NOTE! If you are afraid of bloody and/or gory scenes, please skip reading this chapter and PM/review for the summary. It's nothing too bloody or gory, but I don't want to take any chances.


A/N: Hi guys! I am super excited for this chapter because: 1) nine is my lucky number (I know, I'm ridiculous that way) and 2) you have to read this chapter to find out why! ;)

Now, on to the reviews! Well... there's only one review, but it still counts as a review, haha.

animaljam: But see, that's the whole point. This is written before we meet Linh, so before Linh turns out to be the person whom we know so well, she would go through a whole lot of events that would change her for the better. After all, don't we love character development? Thank you so much for reading and reviewing, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

Word Count: 2,316 words.


CHAPTER NINE: CRY HIM A RIVER

Linh stared at the ranking board in front of her, then at the scroll she was holding in her shaking hands. The little voice inside of her had been telling her what a mistake it was, what a mistake it should be, that things weren't as easy as they seemed, that dreams didn't come true so quickly. But unless her eyes were playing a huge trick on her, she didn't see what the little voice was so worried about.

It wasn't a mistake. It shouldn't be a mistake. Things were as easy as they seemed. Dreams do come true so quickly. Her eyes were not playing a trick on her.

She had won. She had topped the rankings. She was the future Level One's top prodigy.

And Tam had came in second.


"Congratulations," someone told her, but Linh wasn't sure who it was. Her whole world had been twisted into a blurry smear of colours, smudged into indiscrete lines, figures, and shapes. Her ears weren't working properly — sound felt like razor sharp needles poking through her eardrums all at once and her sense of smell was going hyperactive — she wasn't even sure if these were smells an elf should be able to pick up. Who knew? She hadn't studied that far into detail — yet.

"Thank you," she managed to slur through the mess that was her head, feeling a little wobbly as she staggered over to what looked like a couch to her. It was the fountain — close enough. She plopped down on the circular stretch of marble surrounding the brilliant spray of water, not caring that moisture had began to seep into the back of her dress.

It was the Foxfire Opening Ceremonies, and Linh had already changed out of her gremlin costume in accordance to Mai's request. She didn't mind the costume, but Mai had insisted, telling her that she shouldn't be parading around in such a ridiculous getup. Then Mai had told her to meet up after the celebration outside the Foxfire pyramid. And after that, Linh hadn't seen Quan or Mai anymore. She was pretty sure Tam was somewhere in this mess, but she couldn't seem to find him. She hadn't seen him since the results for the Entrance Examinations had been announced.

I think he's mad at me. Wait, who am I kidding? He's been mad at me for the whole year.

Linh shuddered at the thought, and pulled her knees closer to her chest. With the spritz of water from the fountain constantly drizzling onto her back, she felt colder than she should be. Every blast of strong wind felt like being encased in a winter's worth of ice. Slowly, as endless seconds slipped by, Linh learnt how to regulate her body temperature to keep her feeling warm.

It was a wonderful feeling, to be warm, Linh thought. But if you're so warm until you're set ablaze, it can't be a good thing either.

Now that she was feeling better, she tested standing on the ground with two feet. When she was sure she wouldn't suddenly lose feeling in her knees and collapse to the floor, Linh set out to find her twin brother.

It had been a full year since the Foxfire Entrance Examinations had come and went, but it still felt like it was just yesterday when Tam had broken into Foxfire's examination hall and told the whole world that they were twins. Linh could still feel his searing gaze boring straight into her eyes, blaming her for her selfishness. She could still hear his voice, strong and confident, but tinged with a touch of betrayal.

"My name is Tam Song, and I am Emissary Quan Song's son. My sister is also in this examination hall right now, and we have equal right to be in here as we are twins and we are of the exact same age."

Linh had buried her face in her hands and sobbed her heart out after the examination, slumped her head against her study table, and told him, "Now you know how it feels. Now you know how it feels to be the one being left out of everything. Now you know how it feels to be the one being used, hurt, and cast aside. Now you know. Now you know."

Tam hadn't spoken to her ever since. And Linh might be regretting it a lot now.

She missed Tam. For this full year, he'd always been by her side physically, but not mentally. And knowing that made her feel so guilty. She had waited this full year, letting the guilt eat away at her mind a little as a punishment to herself and letting her mind malfunction a little, but now that the results were out, now that everything was cleared up, she needed to talk to Tam.

She needed Tam. And hopefully, Tam needed her.

"Tam," she muttered to herself as she searched through the massive crowd of people. Why were there so many people? Having spent eight years of her life being cooped up in the glittering prison that was Choralmere, she had never seen so many elves in her life before. Was this what the world outside of Choralmere looked like? "Tam, where are you?"

"Oh, look what we've got here," someone said in a not-nice way. Linh whirled around to see a lanky girl, a few inches taller than her, wearing a glimmering family crest she'd never seen before on her heart. The girl was looking down at her like she was trash. Linh backed away a few steps, only to bump into someone else.

She was trapped — and by the looks of it, these people had intentionally trapped her. To pick on her. To bully her for her identity. To bully her for her status.

"It's the freakishly smart girl. Too smart to be true, actually." The girl sneered at her, a near-savage look on her face. Suddenly, the crowd around her seemed to clear, giving Linh and her bullies a wide berth. Linh sucked in a sharp breath, her heart palpitating wildly, beating faster and faster by each second. She was trapped. And no one would help her. "Your twin brother too. What did the two of you do to cheat? There's no place for twins in the Lost Cities."

What? What? How dare she! Linh felt anger course through every vein in her body, boiling and bubbling and pulsing. "I didn't cheat," she snapped loudly, her hands clenching into fists. "The only people who would ever try to cheat and fail terribly are people like you, who can't accept being second to 'twins'."

