The Ascension

The Saved

Aster awoke awakened- if that made sense. She was clear-headed again, no longer running a fever, and not in the slightest bit tired.

And very fine, it seemed. She stood up on her own, and had a moment to examine her body- it was naked, and her skin had never looked so clear. She had the faintest impression that, in her previous memory, she had been covered in burns and sealed wounds. Now her skin was clear and paler than usual, soft as if it had been soaked in water for a few hours.

Even old cuts seemed to be gone- an old bug bite that had left a soft purple mark on her arm was gone, as was the indent she had made on her head once from walking into a door.

The other people in the room were the same furry attendants as before, and even as she had the mind to look at them, she couldn't quite figure them out. They looked like dogs in suits. Like someone had just taken a dog and put it in human clothes. But they were somewhat bipedal, though standing with a slouch, and one was even wearing goggles. They were kind of cute, but something about their stretched-out faces creeped Aster out.

One stumbled about a bit on legs not meant for this sort of activity and put its paw on her back, guiding her to the door. Another brought her clothes, the same sort of meshed grey uniform the creatures wore.

The one with its paw to her back guided her down the hall. Though it took a few moments to steady itself walking, a few paces in it was as capable of walking as well as anyone.

A fairly short distance away, they came to the section of the hall that Aster vaguely recognized as the one she had arrived in. Two great glass doors, fogged so details behind them were lost, opened automatically to reveal a room suitably high tech. It was like Aster had expected, actually; two long bay windows on either side gazed out to what seemed to be outer space, and to either side of the doorway, more strange animals sat at odd machines.

Straight ahead was a man, sitting fairly arrogantly with pale purple hair. Half his face was covered in a chrome electronic in similar shade of violet. He had half a beard going on, in the same ridiculous color, and Aster was left to assume it was his natural shade. She supposed he was an alien of some kind, but he honestly looked entirely human.

The words of Ikina, also, were brought to mind. She had heard of this fellow before. Not a god, but very human.

And with naturally purple hair, evidently? Weird, but alright. He knew Ikina on a personal level. He had an allowance of oddities before he crossed any lines.

"Aster." The man said. "Artemis."

Aster pointed, confused, at herself. Was that some sort of title?

"That's my name. Artemis. I've been watching you carefully."

"Why?" Aster knew why. Ikina had probably told him to. But she was curious if he had any better explanation.

"Io- Ikina told me to."

Oh. "Did you almost say something else there?"

"I almost called him Ioro. But then I remembered he likely doesn't refer to himself by his birth name in your presence."

"He?"

"I'm not trying to be incorrect. To save on my tongue- and the ease of language- I try to just keep to whatever sex he was wearing last I saw him. I know he's bisexual- or, bigender, I suppose is the slightly less accurate but still truthful way to say that. He's probably bigender too, I guess, but I've never heard him talk about what his actual gender is. Regardless. The essence of the point is this: His real name is Ioro. But don't tell him I told you that."

"Okay. So what did Ikina tell you that drove you to... abducting me like this?"

"You're not abducted. You're saved. Do you recall when you were dying? I ceased that cycle. This is your way of repaying me."