Guilt crashed over her like a tidal wave. She'd known they would worry, but hearing the devastation in her father's voice made it real in a way that abstract knowledge couldn't.
"I couldn't contact you before, my dear Father because I was lost in this wide universe..." she explained quickly, her hands gripping the edge of the sink. "The circumstances of what happened... they were complicated. I found myself in a human body, a woman named Shuyin who had passed. I needed time to stabilize, to understand this existence. I didn't mean to cause you all such pain."
Her father leaned closer to his end of the connection, studying her intently, studying the face he knew, even as she inhabited a form he didn't. "You speak of inhabiting human flesh. You wear their shape." His eyes narrowed with the shrewd intelligence that made him a formidable ruler. "What happened to you, Kailani? Who did this?"
