Sapphire by the Sea

Chapter 5 | TALULLAH

Chapter 5 TALULLAH

Talullah found the midnight blue tent embroidered with silver stars. Its fabric rustled in the breeze, bringing the smell of cooking fires from stalls down the road. Wind cut across Talullah’s exposed cheeks. She tightened her cloak. The dark silky fabric decorated with gold and silver swirls was just a whisper against her body—but it kept her warm. Though it couldn’t stop the anxiety from spreading through her chest. After finding out how she’d altered Baako’s life irrevocably, she couldn’t help but wonder.

What if Gwen didn’t remember?

Madame Gwendolyn Caprico wasn’t sitting at her table, per usual. Her absence sent a spark through Talullah. Maybe this wasn’t Gwen’s tent anymore. Maybe she didn’t even exist. Talullah couldn’t think like that. Gwen was a Seer, too. Her abilities might have preserved her memories of their shared past. There were few enough people Talullah could relate to as it was. She couldn’t afford them all to forget.

“Hello?” Talullah called hesitantly.

“One second.” Gwen’s voice floated forward.

Thank the Founders.

After some shifting and rustling, a head of bouncy blond curls popped up in the back of the tent. “Aha! Found it. Sorry, I’ve been looking for this for ages.” Gwen moved toward her, dodging stacks of wooden crates filled to the brim with trinkets. She blinked a few times. “Hi.”

“Do you remember me?” Talullah asked. She held her breath.

Gwen nodded and smiled warmly, her gray eyes rivaling the clouds overhead. “Of course. Talullah. I’m sorry. It’s been a little while.”

Talullah shifted her weight from one boot to the other, figuring out the best way to approach this. “I’ve returned home recently. I was afraid that you’d have forgotten—well, everything.”

“Not yet.”

“Yet?”

Gwen sighed and sat down on her cushioned stool. “I’m not an expert in Alteration—seith, as the old texts call it—but I do know things are going to be different. Already are.”

“Are you okay? You and Captain Caprico? Did I ruin everything?”

“Not a captain in the Now, actually. He’s a watchman.”

Talullah drew a sharp, cold inhale. “Oh...”

Gwen held up her hand. “It’s better this way, from what I can remember of the old life. Soon, I won’t remember at all, and this will be all I’ve known. I must thank you, Talullah. Whatever you did has kept my husband home with me and our children most nights.” A shadow cut through the glow of her smile, but she just looked at Talullah with gratitude.

Gwen’s words were a glowing ember. They gave Talullah hope that other things might be better, too. That maybe she had created, not only destroyed. “I’m glad.”

Gwen reached out to adjust the mirrors, globes, round bracelets, and books on her table. Her sleeve slipped back, and Talullah glimpsed an arrow tattoo on her wrist.

A shiver wriggled up her back. It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? Talullah cleared her throat. “How strange. My mother had that same tattoo.”

“A permanent mark of my former naiveté.” Gwen pulled her sleeve back down, a half-laugh escaping her lips.

The chance was slim. The tattoo was hardly unique. Many ghosts in Praeteriti had the same one. But she couldn’t help asking. “Did you know her? My mother?”

Gwen sighed, long and deep. The sound of old wounds reopening. “Our history... it’s complicated.”

Talullah’s eyes widened. “You did, then?”

“We met when we were thirteen. We were school friends.” Gwen rubbed the arrow on her wrist as if by doing so, she could erase it.

“What happened?”

“We had a disagreement when we were sixteen. We went to our separate rooms to cool off, and when I went to apologize an hour later, she was gone. I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

Gwen’s face changed, then, from gentle to hard, as her gaze slipped behind Talullah.

“What is it?” Talullah turned. Two teenagers in silver half-cloaks walked by, blue studs glittering from their ears. They smiled warmly and offered lightweight scrolls of parchment to passersby. They looked like any other vendor to Talullah, but Gwen’s lips pulled tight. “Do you know them?”

“No.” Gwen softened, shaking her head. “I’m just being silly, I’m sure. After all these years, things still get the better of me sometimes.”

“What things?”

“Just the past encroaching where it doesn’t belong.”

Doesn’t it always? Talullah thought. “How do you fight it? The past, I mean. Sometimes it’s so heavy I feel like I can’t move.”

The burden you chose, the voices sang.

What you deserve.

“I try to focus on what’s in front of me. Sometimes literally.” Gwen picked up a bronze-based globe. Sky-blue smoke swirled inside it. Talullah wished she could See what Gwen did when she looked inside, what made her shoulders relax and her nose crinkle. “Focusing on the present helps me get unstuck. It’s the one trick I never regret learning.” She set the globe down. “I hope you find peace in this new life, Talullah. Don’t let old scars weigh you down, okay?”

Talullah nodded. There wasn’t time to tell Gwen the whole story about her mother and Praeteriti. No way to know if what she was about to say was fact, but it was something she could give Gwen in return for her kindness. “Whatever happened between you, I’m sure she forgave you long ago.”

Talullah was a few tents past Gwen’s when a voice called out, “Would you like a flier?” The girl’s auburn hair bounced down over her short silver cape as she jogged, panting, up to Talullah.

“What’s it for?” Talullah asked, guarded, as she remembered Gwen’s look of distaste.

“Lynx!” shouted the girl’s companion.

“Sorry, I’ve got to go. He’s afraid we’re going to lose.” She rolled her eyes. “Here, take this.” She shoved the tight scroll into Talullah’s hand and bounced away, her long skirt flowing around her boots. She met up with the tall, sturdy boy who’d yelled for her, laughing as he grabbed her hand, and they both ran down the street.