“Good,” the man told her as she managed to move her body with the help of her magic. She didn’t feel anything from it, didn’t even remember that it was hers, but the man before her insisted that it was. What was his name again? She wasn’t quite sure, and had problems remembering …

“I think that’s enough for now, Ludwig,” another man said, joining the first. “She will need a lot more time to recover who she was, if that’s even possible.”

The first man moved next to her and supported her body. Others could just use it naturally, but she just couldn’t. She didn’t even know how.

“The queen is trying to restore her spirit, but she says that there is only this much she can do.” Ludwig sighed. “I wonder if there’s anything I could’ve done differently …”

The other man shook his head. “I don’t think there was. I have seen her in the end. It was as if she was both a goddess and a frightened little child at the same time. I guess it was fated that both of them would collide at some point.” He took a deep breath. “That we could even recover as much of her as we did is a little miracle.”

Ludwig helped her walk to what they called a door.

“Do you think she’s ready to meet her friends and parents?”

“I don’t think it’s a matter of whether she’s ready to meet them, Roger. It’s more a matter of whether they’re ready to meet her like this.”

Roger stopped for a moment and sighed. “I don’t think parents will ever ready to see their child like this. But maybe it’s just a tiny little bit better than not seeing her at all.”

“I trust your judgment in that.”

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“It’s not my judgment,” Roger replied with a shrug. “I think the queen is hoping that seeing her parents or her friends will allow her spirit to recover at least somewhat.”

“Do you think it will work?” Ludwig stopped with her and looked at the other man. This gave her time to wonder what friends or parents were.

Roger shrugged again. “There’s a chance. Considering that she has access to all the resources of her former position once again, and that she was pretty confident in her decision, tells me that it might be enough to ignite some form of agency in her again.”

Ludwig sighed. “I wonder if she’s doing this to help her, or to slight the council.”

“Maybe both. Having a mindless goddess on hand could allow the council to push some nasty agendas forward.

They entered another room. A man and a woman stood there, and she had the strange feeling that she had seen them once before. But how? One of the men that she had met, after she’d been recovered from the core of a dead planet had told her that she was a descended goddess. She still had no clue what that term meant. Apparently the one they called queen had pushed them to allow her to see some people she was supposed to know. There even had been a big fight. Lia didn’t like fights and had pushed both of them apart using her magic …

“Lia … is that you?” The female woman walked toward her, her hands shaking and half hiding her face. The man followed her and hugged her all of a sudden. It was a familiar and nostalgic feeling. Water formed around her vision, and she had no idea why.

A word came unbidden to mind, a word that she broadcasted using her magic.

Dad?

The pair didn’t move, but Ludwig moved next to her. He pulled her out of the man’s embrace and looked her in the eyes. “Say that again!”

She had no idea what he wanted of her.

“What did she say?” the pair demanded. “And when?”

“She used magic to speak in our minds. It was a single word: Dad.” Ludwig didn’t look away from her, and kept staring into her eyes.

“Oh, Lia.” The man wrestled her out of Ludwig’s grasp, and hugged her once more. There was Liquid forming in his eyes as well, as was in the woman’s next to him. “Welcome back!”

She had no idea why, but those words made her feel … content. Like she really had returned to where she belonged. Like she was … home.

She used her magic to move the arms of her body and put them awkwardly around his back. Whoever she was … she knew that she now was where she belonged.

THE END