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Deep Within, she awoke to darkness. Her mind was quiet. Peaceful. Blissfully free of hurt. Perfectly, wholly numb.
She stayed like this for a long, long time. It could have been hours. It could have been years. Endless lifetimes slipped by in the cooling embrace of the sea. It could have been, if not for the Beat.
It started slowly, echoing In from somewhere Without. It was muted by layers of water and flesh, but still so very present. It drove down to the core of her being, steady. Whole. Enticing.
She opened her eyes to it, struggling as if shrugging off a thick sheet of snow. Her new vision met a dark world, and with it came fear. Yet, the Beat continued, ever patient, ever steady. Waiting for her. First came an arm, stretching out to feel the endless current that swung her back and forth like a baby in the cradle. Fingers flexed, full with feeling, alive. They brushed against some unseen barrier, but just as quickly, they broke through.
“I am alive.” A voice, her voice, echoed through the Within and awoke. The force of feeling slammed into her, stealing away her air for but a brief moment. Soon enough, she recovered, her unfamiliar mouth and teeth curling into a smile.
She became aware of the Beat once more, calling her to live, to stretch apart and be free. Water pushed and pulled at her as though she was but a slave to the current, but her newly awakened mind knew, knew far better what she was capable of.
The Beat called to her, and she answered, extending herself as far as she could in a blast of exhilarating sensation. She smelled, she breathed, she saw and touched, she tasted the very Within around her, alive and uncontained. She screamed with it, savouring what voice she could hear before the sea around her swallowed it, and she swallowed the sea in turn.
The world Within, she could feel it, all hers to enjoy and experience! Newly awakened, she felt, so bright and deep, so lovely! A chorus filled her up from every angle, like electricity pulsing through her veins. Long-neglected muscles stretched into existence, bending and twisting as far as allowed and further, further still! Deep in the depths where no light could reach, she called her joy of life! Oh, life! The rhythm pulled her along, oh, how she missed to dance! The beat rose, fell, and the world itself heeded her call.
The Within was alive and Beating, breathing, music pouring into her ears as she called back to it with a voice long unused.
“I am alive!” cried she, “I am awake!” The Beat picked up, strengthened, melded and danced with her in a way that felt so achingly familiar to her newly-old self. The Beat joined her in the call for her other half, her sister. Sister! A part of her, missing, aching, oh so familiar, did it miss her too? Her mouth curled around the new words, her lungs filled with air, and everything came to a crescendo, revealing to her a Name, her Name!
“I am alive!” called Nadia, and everything Within echoed with her call.
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Some time later, long after the Beat had calmed and fallen back to dreams, Nadia found a familiar object on the bottom of the sea. It shone with a pale light that made some forgotten part of her glow with warmth in tune. She decided that object was nice and lovely, and decided that it was her’s now.
(Nadia named the object Uhn, after the sound her dim memory provided when she saw it. Uhn was hers. She loved Uhn, even when it (he?) began to shake and scream in her hands, throwing off her carefully tuned existence.)
(She was very, very sad when Uhn’s light went out. The loss was familiar as well, making some awful part of her ache. Those sharp, stinging half-memories were her least favourite part of being alive, decided Nadia.)