1 Chapter 1- Orphanage
In January 1979, heavy snowfall obscured the sky and made the night even colder.
An old building, which is now an orphanage, is located in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. The majority of the welfare services had been swallowed up by corruption, and the meager remainder of the funds were barely enough for the upkeep and feeding of the inhabitants. Fortunately, there weren't too many children here, and the neighbors were kind enough to give some donations. Otherwise, it would not be enough.
After a tiring day, Sister Sophia Jones is bidding farewell to Ms. Emily Cooper, who comes to the orphanage quite often , takes care of the children on a voluntary basis. Ms. Emily isn't very wealthy but likes to do what she can and always finds some time to take care of the children here, which is her way of contribution.
"The winter this year is very difficult. Luckily, the donations were able to properly clothe the children." Emily said to Sophia.
The chubby and old sister Sophia crossed her arms and replied, "I just hope that basta-*cough*, that idiot Henry Baldwin stops or at the very least reduces the amount of funds he takes this time. I have tried bringing up this matter before, but he has powerful connections, and he even threatened me."
"Things are hard for you..." Emily, who was about to walk out of the yard, was attracted by a basket at the gate of the yard, "What is that?"
Following the direction of Emily's finger, Sophia also saw the basket and went up to check. "Oh my God, it's a baby!"
Sophia tentatively lifted the baby from the basket. It was very cold this winter, yet the was warm to the touch and in deep sleep. "Help me, Emily! Bring in the basket with you."
Emily picked up the basket and followed Sophia back inside the orphanage.
"Look." Ms. Emily handed Sophia a small sheet of paper inside the basket. The words were in cursive, and the letters angular and pointed on the paper, indicating it was likely to have been written by a man.
It read: Athanasia Astraea Lyra Bell, born on the morning of 24th June 1978.
I hope the receiver of this letter can take good care of my daughter as I have to leave for some reason. In the basket is a check for 5,000 pounds for the betterment of the orphanage and for taking care of my daughter. There exists a bank account in her name and when she reaches eleven years of age she can withdraw money for her use.
While I do not know if I will be able to come back, let her know that both I and her mother loved her dearly, and if not for circumstances, we would never want to separate.
Signed,
R.A.B.
"Oh.." Sister Sophia let out a long sigh and prepared for the arrival of a new occupant.
______________
Seasons changed, and time slipped away inadvertently, and the summer of 1989 has already arrived.
The orphanage is still the same, but it looks a little less dilapidated, and Sister Sophia has become a little skinny at her middle-aged years.
The baby was now 11 years old, and Sister Sophia usually calls her Athy, while the other children secretly refer to her as 'freak'.
While the children may fear Athanasia due to some 'events', they also respected her as the head of the children as even older boys couldn't beat her in a fight and she found ways to make money so that the children could get some pocket money.
Athanasia is not very tall and looks a little thin.
She has short golden blonde hair that looks a little dull due to improper care. Her skin is pale, and her eyes are a stunning sapphire blue.
She was wearing a baggy white sweater and an old pair of blue jeans that had been washed till it started losing color. Even so, anybody looking at her will think of her as a beautiful girl.
"The weather of this city is so gloomy!" Athanasia complained to herself as she looked through the window at the darkened skies.
Athanasia is a transmigrator or maybe a reincarnator. She still isn't sure. After the original was in an accident last year, she either awakened memories or she took over this body.
After being accepted into the orphanage by Sister Sophia, the original Athanasia lived normally like other children. But the difference is that the original had been adopted twice, but strange things happened around Athanasia, which scared the family that adopted her, so they made the decision to send her back to the orphanage.
Abandoned again and again caused the original to become both depressed and irritable. The other children started calling her freak and avoided her, leaving her isolated. She disliked her abilities, which deviated from 'normal life'.
On 11th February 1988, she was mugged in an alley, and her ability burst out and protected her. Athanasia then returned to the orphanage and passed out for 3 days.
And then the new 'Athanasia' awoke.
Athanasia was really surprised. A young woman from the 21st century somehow landed back in time to the late 20th century and in a different country. For some reason, she couldn't really remember much of her past life, and even this knowledge of having a past life could be something her brain just imagined, but her thought process that was childish had suddenly become more mature and her demeanor also changed so she assumed it to be true.
After reviewing her memory and confronting her emotions, she thought about what she wanted to do. She didn't really remember if she had something or someone to go back to or even how she died. She didn't even think it was possible to go back, so she made a few goals for herself:
1)Become successful in one way or another.
2)Travel the world.
3)Get a lot of money(enough to donate and still be rich)
4)Try to be somebody to be recorded among the greats in history.
After the initial discomfort, Ariana started her new life. First, she straightened out the children of all ages in the orphanage and started doing odd jobs on the streets and helping some shops as a poster girl.
Even though she was poor and had to use money sparingly she had used her good looks to to attract customers to certain shops and received commission for her help. The shopkeepers even gave her better clothes to wear that she had hidden away as nobody should flaunt their wealth in an orphanage.
Athanasia was quite surprised to find that she had some powers and was secretly vigilant of some government agency that would find her or some secret organization or society would kidnap her like the stories she read in her previous life.
After weeks of vigilance she finally decided to experiment with her abilities and she realized that she has some sort of reality manipulation but on a very small scale and the kind which is not permanent.
She was still very happy and practiced a lot to control this ability and the energy that is consumed to use this ability. While experimenting with this energy she let it flow throughout her body and when it reached her eyes and brain she was able to truly 'see'.
If before all she saw was the visible light spectrum she could now even see the energy present in her body, which was also present all around her in the world and all sentient beings had interacted with this energy in some way and gave rise to a kind of aura that let her understand their emotions and personality.
When she looked in the mirror, she noticed that her eyes had transformed into amber jewels that gave a very soft glow. She was quite fascinated with her eyes and the changes that she spent several hours of the day looking into the mirror switching between her normal eye state and her amber jeweled eye state.
Athanasia wondered if this was magic or rather mana and she was one of the few or the only one who could wield it. She decided she would use it sparingly so as to not get discovered and live a long adventurous life.
Just when she decided her goals a tawny owl flew down next to her and presented its leg on which an envelope and parcel was attached. On it was a logo of shield that is divided into four sections with the caricature of a lion, a serpent, a badger and an eagle. Under that was her exact address down to her room and her full name.
'poof'
Was the sound of all Athanasia's plans going up in smoke.
_______________________________________________
