Endless Waters

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== 01 ==
Too much. I can't hold on. I can't let go. 
No. 
I can't hurt her. I can't hurt her. I can't let go. 
But it's too much. Too much, far too much.  Hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm still okay, I'm still okay, I'm still...powerful. Hurt. Alone. 
They are still calling me, still telling me to let go. They won't stop. They never stop. Even when I try my hardest. It's never enough.  I slowly let the rain fall. Five more minutes. Four. Three. Two.
One.
I gasp as the rain showers down, soaking me with my own failures, regrets. I turn to Marella. There is sympathy in her beautiful eyes.
"You'll get it next time. " She says, her words encouraging.  I sigh and turn away. All of my practice was for this, yet I never succeed. 
"Not likely. The voices won't stop," I reply, mentally adding, They'll never stop. 
"They did for me. They will for you too." Marella ensures me, giving me a small smile. 
You've had only a year or so. I've had numerous, I think, and yet you have more control than I.
"Thanks," I answer, despite my inner thoughts and worries. I slide open the door for her, and she walks into the apartment. I follow her in and shut the glass door behind me. The rain is still steadily pouring outside.  It's beautiful, inside though. The room is decorated with furniture in several shades of blues, with silver accents. A four-poster bed with silver bed sheets is tucked into the corner, with Duchess Fierypuff the flareadon stuffy sitting on one of the pillows like a throne.  The roof is a dome, pure glass, with the beautiful- no, terrible, I correct myself- rain visible.  Princess Purryfins floats in her special aquarium, and I remind myself to feed her later. Marella is sitting on one of the Flareadon beanbags she brought here for when she came to see me. Which had been happening more often, I admit. I'd been staying here, in a little apartment outside my parents house, while Glimmer was in our house. I hated the thought that Glimmer hid behind her cloak, playing with our trust. Playing with Tam's trust.  
"Linh?" I look up, Marella's voice pulling me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah, Marella?" I ask. She's wearing a smile, so I assume it's not anything bad.
"It's stopped raining." Marella states. A feeling of gratefulness rises in my heart. I can always count on Marella to point out my little successes.  
"It has," We share a smile. Marella's imparter starts buzzing and she looks down.
"Keefe's awake." She informs me. I feel a surge of relief. He might not be one of my closest friends, but I still care about him. And, of course, Sophie. 
"That's good. Did they tell you anything else?" 
"They never tell me anything else." she points out, "That's a privilege only Sophie and Fitz have. Sometimes, Biana, though. And Dex." Marella adds, thoughtfully. 
Of course, it is true. We aren't exactly in 'Sophie's Main Friend Group'. We're just there for when we're needed, or when our abilities can help.  I sigh a bit and look out the window. It's still downcast, with gray clouds gathering, but it isn't raining. 
"That is true," I say, regretfully. 
Marella's imparter buzzes again, and she checks it. "It's my Dad" she mouths. I nod with understanding.
"Dad? Hi!!
"Honey, I need you at home right now..can you come?" 
"Of course.. what's wrong?" Marella asks.
"Your mother needs to talk to you...says it's important."
"I'll be home right away." Marella ensures him, ending the call. She turns to me.
"I've got to go- will you be ok?"
"Of course,"  I answer. She smiles and pulls out her home crystal, lifting it up to the light. I give her a shy wave as she steps into the light. When she's gone, I turn to Princess Purryfins.
"Now, let's get you that food I promised," I say, heading over to the cupboard underneath her aquarium.  
"Finey Roots?" I ask, pointing to the light brown roots with green sprouts that taste like fish.  She purrs loudly.
"I'll take that as a yes." I snap off a branch of it and drop it into the top of her aquarium. She swims over to it fastly and sinks her very sharp- and venomous- teeth into it. It is gone in 2 minutes. I laugh and pet her purple scaly head.  I can tell she likes it, as she doesn't bite me.  A knock on the door informs me Tam is probably here.
"Come in!" I call.
But it isn't Tam. Instead, it's Glimmer. 
"Oh. It's you." I say flatly.
She rolled her eyes- or at least, I think she did. You can't really tell, what with the ridiculous hood covering her face. 
"Obviously it's me. Who did you think it was?" she says.
"My brother," I answer.
"Huh." was all she said.
"Did you need something?" I ask.
"Yes, actually. I needed to ask you a few questions." Glimmer says.
"Questions?"
"Yes...but first off- is that a murcat?"  she points to Princess Purryfins.
"Yeah. What's wrong with that?"
"You do know they're poisonous, right?" she asks.
"I know, and besides, she's sweet."
"Sweet? I..nevermind. Anyways.."
"What did you want to ask me?" I question.
