Lord Ibis leaned over his desk. The sun shining into the room did nothing to make him look less forbidding. We had been found by an entertainment boat, filled with people enjoying the lake. There would be no way for our escapee to be kept quiet.

Shivering side by side, Solum and I sat across Lord Ibis in hard wooden chairs. The cushioned armchairs we had used in my interview were off on the side. I pulled the blanket a bit tighter around me. I had not yet had a chance to change from my shredded clothing. Upon being brought back, we were both marched into his study room. Blankets hurriedly tossed over us.

I did not know Lord Ibis well, but I could see on Solum’s face that she was worried.

“Clearly, I underestimated you Marin. How long were you planning to kill Solum?”

“K-k-kill Solum?” I managed to get through my clattering teeth.

“What other explanation do you have for yourself?”

“She was not trying to kill me father, it was my idea to go to the lake.”

“Was it your idea Solum? Or did she set circumstances up for you to think it was so?”

To this Solum stayed silent.

“We were learning about the Lamaelle.” I explained, straightening my back in an effort to gain control of my shivering body.

“Ah yes, and you chose the most convulted and idiotic way to teach my daughter about an empirial secret. A perfect explanation!” At the end of his speech he was almost shouting.

“You knew?” I was shocked, my eyes flicked towards Solum to see her expression mirroring my own.

“The question is not whether or not I knew, but how did you know?”

I opened my mouth to defend myself, but then sighed. I didn’t see a way around it, I would have to tell the whole story, well almost the whole story. Showing my scar was easy with my ripped state of dress. We were passed propriety. I then told them the ambush of Ursula that had been planned, and gone wrong. My vow to be different. I had not known about the Lamellae, but I had suspected. It had been a gut feeling proven right. Now here we are.

“Domina Vole said that I would regret hiring someone young, and you have proven her right. There were many better ways you could have gone around this.”

“How easy it is for you to blame our actions. What did you know about the Lamaelle? How could you have kept quiet about it?” My cheeks reddened at this. I was unused to standing up for myself, but this whole situation felt wrong.I felt a cold touch on my hand, surprised, I nearly jerked my hand away, until I saw it was Solum. She held my hand in support. I could see how Lord Ibis had become progressively angrier at my questions. However, before he could answer, Solum chimed in with something that took the wind right out of his sails.

“What other such secrets do you keep from me father?”

***

Solum was locked in her room, and I in mine. In an act of kindness, Lucas had snuck me some needle and thread, to repair my dress. My head was full of what had happened the night before. I still truly didn’t understand what it was. Solum and I had not the chance yet to talk alone. I didn’t want to sew, I wanted to be somewhere else, to float away somewhere new. I felt as though it was my eyes keeping my body heavy, and that only with sleep could I hope for abandon. So I lay in bed, hoping for a dream.

I slept fitfully, going from one scene to another. First there was a monster but she did not scare me. A monster was only how others saw her, not how she saw herself. Somehow I knew that. Then, I felt as though I was on a slide, underneath me a gigantic long lithe body that was stretching. I slid from the back down off the tail and plopped into the water.

Lamellae, I thought to myself as I swam deeper. Let me understand what happened, let me understand you. I thought I had said an unspoken prayer, but someone answered. A shadow formed, a hand waved, and an illusion of a great tree appeared from me, one I didn’t recognize from the Walker’s Forest, or from the Before.

“This is a tree, and you will never understand it.”

The figure swan closer to me, webbed feet paddling back and forth, I could see now that she too, was a Lamellae. But she wasn’t sexless, like the others I had seen until now.

“I am a Lamellae, and you will never understand me.”

A shiver went through my whole body at the tone of her voice, and the rhythmic beat that came as she spoke them. A beat that grew louder and more insistent, until I realized it was not from the dream. Eyes opening, I turned to the door.

“Come in.” I spoke loudly over the knocking. Swinging my legs off the bed to the floor I rubbed at my eyes. It was dark outside, I must have slept the whole day.

It was Dominic who had been knocking, with his large frame at the doorway it looked comically small. His eyebrow raised at the sight of me sitting in bed. I could hear his judgement as clearly, he was calling me lazy. I had no patience for that.

“What is it?” I asked.

“There is a bath waiting for you in the kitchens, wash yourself.”

Aemilia and Lila were both downstairs, for the first time since I knew her, Aemilia was helping in the kitchen.

“Cut the vegetables thinner!” She instructed Lila from her work station, where she had a huge chunk of bloody meat. She herself was slicing it thin, picking up a piece and inspecting if the light came through it, before placing it on a plate.

Where was usually Aemila’s chair by the fire, was a standing tub.

“Marin, get in the tub and scrub yourself fast, we don’t have much time.”

“Time for what?” I asked as I slid off my clothes. Stepping on a stool to get into the tall tub, I slid in. The water was a luke warm and soapy, as though it had already been used. Using the hard bar of soap placed on the rim, I began washing my hair.

“You have a guest. Lila, can you fix her dress in time?” Aemilia spoke in a rush, her careful slicing unpaused.

“Not a chance.”

“Well then, go to Dominic and ask him what to do.”

“Now? I haven’t finished the soup.”

“Yes now.” Aemilia snapped at her. “Marin has to be presentable.”

Walking quickly, Lila exited.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?”

Aemilia sighed, “Whities are coming for dinner.”

“What, why?”

“Lord Ibis asked them to. More than that, I don’t know.”

Opening the door, Lila came back in with a simple brown dress.

“It’s mine and you better be careful with it.” She was clearly unhappy about it.

“I can wear something else.” I offered.

“You have nothing else.” She refused me flatly. “If it were up to me you could go in naked as the day you were born, but that wouldn’t be ta the taste of the Lord Ibis.”

“Lila, be kind.” Aemilia chided her. “No one wants to be in her shoes tonight.”

“Especially because there ain’t no shoes for her to walk in.” She snickered at her own joke. Any hopes I had at finding a friend in Lila were going fast into the past.

“Marin will wear mine then.” Finishing cutting the meat, Aemilia dipped her hands in water and rubbed them dry.

The door banged open quickly, it was Dominic looking as pale with his chocolate colored skin as I had ever seen him. “They’re here.”

In record time, I was ready. My hair was sopping wet, but I was dressed and clean, wearing Lila’s shoes. She had refused to let Aemilia be barefoot. I didn’t like how Lila talked to me, but it was kind of her to do so. Dressed in her things from head to toe, I knew that I owed her.

Following Dominic into the circle dining room, I saw Vetus sitting at the table and Altus standing behind him. I felt a frisson of fear at his red eyes burning into me, my heart skipping a beat. I had forgotten the presence he had. Thankfully, my legs kept steady without breaking pace. Lord Ibis had his back to me, but turned as Lucas announced me. All eyes were on me.

“Thank you Dominic. Let us not be disturbed.”

“Yes, Lord Ibis.” Bowing to him and then shorter bows to Vetus and Altus, something Dominic had not done for any guests that I had seen, including the Dominas from my interview, he left. All eyes turned to me.