Sunniva Emberlight

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Sunniva is nearly two years old and looks almost precisely like someone distilled Hotaru's most vivid features into a small, round-faced child and then turned the warmth up. Her hair is a brilliant, deep copper-orange, the exact shade of her father's, grown out into long soft waves that fall past her shoulders and catch every available light source as though they have a personal arrangement with it. Her eyes are the feature that makes people stop: a vivid amber-orange, genuinely luminous in the way that suggests something celestial at work underneath the surface, wide and bright and entirely focused on whatever currently has her attention, which is usually something edible. A small point of light sits at the center of her brow, subtle enough to miss in daylight and unmistakable in dim rooms, the particular mark of her aasimar heritage expressing itself in the most Sunny possible way: like a small sun has taken up residence just above her nose. She wears an orange sundress embroidered with sun motifs along the collar and hem, which her father chose and which she has accepted as entirely correct. She is currently holding a strip of bacon in both hands and eating it with the focused reverence of someone who has found their purpose.

The fireflies still come. They found Hotaru on the island where he grew up and they have followed him through every life since, and now they find Sunny too, drifting near her in the evenings with a gentle hovering attention that is different from how they move around other people. She watches them with the specific calm of someone who has always known they would be there. The small wildflowers that bloomed in her sleep as a newborn are still appearing, mostly in the mornings near wherever she slept, mostly tiny and yellow. The brow-light is the newest development and the household has stopped reacting to it, because it dims when she is calm and brightens when she is excited and it would be exhausting to track every time she encounters bacon. Her father's celestial nature is in her. It is simply taking its time announcing what it intends to become.

Sunniva was born on Goldenleaf 1, 1304, the first day of the harvest season, and the household took this as appropriately on-brand for a child who would prove to be uncomplicated sunshine in most circumstances and dramatically insistent about bacon in others. Hotaru held her and the fireflies came immediately, drifting in through the window without being invited, arranging themselves in a soft hover around the two of them. He has said very little publicly about what that moment felt like. Those who know him well have not needed him to.

Sunny was only a few months old when her parents' marriage began to fracture, and she was too young to know anything about it. Nira was called away on a diplomatic mission that ended in imprisonment in Les'Orei, and the hurtful words she sent back in the aftermath landed on Hotaru and Lio but not on Sunny, who was simply too small to receive them. What Sunny knows about her family is what she has always known: Papa, who smells like the garden and loves bacon and brings fireflies wherever he goes. Lio, who is older and knows everything and is always there. Esyrx, who is pink and warm and soft-voiced and has been Mama for as long as Sunny can properly remember, which is most of her conscious life. Vessa, who is small and plays with her. Lumen and Lucien, the twins, who are newer and require some navigation but are ultimately acceptable. This is her family. It is complete. She has no gaps in it because she was never old enough to see the shape of what changed.

Esyrx came into the Emberlight household through a road that cost her more than most people are ever asked to pay, and she arrived into a life that included a nearly-one-year-old with orange eyes and a great deal of enthusiasm for being held. Sunny did not require a transition period. She did not need to be introduced carefully or given time to adjust. She saw Esyrx, reached for her, and that was the end of the question. Esyrx, who had spent years learning not to trust the things that felt good, reportedly stood completely still for a moment when Sunny first called her Mama. It took her a little while to say anything. She has been Mama without qualification or amendment since.

Hotaru has loved bacon since before Sunny was born, which is relevant context. When Sunny was old enough to sit at the table and observe what her father was eating with visible appreciation, she expressed interest, and he gave her a small piece, and her face went through several expressions before arriving at something that can only be described as recognition. Like this was always what she was going to feel about bacon. Like it had simply been a matter of being introduced. She has eaten it with her father since then whenever it is available, which in the Emberlight household is often, because Hotaru made adjustments to ensure this. She shares with him. She does not share with others. This is a distinction she maintains with polite but absolute firmness.

This is her most immediate and clearly articulated goal. She has not yet developed the vocabulary to make formal requests, but she has developed the expression, the gesturing, and the pointed look at the kitchen that communicate the same information. Papa understands. Papa has always understood. This is one of the reasons Papa is her favorite.

Lio goes places. She has things to do and people to see and a dungeon she visits and responsibilities that occasionally take her away from the house, and Sunny has noticed all of this and has developed a strong ongoing interest in being wherever Lio is going next. Lio, for her part, tends to check for Sunny before she leaves, which means Sunny has been successful in this goal more often than not.

Sunniva Emberlight is the daughter of Hotaru, an ancient aasimar soul cycling through lives, and Esyrx, a demonkin noblewoman who survived things that should not have been survivable. She carries satyr bloodline from her birth mother, celestial fire from her father, and a warmth that both of them see in her and recognize as distinctly her own. The brow-light is still resolving. The fireflies still come. The tiny flowers still bloom where she sleeps. She is nearly two years old and she does not know what any of this means, and she does not need to. She knows Papa, Mama, Lio, Vessa, Lumen, Lucien, and bacon. She is warm, she is fed, she is thoroughly and completely loved. She will figure out the rest in her own time, which based on her general approach to the world, will probably involve a lot of sunshine and at least occasional bacon.