A/N: Here it is, the chapter you've all been waiting for . . . ATLANTIS ! ! ! I have nothing to say, other than: Have fun!
CHAPTER 13
Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος
Nari was with the Neverseen.
Suddenly it all made sense.
He's been our mission since his father married . . . Nari had thought it was beautiful too . . . You will manifest your special ability soon . . .
She must have triggered it. Linh's manifestation had happened two years before anyone else in her class. It was all Nari's doing — Alvar's dolls, the crystal vase, the dreams . . .
What had she said? Dreams are reality's offspring. They reflect into our eyes the truths we cannot see.
Reflections.
Through a reflection, Linh had seen the gnome for who she was. She had seen the swan a second before it struck; she was just too trusting to wonder why the vase had shown her that image.
She leaned her head against Nari's knobbly bark, unsure of what to think or what to feel. Had the old gnome ever loved her at all? Or was it all just a ploy to get Tam?
As she ruminated, Linh realized that the garden had gone very silent. She jerked her head upward, leaving a stinging scratch on her forehead, then left the garden on quiet feet to look for her mother.
She found Thanh Song at the gate of Thorndale, a hand on the latch. She wore a sun-yellow dress with a matching cape, and strings of yellow topaz were threaded through her hair. Linh touched the blood on her forehead and ran her fingers through her own rough hair, dip-dyed sky blue. In the presence of her mother, she always felt inadequate, like an ugly duckling next to a beautiful swan.
Linh wondered where Thanh was going. It was unlike her mother to leave without telling the twins where she was going first — and now that Nari was gone, she hardly ever left Tam and Linh alone in the house.
"Mother, where are you going?"
Thanh Song gasped and dropped her handbag. She bent down to pick it up and came back up looking red and flustered.
"Linh! You surprised me."
"Where are you going?"
Her mother quickly regained her composure. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Don't lie to me, Mother."
"How did you become so impudent? It certainly wasn't anything I ever taught you."
The Neverseen, Linh almost said, just for the pleasure of seeing her mother confused. But she didn't.
When no answer came from her daughter, Thanh relented. "I was . . . going to Idelia's." Idelia was a long-time friend of Linh's mother's. "She invited me over to do some shopping together in Atlantis, and well, I thought Tam was old enough to take care of you both now, at least for a little while. I miss being able to do what I like. You children weigh me down."
"Atlantis?" A jewel of a plan formed in Linh's mind. "Can I come with you?" If you say yes, she pleaded silently, I will pretend that I didn't hear what you said about Tam being the one to take care of me. Or the part where you said we weigh you down. Stars, do you even know what comes out of your own mouth sometimes?
Thanh's brow furrowed. "Why?"
"Oh, I don't know." Linh twisted her hands behind her back. "I just thought we could go shopping together. As a sort of . . . mother-daughter thing." Like she's going to believe that.
An odd expression came over her mother's face, and Linh watched in wonder as a thousand different emotions washed over it at once. Thanh Song put a hand to her lips and looked at Linh with what may have been astonishment, or gratitude, or even love.
"Of course," she whispered, and held out her hand. With relief, her daughter took it.
It was so strange, Linh marveled, being alone with her mother. It was like being in a dream. Most mothers must have taken their daughters shopping dozens of times, but Thanh had never taken Linh, not once. The whole experience was wholly foreign to Linh — Idelia fawning over her, a warm half-luster pressed into her palm, stepping underneath the biggest Leapmaster she had ever seen.
But what was even stranger was that for the first time in Linh's short life, Thanh seemed happy. To most she would seem calm and composed, but Linh could see that she was positively giddy with glee.
Is this really making her that happy? thought Linh as her mother placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. I've never seen her like this before.
She wasn't like that because of the prospect of shopping, Linh knew. It was being with her daughter that made her beam with joy. It made Linh feel almost guilty about what she was going to do next.
Congratulations, her mind heard a younger version of Tam say, in that singsong-y voice he used to use back then.
Linh looked up at her smiling mother and wished she felt like congratulations.
They entered a world made of water.
Linh had never been to Atlantis before — for good reason. She had never even seen a picture, and here it was right before her. She felt the ocean surging all around the force field. She felt its indomitable, untamable power.
With a giddy smile matching her mother's, Linh raced to the edge of the city and pressed her hand against the glass-smooth force field. A school of colorful fish swam by, leaving a trail of bubbles in their wake. One stayed behind and swam up to the force field, so close that Linh could see its individual scales. It pressed its snout up against Linh's palm, then swam away to rejoin its family. Linh gave a little wave as it left, then just for fun, sent an actual wave through the sea to nudge the little fish back on course.
