The stern faced, nameless guard shows up when I'm scrubbing out pots. It's a strange process, washing something with water when you're surrounded by water.
It makes my head empty though, which is nice. The mindless motions are similar to the ones that I use for the control panel.
I've grown numb to my missing of the submarine, it's been so long. The days here melt, like ice tossed onto a stove, one bleeding into the next. I still don't talk that often, only when necessary.
The guard stands behind me, and it takes me way too long to notice her there. So long that when I finally sense a presence behind me, I have no preparation, I suspect there to be a blank area of water there.
"You and your sisters have been summoned." she says, tamping her trident against the floor, making it rattle. This brings Cal and Ser upstairs, foggy looks in there eyes, like condensated glass.
"To where?" I stifle a yawn, barely keeping it contained.
"Your discussion with Amphira," she replies, almost offended, as if it was hard for me to understand her. It was. I'm washed out, my brain refuses to make connections efficiently.
If I think a little beyond my current limit thought, I know why. It's just the circumstance, this situation. Once I get back to the submarine, I'll be able to become sharp again, this blurry world I've gotten accustomed will fade away.
"We don't have much time."
"That makes sense, Amphira never has time for us."
The guard ignores my comment, and instead starts going down the stairs. I don't follow, not yet.
"Do you think Juno and Venus will know where we're going?" They're out today, Juno at whatever job she's working, and Venus at council training. The longer we stay here, the more they work, the more they're left alone.
"Probably. And it's not like we'll be gone for long. We'll likely get back before they do." Cal wipes at her eyes, at the dark circles that ring them.
"I guess we should follow her, then." I put my foot on the first step, pulled back into the spiral, of going down the stairs into the room.
We have to run in order to catch up with the guard, she isn't like Juno or Venus or even Amphira, she doesn't wait up for us. She has this impatience to her, this uneasiness. Like underneath her face of stone, there's something more delicate.
The town isn't fun to look at anymore, it doesn't have that novelty that it had when we first got here, and the awe-inspiring architecture looks more and more like a pile of rocks each day. It's better to keep my eyes straight ahead. Only a few more days of this. Then I can go, then we'll be free. Then we'll be on to the next disc piece, a better place. I actually don't care if the next location is dangerous or terrifying. If it's anywhere but here, I'm looking forward to it.
The guard doesn't have to knock at the castle door, she just shoves it open roughly, leaving the dig of her fingernails in the surface. She doesn't move from the other side of the door, and so we wait, just outside, until she speaks.
"You can go in. I have duty out here, I was just momentarily relieved to escort you here." She stops looking at us then, it's as if we've gone invisible.
"Okay." Ser says, and we brush past, into the hallways that I've grown to hate. I think about them sometimes, when I can't exactly sleep but I don't feel awake.
Inside the throne room, Amphira is alone. There's a small table in front of her throne, which looks a little more on the duller side today, and three chairs are nestled into one side. She gestures towards them, looking unamused, eyes lowered.
YOU ARE READING
Beneath These Waves
FantasyDell's sister Cal has always been the announcer of tiny disasters, so when she says that something is wrong with their father, Dell thinks nothing of it. But it's not nothing. Because their father is dead. After the short but difficult task of mo...
