//------------------------------// // 13 - A Long Story // Story: The Seventh // by Arvaus //------------------------------// The passage of time slowed to a halt in Celestia’s mind, thoughts drowning in a maelstrom of emotion. Words lost all meaning as the dream-world dissolved into irrelevance around them. For an unquantifiably long moment all Celestia was aware of was the warmth of her sister, still held close to her. This was the closest to real contact with an Equestrian pony she had had in weeks, and the only clear sign she had seen that she would ever return. Any pretensions that she didn’t miss them were gone now. Luna said something, but all Celestia heard was the sound of her voice. There was something impossibly comforting about just hearing it again. Given their past it almost seemed wrong to miss her so much after only being parted a few weeks, but Celestia knew there was more to it this time. It wasn’t just about Luna, but the entire nation – the entire reality – that she represented. An overwhelming spectrum of emotions welled up inside Celestia. Accepting her exile had been one thing, but now, if there was any sort of connection again, if there was a hope that her exile may come to an end… Celestia had given up trying to pin down what she was feeling at that moment. “You are safe, are you not?” Luna asked, possibly for the second time, genuine concern in her voice. “I was worried when we tried the connection that I would be unable to find anything, and then when I did it took so long to enter your dream, and—” “Don’t worry, sister,” Celestia said, pulling her closer and cutting of her worried voice. “A lot has happened to me, but I am not in any danger.” “Don’t tell me not… not to worry,” Luna sniffled. “It is all I have been doing for two weeks now, with no idea where you were or what had happened to you. I know better than anypony what can happen to a banished pony and… and I feared the worst.” Celestia held her sister even closer, pressing the side of her head up against Luna’s. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes, but blinked them away. The rush of joy felt so freeing, so wonderful, but she wanted to savour this time with her sister and not lose herself in distraction. “I missed you too,” she whispered. There was silence again, their breathing the only sound Celestia could hear. Then Luna pushed herself away and looked up at her sister. She wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled. “But I’ve found you now,” she said. “Yes you have, little sister,” Celestia said, smiling proudly back. “How?” she asked. “Have you come through as well?” Luna gave the question some thought. “No,” she said hesitantly after a few moments. “I am in Equestria, up at the mountain camp. I have not managed to reach where you are yet. In fact I do not even know where that is.” Celestia chuckled. “It is something of a puzzle,” she said. “”But if you have got this far… have you managed to learn something new?” Luna rolled her eyes. “Do you really want to spend this time talking about science?” she said. Celestia shrugged. “I have to admit I am very curious,” she said, “and in truth I would just like to hear your voice, whatever you’re talking about.” Luna nodded, chuckling, then turned and started walking across the snowy tundra that was now filling the dreamscape around them. Celestia caught up beside her, looking round at the familiar ring of huts that surrounded them. “As you can imagine,” Luna said, “Twilight Sparkle has been studying the problem almost without ceasing since your disappearance. I have been doing my utmost to ensure that she gets some sleep as well, but we have all been eager to see you again.” “I’m impressed by the progress you have made,” Celestia commented thoughtfully. “To have been able to get this far when less than three weeks ago we didn’t even know what had gone wrong in the first place? That is no small achievement.” Luna stopped suddenly. “That is the odd thing,” she said, turning to look up at her sister. “We are yet to see any evidence that anything did go wrong. Twilight Sparkle tells me you yourself confirmed the spell’s validity, and to the full extent of what we have been able to determine, that analysis still seems to hold.” Celestia raised and eyebrow. “I must admit I was finding it hard to accept that the spell was wrong,” she said. “But after what happened…” She trailed off, looking back over at the centre of the encampment. She could hear the sounds of that day echoing in her mind still, but was missing all the understanding necessary to be able to explain it. “So what has changed?” she asked, staring pensively at the air. Luna stood for a moment, thinking. “I think it would be best explained by Twilight Sparkle,” she said eventually, releasing a pulse of magic from her horn. “Let me share some memories with you.” Celestia felt the magic washing through the dream like a cold breeze. She let it through without resistance, awaiting whatever scenes it may bring, but after a few moments it was gone and the dream settled back down with no obvious change. She looked round trying to see any differences, but her attention was quickly caught when a large shadow passed straight over her head. It was cast by a second Luna, who swooped down over their heads and landed heavily on the