“It found her.” Cailia points one finger at me before continuing her pacing, the candles flickering each time she passes them. What does she mean by "the Glim found me”? The ghost told me it shows up to interfere and enforce fate. It doesn’t fully make sense, no matter how many times I think about it. The Glim is guiding the Noctis. Not me.
“So she is tied to it? Is it her fate we’re following?” I exchange a look with Sable. His grey eyes bore into mine, and I can’t bring myself to look away. He’s right to ask. If the Glim is there to make sure the sea gets what it wants, it could be leading me towards my fate, not the crew to theirs. And they have a curse to break, they cannot afford to follow the Glim blindly. A lump forms in my throat.
“Not necessarily. It could be tied to all of you.”
Cailia’s eyes land on me as she stops in her steps.
“Have you seen the Glim before you boarded the Noctis, siren?” she asks, her tone demanding, direct.
“No, I hadn’t even heard of it before I ended up on the ship, ” I answer truthfully and step toward the table, quickly glancing towards Sable for reassurance before looking at his sister again. He knows I don’t remember boarding the ship. She squints her eyes as though she is assessing my answer. She must hate dishonesty as much as her brother.
“If it first appeared after you boarded the ship, then that’s where you needed to be, I am certain,” she says and begins pacing the room again, her arms folded neatly in front of her chest.
“Why do you think the Glim brought us back home? Could it be a sign that our fates are intertwined in some way?”
“I don’t know, brother. But do not question the sea. She knows. I can’t tell you more, but—“
She stops talking mid-sentence, inhales deeply, and closes her eyes, listening for something neither me nor Sable seems to hear, before exhaling slowly. When she opens her eyes again, they are pitch black. The light of the candles surrounding her creates flickers of light on their surface. Little dots of light, like stars reflecting on the surface of the sea at night.
“—the siren is your fate, Sable Crowe,” she says in an otherworldly, smooth voice. I know whose voice that voice belongs to instantly. She has whispered things into my ear ever since I was a little child. Reassuring me. Mocking me. Taunting me.
The sea.
Chapter Eighteen
Cailia’slipcurlsintoa smile that promises death.
“Follow and find me in the Sea of the First Song. This is where everything ends. Or everything begins.” She continues, then snaps her head toward me.
“For both of you,” she adds, her dark gaze dropping to my legs.
Then her body stills. Cailia drags in a sharp breath, her chest rising, the sound scraping through her throat as though she has been held underwater and this is her first gasping breath of air.Shoulders sinking, the magic that possessed the room moments ago unwinds. When her eyes lift again, the darkness inside them is gone, and so is the sea.
Sable and I stare at her, mouths slightly agape. Dumbfounded. She stands very still, her breathing steady, then blinks and glances between us.
“So, what did she say?”
The question sounds almost casual, as though nothing unusual or out of the ordinary has just occurred. As though the sea did not just speak through her. I furrow my brows and exchange a look with Sable, shock still visible in his features.
“She said we must follow and find her in the Sea of The First Song,” he replies and straightens, though the tension in his shoulders does not ease.
Cailia's brows lift faintly.
“And that this is where everything ends,” he continues, “or everything begins.”
His eyes flick briefly toward me. “And that it concerns both of us.”
“Hm.” She tilts her head, considering her brother's words. “Following her means following the Glim. That’s clear.”
She begins pacing again, slow steps circling the table while her fingers trace along the corals growing out of her collarbone.
“The Sea of the First Song...” she murmurs, more to herself than to us.
“I have never seen it marked on any map,” she says. “Nor mentioned in any charts.”
Another step follows, then she stops.
“But I have heard of it.”