Lee Seolwha was engrossed in her work as I came to, and unlike the others she didn't freak out from my presence. There was something clinical to the way she handled our conversation, mindful of the shock and confusion that normally accompanied patients waking up from a coma.
The first thing she did was level set. The date, the year… where we were, as well as the condition I had been in this whole time. We talked for a long time about my health, and I glossed over what it had been like for me in the subway.
As she did her tests and check ups, she spoke of the group regression—how the others travelled to another worldline in an attempt to save me, how they came back 20 years later to a rejuvenated Seoul, and how Han Sooyoung wrote a manuscript for the fragments of the Most Ancient Dream and how Yoo Junghyuk spent an unknown amount of time spreading them throughout the worldliness with Biyoo.
None of it surprised me. Like something I already knew, but it took a while for it to click into place.
I was back.
"Keep in mind, your incarnation body has been asleep for almost three years," Lee Seolwha explained. "It's going to be a process of rehabilitation to be able to move about as you used to. I've prepared a list of exercises that will help. Start off with the stretches on the first page and then we can move to strengthening."
I raised a hand and slowly clenched it into a fist. It felt weak, and my fingers didn't quite move the way I wanted them to.
"As for your diet," she continued, tapping a pen to paper. "I would defer to someone else to know the best source of nutrition for constellations. The Queen of the Darkest Spring has offered—"
"Thank you, Seolwha," I interrupted. "But I think I'll be fine."
I pushed myself off to the side of the bed, bare toes touching the cold marmoleum as sparks danced around my skin upon contact.
Lee Seolwha blinked in shock.
I stood for a moment, shifting my weight around as probability cracked like lightning upon my muscles and sinews. The sensation carved strength into my body and it wasn't long until my incarnation body was as able as I'd remembered it to be.
"Hup!"
I stretched, arms clasped and reaching outward, then rolled my shoulders before dropping down to a crouch to stretch my legs. I performed a few jabs at the air, placing just enough power so that the aftershock of it was enough to flutter her hair in its breeze. I balled a hand into a fist, testing my grip. Once I was satisfied with my strength I looked up expectantly at the doctor.
"How about it?" I asked. "Am I ready to be discharged?"
She shook her head.
"Even if you are physically fit, you still aren't fully stable," Lee Seolwha explained. "You've been losing consciousness easily, and whether or not this is a form of narcolepsy is still something we haven't discovered. And as you've explained to me before, this condition persisted even as you were-are the Most Ancient Dream. Which means that whatever you're doing to manipulate probability like this, it isn't something that's within your power to cure."
I hated to admit it, but she was right.
"It's still a lot better than before. At its worst, I'd fall asleep and a few—"
I stopped abruptly, realizing the magnitude of what I was about to say.
Lee Seolwha tilted her head, a silent urge for me to continue.
I frowned. Doctor-patient confidentiality, I reminded myself.
"…a few decades would pass."
"Then let's be satisfied with this momentum of healing," Lee Seolwha replied evenly, as if the words I just said weren't beyond human comprehension. "You could overstrain yourself and worsen your condition. Let's monitor you for another day, then I'm sure your companions can take over from here."
She stood up to leave, gathering her notes with her into a neat pile.
"Don't forget that you were born human, Kim Dokja. It's okay to heal like one."