snow a few yards away. “This was barely a day after the first casting of the spell,” the original Luna said. “We still had no idea what had happened. As you can imagine, I was eager for any news I could get.” Celestia moved forward slowly to observe the memory more closely. The newly-arrived Luna was ruffling her wings, apparently having difficulty stowing them properly at her sides. She looked in a poor state, like she hadn’t slept at all over the last day. She was visibly distracted, but walked resolutely straight towards Twilight Sparkle’s hut. But as she approached there was a sudden noise over to the side of the camp. The calm of the mountains was shattered as Twilight almost fell out of the cafeteria hut in her hurry, her magic carrying a large cup of coffee on one side and trailing a long ream of paper on the other. Celestia reflexively braced herself, having seen Twilight Sparkle under the influence of coffee a few times before. “Princess!” Twilight called as she ran over to Luna. “You’re early! I was just going over the results again so I’d be ready when you got here, then I realised I hadn’t had anything to drink yet today, and then when I was on my way over I realised I hadn’t—” Luna held up a hoof. “Did you get any sleep at all last night, Twilight Sparkle?” she asked. Twilight cocked her head. “Did you?” she replied. Luna paused, standing in embarrassed silence, then sighed wearily. “Never mind,” she said. “More importantly, can you tell me yet if my sister is still alive?” There was an uncomfortably long pause, Twilight’s eyes darting to the side as she searched for the right words. Even in the mountain air it felt like the temperature dropped a few degrees. “I’m sorry, Princess,” she said eventually. “I can’t find any trace of her or where she could have gone. “But I’ve no reason to think she isn’t alive!” she added hurriedly as Luna’s posture started to sag. “I’ve worked out enough to think she must be out there somewhere!” Luna brightened up again, her expression lighting up with curiosity. “You know what the spell does?” she asked. “Well, yes and no,” Twilight said. She levitated the paper over to Luna, who took it in her own magic and examined the various graphs and tables sketched on it. “I had to go over the readings we took in the initial run a few times, but once I saw the patterns it was obvious! It’s a textbook example, right out of Starswirl the Bearded’s ‘The Twelve Classes of Spells’! You see, the spell I wrote didn’t actually cause what we saw; it was just a petition spell!” Luna raised an eyebrow but didn’t interrupt, so Twilight continued. “I should’ve seen it earlier given how hard it is to forget the last petition I cast,” she said, flapping her wings demonstratively. “But what happened makes a lot more sense now! All I did here was ask – or petition – the universe for an act of magic, and it responded! That’s why I couldn’t control the vortex; it wasn’t being controlled by my magic any more!” Twilight paused for breath, and Luna nodded with a rather dazed expression on her face. “So the words you wrote…” “Aren’t actually the spell. Or at least not the important one. I think if we’re going to fix this, it’s the second spell – the ‘response’ – which we need to use.” Twilight took a sip of coffee, then took back the paper and flipped through until she found another graph. “I’m going to have to reverse-engineer the spell from the readings we took,” she continued. “We managed to get a lot of data while the spell was still active, and just looking at the graph, you can already see that—” Luna raised her hoof again, cutting Twilight off before she picked up too much momentum. “I am sure it is very interesting,” she said, “but I am tired. Can you tell me how long it will take?” Twilight shrugged apologetically. “I don’t know,” she said. “A few weeks, at best. Maybe longer.” Luna kicked at the thin dusting of snow on the ground, deep in thought. Walking forward to her, Twilight put a hoof on the princess’s shoulder. “If it helps,” she said, “What I’ve seen so far looks a lot like a teleportation spell. I’m sure she’s out there somewhere.” The two of them smiled weakly at each other, then they began to fade away, the memory of that last smile lingering for a few moments in Celestia’s mind. She stood silently, staring at the empty space they had been occupying, the conversation playing over and over in her mind. There was that strange feeling again; even though this was all new information, it immediately felt right to her. It was exactly like what she had felt when she saw Twilight’s spell for the first time. It was all correct, but she had no idea how or why she knew that. At first she had just seen that feeling as confirmation that they were on the right track, that they were closing in on the seventh Element, and yet in all this time they hadn’t seen any sign of the Element anywhere. That this still seemed to be in some way the correct path just made her more and more confused now. There was a noise next to her. She turned to see that the real Luna had joined her again. “There was no mistake anywhere in the spell,” her sister said. “No faulty spell could have worked so perfectly.” “What do you mean?” Celestia asked. Luna shrugged. “A few weeks ago Twilight Sparkle managed to persuade the universe to reveal one of