#so belle+leah can grow up as proper childhood friends they got so close!!

[nerice]

leah's birth is the most important event in the story. without leah, angel hell wld never resolve. leah's birth is also the most screwed up strange unlikely wormed corner bc. arianna never wanted children due to the songhost inheritance dilemma. in fact she almost kills leah with her reckless attempt to prevent her from aging (which in itself... is what causes leah to be put in stasis and allows for her to grow up around the same time belle also rly needs a friend) but that's not what kills me most here what rly kills me most. is. for the universe core to be mended leah's existence is vital (but the one variable faye is unaware of/not involved in at all) that leah is such an accident except (soul birth means no child is born unwanted. rotate that on 🐇 but i digress. except this is exactly what this is about) the only reason arianna softened on the idea of raising a kid of her own nd then got stuck with one is. bc of sky. because for as ill-equipped that she was to handle sky at her worst most ptsd-riddled, taking care of her with jumie, training her being the vital influence that taught sky to temper her strength, a child of her own doesn't seem so bad suddenly. and so we get leah, as messy as that is. bc for sky to end up in the palace as she was......... r*bbit hell. gray at his worst. a direct consequence of his existence, his daughter an inevitability in many ways (in others, a similar accident) soulless the symptom of the broken moon core, the thing faye so desperately attempts to fix.... and she succeeds... through this extremely fraught line of events that results in leah being born, leah's aging being fucked up beyond salvaging (the fight arianna and sky get in over this.... arianna's death) sky left with the burning need to do right by leah, to not keep her confined in the depths of the palace (oh the cruelty of raising a child underground... :)) and thus sends her on raiu's little group project 2 go nd save linn. where she meets belle in the process. predestined? PROMISED, EVEN