A/N: Oh, hi! It's been twenty-six days since I last updated (that is, almost a month) and I swear I have reasons! (Reasons for my procrastination, you say?) But yeah, I just had my English exams yesterday and I was kind of sick then too. Not to mention school stressing me out like usual and the fact that this is The Atlantis Chapter™ and I have no idea what I am writing at all. So, yeah, if this doesn't really make a lot of sense to you, sorry. There are a lot of new things being introduced into this chapter and new questions are about to be answered in the following chapters!

Now, on to the reviews!

booksaremylife: Yeah, that was one of the best parts of Chapter 8 to write. Thank you so much! And haha, I really do a bad job of updating frequently. I'm trying, I'm trying! Hope you like this chapter :) Oh, and yes, I love making puns.

Perilheart: Honestly, it wasn't supposed to be anyone in particular, since I needed the implication that people would just judge them for being twins even if they didn't know them. Thanks and hope you like this chapter!

Eeveelutions Are Awesome: Haha, to me, fictional characters are just people in real life being written down, so yeah, they can be as cruel as they like, which is bad. Hope you like this chapter!

Thank you to Glittery-Icecream for following and favouriting my story! Love that username too, by the way :D

Word Count: 4,586 words.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE GIRL OF MANY FLOODS

Linh tried.

She did. She tried and tried to stop the floods from coming, but whatever she did seemed to just make the floods brim and overflow, wreaking havoc everywhere.

Foxfire. Mysterium. Choralmere. Especially Choralmere.

Choralmere's sea seemed to call to her like always, but stronger this time, like something had been awakened inside her and was ravaging to be let out.

Or maybe subconsciously, something inside her wanted to flood Choralmere, to ask her parents, Was this what you had in mind when you said you wanted me to be powerful?

Whatever it was, Linh didn't really know. But she knew that what she was doing was horrible and terrible and physically hurting people, and if there was one thing she didn't like at all, it was physically hurting people. She didn't want to think of the blood that streamed down her arms and her legs when she first manifested her life-sucking ability.

There was just one problem. And that was that she had no idea how to stop herself.

She'd been letting herself do whatever she wanted, feel whatever she wanted, to the extent that when she'd ran too far, she couldn't pull herself back anymore.

Every time she entered her bedroom she'd snap the blinds completely closed and switch on the lights, then she'd walk to her reflection in the cracked mirror she had in her walk-in-wardrobe.

Tam had caught her once, staring at herself in the mirror, and he'd declared that she didn't deserve to think of herself that way. Then he had raised his fist and punched the mirror, sending hairline splinters crackling over the glassy surface. He'd been bleeding, and even though Linh couldn't stand the sight of blood, she resisted herself and helped Tam apply healing balm to his knuckles. She'd almost let her ability seep in and draw blood out of Tam, and she was so ashamed of herself afterwards that she didn't allow herself to see Tam afterwards.

But even though Tam kept insisting that she shouldn't think inferior of herself, Linh still found her eyes drawn to the mirror, holding even more symbolism now that it had been broken. Then Linh had snuck a flatbrush and some gold acrylic paint from her mother's abundant supply of art materials and painted the cracks of the mirror golden.

Her strokes were choppy and the gold which had been painted on turned out a little translucent, but Linh thought it looked beautiful.

Linh twirled, watching her reflection do the same, then came to a stop as she paused to look at herself more closely. Now a pretty girl of thirteen-coming-on-to-fourteen, Linh's chubbiness as a young elf had evened itself out, turning her into someone with a slender and graceful figure. Her jet-black hair reached down to her waist, and her palest-of-pale-blue eyes felt like staring into a vast, endless ocean, with flecks of white-silver froth pepping the gentle lull of the waves. People acknowledged that she had something charming around her, but her blackened history as The Girl of Many Floods and her family status made them recoil back a step. After all,

1. She was a twin, and

2. Her parents were a bad match.

Linh definitely couldn't take the whispers and the snipes and the bullying, but if there was something else she couldn't take more than that, it was her parents.

Needless to say, Quan and Mai were parents with high expectations of their children (even though they treat them badly and when they mess up they'd push the blame on the fact that they were twins). And when Linh couldn't meet their expectations, paired with the countless times she'd flooded every place she went, they got really mad.

At first, it started with tiny, nervous hints. Mai would panic every time Linh stared out at Choralmere's ocean (it wasn't like she wanted to stare at the water, it was just because it was too captivating) and snap at Tam to shut the blinds and drag the curtains closed. And Tam couldn't exactly say no, he had to listen to his mother (but he didn't want to, of course), and he was worried for Linh too, except that his worries were completely different from Mai's and that made all the difference to Linh.

