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It was so benign at first, or at the very least she was too busy to notice when it started. A dull ache in her bones that didn't quite go away even as the honmoon’s healing effects set in. But now, 25 years later, she realized she definitely should have paid more attention to it in the moment.
It began shortly after Rumi was born. With Mi-yeong gone and the Sunlight Sisters disbanded, Celine was now the only hunter and, functionally, a single mother. She could almost pinpoint the exact moment it all started, it was sometime between the disbandment and Rumi's first birthday.
Being the only hunter left and only being able to work when Rumi was asleep, which wasn't often since she was half demon, meant she was attempting to do the work of three people in less than half of the time. Her technique became rushed and sloppy, at one point taking up Mi-yeong’s scythe rather than her own, more precise sickle. It felt too large, bulky and uncomfortable in her grasp, but it allowed her to decapitate five demons in one swing, so it would hopefully save her enough time that she could get home before the end of Rumi's nap.
But that wasn't quite how it panned out.
Celine remembered knowing what was about to happen. She remembered recognizing the feeling of her foot missing the edge of the roof. She remembered desperately trying to angle her body in midair so she'd land on her feet.
And in that one regard, she succeeded. She landed with her knees bent, flat on her feet, catching herself on her hands as the shock of the impact radiated up through her ankles, knees, hips, up her spine and through her shoulders. She felt her limbs crumple under the force of the fall, bone crashing into bone, some of them audibly snapping in a way that resonated in her ears. After the initial landing she fell once more, to the side, head cracking and skin scraping against the pavement.
She wasn't sure how long she stayed there, barely breathing and vision hazy from the pain. The honmoon thrummed in sync with the throbbing in her body, and over it a stream of blood flowed from her head, almost like it was cuting into the light. She heard the fragments of her ribs crackle as she tried to breathe, and a piece of what was probably a tooth rolling over in her mouth from where her upper and lower jaws crashed into each other.
Rumi had probably woken up by now. She never slept more than about two hours at a time, and even before the fall that window of time was starting to run out. Celine tried to fight the pain, but her body refused to cooperate, muscles locked in their current position in an effort to keep the bones under them in place. She took the deepest breath she could manage, not bothering to project her voice very far. Nobody was around to hear her anyway.
“We are hunters, voices strong,
Slaying demons with our song,
Fix the world and make it right,
'Till darkness finally meets the light”
The mantra was short, but provided just the boost she needed. The honmoon’s glow washed over her, fusing at least some of the fractured bones back into one piece. The pain was still there, her body still felt broken and flimsy, but it was enough for her to stand up. Enough for her to make it home to Rumi.
Immediately upon opening the door to the house on the hunter training compound, Celine heard the baby's crying. She trudged up the stairs, holding onto the railing as her joints stiffened from the swelling that was starting to set in, and opened the door to the nursery. Rumi froze as her eyes immediately locked onto her caregiver, red from crying.
Celine leaned on the doorframe, contemplating whether she would be able to make it across the room without a wall to hold onto to keep herself upright. The blood coming from her head had slowed down significantly, but enough was gone to make her feel weak and dizzy.
Rumi sensed the hesitation. She saw the woman standing across the room and couldn't understand why she wasn't coming to hold her. Her breathing became more irregular and her bottom lip trembled as she started to cry again.
She darted across the room as quickly as she could manage, “no no no no no it's okay Rumi, I'm he–”
As Celine grabbed onto the railing of the crib, Rumi let out a long, continuous, melodic wail. The honmoon's shifting, rippling bands of light locked onto the baby, glowing a bright blue. She felt the wound on the side of her head close up, her swollen joints shrinking down close to their normal state, and the cuts and scraps left on her shoulder fade into nothing but smooth skin.
She stared down at the baby, quietly lifting her up as she processed what had just happened. She should be happy, right? Little baby Rumi was destined to be a hunter, just like her mother.
But as she felt the child's weight settle in her arms, a different weight set in her heart. Rumi wasn't destined at all, she was doomed. Doomed to suffer as Celine was suffering now. Doomed to either watch her closest friends die or be killed herself.
Any other day, this moment might have been happy. But right now, as Celine struggled to hold Rumi against her broken ribs, struggled to hold herself in an upright standing position, all she could do was crumple to the floor and cry.
At the time, Celine couldn't honestly tell which of the child's fates was worse– being a demon or being a hunter. Now though, as the last of the old honmoon's healing magic dissipated, old wounds started to scar. Bones that had broken and never healed correctly started to ache again. Joints that had taken more impact than a human body should be able to withstand started to grind against each other. The magic that enabled her and hunter's past to do the impossible had been reworked in a way that meant Celine could no longer access it.
Now, as she lay on the ground, barely able to move due to the pain– pain that had been constantly present, but manageable under the old honmoon's magic, manageable up until that magic ceased to exist, the answer to that question was clear.