Naeemah | Pre-search
Naeemah was still floating. Except that she was floating in something very sticky in a tunnel with barely enough room for her to breathe. It wanted her to move, very slowly, in one direction, but she had the distinct feeling that she should not follow it. She tried to swim in the other direction, wondering where Kiy was, why she wasn't helping her. The farther she tried to swim in the opposite direction, the harder the sticky liquid was to get through. Her tired muscles willed her to turn around, to let herself be carried by the water instead of swimming against it, but Naeemah kept going. Soon she heard voices that she recognized. Her brother Lyrian was saying something and she could barely make out the voice of the hall's healer, Tamull. Their voices were getting clearer and clearer, she knew that with one more strong stroke she'd be out of the water.
The sticky liquid was getting shallower and shallower and the tunnel was getting wider and wider. Suddenly, she opened her eyes - she hadn't known until then that they were closed - and saw Lyrian leaning over her, looking very concerned.
"She's awake! She's alive!" Lyrian crowed. His voice was much louder now that she was out of the tunnel, Naeemah noted. She smiled weakly, still exhausted from her swim against the sticky liquid.
"Of course I'm alive, I've been swimming," Naeemah scoffed, suprised to find her voice rough and gravely from unuse. "Why in Faranth's name am I laying down?"
"You've been in a coma for almost three weeks now," Tamull explained patiently. "We almost had you for dead, you were under for a long time. You probably would have drowned if your dolphin hadn't thought so fast and gotten you to the surface."
"Kiy! Where's Kiy?" Naeemah demanded, finding that her voice was gradually returning. She started to get out of bed and found that her muscles ached much worse than they had in the tunnel. "Where is she?"
All eyes were carefully averted. Naeemah looked from face to face frantically. "What? Is something wrong with Kiy? Where is she?" Why won't anyone say anything?"
"Nae," Lyrian began slowly, "I'm not sure how to tell you... Kiy is... well, she's dead. When she brought you to the surface, the boat fell onto its side. She was hit in the head very hard, it killed her almost instantly. I'm sorry."
Naeemah sank back into her pillows, finding the little strength she had recovered gone. "Kiy... dead?" she breathed, mind reeling, not wanting to comprehend the awful news it was receieved. Kiy couldn't be dead. It had to be a mistake.
"I'm very sorry, Naeemah. She was gone before they could help her," Lyrian continued, almost babbling, scared by the blank look that had taken over his younger sister's face. "Nae, Nae what's that matter? Nae!"
Naeemah couldn't hear him - wouldn't hear him. It couldn't be. Kiy wasn't dead. It was all some horrible twisted dream. Kiy was safe and sound outside somewhere, and she would be chiding Naeemah for her morbid imagination later. She just had to get outside...
Naeemah started outside mechanically. She cried out in frustration and anger as her legs refused to work and she slid to the floor when she tried to get out of bed. "Shardit! What is going on?" Naeemah demanded, slapping away hands that tried to help her back into her cot.
"Naeemah, Kiy is dead. She died trying to rescue you and the boy. Please calm down or we'll have to sedate you," Tamull informed her in that infuriatingly calm healer's voice.
Naeemah slapped him. "What do you mean she's dead, wher? She can't be! She can't!" Her world was falling apart. It didn't make sense. Naeemah broked down into confused sobs, not sure even what she was crying about.
"Here dear, drink this please," Naeemah heard someone with a kindly voice ask her between her sobs. Naeemah reached out and took the cup, spilling most of it as she shook with her sobs before it got to her mouth. Almost immdediatly, she knew it was a sedative.
"Sharding healers," she murmurred before slipping back into sleep.
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