The floor was cold and it hurt to breathe. 

Lucina didn't know how many times Gabriel had kicked her before he left, but at least he was gone now.

Gabriel wanted an heir. He was set on getting one, but he didn't. The child was dead upon birth. Lucina knew immediately. There had been no wailing. The midwives were whispered to each other and avoiding looking at her.

Gabriel was furious. He screamed, insisting that she must have been cursed by the gods.

Lucina assumed he had left her here to die, and once she was, he'd find a new wife. Perhaps that wasn't a bad thing.

Lucina braced herself against the bed as she got up. She paused to rest her head on top of the bed as she wheezed. Everything ached and her legs trembled. A shadow passed over the bed and Lucina looked up.

Any glare she had tried to muster vanished.

Gabriel wasn't the one standing over the bed.

It was a woman. 

At first, Lucina had believed she was the reaper, with dark, rippling locks silhouetted by the setting sun through the window, but the woman moved away from the window and around the bed. 

The woman knelt down in front of Lucina, brushing her hair back. The woman's voice was soft, gentler than her mother's had ever been. 

"Rest, dear. I'll take care of you."