November 11, 1979.
England, Kent County.
In the town of Tunbridge Wells, rain was falling, and quite heavily, I should note.
The warm days had almost completely given way to the cold days of the autumn-winter season.
Nature was falling asleep.
Nearly all the plants had withered, and the leaves that had recently lain like a colorful carpet had now almost entirely blended in color with the soaked earth.
In the maternity ward of this town, a birth was taking place.
It was quite difficult.
The doctors had been fighting for the lives of both the mother and her unborn son for several hours.
The young mother’s name was Sara Mia Massimo.
She was quite attractive.
Average height, long chestnut hair down to her waist, a slender figure.
Her face, currently twisted in a grimace of pain, was beautiful.
Full lips, a slightly upturned, cute nose, symmetrically set brown eyes.
For several hours now, she had been trying to give life to her son.
Outside the ward, her husband, the soon-to-be father, was waiting.
A fit, dark-haired, brown-eyed man.
His name was Thomas James Massimo.
Usually calm and a highly skilled surgeon, he was now pacing back and forth in front of the ward door, nervously twitching his hands.
Then, at one moment, the mother’s cries stopped.
An oppressive silence fell.
Suddenly, there was a smack, followed by the cry of a newborn.
The man let out a long sigh.
“God, I hope everything’s okay,” Thomas thought.
“I hope everything’s okay.”
After a couple of minutes, the crying stopped, and the door to the ward began to open.
A doctor stepped out.
Thomas rushed over to him.
“Well, Stan?”
“Don’t worry, Tom,” the man replied.
“Everything’s fine.
The baby was born healthy.
Sara’s feeding him right now.”
“Can I go in to see them?”
“Yes, Thomas, you can.
But not for long.
They’ll be taken to rest soon.”
Hearing the beginning of the answer, the young man rushed into the ward.
The doctor just shook his head knowingly.
He’d been the same way himself.
Bursting into the ward, Thomas froze, watching the most beautiful scene of his life.
On the bed, propped up by two pillows, sat the most beautiful woman in his life.
Her face was illuminated by a wonderful, radiant smile framed by locks of wet, sweat-dampened hair.
In her arms, she held the greatest treasure and reward of her life.
Her little son, who was currently nursing from her breast, exposed from her hospital gown.
Looking away from her son, she noticed Thomas.
Her smile seemed to grow even brighter, if that was possible.
“Thomas.”
“Sara,” the man said, approaching his wife in small, quiet steps.
“How are you both?”
The woman smirked.
“Well, you know, this isn’t the most pleasant moment of my life,” she said, lowering her gaze to her son and smiling.
“But for him, I’d go through it several more times.”
“Haha,” the man chuckled.
“I suppose you’re right.”
Several minutes passed as they watched their son.
The man shook himself out of his trance and asked a question.
“So, what should we name him?”
“Well, you’re the new father,” Sara replied.
“You name him.”
After a moment, the man answered.
“Kael.
From now on, his name is Kael Thomas Massimo.”
“Kael?
Strong waters?
Are you serious?”
“Well, why not?” the man protested.
“You told me to come up with the name.”
“Fine, fine.
I’ll be quiet.
Kael it is,” the woman smiled.
“Our Kael.”
***
About an hour earlier.
The same ward.
From the protagonist’s perspective.
I came to myself abruptly.
One moment nothing, the next I was conscious again.
The first thing I realized was that I had a body.
During my time in that space, I had grown somewhat accustomed to not having a body, but now that I had one again, I felt it immediately.
My first emotion was joy, but a kind of muted joy.
And right then, realization hit me.
To confirm my suspicion, I tried to enter a meditative state.
It took me about half an hour to succeed.
What I saw confirmed my theory.
My Fifth shell was not only smaller, which I had noticed earlier, but also much less active.
I didn’t know how to react to that.
What were the consequences?
First, reduced emotional range.
I didn’t react the way I used to.
Less vividly, if that makes sense.
Second, the “volume” of emotions within the shell itself was almost completely gone.
Earlier, a large number of emotions had “floated” inside it.
Now there was nothing.
That didn’t mean I had “converted” ALL my anger, hatred, love, and so on into mana and that they were gone.
No, they were still there.
I could still feel them.
But whereas before, anger and hatred had clouded my mind, now they didn’t.
I was aware that I hated or loved someone, but the feeling wasn’t as intense.
I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Third, I could no longer convert emotions into energy.
There was almost nothing left of them, and I didn’t want to delve any deeper.
That was bad.
You never know what situation might arise.
At that thought, I was thrown out of my meditation.
I was back in my body.
The first thing that happened was that I heard speech.
English.
I understood it.
The gist of the words was that I was about to be born.
Right at that moment, I felt a squeeze and a push at the same time, and then I saw.
I saw light.
It was incredible.
Even though I was cold, even though I could barely see, I could see.
It was so unfamiliar and so wonderful that I didn’t even think to breathe.
Then I felt a pain in my lower back.
It hurt, so I tried to protest, and as I did, I inhaled air.
It was far more painful than the previous blow, so much so that I started screaming and crying.
While I cried, I was moved somewhere, and then handed over.
I immediately felt warmth, not just physical warmth, but warmth of the soul.
It was pleasant.
I knew this was my mother.
I just knew.
Don’t ask me how.
I don’t know myself.
After a couple of seconds, something was placed in my mouth, which I understood to be a woman’s nipple, and I began to suckle.
The milk was quite tasty.
Even when reading stories about people who had been reborn in my past life, I never understood them.
They refused to drink milk.
Why?
That’s your mother.
Sure, it might be embarrassing.
Sure, you were adults in your past lives.
But now you’re children.
Or was that just my almost complete lack of emotions talking?
After a couple of minutes, I heard someone enter the room.
This person started talking to my mother.
From their conversation, I understood that this was my father.
I also learned my parents’ names: Sara and Tom.
Beautiful names.
A child’s brain couldn’t fully handle an adult personality and its thoughts, so I began to drift off to sleep.
Just as I was sinking into its embrace, I caught the edge of my consciousness hearing my new name: Kael.
Since I didn’t remember my previous name, my first and true name would be Kael, from now and forever.
With that thought, I fell asleep.