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the figure drew closer, she squealed with joy.
    “Mother!”
    She ran and held fast to her mother while Toby folded his arms and glared.
    “How -- why are you here Esoica?” he asked.
    “To take care of my children.”
    “You ran out on us. Ran away and hid. I heard you were even killed.”
    Melissa looked up, never before seeing her brother confront her mother. “And what did you do?” asked Esoica. “I heard you ran away as well.”
    “I saw the future, and prepared.”
    Esoica ran her hands through Melissa’s hair. “And so did I, though we each had a markedly different way of doing so. Come, my dear Lissa; I have a safe place you can go to.”
    Melissa was loathe to move, as it meant giving up on her brother. He looked worn and tired, and she knew that despite Yllinae’s company, he enjoyed being back with her as much as she enjoyed being with him. “What . . . what about you, Toby -- what will you do?”
    “I’ll fight, even without you, though with you both we’d have a better chance of succeeding -- a much better chance of resurrecting father.”
    “Darian?” harrumphed her mother. “I never want to see him again. It’s his fault things are as they are.”

Part II
    Chapter 5
     
    Melissa had never felt such an immediate emotional and physical transformation in all her life. One moment she was cold and desperate, facing grim choices about her future, and the next she stood in a warm room being embraced by her mother. She couldn’t help but weep tears of gratitude and joy.
    Esoica brought her to a narrow window, and it was then Melissa discovered they were on a small levitating platform which overlooked the crater she almost died in. On the ridge Toby’s encampment could be seen, and it cheered Melissa even more, knowing not only was she with her mother, but could keep an eye on Toby.
    “That is the crater of the First Apocalypse,” said Esoica. “Three thousand years ago, something hit our world. It hit it so hard, that it knocked our world out of its orbit around the sun and changed the sphere into an ovoid.”
    “And that’s why it’s so cold?”
    “Yes. So many people died,” she said softly, as if she was witness to the event. “But there would be no Archsussa if not for that catastrophe. It is near that impact crater that the Centric Sphere was discovered, almost two thousand years ago.”
    Melissa lingered at the window as her mother sat near her. She felt suddenly self-conscious as her mother examined her.
    “You’ve grown,” said Esoica with a smile.
    “It’s been three years ,” she stressed, giggling. “What did you expect?”
    “I thought Toby would have stayed with you. I thought your father would have somehow passed his title to Toby, and that you and he would be in power.”
    Melissa sat near her mother on a short, worn couch that reminded her of something that used to be in her home. Though she was overjoyed to be with her mother, she was unsure how to proceed. It was almost like speaking to a stranger, as so many things had happened since last they were together. “Why did you say father was responsible for everything?”
    “It wasn’t his fault the Second Apocalypse happened,” said Esoica, lazily leaning back on her hands, revealing a small yet firm belly. She wore an oversized knit sweater that looked hand-knit, and Melisssa wondered if she knit it herself. “But it was his fault that all the people on the cities plunged to their deaths. While there are many Archsussa, there could have been many more. It is we that powered the Levitating Cities, we that kept our people warm. Darian hoarded power for fear an army of Archsussa would overthrow him. If we had more Archsussa, then they could have deflected the devastation wrought and safeguarded those cities.”
    As they sat together, in a small room that smelled of wet wood, Melissa was finally able to relax and absorb the sensation of being back with her mother. Under the blue and green sweater Esoica wore a