Now that I think about it, the world used to be foggy…
Not only did everything outside exist as if behind a curtain, but my own feelings did as well.
I don't remember having an infancy. My earliest memory is from just a year before my mother disappeared. Sure, we did a lot of stuff together after that, but before that moment, there is nothing.
It's like I've been created already grown. Not fully into adulthood yet, as I was still under a century old, but still, created and not born.
There were some things that I already 'knew,' like the fact that Morielen was my mother and the fact that I had a certain fashion sense. But that isn't enough to cover for the ninety-five years that I should have lived up to that point.
I don't remember having a will as well. I only followed Mother wherever she took me to and did whichever tasks she ordered me to do.
I felt hunger and thirst, so I ate and drank, but there were no flavors. I remember 'knowing' what I liked and disliked, but that was all.
I could feel that I was touching something, and I was able to tell if it was hot, cold, or neither. Yet, I could feel no heat or coldness.
It's like the world was simpler than it is today. As if it had a lot less information.
It began to change that day, yet nobody noticed it at the time.
There was a 'lag,' as if the world had gone still for a moment. But how long did that moment last?
I don't think that I can know that by looking from inside this world. Maybe I would have to be looking from the outside to see clearly that it had paused and then measure the time it took in that state.
For us, mere mortals, that measurement was unachievable and meaningless. It was just an instant for us, after all.
A couple centuries ago, some sages of the long-lived races were able to remember that it happened, but everyone just assumed it was part of the Closing of the Servers and left it at that. Including me.
The last five centuries for the people of this world were the same for Morielen, just an instant, the blink of an eye. She certainly doesn't seem to have aged at all. Even we elves would show some signs of the passage of time after that long.
The changes in the world weren't sudden. They happened slowly over time, adding up until we arrived at the point of today, which Mother claims is similar to the feeling of existence in her original world.
Well, whatever. What matters now is that she's back and that she never intended to leave in the first place.
:::
"I see… So this world has been changing ever since. And now it's like this, real but with elements from the game. It makes sense, though it's still absurd in a way. Though the weirdest thing is that I've been transported to this moment in time…"
After Aelindra's words about the 'lag' that happened during the Closing of the Servers, the two of them became silent for a bit. Cecilia digesting the new information and Aelindra reminiscing about the past.
Cecilia was the one to break the silence, eager to bond with her now very real daughter.
"About that… We have received news of the appearance of other players in the last few days. Their reactions about the news of the time travel haven't been well received, though."
"Wait, what? Other players? Can you tell me who they are?"
Aelindra shook her head, sighing.
"No, though both are in our custody. One made some trouble and is under watch in the house of the governor of the Northern Reach. The other is in the port city of Mirehafen and claims he's just a child and cries all day, though he has the build of a grown-up man."
"They aren't from the Dead Nerds Society, then, I assume?"
"They aren't. It all happened in the last two days, and communication isn't very fast, so we don't have much information about them. But if they were, they would have tried to come here."
Cecilia nodded and went silent again, the half-eaten cheesecake all forgotten at this point.
((That's troublesome. Players are too powerful to be left unchecked, and they might not understand fully that this isn't the game anymore. Ugh, but I can't think about that now. It's my reunion with my daughter.))
"Enough with that ominous chatter. I mean, we'll have to go over it at some point, but it's been too long for you without me, right? Oh, and you managed to become the queen after the players left. And you even got yourself the title of Wise Queen."
Cecilia's parents loved her, and they were a normal family before the accident. After it, she had to hole up in the hospital, so their presence gradually faded away. Especially after they had a second child.
They paid for everything she needed, and she had a generous allowance. But the wide gap between them was one of the biggest triggers for her to take refuge in the game world of Hyperborea.
((I know that I'm five hundred years too late, but I want to be a good mother.))
Aelindra opened a faint smile, and tears began to swell in her eyes.
"I'm so happy you're back, Mother. I'm so, so happy. I missed you so much…"
Cecilia reached to Aelindra, who began to cry openly, sobbing again. This time, though, there wasn't anyone else in the dining room. Only the two of them.
Aelindra leaned forward, resting her head on Cecilia's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, my daughter. I really am."
"No, no, it's okay. It was not your fault. You simply traveled through time, without any input in it. I would never hold it against you."
Aelindra straightened herself up and wiped the tears with a handkerchief.
"Anyway, what is your plan now? I've been living in your house here in the capital, and you're more than free to return there. I've been to your other base a few times, just to check if nothing was amiss, but I never entered it."
"To be honest, I have no plan. I thought about a lofty goal of seeing the world now that I have a real body here and have full senses of everything… But I'm not really sure about it."
Cecilia looked down, seeing the forgotten cheesecake on the table.
"I want to experience the things I wasn't able to experience with my other body. That is the truth. But I can't help but get really curious about the truth of this world. How did it transform from a game to a real world? And why?
Why did I appear here? Is my body out there really dead? Did five hundred years pass in that other world as well, or was it just an instant there? Or, on the other hand, was the time outside a lot longer? Was this just happenstance, or is there someone guiding it?
No matter how I look at it, I can't simply accept that things are like this and act as if nothing had happened…"
She took another bite of the cheesecake, then looked back to Aelindra.
"But, about more immediate plans, I think that spending some time with you and then going to my hidden base would be the thing to do. Was Mina there when you visited?"
Aelindra had listened to all that with eyes filled with admiration and respect, with a certain hint of amusement. She nodded, opening a smile.
"That sounds like you, ever curious and always being the first to hundred percent every new area. I bet that if Helen were here, you two would be already crafting several theories toge-th-h-h-h-eEeEeeer-r-r-r-r"
The air around Aelindra cracked, as if time-space itself had been torn apart, as her voice became suddenly robot-like.
Then, he continued to talk, but there was another voice, as if someone else was talking through Aelindra.
{ERROR. Subject accessed forbidden information.}
{Memory correction in 3, 2, 1…}
Aelindra stood completely motionless for ten seconds, as Cecilia watched her in horror, frozen. Then, she - or whoever was talking through her - spoke again.
{Memory successfully corrected. Forbidden information deleted.}
"Aelindra? Daughter?"
"H-huh? Mother? What are you doing here? Wait, was I sleeping? I feel like I just had the weirdest dream…"