"Linh!" Her mother yanked her back sharply. "Don't do that. We don't want any accidents today."
"Let her enjoy herself, will you," said Idelia, smiling at Linh the way someone would smile at a fluffy bunny. "She's never been to Atlantis before."
The word Atlantis made Linh remember why she was there, and she surreptitiously looked around. Gethen and Lady Gisela could be anywhere in the city; how was she ever going to find them?
A glint of reflected balefire turned her attention to a building in the distance made entirely of jewels — sapphires, jade, and others Linh didn't know the name of and had no idea even existed.
But she knew this building.
She had seen a tidal wave tumble over it, sending the building crashing to the ground, through a crystal vase.
That was where she had to go.
She tugged on Thanh Song's hand. "What's that building? Can we go?"
"That's the Jewel of the Pacific," said Idelia. "Your daughter has good taste, Thanh."
Her mother looked torn. "I'd rather . . ." She trailed off, gazing longingly at the brightly colored shops to their right.
"That's okay. I can go alone," said Linh, feeling secretly relieved. "I'll meet you back here at . . . oh, how about five o'clock?" She hurried down the cobbled street without waiting for an answer. The sooner she got this done, the better. The guilt was beginning to set in like a stone in her stomach.
Linh put up the hood of her cape to hide her face, and ducked into a side alleyway to avoid being seen. It was like being on another Neverseen mission — except this time she was working against the Neverseen, not for them.
"Welcome to the Jewel of the Pacific!" a hawker wearing a blue uniform advertised outside the jeweled building. "Take a tour in the one and only under-sea elvin tunnel, and watch the magnificent fauna of the ocean up close!"
"How much time can I get for a half luster?" Linh asked.
"An hour," the blue-clad elf replied.
I won't need that much time, Linh thought as she handed the money over, but I might as well get spend everything I have. I won't be needing any money after this. The realization set in like her guilt and it registered, for the first time, what she was really going to do.
Even a Hydrokinetic cannot breathe miles beneath the surface of the sea.
For a second, Linh had to remind herself why she was doing this.
She was doing this because she was angry, and she was angry because she had been lied to.
She took a deep breath and went into the sea tunnel.
No one else was taking a tour of the Jewel today. Linh was alone, in a quietness wholly unlike anything she had experienced before. When her mother made a place silent, it was as if the whole world was holding its breath, waiting for Thanh Song to release her hold on them. The hush of the ocean was quite different. Everything was so alive — the marbled currents, the brightly colored fish, the see-through jellyfish whose tentacles looked like ribbons of tulle. And Linh felt an intense tugging inside of her coming from the very bottom of her heart, a longing to reach the great expanse of water separated from her by only a fragile force field.
Linh pressed a hand to the glass, letting the need fill her up and channel into her fingers. The force field began to grow warm where it met her skin.
Something was knocked over outside the open door of the jeweled building, and the force field instantly grew cold again. Linh scowled. The silence was now broken by angry voices outside — it seemed like whoever was there had broken something valuable. She closed her eyes, blocked out the sound, and tried again.
Nothing happened.
Linh opened her eyes, disappointed. Had she lost it already?
No. She would not fail. She could do this. She closed her eyes again and focused all her thoughts and feelings on the force field in front of her.
I need the ocean it's right there come to me break the barrier I need you . . .
A tiny crack formed beneath Linh's index finger but she didn't notice, so hard was she concentrating.
The crack widened, and a salty drop of water squeezed its way through the impenetrable force field.
Plink.
Plink, plink, plink.
Linh heard the sound, but she didn't stop concentrating. I need it I want it let me feel the ocean . . . SHATTER . . .
Subconsciously she whispered the last word, and at that moment the force field came crumbling down in a
shower
of
stars
and
sea.
Linh was swept off her feet by the wave and right before she went under, she saw what caused the disturbance outside.
In one split second, she saw her mother standing at the entrance to the tunnel, arms outstretched.
Thanh Song pushed her hands forward like she was conducting an invisible orchestra, and a great boom echoed through Atlantis as the deluge was held back by a wall of sound waves.
Then Linh went under, and her mind was cloudy and she couldn't wonder at how her mother had done that. It didn't even register that she was going to drown.
All she could think was, I did it.
A/N: Phew.