The Demoness Is Back

I woke up soaked in my own sweat again.

The light through the curtains had that soft, late-morning hue, like the sun was being kind for once. My throat was cracked desert-dry, and even blinking took effort. But something was… different.

The room wasn't quiet. There was a presence.

When I turned my head slowly toward the chair near my window, I swear my heart stopped.

Lilith.

She was sitting there like she'd never left. Her usual robes were damp from travel, her long caramel braid curled at the ends like it had been through storms. But it was her in the flesh. The Oracle.

My lips moved before my voice came out.

"You're… back…"

I couldn't help it. Mt breath hitched with emotion. I thought she'd failed. I thought she'd left the island. Everyone said she might never return. Six months without a word. Half a year of silence. I thought she was gone forever.

But here she was. Except… there was something in her eyes now.

"I didn't think—"

I tried to push myself upright, but my head swam and the blanket turned into an anchor. I collapsed back down with a groan.

Lilith moved from the chair to the edge of my bed and rested a cool hand on my cheek.

"I missed you too, Verdamona," she said softly. "But you need to rest. You're still burning through it. Using fishing to improve your own physical strength. Not bad."

I didn't even have the energy to question how she knew. She exhaled, brushing the back of her hand down my face like I was a fevered child—which I kind of was.

"The Tests were harder than I ever imagined," she said. "The Rune Weaver didn't make anything easy. I was broken apart, pulled through visions, lost track of myself in timelines that weren't real."

I stared at her, eyes wide.

"But… you passed?"

She smiled, just a little.

"Yes. I passed. And with it… I was blessed."

"Blessed?" My voice cracked on the word.

She nodded slowly. "By the God of Time."

Oh. Oh. That explained the shift in her energy. The weight in her presence. The way she looked at me like she could see thoughts I hadn't even formed yet.

"I came back the moment I stabilized," she continued. "The second I felt you flare. I could feel your fever from across the island. And I had to tell you, before anyone else does."

I blinked through the heat of my fever.

"Tell me… what?"

Lilith sat up straighter. Her voice dipped into a reverence I rarely heard from her.

"Verdamona… the world changed when the Ashven Blood Rain first fell decades ago. The survivors weren't just left with scars. They were gifted with something new. Something unnatural. We call it Flux. You know this."

I coughed. "Yeah, I do know that, Lilith. Everyone knows that. Fluxers, right?"

"Yes. But not all Fluxers are the same."

My breath caught in my chest.

"There are two types of Fluxers. Normal ones… and the God-touched. Verdamona, I am one. I was given my Flux, which I call Divination, by the God of Time when I was fourteen."

I blinked slowly, confused.

"I thought you said your Flux was natural and you found it at fourteen Like everyone else's…"

She shook her head.

"No. Mine was handed to me. Whispered into my soul during a dream so vivid it broke a part of my old self. That's the mark of a God-touched Fluxer. They don't develop Flux. They inherit it. Or… they're granted it directly."

"So… if you're God-touched…"

"Yes. Then you are too. Do you remember what you did, Verdamona? You regressed. That isn't normal. That's the power of the God of Time. And it came through you."

Everything suddenly felt so loud.

"You said you don't remember your birth," Lilith continued. "That's because you were inserted into this body. You were born dead, then came back five minutes later. You didn't just survive. You arrived."

I was speechless. The only thing that left my lips was a wheeze. Lilith leaned in, brushing a strand of hair from my forehead again.

"You don't need to understand everything now. But this you should know: You've been blessed. Your Flux isn't just sleeping. It's waiting. And when the time comes, it will awaken."

My voice came out weak. "When?"

"There's a rule. A hidden one. Descendants of the first Fluxers don't awaken their Flux until they're seven."

"Seven? That's… kind of random."

She chuckled, and it sounded nostalgic.

"Not random. Intentional. Seven is the age when identity solidifies enough to handle the power. When you turn seven, Verdamona, you'll feel the Shift. Your Flux will come."

Lilith's words hung in the air like a psalm I was too afraid to believe in.

My own Flux… already inside me? God-touched?

I could barely wrap my head around it.

But somewhere underneath the fever, under the exhaustion and damp sheets, my mind buzzed. I remembered the first time I really used my Flux.

I was eighteen.

I was surviving in the wastelands of post-ABR Earth in Amsterdam, living off expired rations and chasing clean rain with a plastic tarp and cracked mug.

Everyone born after the Ashven Blood Rain got a Flux. It was like the gods reached down and rewrote our DNA with ink made of divine fallout. Seven years old, that was the rule. That's when your Flux awakened. But not everyone figured it out.

Because the truth was, for 99% of us? It wasn't anything cinematic.

You didn't wake up levitating or glowing or turning invisible.

Most people got "Enhanced Strength," which really just meant you could punch a little harder. Or "Acute Reflexes," which meant you might win a fight if someone missed the first swing. That was it. That was the baseline.

But mine? Mine wasn't like that.

It was subtle and quiet. I didn't feel stronger. I didn't move faster. But I felt metal things. Scraps, bullets, even screws in walls. I couldn't explain it at first. They'd hum beneath my skin. I'd dream of pulling things toward me with my hands, of shaping metal like clay. For years, I chalked it up to hallucinations.

I was already eleven when I first bent a spoon without touching it. And even then, I just assumed I was going crazy.

Nobody taught me what Flux really was. No guides, no books, no mentors. Everyone was too busy staying alive or too scared to believe in something bigger than what they could shoot.

It wasn't until I was eighteen—back pressed against a burned-out SUV while some lunatic tried to snipe me from a rooftop—that I used it. Not just bent something. I ripped a car door off its hinges with one hand and flung it like a discus.

That was the first time I believed I had something special.

And by then?

It was too damn late.

Too many people I knew were already dead. Too much time wasted thinking I was powerless. Too many nights praying for a miracle when the miracle had already been rotting inside me, unseen.

But now…

I looked up at Lilith.

Now, I wasn't alone. She knew about Flux. She understood what it meant to be God-touched. She could guide me.

This time, I could start early. I could train properly and sharpen myself instead of waiting for desperation to push me over the edge.

I didn't have to spend a decade convincing myself I wasn't broken.

I wasn't late anymore.

This time, I could be stronger than I ever was.

This time, I could be ready.