Broken

.35.

Over a week later

I walked back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. My legs still felt a bit unsteady but they were working better than they were yesterday. It had been slow progress. I had expected to simply be able to jump up and be ready for life but that turned out to be rather impossible.

I had to take everything slowly, my body was still weak from the stasis they had placed it in so it wouldn't die completely before my soul could be returned. That and the fit of my body sometimes didn't feel right. Like I was still settling under my skin.

I heaved out a heavy breath and moved across the room once more. I was doing a lot better than when I first woke up but I still had a bit to go to gain back all the muscle I had lost. I blew an errant strand of hair from my face as I heaved out another breath.

"Do not push yourself, Liv." Ani's voice came from her bedroom and I rolled my eyes slightly as I started the trek again after I touched the couch.

"I'm just a bit winded. I'm not done yet." Back and forth, back and forth until I was better. I didn't like feeling so vulnerable and weakened while still on the ship. Something was brewing. I wasn't sure what it was but I could feel it.

"I do not care. Take a rest." Her tone was stern and I rolled my eyes again as I touched the kitchen counter before turning around and heading back towards the living room.

"Fine, mother." I emphasized the word and Ani made a sound of irritation.

"I have every right to mother you. Leave me to my incessant worry." She was right in that. Ghilesh and Nadila had told me she had been nearly inconsolable after the incident. She felt she had failed me, hadn't protected me like she should have. She refused to listen to anyone when they said there was nothing she could have done, the attack had been too quick to stop.

After I woken up, she hadn't left my side. She was with me everywhere I went, attached to my hip as she glowered at everyone who attempted to come close. She was worse than a dog with a bone. I couldn't say I disliked it, being so vulnerable and surrounded by people who hated me, I kind of liked her tenacity.

"Are you sitting down?" Her voice held a thread of warning and I touched the couch before sitting down on with a groan.

"Yes, mother." I sang it mockingly and I could hear her scoffing from my place on the couch. I didn't want to prove her right but sitting down did feel like heaven on my trembling legs. Perhaps I was pushing it a bit too far.

"Drink some water!" She turned on some music, the soft tones of the music were relaxing and I leaned my head against the back of the couch. My chest gave a faint ache but it had been not as bad as before.

I half wondered if it was because of the whole, nearly dying and having my soul ripped from my body thing. Like my soul was still settling into my body so I wasn't quite as aware of the separation as I should be. However the thought of Rhex pained me. I hadn't been allowed to call him for my usual weekly dose of hearing his voice.

I didn't like it. Not one single bit.

Those phone calls seemed to sometimes be my only grip on sanity. Without them I felt lost and alone. I hated that Rhex must have felt that a thousand times worse when I had been stripped from my body and lost in the darkness. I couldn't imagine that. I couldn't imagine feeling the loss of him that acutely and not perishing from a literal broken heart. The separation was bad enough, draining enough, hard enough.

I stared at the light blue ceiling, my eyes glazing over at the uniformity of it. No cracks, no bumps, just a flat clear surface that was enough to make someone tear their own hair out. I missed my old room that I had at my parents. The cracked paint and the unevenness that it had. I had it memorized but it was still different.