"I wanted to ask if you..your brother...I wanted to ask if you would mind keeping a secret."
"A secret?" I raise an eyebrow. I'm not surprised she has a secret. In fact, I would guess she has numerous secrets. 
"Yes..a secret." She repeats.
"I can keep a secret."
"You..you can't ever tell anyone. Not even Fire-Girl." Glimmer warns me.
I shrug, "I won't," 
"Okay.."
And she slowly lowers her hood.
I gasp, "You."
== 02 ==
When she came to Exillium, she wasn't wearing a mask. 
She stood at the  Arch Of Dividing and laughed at the enraged Coaches. Her hair was black, her eyes were the colour of a midnight sky, and her skin was the colour of copper.  She wasn't scared. She was proud. Strong. Brilliant.  I wished I could be like her, even if I'd only saw her for a moment.  Tam was beside me, careful to shield me from the crowd. He was always there, always protecting me. Even when I didn't want protection.  
"Why wear a mask, when it would only ruin my hair?" The girl says, snapping me out of my thoughts.  
"This is against regulations! This is forbidden! How dare you-" the Ambi coach starts, but the girl cuts her off.
"How dare I protest something that is obviously wrong?"
The next few seconds were a blur.  Tam stepped in front of me as Waywards pressed towards the girl. How could they not understand that she was trying to help us?
"ENOUGH!" The loud shout vibrated through the valley. The Blue Coach stepped towards the girl, leaning down so he was her height. 
"I hope you enjoy your first- and last- day at Exillium. You won't be coming back."
I stifle a gasp. To be banished from Exillium- after being banished from Foxfire? If she even went to Foxfire in the first place.
I note that a little bit of worry creeps into the girl's expression. But it's gone as soon as it came. 
"I will- don't worry. " she turned to the rest of us, "And you guys can call me Alora."
"Alora?" I ask.
Glimmer looks down at her feet. We both know what happened at the end of the day. She was sent into the Neutral Territories,  and no one ever saw her again...well, until now.
"Yeah..I..."
"You're the girl..who didn't hide. Why.." I sit down on my bed, not sure how to react. Alora had given me a tiny little glimmer of hope when all seemed lost. And now, now, it showed all of it was a lie.
"Were you..with them? When you came that day? Were you In the Neverseen" I ask, hoping that the answer will be no.
"It's complicated," She says. I see another fleeting glance of that fear I had seen when she had come. 
"No, No it's simple. Yes or No?" I ask, certain my face is tinged pink with anger. 
"No. But they had just reached out to me. I tried to resist but there was no choice-"
"There is always a choice," I say. 
"Not for me," Alora- Alora!- answers. 
I feel tempted to release the rage of Princess Purryfins on her -if it's even possible for something so adorable to have any rage- but decide to hear her out.
"Well, then- tell me your story," I say, half wanting to hear it, half wanting to punch her in the face. I take a deep breath in and calm myself.
"Fine," She says simply.
"Start from what happened after you left The Lost Cities"
"Okay." she sighs and begins. "After the council banished me from The Lost Cities, I was alone. My mother was too broken to protest them, and my dad- I don't talk about him. So, anyway, I was in the Neutral Territories when they came. They wore the black cloaks, and they were doing something...I still don't know exactly what. Either way, I was hiding, up in a Pure, when suddenly one of them spotted me. It was Gethen, I know now. They threatened me, but I used my abilities against them.. after they saw what I could do, well...I learnt that when I came back to the tree.
"How stupid was I? I knew they were there, but I still went back. And they were waiting...They promised no harm would come to me if I just came, but if I resisted.." Alora paled a moment, obviously remembering what had happened. 
She continued, "They brought me to the hideout. It was dark, cold. I don't know how long I spent in there. It must have been around a month.  When they took me out, they still kept me quiet. They only started using me when..Tam was there. I recognized him, you know. I- I don't know. I wanted to know him too. I wanted to be his friend, show I wasn't terrible. Didn't work anyways." she sighed.
"That's pretty much everything," Glimmer, or Alora, or whatever I am supposed to call her, finishes.
I sit, quiet and still, thinking her words over. "They took you?"
"No..I chose to go. They would have killed me."
"Wouldn't you have rather died than help them?" I ask.
"I didn't know what they were willing to do back then" She reminds me. 
I rub my temples. This is getting to be too much to handle. "Why did you show me who you were? Why didn't you show Tam-or Sophie even,"
"I couldn't tell Sophie because I can't trust her. And I didn't tell Tam because it would.."
"Make him hate you?" I finish, raising an eyebrow. 
She blushes, and suddenly I realize, "You..like him?" 
