Just as she had been.
Anlic waited, nurturing, refining the rootless being’s order and cohesion. And it gathered more data, developed sophistication.
At last it — she — could frame questions.
“…Who am I? Who are you? Why are there two and not one?”
Anlic said, “I have much to tell you.” And she gathered the spark in her attenuated soul.
Together, mother and daughter drifted away, and the river of time ran slowly into an unmarked sea.