The Girl of Many Floods- Linh Song

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When Linh opened her eyes, she found herself staring into a pair of pale blue eyes with flecks of silver in them, much like her own.

"T...tam?" her throat was dry and her voice sounded hoarse.

"Yes it's me, how are you feeling?

"O...okay I suppose. What happened? I remember the water... and... and-," her eyes widened, "oh no, what did I do?"

Tam shifted his head, which revealed that they were in Choralmere, back at their bedroom.

"Yesterday, after you, well fainted, the emergency alarms started ringing," he paused to let her absorb what he just said.

"Wait you mean the emergency alarms?!" Linh asked, her eyes the size of saucers.

Tam swallowed "yea, those."

Linh let that sink in, what had she done? What if she had hurt people? She-

Tam cleared his throat, interrupting her thoughts. "I know what you're thinking, it's not your fault okay? Mom and Dad shouldn't have brought you to Atlantis in the first place. I mean....what were they thinking?!" Tam fumed.

Linh sighed, "but I'm the one who lost control, aren't I?"

She left those words hanging, then asked, "so what exactly happened?"

Tam ran a hand through his hair. "Well, after you well, passed out, and the alarms started blaring, and well apparently there was a hole in the force field right beside us. I-"

Linh interrupted him. "Did you just say there was a hole in the dome? My memories are still fuzzy, but does that mean I caused the hole? Because I remember the water and..."

Tam grimaced, then nodded. " Yes there was a hole, but we can't be sure that you caused it. I know what you're thinking, but it's not your fault."

"Tam, I'm the one who caused the hole, I know it. You don't have to pretend otherwise. The water's call was so strong that I-" her voice cracked, "I lost control." A tear slid down her cheek.

Linh's voice softened, "I don't know why I even wanted to manifest so badly. What's the point of manifesting if I'm just going to use my ability to wreck places? I probably hurt someone already." She glanced at Tam who was about to protest, "you don't have to lie to me you know, I know you're just trying to protect me, and I appreciate it. But this time, I really need the truth." She looked him in the eye, "please, tell me the truth,the whole truth."

Tam ran a hand through his hair again, making it even messier than before.

"Okay,. So after you fainted, water started gushing out of the hole and the alarms started ringing. Then everyone started fleeing. Atlantis has had drills for things like this before so most of us knew what to do."

"So did everyone evacuate in time?"

"Well....sort of. A few people got held back by the stampede but everyone's alive. Anyone injured should survive. The pisionipaths arrived in time to mend the force field."

Linh heaved a sigh of relief. Well at least nobody had died. So far...

"Was there any damage to the city itself?" she asked with bated breath.

Tam tugged on his bangs. "Well, other than the fact that the floor was flooded, some buildings got wet, and that some of the structures were damaged by the panicking crowd, it wasn't as bad as it could have been."

"Oh," was the only response Linh could think of.

"Is the council going to like sue us for the damage?"

Tam took a bottle of youth from the bedside table and held it out to her.

"A physician was just here to see you. He said to ask you to drink this," he gestured to the bottle of youth in his other hand. "And these," he pointed to some colourful elixirs on the bedside table. "I think you should finish these before continuing our conversation."

"Is it really that bad?"

"Just drink this first," Tam replied.

Linh stared at the bottle in Tam's outstretched hand.

"I can't," she said.

"What do you mean 'I can't'?" Tam asked.

"Well, there's no way I'm going anywhere near water anymore."

It was Tam's turn to stare at her.

"Linh please don't tell me you're-"

She cut him off, "but I am! I'm afraid of water!" She let out a short, high-pitched laugh.

"The irony, a hydrokinetic afraid of water? Ha!"

Tam tried to calm her down. "Linh, you know you can't just avoid water completely." It was a statement, not a question.

Linh sighed, "I know, but after what happened?" She shuddered.

"At least try? Start with this." Tam held out the bottle of Youth.

Linh took it and held it gingerly, as if she'd cause an explosion if she was not careful. She uncorked the bottle and drank. The cool liquid tingled her throat and she drowned the bottle without incident. She never realised how thirsty she was until then.

"See, it's not too bad right?" Tam took a blue elixir from the bedside table and handed it to her.

Linh drank it. It tasted sweet with just a tinge of spiciness. Just like that, with Tam passing her each bottle one by one, she finished all her elixirs.

As Linh drank another bottle of Youth, she was really glad that she was still be able to drink something, even though her fear of water was far from gone, this was one small step towards overcoming it.

Linh asked, "so could you please tell me what the council thinks of the....incident?"

Tam tugged on his bangs. "Well, they don't exactly know what happened yet. What they gathered from a few eyewitnesses, is that they found our family near the hole and...."

"And what?"

"Well, as you probably know the Council knows about the other places you flooded. So when they heard about us, and you collapsed, they want to sort things out."

Tam paused and tugged on his bangs again. Then he continued, "the Council has called a tribunal."