In the dark, I could hear a hum. Everything was warm, and that warmth was the only sensation reaching me. I could feel nothing else, was unsure if I even had a body to feel anything with. Maybe I was just drifting in this darkness. I turned- or at least, my senses shifted- around, and I saw a crib, with a woman holding a baby in front of it. She was rocking the infant back and forth, slowly, like the tide of the sea. The hum was coming from her, a quiet, wordless lullaby. A lullaby for me, I supposed, if what Mu had said was true. It felt far off, so very far I couldn't be sure it was real. If this was a memory of mine, it was my first memory, something between reality, self-awareness, and a dream. I guessed the lady was my mother.

The whole thing was frayed, like a painting fading against a black canvas, with tears getting bigger. It was unraveling, spooling out back into the dark, the last piece of it I could catch before it was all gone was the woman saying my name.

Lee. I was named Lee.