Northstar Vale For I'm too busy committing sins

Julienne Aude de Cigue, born under the yoke of so many expectations, remained blissfully oblivious in these first minutes. She was only a child, only a daughter unclaimed by her mother and saddled too young with a father's gilded plans. Just Julia, taking in the newness of life and overwhelmed by it all even without the sights and sounds and smells that would assail her in weeks to come.

But she was alive; the oldest, the most common, the most beautiful kind of miracle.