6 The Interrogation of Zoey Seeker

"So how was it?" Phineas asked.

"So how was what?" I reflexively spat back.

"Your reincarnation, of course." He replied

So he wasn't asking about the cold lamb chops, fuck. Hot off the press and I'm immediately found out as a reincarnator. My thoughts grew increasingly paranoid. What are they going to do to me? Are they going to strap me to a lab table and dissect me? Wait, Nathan said they already knew of reincarnators, maybe my situation isn't so dire.

Before the calm could even set in, I remembered I had just taken over their daughter's body. Surely they would be angry, no? It's as if I killed their daughter and swapped myself in like a changeling. How couldn't they be angry? I'd be angry. What I did is unforgivable. As my thoughts reached this point, my young mind could no longer endure the stress. My face crinkled and I began silently sobbing.

"Stop it!"

I turned to the sound of the voice and my new big sister was standing there glaring at Phineas. Phineas shrunk guiltily under that glare. For a moment I was so shocked that I stopped crying. Aside from the tear stains, I probably greatly resembled a certain popular shocked yellow critter from my home world. Why was she coming to my aide?

After Vivian felt that Phineas was decently chastised, she rushed over to me and put her arms around me in a big bear hug. I couldn't understand why she was comforting me and the floodworks resumed. I sobbed noisily into her chest as I choked things out such as, "Why *sob* don't you *sob* hate me?", "I did *sob, hic* bad." And, "I stole Zoeeeey." I could recall some of Zoey's memories and from them, I knew that Vivian doted on her the most. She had the right to be the most angry about the development. Yet here she was comforting me.

Vivian separated from me with her hands still on my shoulders, she gave me a stern, yet caring look. I couldn't help but stop crying while I awaited my judgment.

"You stole who now?" She asked

"Zo ..." I stuttered before getting cut off.

"You're Zoey aren't you?" She demanded.

"Yes, but ..." I got interrupted again.

"You remember the times we played together?" She questioned.

"Yes, but ..." she gave me no time to elaborate.

"You still like bossing around servants and pranking people?" Another rapid-fire question.

I thought of how I spontaneously wanted to prank people with my new abilities, "I guess so ..." I said hesitantly.

"Then you're Zoey Seeker." She said matter-of-factly as she withdrew her hands and put them on her hips in a triumphant pose.

"But ..." I still resisted.

"None of that now, you're Zoey Seeker and just a little bit more now." She said sagely.

Didn't I just come to that same conclusion moments ago? How did I so quickly forget? Why did I assume immediately that they would hate me? Well, there was that overbearing Phineas. He looked like he was going to eat me up. I finally stopped sobbing with a few more hiccups. "Thanks, Vivi, I needed that," I said as I tried in vain to wipe away my tears with the edges of my robe.

Vivian smiled brilliantly at hearing her pet name. "That's better, do you think you could answer some questions now? Mom and Dad are dying of curiosity." She asked.

I looked over and sure enough, both of them looked like children about to be set loose in a candy shop. "I ... I guess so, what do you want to know?

"What do you remember?" Phineas asked, trying his best to restrain himself and not scare me again. I appreciated that.

"Not much. I remember being someone else, then I died, and then there was black, after the black there was an indescribably large multicolored wheel made up of an uncountable number of souls. I joined them briefly and then I left through a portal on the edge of the wheel. At the end of that portal was Zoey." I carefully narrated while omitting Nathan.

I thought I hadn't given them much, but Phineas was scribbling away like mad. The parchment was only just barely resisting the abuse. Slivers of parchment curled up from the writing. "So you remember your past life?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the parchment.

"I remember parts. Is there anything you'd like to know about it?" I asked, stubbornly trying to keep anything hidden that I could.

Phineas put his quill down briefly, "Anything, everything." He gestured widely with his hands. "Who were you? Did you live here? Or was it somewhere else? What were you like?" He asked animatedly.

