Ethan's memories flooded back, and in them rose the figure from his dreams—the one who, beneath an umbrella, had left him at the orphanage gates. It was the very woman standing before him now. And those two women who had quarreled in his visions? Their faces were the same.
Most importantly, Ethan recalled a particular fragment of the dream: it had taken place within the Gates of the Underworld. That was where he had learned the truth, that he had a mother—the Lord of the Underworld herself. Yet she was only the Second Avatar of the true Lord. At last, he understood why he had been abandoned at the orphanage and the impossible circumstances that had driven her to it. He understood the story of her life, all of it, and it seemed that now her hardships had finally come to an end.
