room and saw a king(...?) ascend from the raised throne platform, walking towards them. He looked young, somewhere in his mid-twenties. He was handsome. One of his cheeks had a long, fading red scar. His hair was dark black, and Belle noticed it was rare since most people she had seen had colourful hair. Green, Red, Blonde, purple, dark blue, light blue, all shades of rainbow.

He was dressed in black and a loose white shirt. He had a red cape, too. That looked to be black on the outer side.

He approached the lady and stood close to them, staring at Belle. Up close, Belle noticed he had the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen, like a snowflake reflecting sunlight in the early morning. He had long black lashes, but his eyes had a haunting look, and he looked like he was holding back tears.

Belle felt terrible for the guy. She wanted to hug him. Maybe a baby would cheer him up. She was reaching towards him and making her baby noises, which surprised the big guy.

The lady finally looked up at Belle, equally surprised.

The guy uncertainly took her from the lady. He certainly had never held a baby before. But he soon got it, and Belle's hands were wrapped around his relatively long hair.

Damn, the baby fingers. Belle had just wanted to touch the silky hair, but her fingers involuntarily curled around the hair. This made Belle laugh. A baby. Really!

Her laugh seems to surprise the guy and the red-haired lady even more.

"So it's true." the big guy said in his soft but commanding voice.