"No!" she says, a little too quickly. "No, and besides, he likes brunettes," she adds more calmly.
"Mhm." I smile slightly.
"This is going wayyy off topic," She answers.
"And what topic exactly are we going off of? The fact that you're...Alora..or the fact that you lied?"
"How did I lie?" She asks.
"You pretended to be someone you're not. Counts as a lie" I point out.
"I didn't pretend to be someone I'm not...I just hid who I truly was" she counters. 
"Fine." I say, wondering why she has to reply with such valid comments. I look down and note that Marella left her Imparter in the hurry to get home.
"Well..bye." Glimmer- Alora- says quietly. I look up.
"Will you tell my brother?"
"I...don't think so."
"Well, if you want him to like you, don't hide secrets from him. Don't ever hide secrets from him. It will only hurt all the more when he finally learns."
== 03 ==
"Linh!" Marella looks surprised to see me at her front door. 
I smile at her, "You forgot your imparter."
"I did? I was in such a hurry to get home." She says, tugging on one of the many beautiful braids in her hair. 
"So.." I start, wanting to ask her about what was wrong with her mom, or what her mom needed to tell her, but she cuts me off.
"She's fine. She just needed to tell me something..about someone." Marella says it quickly, "Come in, and I can tell you...I mean, if you don't want to come in, that's fine. Totally."
"I'd love to come in- your home is beautiful, by the way," I tell her.
Marella leads me into her house, and I pause in the hallway, in front of a portrait of Marella, her dad, and her mom.
"Is something wrong?" Marella asks, snapping me out of my daydream.
"No, nothing...you're just really pretty," I say, and as soon as I do, I flush a bright red. Turning to her, I'm surprised to see she is blushing too. 
"Thanks," Marella finally says after a lengthy and awkward silence. 
"It's true," I reply, only adding to my embarrassment. Why, why am I so awkward around her? 
"Mare?" I turn around to see Marella's dad. Great.
"Hi dad..you've met Linh before, right?" Marella smiled at him, all traces of her previous blushing state gone. Lucky. I'm quite certain that I'm still bright red.
"Yes, I do believe we've met a time or two, but we've never had a formal introduction." He held out his hand for me to shake, saying, "Durand Redek."
I shake his hand, and reply, "Linh Song," 
"Nice to meet you," he answers, then says to Marella, "I've got to go check on your mother. Will you be fine by yourself for a bit?"
"Well, I won't be alone," She pauses and grins at me, "So yeah, dad." 
After he leaves, she turns to me and says, "Well, that could have been disastrous. My dad always says that if I ever blushed because of a boy..well, you're not a boy, are you?"
While I'm busy trying to decipher her sentence, she takes my hand and leads me to the stairs. 
"We could bake something while I'm telling you about..mom," Marella suggests. I nod, following her up the marble steps. She leads me into a beautiful marble kitchen, with gold accents, and a crystal chandelier. 
"Hmmm..butterblasts, ripplefluffs, or mallowmelt?" Marella ponders, opening a worn leather recipe book.
"Mallowmelt!" We both say at the same time, giggling. As Marella gets out the ingredients, I find myself pondering about what she had said before...
Could she possibly, maybe- I cut off that train of thought before it gets anywhere. Of course, she doesn't.
As we get to work on the Mallowmelt, Marella starts talking, "Mom started by telling me I couldn't tell Sophie..which was weird..but I get it now. She says she remembers someone. Someone who she was close to, but then, he totally turned on her..and.." Marella frowned.
"Then she wouldn't tell me anything else. She started crying. I'm.." She lowered her voice to a whisper, "Really, really worried about her,"
"I'm certain she will be fine," I place my hand on her shoulder, wanting to reassure her everything will be okay. But what if it isn't?
"Thanks," Marella brushes away a tear, "We should get back to work, shouldn't we?"She finally says.
"Yeah," I say softly. 
When the batter is ready, we pour it into a pan and Marella hovers her hands over it, letting the flames bake it.
I giggle a bit, "That's a lot easier than waiting!"
She flashes me a smile, and cut into the gooey deliciousness, handing me a piece on a glass plate. 
"Thank you," I say, taking it.
As we eat, I find myself staring into Marella's ice-blue eyes. They're so pretty, so perfect, so-
"Earth to Linh!" Marella says, waving her hands in front of me.
"Sorry," I say, hoping I'm not blushing--again.
"I have to go...See you tomorrow?" Marella asked. 
"Yeah," I nod. 
I reach for my home crystal, but Marella stops me, wrapping her arms around me. After a moment I hug her back.
"Thank you," She whispers.
"Anytime," I say, and I mean it too. "Anytime," I repeat, quietly.
Category:Fanfiction