Page 116 of In Rising Tides

Each movement felt like a monumental task. Her limbs not entirely her own yet.

“Everything feels heavy, even my tongue,” Lyra replied.

The words came out so very slow. She also struggled to recount the last couple of days. Had she dreamt it all? Or was any of it real?

“Have you been here the whole time?”

Nerida shrugged. “I took turns with the others.”

Others?

Lyra searched her memory for any hint of who else had been here, but she couldn’t recall a thing. Her mind was a trench of utter blackness.

She didn’t know how far down it stretched.

“Who?” Lyra asked, prying her tongue from the roof of her mouth.

“Thalassa, Cora, Marmoris,” Nerida ticked off her fingers. “And when they were called away, one of the ladies—” Nerida snapped her fingers as if trying to remember her name. “It starts with an M.”

Lyra felt the beginnings of a smile. “Marina.”

Nerida grinned in return. “That’s the one. Lovely thing.”

Lyra’s nod was automatic.

“Do you remember anything?”

The smile fell away from Nerida’s face, and a frown tugged her lips down.

Lyra stilled, her eyes sliding closed as she worked backward. “I was at a council meeting.”

Nerida hummed in agreement. “You were.”

There were flashes of fear. It tightened the spaces between her ribs. Then the memories began pouring in.

A lump bloomed in her throat, and it was difficult to speak around it. Lyra tried to swallow it down.

“I was running out of options.” She shook her head as if she could shake the images out and away from her. “I didn’t have a choice. I needed them to believe me.” Her voice came out wrong, all high-pitched and desperate.

Nerida squeezed her hand, offering comfort. “About your bargain?”

Lyra’s eyes stung as they widened. “You know?”

“I know everything, baby sister.”

Something tickled at the back of Lyra’s mind, a memory that was fluttering towards the surface of the abyss.

“You’re the story keeper,” Lyra breathed.

A twinkle entered Nerida’s eyes, and a knowing smile stretched her lips wide. “You were listening.”

Lyra huffed a breath as she rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I had a choice.”

Days passedin a monotony of long moments of silence followed by brief moments of Nerida’s presence. Her sister could only manage to stop by for short visits under the guise of concern for Lyra’s health.

Drystan had visited once.

But he hadn’t spoken to her, hadn’t even crossed the threshold.