the most complex spells we have ever seen,” she said, “and she has spent the intervening time trying to reconstruct it based on indirect measurements of the spell’s effects. How long would you expect that to take, sister?” Celestia considered the question; she could see where this was leading, though. “Even just the letter-writing spell I created for contacting Twilight took almost a year to construct,” she commented. “But given Twilight’s abilities—” Luna chuckled. “Your pride in your student is well-placed,” she said, “but even so I would have expected it to take months at least. It…” She trailed off, staring for a moment at nothing in particular, then was overtaken by a long, heavy yawn. She closed her eyes, massaging her forehead with her hoof, and lay down on the ground drawing deep, tired breaths. Celestia joined her on the ground; it was clear that, even though the two of them were technically asleep at this moment, Luna was completely drained. The last few weeks must have really been a burden on her. Celestia was well aware that her younger sister had always been the more emotional of them; whether this was a good thing or not depended very much on the situation. She started to wonder how things would have turned out if their places had been reversed, and almost felt guilty that she hadn’t been feeling the same strain that her sister had. “It just happened too easily,” Luna continued eventually, her eyes dreary. “Every time it looked like Twilight Sparkle was approaching an impasse the solution would suddenly present itself clear as the night sky. The spell is built like an instruction book. It is as if it wants to be cast.” “Perhaps it is the universe that made the mistake then,” Celestia replied pensively with a slight smirk, “and it is trying to make up for it?” Luna gave her sister a withering look, but as they looked at each other a smile broke across her face again and she started laughing, tears of exhaustion and happiness welling up in the corners of her eyes. Moments later they were both laughing happily, and Celestia was glad to see her sister loosen up again. After a short while they both settled down into a quiet reverie, their heads resting against each other’s. “Maybe that’s enough science for now,” Celestia said. “Instead, could you tell me about Equestria?” Luna nodded, smiling. “Of course, my sister,” she said with a thoughtful expresison. “The nation is well, mostly unchanged since you last saw it,” she continued. “I would not wish to bore you with the details…” Celestia jokingly gave her a disappointed look, and she chuckled in response. “Well, Cloudsdale lost control of a small thunderstorm near Manehattan last week,” she continued, “but there was little to no damage. Weather planning across the rest of the nation has paid off, however, and the corn exchanges are showing a good year for most crops. The rebuilding after the Las Pegasus earthquake last year is almost complete, but I have alas not had the time to make a visit…” Celestia listened as Luna continued through a long list of minutiae about events across the entire nation. She closed her eyes, imagining for a while that she was sitting in court having the list of daily business read out to her. It was an indulgence, a brief moment of escapism, but well worth it for that simple feeling of familiarity. She quickly noticed the common thread running through all the stories, though. On numerous occasions Luna mentioned how she didn’t have enough time to do something, having to cancel meetings or reschedule appointments on a regular basis. This hardly came as a surprise to Celestia, but she hadn’t been looking forward to confronting that issue. Just a few minutes later Luna’s stories started to wind down, and the inevitable question presented itself in Celestia’s mind. “Do they know what’s happened?” she asked. "Have you told our subjects?" Luna sighed, scratching the back of the head. It looked like she had her own reservations about approaching the topic as well. “I have not,” she said. “I had considered making it publicly known, but in all honesty I could see no good reason to do so. In the first few days we did not even know what had happened, so explaining it to the masses would have just spread confusion. Then as we gained a better understanding of the situation and a remarkably short time-frame began to present itself, I thought it would be best instead to just cover your absence until your return.” “Our ponies would have wanted to help if you had told them,” Celestia said. “Of course they would,” Luna replied. “They would have wanted to help rescue you more than anything else, but what could they have done? All that could be done was happening already.” Celestia nodded. “I trust your judgement,” she said. “But it sounds like you’ve been spread thin. Surely somepony has noticed my absence.” “A few have,” Luna said. “Mostly politicians working in the castle itself. I have just told them you are away on personal business, and that you will explain more on your return if you see fit.” Celestia chuckled. “That could be interesting,” she said. “But I do worry about you, sister,” she added, turning to look down at Luna. “I hope you have not been overworking yourself, trying to manage more than you can handle without aid. I remember having to learn that lesson