Under Murky Waters

SHE WAS NOT too sure how long she had been swimming.

Hours?

Minutes?

Maybe even days?

All Cordelia knew was that fatigue was starting to settle deep into her bone structure, melting in with every single fine crack available and wearing out all of her joints. She started to feel the human side of her cracking, her muscles aching and begging to get even a wink’s worth of rest. However, she soldiered on, unwilling to stop.

Even after death, she recognized her father’s medallion. It was something he greatly treasured, a sign of brotherhood between him and a few of his close friends. Most of those friends had been onboard the Cordelia the day it was forcefully taken by pirates so why was it that now, after years, it weaseled its way back into Cordelia’s life?

She could not understand it. For all she could assume, her father’s friends had perished on that night. Was there perhaps one that survived? One that hadn’t been on board the ship at that time?

Then, Cordelia suddenly came to a halt. She was in the middle of nowhere, aquatic plant life bleak and practically non-existent. She was hovering mid-water below the chaos and above the dark. Right there, in the middle.

Occasionally, a silver fish swam by. It glided magnificently across the water, catching the selective rays of the sun that had successfully pierced the water’s surface. It seemed to almost taunt her, its fins moving the water so vaguely that it barely even caressed Cordelia’s face.

It mocked her and she hated it.

“The man...” she murmured under her breath, watching as bubbles began to form and rise from the surface from past her lips. It danced away from her and she watched helplessly after them. “The one that papa spoke of.”

The fish paused, staring at her with its black beady eyes for a few moments longer than normal. Its silver scales were alike that of Cordelia’s own irises. Except it’s brighter, filled with more vibrancy than hers had for years.

And life. It held more life.

Cordelia turned immediately, headed straight for the island where she left Zale standing alone and confused. The salt water stung her eyes from how fast she was swimming but she could not even give it a single second’s worth of care. She needed answers, such as the origin of the medallion that matched the one her own father wore around his neck.

Then maybe, just perhaps, this strange man might know where her father went after the pirates threw her off that ship.