The girl's lips curled downwards, and she stalked closer to Linh. "Why," she snarled through gritted teeth, "you—"

She lunged and clawed for Linh, and Linh cried out in surprise as she got hurled through the air, the rushed wind whistling through her ears as she landed in the fountain, the water cushioning her fall — but barely. Linh could barely move from the sickening pain in the opening wounds on her arms, her legs, her back.

Everything was a blur in her vision, and Linh felt that awful feeling rising in her again. The one where she had no sense of what was going on. The one where all she could imagine was Mai's voice, whispering to her, "Who will ever love you, Linh?"

Miraculously, Linh managed to stand shakily from the water, as people all around her gasped in horror at the girl's outrageous actions. Her vision was still smudged with noise, but she could identify colours now and the water in the fountain was crimson red with her blood. Her legs and her arms buzzed with the probable loss of blood. Red streaked down her arms, and her tears merged with the red.

What's happening what's happening I don't know help me help me what's happening

Shakily, Linh raised a bleeding hand, feeling endless moisture from the air seep and cling onto her skin. Her hands felt like a vacuum, sucking water from everywhere she could reach.

The water seemed to call for her like how Choralmere's sea called for her, but this time, in a stranger, more powerful, more savage way. It was everything she ever imagined and everything she never imagined at the same time. She felt lost, she felt out of control. And when she finally, finally couldn't take it anymore, she released her grip on the endless, endless torrent of water and broke down crying.

She cried for the girl who had been cast aside by her mother. She cried for the girl who would never be good enough for anybody. She cried for the girl who tried so, so hard, but lost everything in the end. She cried so that the whole world could hear how helpless, how lost she was. But the sound of her crying was lost over the storm.


Where am I?

Linh opened her bleary eyes and waited for herself to adjust from her blurry vision. Her senses felt like they had been waterlogged… and maybe they had been.

She raised a shaking arm, then gasped when she saw the gaping wounds. They had stopped bleeding, but the sight of them made Linh's stomach turn. So she put her arm down carefully and turned to the other side slowly, feeling her whole body ache with foreign pain. She could see a whole rack of medicine bottles and vials on her left, and a row of healing cots on her right, like the one she was lying on right then. The sweet smell of medicine wafted in the conditioned air.

"Ah, so you're awake," a voice she had never heard before said. Linh opened her eyes a little wider in order to make out the man's appearance. He had on a physician's white coat. He had greyish blue eyes like a winter sky and iridescent glasses that sat on his head. He had a kind smile on his face and he looked nice enough. Linh assumed he was the Foxfire physician she had read about in her books. "I'm Elwin. How are you feeling, Linh?"

"Painful," she said, too tired to give him a full sentence reply. He nodded, a little sadly this time.

"Yeah, I figured that out. Some people are really just that mean. You handled it pretty badly, but that's what would happen if someone insulted me and threw me into the fountain." He shrugged, and Linh felt the idea of a smile pull at her lips ever so slightly. "And… bonus points, because you got to know your new ability!"

"Huh? Oh… oh." Linh didn't understand for a moment, but after her memories crashed in like a waterfall, she realised that she had manifested as a Hydrokinetic. Small surprise, since she already knew she was destined to be a Hydrokinetic, but she was still shocked. Who knew it would cause her so much trouble? She had better start keeping her ability in check.

"It's a good thing you're a Level One this year," Elwin added, "because then you can immediately start ability lessons, so as to make sure you can keep it under control." He cracked a smile at her, but this time, it looked a little forced. "You must be one of the youngest elves ever to manifest an ability. Most get their ability only when they're thirteen, or fourteen. And you're the top scorer for the Entrance Examinations. You're amazing, Linh."

"I… am?" Linh asked, stunned by his words. No one had called her anything close to amazing before. Everyone called her twin, cheater, genetically impure, and worthless. Who was this guy?

"Yep," Elwin told her. "And if you need any help, you can come and visit me at the Healing Center any time. I'll be glad to see you. Oh, your family is here to see you — they've been waiting outside for three hours. If you're okay, I'll let them in?" He looked questioningly at Linh.

Three hours? I've been out for three hours? And my family waited three hours for me?

Linh hesitated for a while, before nodding quietly.

Her parents and Tam flooded into the room. They looked frantic and desperate as they scoured the room for Linh. Then they spotted her, and a look of relief entered their faces.

"Linh!" Tam shouted as he ran toward her healing cot, both the tone of his voice and his facial expression catching Linh by surprise. Quan and Mai were close behind.

For a year, a whole year, Linh had gone without the sound of his voice calling her name. For a whole year, Linh had suffered in the pool of her own guilt, teetering on the verge of drowning. For a whole year, Linh had let her mind crack, almost splintering into a million pieces. And now, finally, Tam had come to rescue her from the storm that had been raging inside for what seemed like a crushing eternity.

Tam reached Linh's side, and she sank into his embrace, her tears melting into the fabric of his shirt. The both of them were crying for each other and the hard times they had borne together.

"I'm — so — sorry," said Tam, tripping on his own words. "I'm so sorry, Linh."

Linh smiled sadly and rested her head on Tam's shoulder. "I am sorry too, Tam." And she meant it.

She might only have realised it now, she might have been too childish and selfish to realise it, but Linh loved her brother till the ends of the world, and she had nearly shattered her mind for him. She would cry him a river just for him, and that river would be overflowing with so much guilt, so much love, so much emotion that it might just be able to flood the entirety of Atlantis.


A/N: Throwing the shade be like.