Chapter 99: That Would Never Happen

I found Odette in the facility’s common room, sitting sideways in an armchair with a book open on her knees. She didn’t look up when I dropped onto the couch across from her.

"Odette, I need your help."

"Is it about magic?"

"It’s about Lily."

She closed the book with one finger holding her page.

"Okay, then I probably can’t help you, but we’ll see. What happened?"

"She’s mad at me!"

I then told her about everything. Minus the parts that would get me expelled.

"I apologized for coming between her and Serena, and she just stared at me. So, what did I do?"

Odette didn’t answer right away. She also just stared at me over the top of her glasses for so long that I started checking my face for crumbs.

"You’re serious?" she asked. "You actually don’t know?"

"Would I be here if I knew?"

"Wow." She took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. "Okay. I’m not going to tell you. I like my life, and if Lily ever found out I said something, she’d never talk to me again. And honestly, she’d be right not to."

"So, you DO know!"

"Everybody knows, Kohaku. I think the Rippers in the tide pools know." She put her glasses back on. "Here’s what I’ll say. She’s upset about what she saw last night. Try thinking about why that would upset her, and I mean her, specifically. Don’t think about Serena at all."

"Because it was her room?"

"Oh my god."

"Because it was her bed?"

Odette opened her book again and went back to reading without another word.

"Wait, you can’t just leave it there!"

"I can, actually. Good luck."

---

I went out behind the facility, sat down on an empty crate, and did the only thing I could think of. When the real world stopped making sense, I could always go back to the book.

[Manuscript. Let’s see what teenage me had Lily doing around now. Maybe there’s a clue in there.]

MANUSCRIPT — Beach Arc, Day FourCost: 10 MP

I paid it. The words unrolled in front of my eyes.

Lily sat alone on the rocks, her sapphire eyes glistening with unshed tears. Earlier that day, the cruel Serena Frostfall had thrown her lunch into the sea, and her heart ached like a wounded dove.

"Tch." A shadow fell over her. It was Cassian Holloway, his crimson streak blowing in the ocean wind. "Stop crying. It’s annoying."

"C-Cassian?"

"Don’t get the wrong idea. I just came here to look at the ocean." He sat down beside her anyway, his trench coat billowing majestically. Deep down, beneath his walls of ice, he cared.

I put my face in my hands.

[Fifteen-year-old me thought "stop crying, it’s annoying" was romantic. She really did.]

The worst part was that I recognized the situation. A girl was sulking on the rocks, and some idiot was sitting beside her with no clue what was going on, saying the wrong thing over and over. Apparently I’d written my own day perfectly, except I’d cast myself as Cassian.

I kept reading.

That night, unable to sleep, Lily walked down to the shore. Without knowing why, she climbed into a small wooden boat and rowed out beneath the silver moon. The sea was calm, but her heart was not. Past the second marker, a great shadow slid beneath the waves, circling the boat hungrily.

She stood up in fear. Something struck the hull from below, and the boat tipped.

"KYAAA!"

Cassian, who had been brooding on the beach for some reason, saw her fall. He did not hesitate. He dove into the black water, trench coat and all.

The text stopped there, with a note that the rest of the scene cost another fifteen MP. I closed it.

[Right. Day four. That’s today, isn’t it?]

I thought about it for a minute, and then I laughed out loud, alone, on a crate.

Lily was terrified of water. She’d frozen up at the endurance drill in front of everyone, and she had clung to Serena’s arm through every swimming lesson since. There was no way she would ever get into a boat, at night, alone, and row herself out past the markers, where everybody on this trip knew the monsters came up after dark.

As for Cassian, the last time I’d seen him, he had been sitting in the dining hall, ignoring everyone aggressively. He wasn’t brooding on the beach for anybody.

The canon beat was dead on arrival. The system could dock me for it if it wanted.

"Lily, in a boat, at night?" I stood up and brushed off my skirt. "Like that’s gonna happen."

---

By the time the sun went down, I had a plan.

If I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong, then I would apologize for all of it, and I would do it so well that the specifics stopped mattering. I was an author. Writing my way out of problems was the one thing I was actually qualified to do.

So, I wrote a speech.

"Lily Everdawn," I said to the storeroom wall, holding three pages of notes up to the lamp. "It has come to my attention that I have wronged you. And thus, despite the fact that the cause of your rage eludes me, your ambiguous fury has nonetheless pierced me to the very core of my being."

On the other side of the crates, Fenna rolled over on her cot.

"Whatever I have done," I went on, turning to page two, "whether by word, by deed, or by bed sheet, I humbly beg your forgiveness. For what is a fox without her dearest friend? A fox without a home. A fox adrift upon the cold and uncaring..."

"It’s too long," Fenna said into her pillow.

"It’s supposed to be long. It shows effort."

"She’s gonna fall asleep halfway through it."

"She will NOT! This is some of my best work!"

Fenna pulled the blanket over her head.

"Then go read it to her and let me sleep."

That was fair.

I folded the pages, tucked them into my blouse, fixed my scarf, and went out into the night.

It was cooler outside than I expected. The facility was mostly dark, with a few lamps still burning in the windows, and the sound of the sea came up from the beach below. Lily’s room was on the far side of the building, so I took the path along the shore to get there, going over the opening lines one more time in my head.

[Ambiguous fury. That line kills. She’s going to cry.]

Then, I saw a light down by the water.

It was a lantern, sitting at the end of the little dock where the fishing boats were tied up. Somebody was crouched next to it, working at one of the ropes with both hands. They had long blonde hair.

I stopped walking.

Lily got the rope loose, picked up the lantern, and climbed down into the nearest rowboat. It rocked under her, and she grabbed both sides and held perfectly still until it settled.

"Lily!?"

Her head snapped up. For a second, she just stared at me across the sand. Then, her face scrunched up, and she grabbed one of the oars.

"Oh, go back to Serena! Don’t mind me!" She shoved the oar against the dock, and the boat slid out into the water. "I’m just gonna drift off into the ocean!"

"You can’t swim!"

"Well, then I guess I’ll sink! Won’t that be convenient for you!"

"How would that be convenient for me? Lily, there are monsters out there at night!"

She didn’t answer.

She got both oars into the water and started rowing. It was messy and she was doing it wrong, but she was also one of the strongest people alive, so the boat shot away from the dock anyway. By the time I reached the end of it, she was already past the first marker flag.

"LILY! Come back here!"

The lantern kept getting smaller. It passed the second flag, and then the boat slowed down and stopped, bobbing on the black water. Lily had stopped rowing. I could see her sitting very still in the middle of the boat, looking around at the dark as if she’d just realized where she was.

"Okay!" I cupped my hands around my mouth. "Okay, just stay there! Don’t move, and I’ll get someone! Just..."

Something hit the boat from underneath.

It was a deep, heavy thud, and I felt it in my feet from all the way back on the dock. The whole boat lifted out of the water on one side. The lantern went flying and died with a hiss. For one second, I could see Lily’s shape against the moonlight, with both of her arms thrown out.

Then, she was gone, and there was nothing out there except a splash.

My scarf was on the dock. My shoes were on the dock. My three pages of apology were floating somewhere next to the posts, and I had no memory of taking any of it off.

I took one deep breath, and I dove in after her.