Astella

“Oh my God, my mother!” The shockwave hits me like a tidal wave and tries to pull me underground. I fall back a few steps and look at my grandmother with silver eyes full of confusion. The woman who raised me, the shaman who taught me everything I know just – with several simple words – destroyed my whole world once.

“Grandmother,” I whisper, and the wind still howls around us, washing her voice away. “My mom is alive?”

“She is,” Elena says with a heavy voice, and her old eyes are full of sadness again. “But not as you see biological life. Not as an exact Homo sapiens....