once myself.” She reached out a hoof, putting it over her sister’s shoulders and pulling her closer. Luna leaned over, gladly letting Celestia support her weight. “You’re exhausted,” Celestia said. “I’m glad this may be coming to an end, my sister. I made a vow to protect you, and when I return I can stop worrying…” A strange feeling made her pause. She could feel Luna, still resting against her shoulder, shaking lightly as if she was crying. Celestia looked round at her sister, but there were no tears in Luna’s eyes. She was smiling back happily, and laughing. “You should hear yourself, sister!” she said. “You were transported to goodness-knows-where by an out-of-control spell, you’ve been trapped there for two weeks, you’ve barely got any magic – yes, I noticed that, don’t try to deny it – and you’re still worrying about me?” Celestia opened her mouth to protest but Luna placed a hoof over it, silencing her. “That is what I always admired about you, sister,” she continued, still smiling brightly. “Always so quick to protect others without a single thought to your own needs. If you ever saw anypony hurt you would do anything to help them, no matter what the cost to yourself.” Celestia laughed. “I think there is more truth in that than you realise,” she said. Luna gave her a curious look, but dismissed it with a shrug. “Regardless,” she said, “I have missed having you with me so much. We will have you home soon, and then you can tell me everything that has happened to you.” “Yes, I look forward to it,” Celestia replied with a smile. And she was looking forward to it. She started thinking through everything she had seen over the past few weeks, and was glad to realise that most of the memories were happy ones – the days spent freely exploring a new world, the vast wealth of knowledge she had managed to glimpse the surface of, her time playing with Chestnut, even making a friend in Aaron. There had been plenty of low moments as well, but in a strange way it always felt like they had served some purpose eventually. She could hear the words in her mind as she imagined the scenes, could hear exactly how she would tell her ponies about all she had seen. She had actually enjoyed her time here, and looked forward to enjoying it again by sharing it with her friends. My friends, Celestia thought to herself with a smile. You’re learning. And then there was that, of course. More than just what she had seen and done, there was so much she had learned. She had seen herself in a mirror, from a new perspective she had never managed to appreciate until then. She owed Aaron a great debt for helping her see it. The thought of talking about it with others brought a small feeling of guilt; no matter what Aaron told her she would always regret neglecting so many over the years. But still, it would spoil the point of what she had learned if she didn’t talk about it with anypony. And she had learned not just about herself, but about her entire world. Without a doubt that would be the hardest part to explain. The scientific community would be affected strongly by the implications one way or another; and it would eventually cause quite a stir across the entire nation. Only time would tell exactly how it would turn out, but she at least had faith that her ponies would be able to cope eventually. It would not have been the first time their world had been shaken by major revelations, and they had always powered through in the past. But it was quite a tale in itself, filled with knowledge so incredible that she would never have been able to dream it up herself. It would be well worth it to tell it all to others just to be able to tell them about… She blinked. For a few seconds she waited for the rest of the thought to come, but her mind had suddenly gone blank. There was so much to say that she couldn’t for the life of her think where to begin. If she just went from the start nopony would believe her; she’d had a hard enough time believing it herself. And there were too many different interweaving strands to the story. To pick any one strand to tell would be to miss out so much else. She suddenly began to feel a profound sinking sensation, great walls of ideas rising up in her mind and trapping her in, no obvious route out presenting itself. She felt humbled as she saw for the first time the true scope of what she had seen and learned, and how great its implications could actually be. Had she really failed to— “Are you okay?” Luna asked. Celestia, glad for the diversion, pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind to go over them properly later. She may have to talk to Aaron about it. “I am fine,” she said, shaking her head lightly to dislodge her stuck mind. “I just have a lot to think about it seems.” Luna nodded. “I can imagine,” she said. “Which reminds me; I never asked you where it is that you were sent to.” “No, you did not,” Celestia replied with a chuckle. “But perhaps I will tell you one day.” Luna raised an eyebrow, but did not protest. “‘A lot to think about’?” she said. Celestia nodded. “That is likely for the best,” she continued. “I should not wait too long before returning to Equestria. But with any luck we will see each other again by the end of tomorrow.” Celestia looked round in surprise. “That soon?” she asked. “I never even asked, I