Chapter One
- . - . -
Bulma Briefs stared down at her new baby. It was dark in the nursery and the breeze blew softly through the curtains of the open window. The only light came from he moon she'd wished back into existence. Early moonrise was the appropriate time for what she was going to do next. She had been more surprised that she could imagine when the child had been born a girl. She had felt it, though, when other mind's had touched hers. As soon as the connections had been made she had known that the child she had carried for nine months would change her life. She just didn't know if it was a good thing or not. Bulma was forty-seven years old and she did not know if she wanted this newborn in theory. Looking down at the tiny tailless girl Bulma knew she would do anything in her power to keep her daughter safe. As she picked up her daughter she hoped it would be enough.
Bulma brushed her hair and her daughters, humming. She stepped naked into a warm, scented bath with her daughter in her arms. Bulma washed herself and her baby with sea water, lemon, and herbs. She explained to her daughter what the herbs meant, as a part of the ritual.
"I bathe you in rosemary for remembrance. May your memories of your ancestors stay strong in your heart. I bathe you in calendula for a strong heart. May you hold fast to what your heart tells you is right, especially in times of difficulty. I bathe you in lavendar for endurance. May you live long and bring the light of the moon to every darkness you encounter."
Bulma thought about how she had not wanted this to be her life. She remembered too well what it meant to be a royal, to have power and the enemies that came with such power. With Vegeta she had worried because he was ruthless and he would never let an enemy hurt his family. With herself she could not guarantee someone else would not be more powerful than she was and take away from her what she loved.
Bulma cried as she began the next part, uttering a name she had not heard spoken since she was a child, "I am Noralena Bloom Burma Nyotei'suki and I honor my mother and her mother before her, and so on to the beginning of Nyotei'suki line by welcoming my newborn daughter. I dedicate her to our family as Buraja Saya'ndo Vegeta Nyotei'suki. I dedicate my daughter to be a part of the immortal light of Nyotei'suki. As a part of our great family she is spiritually bound to use the power of her soul-star to light the darkness of our universe. I give thanks to the ancestors that watch over us for the blessings they have bestowed upon us and the daughters that will follow in our footsteps."
Bulma finished the ritual, a sort of baptism of her new daughter. Her name to her unknowing friends was Bulma rather than her royal name so Bulma had decided in the hospital that her daughter's name, as far as anyone else knew, would be Bulla. It was too late now for her daughter to only be that girl. Her life would have been so much easier, so much safer, if she could have simply had a half-Saiyan and half-human child. She had thought that that was all she would ever have in her life; she had thought that there could be no way that the rather set guidelines to the royal family would ever be met. Somehow, they had been.
- . - . -