They'd started going out less often— and by a drastic difference. No more shopping sprees in Atlantis. No more visiting of family friends. And besides not visiting people, they also stopped people from visiting them too. No one came to Choralmere anymore. Maybe no one even wanted to. They were all scared of the probability of a flood, anyway. Linh's abilities acting up? Easy— just put her on house arrest.

Linh had tried to consult her father for Hydrokinesis Mentoring— after all, Lady Mul had made it quite clear that she hated Linh with all her heart— but Quan's eyes had gone all distant after she asked and he told her that he didn't do ability Mentoring anymore. Linh wondered what had happened. It wasn't her place to know, though. And Linh had a feeling that she would never have a place at all, not in this family.

It all started on the dawn of that day, when the sun had just risen from the valleys across Choralmere's sea. Linh drew apart the curtains and gazed out at the scenery in front of her. The sky looked like it had been painted with fresh watercolours— brilliant splashes of orange, pink, and gold filled Linh's sight. Linh couldn't deny that it was beautiful, but it was hard to admit it since she'd never get to see it beyond the thick double-layered tempered glass window of her bedroom.

She pressed her palm against the cold glass, letting long seconds slip by until the sakura pink hues that had tinted the sky vanished, before she got up and changed out of her sleeping gown. She had just finished adjusting the collar of her Foxfire uniform when she heard a knock on her door, and after a split second Mai walked into the room.

Her eyes roved over to Linh all dressed up in her school uniform, and it might have just been Linh's wishful thinking, but she saw a flicker of pride flash across Mai's eyes before disappearing faster than the speed of light. No matter what Linh thought, she knew that Mai was anything but proud of her daughter— Mai had spent the past few weeks mistreating her because she had flooded her bedroom. Again.

It was a few seconds before Mai finally opened her mouth to speak. "You're not going to school today, Linh," she said stiffly, like she wasn't in favour of that but was forced to comply. Linh froze halfway in closing the door of her walk-in wardrobe, and she turned around in shock to face a straight-faced Mai.

"I'm sorry," Linh said disbelievingly, "what did you just say?"

Mai pursed her lips at Linh's lack of manners, and Linh cringed at herself too, but chose not to say anything about it as she replied, "Your father has an appointment with the Council and Lady Mul as he is invited among a few other Hydrokinetics and Psionipaths to improve the engineering of Atlantis, which relies on hydrokinesis and psionipathy to stay submerged in the bottom of the ocean."

Linh gaped at Mai. "The bottom of the ocean?"

Why was she being called to go to the bottom of the ocean? Didn't Quan know that if she couldn't even control a fountain in her school, how in the Lost Cities was she going to survive in the bottom of the ocean?

What in the world was happening now?

"It was an order by your father," mumbled Mai, along with a series of incoherent words that Linh just couldn't seem to make out.

The shadows around them jumped and shivered, spilling out on the floor and the walls and the ceiling unnaturally.

"Come on, you have to leave soon," Mai insisted, her voice growing more impatient and rushed by every passing second. Linh wondered what was bothering her.

Linh realised that Mai had always been hiding in Quan's shadow— after all, he was part of the reason why Mai left Linh, and the reason why she chose to be discriminatory towards their own children. She also almost always listened obediently to what Quan asked her to do, and Linh had never put it to heart… until now.

Mai was right. She was selfish. And Linh felt ashamed of herself.

Silently, she vowed to herself that she would put others before herself starting from that moment onwards.

"Is Tam coming?" she asked, suddenly thinking about her twin brother and hoping that he would be able to tag along as well. She needed him now, more than ever… She wasn't sure if she could stay the slightest bit anchored without him by her side.

Mai hesitated, and that was all the time Linh needed to speak up and convince her that Tam should come with her. "Please. I can't go there without him."

"Fine," she said after a moment of consideration. "Tam can go."

Linh deliberated on whether she should say 'thank you' to Mai or even hug her. Then she remembered Mai turning her back against her. Mai telling her not to hate her. Mai telling her to move away from Choralmere. Mai's cold eyes meeting her helpless gaze when she saw her sitting beside her husband and not Linh like it had always been.

"Uh," Linh said curtly, her voice suddenly turning hoarse. It only thickened the existing tension between them. "Thanks."

Mai looked away from her.

"What?" Tam shrieked.

Although Linh had been expecting his reaction, she jumped all the same. Trying to recover from the shock, she took in a deep breath before speaking.

"I know! I don't know if they're in their right minds anymore," declared Linh, but her voice was shaking like she had still not recovered from the gravity of the situation. "They're basically throwing me into the deep ocean and telling me not to combust— um, what?"