just assumed… I am really coming home? And as soon as that?” “Twilight Sparkle has almost everything prepared,” Luna responded with a smile. “She wanted to perform a test run first before making a full connection, but now we should have everything we need. It is just a matter of resting and making final preparations.” “And how will you find me?” Celestia asked, briefly having visions of a herd of ponies suddenly materialising in the middle of Aaron’s lab. Luna chuckled awkwardly. “That is not entirely clear,” she said, “although I would say that Twilight Sparkle is confident that she will be able to do so. I won’t bore you with the details again, but we know the spell connects to a target by attaching to a physical object on the far end. It seems it could be anything, but we think your presence on the other side will provide some level of guidance.." Celestia raised an eyebrow, puzzled by Luna's choice of words. "You do not sound certain," she said, and Luna shook her head. "What solid evidence we have is far from convincing," she replied, "but that does not mean that I am not convinced. Sister, you have not yet seen Twilight Sparkle cast the spell itself. You have not felt its power as I have. I cannot give you any evidence other than to tell you that I know this will work." Celestia sighed. She could at least empathise on that point; she knew that feeling well, that impossible sureness that a plan would succeed no matter how unlikely it seemed. It was the one thing which had given her the confidence to trust Twilight Sparkle with her sister's redemption all those years ago. Once more she could sense the signature of the Elements at work. "Then I will trust you," she said, smiling down at her little sister. "And I will trust the spell." She stood, and offered a hoof to help her sister up. Luna started making a move to leave then hesitated, her mouth opening like she were trying to say something. The two of them stood in awkward silence for a moment until, with a smile, Celestia stepped forward and wrapped a leg round Luna’s neck, giving her a hug. "I know how you feel, little sister," she said. "But you do not need to stay for my sake. We will be together again soon enough." "You are right, of course," Luna replied. "I can wait another day. I just—" "I know." She stepped back again and wiped away a tear that was running down Luna's cheek. "Will you be coming through tomorrow?" she asked. Luna shook her head. "No," she said. "I considered it, but decided I should stay on this side in case I was needed in Canterlot. I have already taken up enough time trying to make contact today. Twilight Sparkle and her friends will be more than capable of handling it on their own anyway." "It will be good to see them all again," she said, smiling as she realised that for one thing she genuinely meant it, and for another that she couldn't wait to see Aaron's face when she told him who was coming. They nodded farewell to each other and Luna turned to walk away again, when something dawned on Celestia. "Wait," she said. Luna came to a halt and turned to face her. "How long have you been trying to reach me for?" she asked. Luna looked down, dragging her hoof through the snow. "Nearly five hours," she said. "We did not know when you would be sleeping, and it took a long time to break into your dream even when I found you." "Five hours?" Celestia said, shocked. "You've been maintaining the spell all that time?" Luna looked up, her expression suddenly defensive. "Before you say anything, they all volunteered to do so," she said. "I would not have done this if they had not been willing. We all…" She bit her lip, defensiveness melting away into embarrassment, a warm blush turning her cheeks purple. "We just had to know that you were alive," she said. Celestia smiled broadly, a single tear appearing in the corner of her eye. She closed her eyes, resting her head against her sister's. "I'm so lucky to have you all as my friends," she said. Neither of them said anything more, but Celestia was happy just in feeling her sister resting against her. Nothing more needed to be said. Then there was a barely perceptible gust of wind, and she felt the weight disappear. A voice spread out into the dream-world, filling Celestia’s ears with faint whispers before dying away again. She opened her eyes, and Luna was gone. ~ ~ ~ I'm going home, she thought to herself. She stood in the silence of the secluded valley, processing this thought. After all this time waiting the end was less than a day away. She would have to make certain that she was ready; not that there was a lot to do, but it just felt like she needed to do something to prepare for jumping from one world to another. She would have to say goodbye to Aaron of course, she realised. He'd be happy, surely. He'd always wanted her to get home eventually, and until now he’d been the only thing that had made her believe she ever would. It should be easy to break the news to him. Don't lie to yourself, a voice in the back of her mind said. He's going to miss you, as you will miss him. "Great," she said to herself, lying back down on the ground and rolling onto her side. "I had to go and learn how to make friends." A warm breeze blew past her, the hairs on her flank tingling in the sudden current, but she barely noticed it. For