#Chapter 141: What She Meant to Us

Lauren The sky looked like it had been painted in ash. Flat. Still. Unyielding. There wasn’t any wind, not even the usual rustle through the trees. The forest just... watched. Held its breath with the rest of us. Sophia’s funeral felt wrong. Not because she didn’t deserve one—though there were whispers about that too—but because no one seemed to know how to feel. Not truly. She had lived too many lives, worn too many faces. Beloved once. Banished later. Killer. Martyr. Mother. Yet none of those. And now? Now she was just gone. Which seemed impossible for the fiery red hair, even though I watched it happen. Still, it wasn’t real. Or maybe I didn’t want it to be. The clearing had been arranged with care—white blooms circling the stone platform, candles flickering in shallow bowls, the kind we usually reserved for moon rituals or new beginnings. It felt almost cruel. New beginnings. Her coffin sat at the center of it all—dark mahogany wood with silver accents that caught