"This is stupid," Tam said abruptly, standing up from where he was sitting. "This is totally nonsensical and illogical of them and they don't seem to care that you're in definite danger— and they're putting you and other people in danger for what? A meeting that doesn't even concern you?"

When Linh didn't answer, he persisted, "Like I said, this is stupid. Just tell Father you can't go. It's the only way out of this."

A silence dragged on between them, and finally Linh said, "I don't understand why he wants me to come with him. It's always about appearances with him, you know. Why would he want his infamous, trouble-making daughter to come with him? It's a meeting with the Councillors. That would only reflect onto his public image."

It's always about appearances with him.

"This is the first time you've been let out of the house in a long time, though," remarked Tam unhelpfully.

"Maybe the force field would help," said Linh, her voice tinged with desperate hope. "Maybe the force field could keep the water away from me."

Tam looked like he didn't really believe that, and Linh knew it was because she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince him. But surprisingly, he didn't protest, which was a very Tam-like thing to do. Instead he said, "They must be waiting for us already. We should go down."

At least you'll be coming along with me, Linh thought, and that somewhat comforted her enough to make her way down to the first floor ready to escape from the glittering prison. For some strange, unthinkable reason, Linh felt as if she was entering another pivotal milestone in her life— something like when Mai left her in the wild of that fateful night, and changed her life forever.

Her life couldn't change anymore for the worst… could it?

She was probably just overthinking it. Nothing will happen, she thought firmly, biting her bottom lip so anxiously that it almost drew blood.

No. She couldn't afford to think of blood now. Not now.

Linh shuddered, then followed an impatient Quan and a worried-looking Mai out of the doors of Choralmere, with Tam trailing close behind.

Linh wasn't sure how they got here, in the first place. But now, she was balancing her two feet on a sharp, slippery rock— which was no small feat, since she was wearing two-inch heels and a gown that reached down to her knees.

She wished she could have just remained in her Foxfire uniform considering the difficult circumstances now, but Mai had taken one look at her uniform, shook her head, and snapped her fingers, conjuring up a new outfit for Linh on the spot.

Not to mention that she was now standing in the middle of the ocean, white-capped waves swirling unnaturally around her and Quan. Linh could tell the waves were attracted to them, but when she saw Quan's strained expression and realised she was feeling a little nauseous, she started to think that maybe they were attracted to the waves. Or maybe it was both.

Seagulls flocked and perched on the rocks, but flapped their wings noisily and flew away when they approached. Linh stepped over a tide pool that threatened to jump her and onto another triangular rock, almost losing her balance as she did so. It was then that she realised she was shakier than she should be, and her heart was palpitating wildly, hammering in her ears and making her unable to concentrate.

"Father, Mother, Linh's not feeling well," Tam said, but his voice was muffled as glaring white dots slipped into Linh's vision, making the world around her glow even brighter than Choralmere. She wobbled and slipped, but two arms caught her before she could fall into the water.

"She should be alright after she enters the whirlpool," someone murmured, and Linh couldn't tell if it was Quan's or Mai's voice.

"What whirlpool?" That was Tam's voice, she was sure of it. There was a shuddering silence as the whole world seemed to hold its breath for a short while, before a huge blast of frigid wind hit Linh's face.

"Maybe you should go with Linh," someone suggested, completely ignoring Tam's question. Maybe it had already been answered. She couldn't really tell. "That way she'll be safer."

"You know I can't," another person argued. "The whirlpool only allows one elf at a time."

"Fine, then you'll go after Linh, to make sure she's safe. Then I'll go before her. Tam can go first." There seemed to be an unanimous agreement, and there was a splashing sound, like someone jumping into the water. Then another.

Then she could feel herself being plunged into the air, sailing across empty space as wind whistled in her ears. Then she plummeted, and hit face first into the swirling vortex of water.

Linh woke up with a start, lying on a weird spongy material that seemed to suck up all the moisture clinging to her body. She felt like she could lie there forever, but she forced herself to sit up and look around her. The first thing she saw was Mai Song's face. Then Tam.

"Oh good, you're finally awake," Tam said, rushing forward to pull Linh away from the giant cushion. "You okay now?"

Linh took in a shuddering breath and tried out her first words. "I'm okay," she managed to croak out— her throat felt like it'd been washed thoroughly inside out with rough water.

She could still feel the lull of the ocean, calling to her, but it was more muted now. There was a strange atmosphere of surrealism and Linh felt like floating, but at least she wasn't on the brink of fainting, not like just now. Even 'just now' felt like an eternity had already passed.

