Lumina stepped through the shimmering veil of the Celestial Realm's border like mist parting before dawn.
The air changed at once crisp, carrying the faint chime of starlight on wind that tasted of silver and memory.
For the first time in years, she walked without darkness pressing against her eyes. No counting of steps. No world reduced to sound, scent, and the echo of footsteps.
She could see fully and this made her a bit satisfied. The realm unfolded before her in breathtaking, towering spires of translucent crystal that caught and refracted moonlight into rainbows, gardens suspended in mid-air where blossoms glowed with their own inner light, paths of polished moonstone that shimmered under her bare feet.
Colors she had forgotten existed rushed back deep skies, through everything like living light. Her heart stuttered.
The last time she had truly seen this place she had been a child, clinging to her mother's hand while assassins pursued them through these very gardens.
