Lady Mirab rushed through the open door and threw her arms around Eluvie in a tight hug.

“Thank Heaven!” Mirab sobbed. “You’re awake.”

Eluvie wanted to move, but her body would not obey her. She remained there, heart pounding so loudly that she could almost hear it, while Mirab tried to squeeze the life from her.

Finally, Lady Mirab stepped back, held Eluvie at arm's length, and inspected her. There was nothing on the ruler's face but joy and relief.

"How are you?" Mirab asked. "Are you hurt anywhere? Are you - are you well?"

She kept her eyes on Eluvie's face, waiting for a response.

But Eluvie could not respond. Rather than subside, her fear had grown so much that she was seconds from a fainting spell.

Before that could happen, Amu rescued her. He placed a hand on Mirab's shoulder and pulled her away.

"She doesn't know you, my Lady," he said. "Eluvie, this is Lady Mirab. She owns this palace."

Mirab scowled at him. "Don't introduce me like that," she said. Then, she turned to Eluvie and said, "I'm your mother."

Finally, Eluvie's legs moved. She stepped further away from Lady Mirab.

"Is that a joke?" Eluvie asked.

Mirab looked devastated. Eluvie had never seen such perfect acting. She could not find a single flaw in the performance.

"Why would I be joking?" Mirab asked, her voice a cross between a whine and a sob.

"You're human," Eluvie said, as if it should be obvious.

Half of the words coming from her mouth came with no forethought. As with the clothes, she felt as if someone else was controlling her actions, pushing thoughts into her mind at the same time they exited her lips. That scared her, but she wasn't yet certain that she could stop it.

"That doesn't mean that I can't be your mother," Mirab said. She reached for Eluvie again, but Eluvie stepped back, out of reach.

"Illrum and humans do not reproduce," Eluvie said.

Mirab could not have looked more stunned if Eluvie had slapped her. The ruler lifted a hand to cover her lips, then broke into a tear-laden sob.

Amu stepped in again.

"Eluvie," he put a hand on her arm, frowning as she jerked away from it, "this is your mother."

Two people warred inside Eluvie. The first, the person who knew what stitches should look like and had preferences about the fabric of her clothes, said that this was complete nonsense. The other, the Eluvie who recalled living with these people for twenty years, felt stunned and terrified by their acting.

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Then, both halves seemed to merge in one clarifying moment. She was just one person, not two, with knowledge she did not recall gaining. It no longer felt like someone was in her mind, giving her ideas. She felt whole. She could not remember her parents, but she knew that she had them and she knew that Lady Mirab was not her mother.

She knew other things too, things that had been pressing against her consciousness since she was revived, but which she had not fully absorbed until that moment. She knew that the stone of the walls was called Barvat, and that it was only found in two quarries on the planet. She knew the name of every gem on Lady Mirab's gown, that the Lady's posture implied that she had been raised in the Semit kingdom, and that the guards she could see through the open door wore their weapons in the same kingdom's style.

The room looked different now. The items she could see were no longer tables, shelves, and jars. They were Birinian wood tables and Sepian ceramic jars.And now that instinct no longer drove her, she needed to decide how to respond to their act.

She elected to continue in the same vein.

"You're all insane," she said. "I'm leaving."

She tried to push past them, but Amu grabbed her arm. His touch was light, but even that proved overwhelming to her. She scampered away from him and he held up his hands, showing their emptiness.

"Just one moment," he said, "please. I understand that all of this is unfamiliar, but I think you're an intelligent woman. Pause for a moment, and think."

She waited for him to say more, but he did not. Instead, he waited as if truly expecting her to change her mind.

Eluvie knew that she could not really leave. They would not allow her past the barrier, no matter what lies they had to tell about it. And if she proved too much trouble, they could always kill her again and try to grow another seed. But she needed her actions to seem natural. Her memories, meager as they were, told her that she was used to better treatment than this. Someone of her stature would never stand this situation.

"You have one minute," she said, "to explain all of this to me."

She folded her arms and waited.

"The other Illrum are dead," Amu said. "They have been dead for more than twenty years now."

"You're lying," Eluvie said, though she did not display as much shock as she felt she should have.

Amu shook his head. "It is true. Everyone knows it. You must remember that humans and Illrum were at war."

Eluvie remembered no such thing, so she just stared at him patiently.

"It came to a head," he said. "I don't know all the details, but they invaded your home. All the others were dead. We found your seeds by pure chance. Lady Mirab has raised you for a long while; more than twenty years now. Recently, there was an accident. You got trapped in a dark cellar for days. You died. Fortunately, we had one more of your seeds left or it would have been the end."

He looked so sincere. Eluvie had to fight hard to keep her rage from spilling onto her face.

"You can't leave," Amu said. "There is nowhere to go. And, even if there was, you have a treaty with the alliance. As long as you stay here and cause no trouble, you are Lady Mirab's daughter and can live in peace. But if you leave the palace bounds, you will be hunted and killed."

Mirab watched all of this with an anxious expression.

"I know this is a lot," Amu said. "You don't need to do anything now. Why not go to your room? Orient yourself, get some rest. Later, Lady Mirab will take you for a walk on the grounds. Why don't you see what you think then?"

Eluvie wanted to demand that they get out of her way, but there was no hope there. She could only tempt them to violence. She thought of demanding that the tour of the grounds happen immediately, but that could annoy them too. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pressed a palm to her forehead.

As expected, Lady Mirab reacted immediately. She took Eluvie's arm.

"You are, of course, tired, dear. What is all this fuss? You'll go straight to bed now and you can threaten to leave when you wake up."

Eluvie gritted her teeth, managed her breath, and let Lady Mirab lead her away.