Nightly Mirage

4. Two Years Ago We Met

Cold.

That was the first feeling which welcomed Liryl as she woke up. A damp and bitter cold, gripping her body like an inescapable vice. The nymph instinctively curled up on herself, desperately looking for some warmth, but to no avail. The cold had got inside her, numbing her limbs, freezing her from head to toe.

A strong cough shook the girl, rasping painfully against her throat. Liryl had never felt so sick in her life before.

But cold was not the only feeling her hazy mind could discern. There was something else, in the air – something she had not sensed in years and which, nonetheless, she easily recognized.

The smell of salt.

Slowly, the nymph opened her eyes and got up on her knees. The stark room she was in looked like it had been carved out of bare rock. An alcove surrounded by walls of rough stone, without any distinctive feature. On one of the walls there was a door of rusted iron. It looked sturdy despite its age.

What surprised her the most, however, was the complete absence of a wall on the opposite side. Wherever she turned her eyes, Liryl could see nothing but the dull blue of the ocean, and the grey sky above it. Intrigued, the nymph approached what seemed to be the edge of the room. But what she saw made her jump back in fright.

The room opened out on a cliff overlooking the sea, higher than what her eyes could stand. Even now that she had cowered against the opposite wall, her legs were shaking from dizziness.

Another cough shook Liryl's chilled body, while in the meantime her mind was trying to put together what had happened before her sleep. The fire, the escape, Ashne and Pimys, the voices ... no matter how hard she tried, in the end all her efforts kept coming back to those voices. The voices of water spirits, of the spirits who had crushed the nahz'reim at her behest.

According to what her head priestess taught her, spirits inhabited every water spring in the world. Rivers, lakes, ponds, whole oceans – all of them hosted invisible spirits, whose presence was necessary to keep alive the bond between these entities and the rest of nature. Rain, tides, and other natural phenomena were all facets of this relationship, just like the bond between her and the spirits themselves.

Why, then, have I started hearing those voices only once Ashne and Pimys had left?

As she wondered this, she thought back to all those mornings, spent alone in her garden in Yolara. To those mornings when, instead, she enjoyed the company of her beloved ones. And she could not help noticing how, even then, only when others were absent did the voices of spirits manage to reach her. She had always thought it simply depended on her concentration, but now she was no longer sure. Indeed, the more she went back with her memories, the more her doubts grew.

Thesyl performed her rites alone. Eris performed her rites alone. And that night, when Sanya and I have been attacked by the sea devil, the spirit only came to my aid when I was alone. Even in the rite of initiation to become priestesses, we novices had to part with the rest of the world while we made our pact with the spirits.

What all this could mean, however, was the only question she could not find an answer for. She wished she could ask Eris, Thesyl, or even Sanya. But nobody among her sisters could listen to her, now. Perhaps, Liryl pondered, the mysterious warrior who had helped her in the past would know something. But she had not seen her since then, and neither she had heard of her.

And, knowing her, I'm not sure she would answer me anyway.

Suddenly, the creaking of the heavy iron door called the nymph back to reality. Instinctively, she cowered with her back against the farthest wall, staring ahead. The astonished expression on her face did not disappear even after the door closed back with a deep clanging sound.