There was an unreadable expression on Mai's face, but Linh was too tired to bother about her any longer. Quan came hurtling down from the mythical maelstrom a few seconds later, somersaulting through the air as he bounced off the sponge and onto the giant cushion. All of this he did with elegance and practised grace— like he'd been doing this for an entire lifetime already.

Linh turned away from him to take in the gleaming metropolis before her. She felt like her eyes had to stretch to take it all in.

The city was wrapped in a dome of air— it was really a huge force field that stretched above them in a gigantic arc— which faded into the ocean beyond. Twisted crystal towers soared into the skyline, bathing the silver city in the soft blue glow radiating from their pointed spires. The buildings lined an intricate network of canals, interconnected by glimmering arched bridges.

Even though she'd been out and about in the Lost Cities before, this was unlike anything she had ever seen in her short span of fourteen years. Atlantis was really one of a kind, and now she understood why her Elven History Mentor had gaped at her when she said that she'd never visited Atlantis before.

"Where are we going?" she couldn't help but ask as Quan told them to follow him into the majestic city. They were walking along balefire-lit streets, and for some reason, the blue sparks pricked at her mind uneasily, like she had forgotten something ominous about them.

"The meeting place," Quan said gruffly. "At the business district."

They reached the main canal, and Quan hailed one of the carriages floating along the calm water—a silver, crescent-shaped vessel with three rows of high-backed benches, just big enough to seat four people. A driver in an elbow-length green cape— Linh had never seen a cape with that ridiculous length before— steered from the first bench, drawing the reins of some sort of brown creature skimming the surface of the waves.

"An eurypterid," Linh whispered, recognising the mutation of the common sea scorpion from one of the books in Choralmere's library. She never thought she'd see it in real life, and she was kind of regretting it right now. The eurypterid's pincers looked like they could crush an adult elf into pieces, and she shuddered at the violent image.

She boarded the boat and took the last bench with Tam, while Quan and Mai sat in front of them.

"Where to?" the driver asked Quan, after giving him a nod of recognition. It seemed like Quan was well-known, Linh observed. Not that it was surprising. He was an Emissary and an ex-Mentor at Foxfire.

"Engineer's workshop," Quan said curtly, before the eurypterid started swishing its tail, creating currents and moving the carriage along the water.

They entered the business district, a overcrowded place with skyscraper-like towers. The carriage passed by several buildings with glowing signs bearing their names. TREASURY. REGISTRY. INTERSPECIESIAL SERVICES. And more. So much more. It was simply put, a feast for the eyes.

As the boat lapped against the water of the main canal, waves were created, rushing up to splash against Linh's face. Linh gasped, and backed away a little. Quan sighed, and with a flick of his hand, shook away the water droplets away from Linh.

The carriage pulled to a gradual stop as they neared a short, stout building. Quan pulled out a tiny green cube from his tunic pocket and handed it to the driver, who swiped it across the cuff above his elbow and handed it back to Quan after it made a tiny ping. Linh recognised it as the standard form of payment in the Lost Cities. Although she had never really seen it in action before, but she had read all about it.

The building before them resembled a miniature version of a pagoda, and it had glowing Gothic-like runes that spelled out ENGINEER'S WORKSHOP. Tiny bubbles escaped from the little chimney on the top of the highest roof, floating up in the air before they vanished with a popping sound.

Quan jumped down from the carriage, and took one of the lionhead knockers on the majestic double doors into his hand and rapped on the door three times. The doors swung open, and a man, who couldn't have been older than Quan, was standing in front of him, facing him with a smile which Linh thought looked creepy.

Then his eyes met Linh's gaze, and his smile widened.

Linh looked away, her heart starting to pick up speed again. There was something terribly wrong with this man, but she couldn't put her finger on it. This all just felt too wrong.

"Who are you?" Quan asked bluntly, and Linh cringed at his lack of manners. She should've been used to it already, though. He acted like he was beyond everything, but he still managed to suck up to the Councillors.

"Psionipath. You are Emissary Quan Song, I presume?" When Quan nodded, he stepped out of the doors' way, and inclined his head at him. "Come on in. The meeting is about to start."

"What of my family?" asked Quan. "They aren't allowed to attend the meeting, surely."

"I'll take care of them. Don't worry." The man looked right into Linh's eyes, and a shiver ran down Linh's spine. But nobody except Linh seemed to mind, because Quan nodded and entered the building without another word.

The man turned to them after the doors slammed shut after Quan, a resounding sound echoing ominously in Linh's ears.

"Come on, let us go to the shopping district," the man said, turning to the eurypterid, who was still idling on the water with its driver.