a moment she imagined she could hear her sister's voice in her ear again, bestowing calm on the dreamscape as per her nature. Celestia welcomed the illusion, taking deep breaths and trying to push the worries out of her mind. It was hard though. The small idea had come completely out of nowhere, but in those few moments it had lodged itself firmly in her mind and now refused to be moved. She could imagine seeing the look of disappointment on his face when she told him, and the fear of hurting him in any way plagued her thoughts. "Oh, I wish I knew how you'd react," she said. "You could always ask," his voice responded from above her. Celestia opened her eyes and looked up at Aaron, who was standing over her, looking down into her eye with a warm smile. She could still feel the cold of the snow against her side, though. "I do know this is a dream," she pointed out. "Then wake up and ask," he replied. She sighed, laying her head back. “I must sound like a little filly,” she said, “worrying about things like this. Is it foolish to be afraid of hurting his feelings, or to suddenly not want to leave when I’ve known him for so little time?” Aaron sat down next to her and patted her on her neck. “You know what I think I’d say?” he offered. “Does it matter?” Celestia asked. “You’re just my mind talking to itself after all.” Aaron sighed. “This conversation would be so much easier if you hadn’t realised this was a dream,” he lamented. “Well, do you want to know what you think he’d say?” Celestia sat up and looked straight at him. “Very well,” she said. “What would he say?” “He’d be happy for you,” he said. “He’d want you to have what makes you happiest, whatever that may be.” “But what if he—” “Celestia, if he is your friend, he won’t mind,” he said. “What makes you so sure?” Celestia asked. Aaron moved round, sitting with his legs crossed and looking at her with a knowing smile. “You already know what,” he said. On cue, voices from old memories played past her ears, reminding her of words she had seen years ago but could still remember with perfect clarity. “Dear Princess Celestia, you should never be afraid to share your true feelings with a good friend…” “…never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest fears…” “…rest assured that a good friend always has your best interests at heart…” Celestia chuckled, smiling at the memories. She had read all those letters before, long ago, but for some reason they suddenly sounded different. It was as if they were talking directly to her now. The warm wind blew past again, the dusting of snow on the ground blowing past in small waves. A pleasant shiver ran down her back and along the limbs of her wings. “It’s okay to worry about your friends’ feelings,” Aaron said. “That’s what having friends is all about. This isn’t the last time you’ll feel like this, but you’ll learn to appreciate it after a while. You’ve learned a lot about friendship over the last few years; it’s time to start living it.” Celestia smiled, a tear appearing in the corner of her eye. She had spent so much time training Twilight Sparkle that she had almost forgotten to listen to those lessons herself. “But here’s the important thing,” Aaron continued. “He wouldn’t want you to be worrying over him and spoiling the moment for yourself.” Celestia chuckled. She could understand why Starswirl the Bearded had had so much difficulty comprehending friendship. All those decades he spent trying to execute studies, run thought experiments, apply every academic tool in existence to the matter in order to unlock the true power of the Elements of Harmony, and he just ended up more confused than he had started, not to mention a little eccentric. But then she had managed to learn one important lesson from him. Friendship was not something to be studied. It had to be lived. She had managed to avoid letting Twilight Sparkle make the same mistake, but had never even thought to try it for herself. The Elements of Harmony were no longer hers to wield, so she had never seen the point. So this is where I am now, she thought to herself, the teacher becoming the student. When she returned she would have to start really listening to everything Twilight and her friends told her. There was so much she could learn from doing so; it was time she took advantage of this. When I return, she thought again. When. “There you go,” the image of Aaron said, patting her on her side as he faded away from the dream. An irresistible smile blossomed across Celestia’s face as the thought finally sank in. The warm breeze returned, flowing through her, filling her entire body with happiness. The thought spread quickly through her mind, bursting out in laughter and washing over the dream’s landscape. The snow melted away to nothing, and Celestia found herself surrounded by thick, luscious grass, wild flowers bursting forth and filling the scene with colour. She closed her eyes, rolling onto her back, and let her mind open up, lost in the moment. The voices came back one by one; she could hear every one of her friends speaking to her as if they were standing right next to her. It was only a matter of time before she’d be able to hear them properly again. But soon even the voices faded away as her mind was filled completely with a single, wonderful thought: I’m going home.