Page 91 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
Nothing to fear.
Nothing to grieve.
Nothing but crystalline peace.
I drifted for a time that was long and a time that was short. I drifted endlessly. I drifted forever.
A gentle ripple next to me. Larimar.
Their face, always a sight to behold, was prismatic.
Warm, welcome tears gathered in my eyes at the sight of it. At the sight of such loveliness. At the sight of my dear friend.
“I cannot interfere in human conflicts,” Larimar said, their face expressionless.
At their words, grief bloomed in me, though it was not my own. Grief so intense that my tears of joy turned to bitter weeping.
I extended my hand to rest upon Larimar’s fin. It was as smooth as silk and reminded me of how I felt when I rested comfortably upon the ocean floor, the surface above like a glittering sky. I remembered it, though the memory was not my own.
“You’ve already told me this,” I said. “And you’ve done more for me than you could ever know.”
Larimar lifted their head skyward.
Storm clouds were rolling in. The clouds’ underbellies flickered with lightning, but what sounded in their wake were screams. Faraway screams. Screams of anguish.
I was floating, and I was gliding.
I was present, and I was escaping.
Larimar was beside me. “It is not over.”
Something tugged at my memory. This memory was my own. I wanted to forget.
“But I’m here now,” I cried. This time the weeping was mine and mine alone. The salt of my tears blended with the salt of the ocean.
My tears echoed for miles.
They echoed without ceasing.
Larimar’s face was expressionless. Then their face was alight. Not just with their kaleidoscopic beauty, though that was there. It was something else.
And then I was a small thing, a piece of light itself, resting in Larimar’s fin.
“Be safe,” they whispered, and I felt the intensity of their grief once more as they released me.
A speck of light.
A seed of hope.
“Maila! Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Maila, Maila!”
Nya’s screaming had my eyes flying open. Heart pounding.
“Kieran, stop!She’s alive!”
It was night. Had I been unconscious that long? There was a storm raging above, the likes of which I had never seen. A hurricane. Worse.
Nya’s face appeared over mine. Even in the darkness, I could see that her eyelids were swollen from crying, and her chest was heaving with rasping breaths. I became aware of a weight on me. Her body was covering mine.