"Your name, Sir…?" Mai asked hesitantly.

Linh thought she saw the man deliberate for a split second before he said, "Ignis. Sir Ignis."

"Right," Mai said. "And why are you taking us to the shopping district when I wasn't informed of it beforehand? I know my way around Atlantis like the back of my hand, Sir Ignis. Your value as a Psionipath will be a bonus to the meeting and we wouldn't like for you to waste it on us."

There was a silence that hung among them, before Sir Ignis finally spoke. "Whatever you wish for, Lady Mai," he said, and bowed— a little stiffly, Linh noted. But then again, he was probably offended by the rejection of his hospitality. "I will leave you and your children to go around Atlantis."

"Actually," Mai said, even more stiffly than Sir Ignis's bow had been, "we will be leaving Atlantis now. My daughter is not feeling well and she needs to return home to rest."

"Ah, yes." Sir Ignis's gaze landed on Linh once again, making her feel unsettled. "The infamous Girl of Many Floods. Can't handle the sheer force of the ocean here in Atlantis?"

The words felt like a blow to Linh's chest, and it was as if the wind hand been knocked out of her.

"It is none of your business," Mai snapped. "We will be taking our leave now. Come on, Tam and Linh." With that, she spun on her heel and walked briskly away from the Engineer's Workshop, leaving Sir Ignis and the eurypterid driver alone. Tam and Linh barely managed to keep up with her as they winded through foreign streets.

"What's up with her?" Linh whispered to Tam.

Tam shook his head. "I don't know." Then he took a deep breath, and shouted, "Mother! Wait up!"

Mai turned around and skidded to a halt as she looked at them racing to catch up to her.

Then a loud, splintering sound caught Linh's attention, and she stopped running to find out what was going on. Around her, elves were also halting activity, too. Then Linh felt a shuddering tug in her chest, all-too-familiar. She looked up, and gasped.

A hole had appeared in the force field separating Atlantis from the ocean, and huge torrents of water were already gushing in, raining down on the city like a rainstorm of epic proportions. And the enormous amount of water caused a hidden memory to surface in her mind again.

She had both yin and yang inside her. She had both the power to create… and the power to destroy.

Thundering, colossal torrents of water rushing in on her from all sides, a crumbling jeweled building in the distance, the damage hardly heard over the deafening gush of the ocean pouring in through a broken force field.

She thought that was just a figment of her overactive imagination when she was six years old. But now, it was like a nightmare come true.

She had been so stupid not to realise that. But then again, she had totally forgotten about that vision she had— until it was too late.

People around her screamed and ran in random directions— some stayed frozen in shock and some panicked, not knowing what to do— and Mai looked straight at Linh, like she was certain that it had been her.

Linh shook with sudden, unexplainable rage. It had always been Mai. It had always been Mai who she had loved since the beginning. And now Mai was looking at her like she had done the most terrible thing in the world.

"Linh, you have to get out of here," Tam shouted at her, tugging at her arm, but she was paralysed and immobilised and nothing could ever get her out of there. She realised now, that this was her fate. Cursed to stay The Girl of Many Floods as long as she lived. And this would be her biggest incident yet.

The force field splintered even more, sending a powerful outflow of seawater surging toward the elegant palace, crashing through the crystal architecture and extinguishing sparks of balefire. The towers collapsed, causing a chain reaction that crumbled the buildings around.

"Linh!" Linh could suddenly hear Tam screaming. "Get out of the way—"

It was all too surreal. There was this feeling of deja vu that ran through her all at once, and Linh turned around to look at Tam.

Her throat tightened in fear and a raspy gasp tore through her throat as she stood rooted to the ground and frozen as she watched, wide-eyed, as an especially massive avalanche of water came rushing right at her—

Linh could feel the water pulsing, begging for her attention, and she couldn't hold her ability back in anymore. Her heart leapt in her throat as the avalanche of water morphed into a gigantic tidal wave and swept her off her feet. Linh let it take her away, away from the city of chaos. And after a while, the deafening sound of crashing waves around her lessened gradually, and at long last, they faded to nothing.

Linh closed her eyes.

Where am I?

She was in an abyss of empty space, plummeting down and down slowly, her long hair floating like a halo around her. Time seemed to slow down in this bottomless pit, and Linh felt at peace here.

The circular walls of the abyss were mirrors, and Linh could see multiple reflections of herself, all curved and distorted and inverted.

But contrary to the broken mirror she had in her wardrobe back in Choralmere, with gold filled into the seams, contrary to the Garden of Beautiful Broken Things, these reflections of herself were whole.

I am whole again.

She smiled, and opened her eyes.