"...how about I take you home, and we see if you feel better there," suggests Sai Ding.

"Oh I can't go back right now, no no no no. I'm in no shape to play the role."

"Okay. How about I take you to somewhere else on your planet in case that helps?"

"-Sure. Somewhere out in nature? By the sea? ...With more space clothes maybe. And thanks for bringing me back and all even if I kind of wish - hellfires, Tess is going to be so mad."

"Sure." Sai Ding consults a picture of the planet and chooses a bit of uninhabited beach. Pop.

"Wow."

Samara Glory sits on the beach for a while.

"Nature is the universe's best designer, you know. If you look close enough there's just... So much to see... It's getting better. I'm not sure if being here did it or being in nature did it, or just time passing. I still feel... Wrong somehow but it doesn't hurt."

"I'm glad it's improving. Do you want to look at a clothes catalog?"

"I don't know. I guess so. I kind of want to just... Walk into the waves and sink again. I mean..."

"I don't think they'll get their money's worth. Half the city probably paid in to bring me back. Right?"

"Yes. But we agreed to give the money back if it didn't work. We weren't sure, since this world is more magical than most."

"My work has been utter trash lately. I remember... I mean maybe I shouldn't be pouring my heart out here, you don't seem like a counselor type, but it could be useful for other folks so... I remember how I died now. Didn't earlier. I was on the roof of my workshop trying to make a giant kite. The wind caught it, tangled me up in ropes and I fell. It doesn't bother me, it doesn't feel real. Just like, well that was incredibly stupid of you, Sam. None of my memories have much... Emotional impact. Except my girlfriend, and even that is muted... Do you think you can check if Tehserra Cross is still alive? What she's up to?"

"I can see if her name appears in the list of people who contributed to the fund..." Is it?

It is not.

"I don't see her here. That might mean she changed her name, or donated through a proxy, or that she didn't think it was worth trying, or that she's gone, or something else."

"...That is life. It's not like I could fucking ask her to wait for me to. Return from - from - what was it, beyond the pale of death, now is it? Hah. How does all this - this - the stuff, what's the word, the changing places so fast and bringing me back - damn, words are hard right now it feels weird, write that down."

Sai Ding transcribes it.

"I don't know what's wrong with me. I was kind of a loose nail even - before - I don't know. I - That place doesn't mean anything anymore. I designed that temple, you know? Or well, tons of people designed it, but I was the big boss, more or less. With all the stained glass and the golds and reds, foundations laid so it glitters just so at the solstice. Years of my life into that temple. And now I think of it and, it's just a place. Pretty, sure, but not... Everything feels like a dream. Honestly, I. Don't want to go back." She sniffles. "It'd be a whole thing and I wouldn't even enjoy it and people would expect me to go back to doing art, and- You know, maybe you should've picked someone whose family was gonna be right there. Fuck."

"It seems like something about the resurrection didn't work completely and that's why you're not feeling all there. There's a few things we could try to fix it."

"Yeah, seems pretty likely. I don't know your div, uh- other... Worldly options, here."

"The best options are all in other worlds, and some don't work portably, and I'm a little worried that moving you away from this world again will make it worse. The first thing I'd try given that is asking a wizard to come by and try a wizard healing spell on you; the magic system is from a world where people normally have immaterial souls, and I don't know that it'll help you but it wouldn't hurt and you could try it right here."

"It wasn't completely intolerable before. And yeah, cheap shots first. I've done that before. Will it work? Almost certainly not. But is it easy and safe to try? Then try."

"All right. I'll ask a wizard over." Sai Ding takes a picture of the beach, sends a message, and a minute later a wizard appears and confirms with Samara that she wants to try being healed.

"Sure thing." A brittle smile.

The wizard casts a spell on her.

"...Huh. I think that did something? It's hard to tell. Seems a bit less dreamlike now."

"Okay, but it didn't fix it all the way?" Sai Ding asks, as the wizard teleports away.