Slowly, Lisa began to wake up in the chair, her head throbbing with one of the worst headaches she'd ever had. All around her, several employees of The Nexus were scurrying around, testing pieces of equipment, and pouring over printouts. No sooner did she begin to sit up than a woman close in age to Lisa's mother stepped over to her and laid a hand on Lisa's shoulder.
"Easy my dear," the woman said, pressing gently on Lisa's shoulder and easing her back into the chair. "You've been through quite an event, and there's been more strain on your body than you might be realizing just yet."
"Is it like that every time?" Lisa asked, placing a hand to her aching head. "My head really hurts...."
"No, it's not like that every time. Here, let me get you something for that headache, and we'll speak more in my office."
"Okay, thank you," Lisa said, taking a pair of pills and a small glass of water from another of The Nexus employees. The employee helped her from the chair, and then left her in the care of the older woman who took Lisa's hand and began guiding her down the hall. A few turns later and they entered a door with the name "Emma Nail, Director" scrawled in neat script on the frosted glass.
"Can I offer you a drink? Scotch perhaps? I tend to prefer something stiff myself after an intense magical experience," Emma said after showing Lisa to a chair.
"I prefer gin," Lisa said automatically, then placed a hand over her mouth. "I mean, I'm not old enough to drink... where did that come from?"
"That is what I'm going to explain in a few minutes, but trust me, you'll want the gin," Emma said, pouring a stiff portion and dropping a pair of ice cubes into the glass. After pouring a finger of scotch for herself, she took a seat on the other side of an impressive desk from Lisa and began to explain. "I need you to understand a few things before I get started. First, what happened today has never happened at The Nexus before, and we're still looking into why it happened, but for now, that's a question I can't answer. We're still sorting out all of the what that happened, but I think we have a much firmer grasp of that than we do the why. The second thing I need you to know is that we're here to help you, whatever that takes or whatever that means. Something went wrong, and it's our fault and we'll do whatever we can to make it right. Okay?"
"Now I'm scared," Lisa said, taking a sip of the gin and relaxing as the familiar flavor soothed ragged nerves. "What happened?"
"We can't tell for sure what started it, and I don't know if it would have happened with or without the procedure, but, in the middle of the process, Heather Rhodes went into cardiac arrest. She died very quickly, and without the reality of her life being connected to her body. Further, your life was not yet connected to her either. At that point, the sum total of her existence, along with the sum total of yours, both became attached to you. Now, some parts of those existences don't settle well with each other, and some parts do. More than that though, some parts seem to be... coexisting in a way that defies logic."
"So, what exactly does that mean?"
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