Every Ice Blue Cloud Has a Silver Lining

The Tale of the Song Twins - Part Five

Linh

Linh was panicking. She was panicking like Tam which was rare for Linh. She ran around Exilium, screaming his name until one of the Exilium coaches stopped her. Linh was sweating so much from all the running and went to take the hood off her cloak.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked the coach, eyeing Linh suspiciously.

"Tam is missing!" she protested.

"Do NOT use a wayward's name!" The coach scolded. "And remember, you are not at the Lost Cities anymore. You do not have registry pendants." We kind of do though, thought Linh but her thoughts were interrupted by the coach's lecture. "If this wayward decided to run away, it is their choice. The council and some mentors will deal with that. And, while you are on the Exilium campus, you are under the leadership of us. And you are not permitted to leave this campus until the end of the day. Is that understood?"

Linh nodded and said "Yes." But there was a rather bitter note to her normally sweet voice. She went back to her hemisphere, and continued lessons as other waywards stared at her, whispering behind their hands.

Appetite suppression turned difficult without Tam to shadow whisper to her that she could do anything, darkness vision became harder without Tam to control the shadows that wanted to creep up on her and lifting objects with her mind became tiring without Tam's occasional help. Linh often underestimated what her brother went through and felt ashamed for it.

She returned to the hand-built shelter that Tam and she had struggled so much to put together. She looked around for the figurines that Tam took from her parent's house (yes, she knew about them) and found them gone. She then remembered that Tam always carried them around with him, as a reminder of what going back to their parent's house would do and came to the conclusion that it was taken along with Tam. What if he had gone back? Maybe he changed his mind about their parents? Linh tried to tell herself that Tam hated their parents and would never go back, but her thoughts were swirling around her head like the Atlantis whirlpool.

Linh lay on her mat that night, trying not to let the shadows haunt her, or the water tempt her. She found it hard without Tam there, shooing away and threatening the shadows, and him telling her that water listened to her, not the other way round. She finally slept, but, visions of what was happening to Tam took over, and many, many flashbacks of when they were younger flowed in. Linh woke up. She missed Tam, more than she knew, and she loved him more then she loved her own parents. They argued occasionally but Tam was always there for her. Linh sat up. Where was he now then? she thought angrily. He said he would come here with me because he didn't want me to be alone, but here I am. Alone. Linh bit her lip, trying to stop the tears.

A couple months went by. They were bland, and hard. The Exilium coaches both pitied her and forced her to work harder. Even still, she remained strong, telling herself that Tam would want her to.

"Hey, you're not really meant to be talking." Linh whispered to someone, who was chatting about her boyfriend to another Wayward. It had been a particularly bad day, and Linh wasn't here to listen to mindless chatter.

"And what are you going to do about it, sweetheart?" Normally, Linh would have been happy to hear the word sweetheart, but she had a feeling this was anything but sweet. She opened her mouth to argue when someone approached the two of them.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" the person who approached them, who just so happened to be a coach, asked. "You!" They said, pointing to the other girl. "No lunch today, and other girl!" they pointed at Linh. "It's my job to keep everyone in line, not yours!"
The mystery person growled at Linh as the coach stalked away. Linh smiled at her apologetically and ran off to lunch.

Linh was walking to her next class, when someone grabbed her. She tried fighting, but it was useless. There was an irritatingly sweet smell taking over, before everything went black.
Linh wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep, but when she woke up, she found herself in a dark, dingy room.

"Looks like someone's awake. Finally." A familiar, feminine voice said. "Took you long enough."

"WHERE AM I?" Linh yelled, as she tried to break free from her bonds, and failing.

"Your new home." The person said. "Do you remember me?" Linh was about to answer "No." Until she finally added "Sweetheart."

Linh gasped. Of course, it was the person. Why did she have to be so nosy? She could've faced another 5 minutes listening to how Thorin bought 'sweetheart' clothes, couldn't she?

"And before you start protesting, let me tell you about someone whom you probably want to keep safe."

"WHO?" Linh asked, as cliché as that sounded.

"Hmmm, oops, I forgot their name." The person said, shrugging.

"TELL ME." She demanded.

"I think it was Dam or Ram or something."

Linh's eyes went wide. "Tam?" she asked. The girl shrugged. "Think so." No, no, no. What was happening with Tam?

"He's fine." The person said, making Linh question if they were a telepath. But she dispelled that idea when a dark, slimy substance slithered out of her fingernails. The same dark, slimy substance that Tam had used. The same slimy substance that Tam swore to stay away from. Shadowflux.

"Or at least, he will be, if you listen to us." They added. "Just so you know, we don't put up with nonsense, and it is a punishable offense. So, what's the answer, keep your twin safe, or escape and risk losing him forever?" They spoke. There was a long silence before Linh finally answered.

"Keep my twin safe."