Lux [h.s]

forty-three

It was evening, and Cora was looking at the dark blue sea, her elbows on the taffrail and her mind everywhere but there. She knew Harry and Arnold were talking on the quarterdeck and so were two other unnamed fays not too far away from her, but she wasn't paying attention to what they were saying.

They'd been sailing the Grey Sea for four days, and only now her stomach was starting to settle, her body slowly getting used to the gentle rocking of the ship. The way it was so susceptible to the movings of the water underneath it made her very uneasy—having lived all her life on land, the idea of not being able to trust the floor her feet were on agitated her deep within. She couldn't understand why she was the only one that was worried—after all, if the Scintilla sunk, they'd all go down to the bottom of the sea, Harry included.

They'd had dinner not long ago, and now Cora was out on the deck, not wanting to go back to the room she shared with Harry so soon. Things between them still hadn't been sorted out, and having to share a place to sleep every single night wasn't helping her get over him.

It was a starless night, the ink of the sky and the ink of the ocean melting into each other, making her feel like they were sailing through liquid obscurity. She felt suffocated by it. The lanterns of the ship couldn't enlighten more than a foot into the water. Cora almost expected to see sea monsters peek through the eerie calm at any moment. Would they be large, with multiple rows of sharp teeth strong enough to chew on wood, or snake-like, long enough to wrap around the ship and pull it into the depths of the sea? Or like sirens, singing them towards rocks in their path?

Cora shook her head and stepped away from the taffrail. She didn't need her mind to give her yet another reason to fear for her life on that ship. It was hard to keep her thoughts logical while sailing through the night.

She glanced at Harry. He was still completely taken by what Arnold was saying, so she walked back down. Maybe she could manage to fall asleep before the end of his conversation.

Inside the ship everything was wooden and dark. Their cabin wasn't big and there was a bed pressed into a corner, their bags stacked on the opposite side. Cora would've liked to say the mattress was large enough for them to sleep comfortably, but it wasn't, and they had to press close together in order to both stay under the blanket. They usually slept back to back of course, but it wasn't easy to fall asleep when Harry was just so close.

Cora got on the bed and pulled the blankets up to her shoulder, her face to the wall. It was a chilly night, and the cold of the sea poked her skin wherever she went. It wasn't so bad while she was alone, though, and she fell asleep quickly.

• • •

When Cora opened her eyes the sea was trembling and all the lights were off.

She could distinctly remember the moment in which Harry's body had slid into the bed, she remembered being briefly awakened by his arrival in the room and following the sounds of his path as he took off some layers before lying down, but now it was cold and he was nowhere to be found.

"Harry?" she called out, hesitantly, as the floor rocked violently underneath her, but the sound of his name was silenced by the howling of the wind through the wood. Like an old animal, the ship cried out its every movement to the sea under her.

Something was wrong.

Cora got off the bed and put on her boots and coat, feeling the dark around her for the entrance to the cabin.

She stepped out and was slammed into the wall by another tilt of the ship. She was able to catch her fall with her arms and tried her best to ignore the way her stomach twisted.