Vivian, who at some point had placed me in her lap, gave Phineas a warning stare, he winced, and I giggled.

I decided to feign ignorance about who I was before and satisfy their curiosity about what I remembered of Earth. "I don't remember much of who I was, I know I wasn't anyone of any significance, but I do remember I came from a place called Earth."

"Where is that in relation to Eternia?" Phineas queried.

"It's a whole other planet, I don't know exactly where it is from here. But if it is as I suspect, then it's one of the closest habitable planets, less than a handful of light years away." I said.

Phineas scribbled enthusiastically, "Another planet, fascinating. Umm, pardon my ignorance, what's a light year?"

Realizing I may have just extended my "interrogation" by hours, I said, "It's the distance that light travels in a year."

"Light takes time to travel? Fascinating." Phineas muttered.

Trying to get out my extended sentence, I replied, "Yes, but I really don't know too much about the subject." I did, but I wanted to be done with the questioning sometime before I grew old.

"Well if your former planet could measure how fast light travels, I'm sure they had many fascinating things." Phineas inquired.

Nikol couldn't contain herself anymore, "What gadgets and gizmos did they have?" She seemed to practically be bouncing on her feet.

"They certainly did have gadgets and gizmos," I paused before deciding how much to reveal so I could be done before nightfall, "There were many kinds of horseless metal carriages. Some ran on tracks and carried many people and cargo. Others ran on the road, some even flew in the sky. Almost everyone had a device in their hands that could communicate across vast distances and access the entire compendium of human knowledge, but it was mostly used to watch recordings of cats being silly. In addition, almost every chore or task was performed by a machine. Most still required a human operator, but it still made things easier. Oh, and there was no qi."

Phineas diligently wrote everything down up until I said there was no qi then suddenly the quill snapped and there was a hole in the parchment. "No qi? How is there no qi? Every living thing has qi!"

"I really don't know, maybe there was qi and it was just in such small quantities it went undetected or maybe we lacked the means to utilize the qi, but regardless, there was no qi usage in the world, and as far as I could tell, no qi to use," I stated seriously.

Phineas produced another quill. It seems he broke them regularly. "Fascinating, and horrifying." He finished his notes, "Well I think you've humored your old man enough, one last question for you, it's rare and no one ever divulges how they know, but some reincarnators know what abilities are hidden within their bodies, you wouldn't happen to know anything about young Zoey's body would you?"

"I ... I won't be able to tell you how I know." I hesitated. Phineas nodded as if this was to be expected. I continued, "And I think it's best if I don't reveal the exact nature of the abilities, but Zo ... my body is highly suited to cultivation. It would be best if you could enlist someone to help me prepare to cultivate when I get older."

Phineas seemed to have a look of melancholy on his face. He was a mortal, and although he could support me in the beginning stages, eventually I would have to leave his nest. I would spend long times in closed-door cultivation, too long for a mortal. "I think I can get someone from the local sect, but they'll want to know your root to get you an appropriate cultivation technique, do you know it?"

"I-I've already got a technique, it's a multi-element root, they won't have one that suits me." I squeaked out.

"I would ask how you've already got a technique, but I know you won't tell me. Are you sure that you're suited to cultivation though? Most sects won't take a multi-element root, dual-element sometimes, but not more than that." He questioned.

"Yes, I'm sure. My strengths more than makeup for my weaknesses." I grinned.

"There's the daughter I know. I was beginning to think I lost her to a timid stranger." Phineas blurted out.

I looked down guiltily again. But before I had time to sulk, Vivi and Nikol both pinched Phineas, resulting in a loud yowl. I giggled again, despite myself. This family wasn't half bad, quirky, but not bad.

And so the interrogation of Zoey Seeker concluded. In the end, I was afraid for no reason. They were merely curious about my past, but they still accepted me warmly. The sun was fully set, and I could finally head to my bed chamber to experiment with some of my abilities.