Mini Brain Dumps

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Trigger Warning: This novel contains references to sexual assault and mental health disorders. Reader discretion is advised.

Chapter 32:

Cate paced back and forth in the chamber; her eyes fixated on the broken pieces of Lyra’s necklace scattered on the floor. Lyra stood in the center of the room, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, her siren form revealed in all its eerie glory. Her once-familiar features now bore the unmistakable traits of the creatures that all Seidonis despised. Her blonde hair had been replaced by white, cascading around her shoulders. Her ears pointed; her teeth elongated into sharp canines. Quentin couldn’t tear his gaze away from her.

“What is going on?” Cate demanded, her voice trembling. “How could you keep something like this from us?”

Lyra’s shoulders slumped, and she swam forward slowly, hands outstretched, her eyes pleading. “I didn’t mean to,” she said softly. “I was trying to protect you. I thought if you saw me like this, you would be afraid.”

Quentin’s voice was filled with bitterness. “Protect us? By lying to us? By hiding what you are really are?” He shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe I ever trusted you.”

Lyra’s eyes shone with sadness, “Please, just let me explain,” she said, looking between Cate and Quentin desperately.

Cate stopped her pacing and stared down her nose at Lyra. “Then explain,” she said coldly.

Taking a deep breath, Lyra delved into her story. “It all started when I was a young girl who got mixed up with a man known as Alexander Reynold,” she began, her voice wavering. “You both may know him as Captain Reynold.” She paused again to look at them. “He… he took advantage of me, kept me prisoner on his ship, and used me whenever he felt like it.” Each word she spoke was painful, as if a knife was twisting in her heart, reopening wounds that had never truly healed.

Cate’s expression hardened, “You’re lying…” she said disbelievingly, her arms dropping to her side as her gaze softened. “I’ve known him nearly a decade…. He wouldn’t,” she shook her head.

“He did,” Lyra answered softly, her eyes filling with tears. “That necklace you found… it’s mine. He must’ve kept it as some sort of token,” she sighed. “It was a decades ago, but I never forget. He threw me overboard when he grew tired of me, leaving me alone in the middle of the ocean. I didn’t know how to swim and I…. I drowned.”

Quentin felt a pang in his chest as he remembered the cold embrace of the ocean, as he watched the surface grow further and further away before his world was consumer by darkness. She must have been terrified.

“I woke up here, in Seidonis,” she continued, gesturing to the world around them. “Elysia took me in, helped to teach me about the merfolk, the history of the city. And shortly we discovered that I had the ability to manipulate water.”

Lyra’s eyes brimmed with tears as she recounted the trials, she had endured under Elysia. “She tried to help me, to teach me how to control my abilities,” she explained, her voice trembling. “But her methods were… harsh, to say the least. She made me consume potions that made my insides feel like they were on fire or caused my skin to start peeling away from my bones. And no matter how much I pleaded and begged for her to stop, she didn’t, stating that it was for the greater good that I suffer because my powers were too great, too destructive, and it was either this “containment” or my magic would destroy me,” she confessed, her voice barely above a whisper.

Quentin and Cate recoiled. “That’s why you tried to tell us not to trust her,” Quentin gasped.

Lyra nodded bitterly. “It felt like I was being tortured, I felt like I was dying – I wanted to die,” she looked up at them, her eyes shining brightly. She looked down once again, “So, I left. I didn’t know where I was going, I just knew I had to get away. Far enough away that if I imploded it wouldn’t hurt anyone. I didn’t want to hurt anyone…”

“That’s when the whale swallowed me. I spent hours in the dark waiting for it to spit me out, feeling the pressure shifts in my ears and tumbling around. After what felt like an eternity, it spit me out, right in the middle of the siren’s territory. They found me.”

She breathed in deeply. “I tried to escape, even tried to push them away with my powers but Elysia’s experiments had drained me, leaving nothing for me to use to defend myself. They took me captive on Lysandra’s demand.”

Cate and Quentin leaned in. Lyra had met Lysandra.

“They promised me power, strength beyond anything I had ever known. They spoke of the injustices inflicted upon our kind by humans, of the suffering and pain endured by our brethren, and the injustice of sitting on the sidelines and watch. They believed that by uniting against humanity, by seeking vengeance for the wrongs committed against us, we could reclaim our rightful place in the world,” she explained, her voice tinged with sorrow. “And, at the time, believed them.”

Lyra’s breath caught in her throat. “When they let me go, I didn’t want to leave anymore. I felt like a completely remade person. I didn’t have to choke down potions to contain myself, they trained me, helped me. It took years, and I was out on a scouting expedition when I came across the Sovereign and it was my chance to prove my allegiance…”

Cate and Cate exchanged a glance.

“I… I unleashed all the anger I had felt since that day I was thrown overboard. The painful lessons taught by Elysia, the burning insides as I choked down the potions, the pain of what happened on the ship – all of it. I found Captain Reynold and savored every second of watching him suffer, just like I had.”

“The singing…” Quentin said.

Cate looked at him quizzically. “What?”

“I heard singing that night. The night I fell into the water. That was you,” Quentin said.

Lyra nodded her head. “Yes. That night I became this,” she said gesturing to her appearance.

Lyra’s voice quivered as she continued, her eyes glistening. “In that moment, all I could see was my own pain, my own desire for vengeance. I didn’t stop to think about the consequences, about the lives I was putting at risk. But the moment Reynolds was gone, I looked around and saw the destruction I had caused, and I hated myself. Hated what I had become. I wanted to turn back the clock and change everything, but I couldn’t,” she looked up at them, eyes pleading. “I tried to save as many people as I could. I left the humans on pieces of floating debris; I brought the two of you to the edge of Seidonis and left you there.”

“But how were you able to hide the fact that you were, are, a siren?” Cate asked.

“I sought out a sea witch to hide this,” she ran her hand up and down her body. “And she did, for a price…. She gave me this necklace to contain my siren curse,” she let out a sigh. “And when I went back to where I had left you, I realized you both hadn’t been found yet. So, I brought you to Elysia and begged her to help you despite me running away.”

A stunned silence filled the room.

“You’re the one that killed us Lyra,” Quentin said quietly, his voice cracking with anguish. Each word he spoke felt like a dagger to his own heart.

“I did, and I am so, so, so sorry,” Lyra pleaded.

Quentin’s chest tightened. Anger simmered beneath the surface of his stoic exterior, his hands balling into fists as he sought to contain the torrent of emotions raging with him. She was the reason for everything that had happened to him these past few months, the reason he had been thrown in to this world and forced to fix it when all he wanted to do was go home, the reason that some of his friends were likely dead. He turned away, unable to bear the weight of her gaze, his heart heavy.

“I need some time,” Quentin muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. “I need to figure things out.”

With a flick of his tail Quentin disappeared through the doorway. Cate remained rooted in place; her gaze fixed on Lyra. Her gaze softened slightly as she swam towards Lyra hesitantly.

“L-Lyra,” Cate began, her voice faltering slightly. “A small part of me understands,” she said, resting her hand on Lyra’s shoulder gently. “But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to trust you again.”

Cate’s words hung in the air as she turned away, joining Quentin.

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