Gina awakened for a second time after dying. This time she knew 2 things for sure.

1. She had died.

2. She was now a lantern in a stripped down version of the cell from her past life.

As these thoughts drifted through her mind, she suddenly became aware that she could sense areas outside the dim yellow light of her lantern. The lantern worked by resonating with the sun, even if the sun didn't reach it. The dim light meant it was either morning or dusk, usually at dusk it dimmed to a bluer light, so it must be morning.

She strolled through her senses, her workroom and bedroom still the same as it had been for the 50 years before her past life's death. She stopped at the door leading out of the bedroom, unsure if she was mentally ready to leave, then she laughed at herself. Gina went wherever she wanted to, lantern light wasn't bashful! it shone on the good and the bad with no reserve! Besides, Goburi was the one who signed the contract that bound her to the room, Gina hadn't signed her name on it anywhere. With a barely controlled determination she prepared to walk through the door.

Gina looked through the door outside the bedroom. a straight square hallway reached out in a perfectly straight line with a speck of light at the very end. Searching through the memories of her past life she knew it had previously exited into a wide hallway that ran parallel to the room, with a door opposite of the one she was now looking out of.

It was like her room was teleported somewhere with her soul still in it.

Taking a mental breath, she walked through the doorway and continued down the new hallway, the rushing sound filling her soul again, the rumble in her veins growing stronger as she approched the light. Approaching the farthest reaches of her soul, she stepped into the light for the first time in over 50 years, her perception adjusting to the sensation that even her past life had forgotten.

Gina found herself inside of a damp cave, the light coming in was filtered through a waterfall, mist and sunlight sparkling around her. She had to stop to be able to take it all in. The floor was soft with moss, the cave stretched out above, behind and to her left, growing and shrinking in the whimsical nature of nature. the wall of the cave continued forward on her right, almost following the same line as the tunnel she came out of. Directly in front of her was a gap between the waterfall and the wall of the cave on the right, through which a medow backed by a forest could be seen.

Gina slowly walked forward towards the natural path leading to the medow, enjoying the new freedoms of her expanded world. She could see the fall colors turning the forest into a world of earthen beauty, then her world ended again. Gina didn't pass out this time, but her perception did dim for a moment. She realized she couldn't go any further than the edge of the cave, there was some give, but as she pushed her perception outward it was pushed back.

Gina was tempted to get angry, she decided instead to be happy. They mystery of the edge of her world would wait, for now she would explore the new freedoms she had in her new life!

Gina stopped she realized she had no veins and no ears. What she had been feeling was the power of the waterfall, and the rushing of the water. Laughing inwardly she walked behind the waterfall, following the natural path that led back towards the cavern. She found herself sensing more of the world around her.

About 2 body lengths below, there was a pool that reached back into the cave a ways, it had fish and other water creatures in it. The lip of the thick rocky ledge she was on stretched around it, the pool stretched underneath the lip and back where she couldn't see. There were boulders and an uneveness to the cavern, she felt if she actually had a body it would have been able to make it down into the water below. The waterfall itself was pretty wide, she could have fit 5 workrooms side by side in it's sparkling curtain.

The cave turned out to be just as wide as the waterfall, the ceiling above was high enough that she would have had to use the ladder to reach it, probably a second or third ladder stacked. The walls narrowed and the ceiling dropped down as she went deeper. The back of the cave she now found herself in felt almost cozy, the light coming through the waterfall was nothing but a ghost of it's former self, the roar quieted to a melody. The floor back here was dry and dusty, in one of the the larger hollows to the side it looked like something had made a den at one time, it was empty now.

The ceiling of the cave was uneven, bats could be seen clinging here and there. An owl flew by, deciding to face the daylight instead of the scrutiny of an unseen soul.

She had to stop and ponder that for a while, was she a ghost? She had awareness, and apparently some creatures could sense her, unless the owl just happened to decide to leave at that moment... As Gina was looking at the ceiling she realized it was much closer than it should be.

Looking down at the cavern floor several feet beneath her she had to laugh at herself. "With no body I guess I can fly now!"

This raised another even more puzzling revelation. Gina's awareness was well outside of the light from her lantern, in fact if she focused she could see every part of the workroom, bedroom, the cave and even part of the pool below.

Gina pushed trying to find the edges of her sight.

Details of the cavern became clear, even to the bottom of the pool. It looked like there was once an underground river, but the cavern had collapsed into it, creating the new cavern floor and creating the pool, although some water still flowed back into the depths below. She could even sense the fish in the pool, the bats on the ceiling and the bugs on the wall.

Gina focused on one of the bigger fish.

In her past life she rarely got river fish to eat. Her meals were always some kind of root vegitable, moss or mushroom, served with some bread. Ocassionally the cooked remains of some eyeless horror farmed from the dwarven depths would stare up at her from the plate.

"Too bad magic lanterns don't need to eat" She thought to herself hungrily/

And even as she thought it the fish dissolved.

Gina tasted... it wasn't fish, it was speed, strength and determination... somehow she felt a little stronger, and had a little more energy.

Gina was suddenly aware of how little energy she had, she started trying out different things in the cave. The living things seemed to give off some energy just by being in her soul, the soul that now expanded well beyond what a magic lantern should be capable of. Gina dissolved a little of everything, filling up rather fast. She had never been a glutton, and found it ironic that her stomach was the the size of a cave and then some.

The living things Gina dissolved gave a boost to her energy, the more energetic the creature the more energy she got. The non living things made her feel a little stronger and ready for the day, like she had an answer to a question no one asked yet, or like things were being added to her toolbelt that were needed for the next creation. Gina dissolved some old trees and some of the rocks that were cluttering up the pool before she withdrew back to her workroom.

As she entered the bedroom she looked where the table and chairs usually sat. She was expecting to see them in their old spots but was still surprised to see they actually were there.

"Well it wasn't like that when I left" she puzzled.

She looked around and noticed all the wood furnishings were in place. The endtable, the books, the old workbench.

She moved to the workbench and examined it. Every scar, every hole and every scrape was clearly visible as clear as she remembered it to be. The only thing missing from her workbench was the years of grime, the smell of machine oil and the burns.

"So... I am not Gina the lamp... then what on earth am I?' She puzzled on this as the day dimmed and she lost consciousness. Once again she was exausted, somehow feeling like she had worked the whole day.