The Sundered Sky
THE SECOND CHOICE
The Dreaming Sea offered her a gift.
“You have reminded me of love,” he said. “I will not drown the world. I will not feed on the living. But I cannot leave the deep. The pressure would destroy me. The light would blind me.”
“Then stay,” Lyra said. “Sleep. Dream. Remember.”
“I will. But first, I will give you something. A gift. For your journey.”
“What kind of gift?”
“A song. The Song of the Deep. It will allow you to breathe underwater. To speak without air. To sing in the places where sound cannot travel.”
“I already have the stone.”
“The stone is a fragment. The Song of the Deep is the whole. It will become part of you. Part of your voice. Part of your soul.”
Lyra hesitated.
She had already given so much. Her voice. Her strength. Her peace. The Song of Ending had taken pieces of her that she would never get back.
“You do not have to accept,” the Dreaming Sea said. “You can return to the surface. You can forget this place. You can live your life in peace.”
“And if I accept?”
“Then you will be changed. Forever. You will carry the deep within you. The cold. The dark. The pressure. But you will also carry the song. The song that reminds the gods of love.”
Lyra thought of the other gods. The angry ones. The hungry ones. The ones who would not listen to reason.
She thought of Aeris, waiting at the Spire.
She thought of Davin, standing on the shore.
She thought of her mother, who had died so that she could live.
“I accept.”
The Dreaming Sea surged around her.
The song entered her.
And Lyra was changed.
She rose from the water gasping.
Davin was there, pulling her onto the shore, wrapping her in blankets. Undine stood behind him, her green eyes glowing.
“Did you do it?” Davin asked.
Lyra opened her mouth.
She sang.
The note was low and deep, vibrating through the sand, through the water, through the sky. It was the Song of the Deep. The song of the places where light did not reach.
Davin stared at her.
“Your voice.”
Lyra touched her throat.
It was different. Deeper. Richer. Stronger.
“The Dreaming Sea gave me a gift.”
“What kind of gift?”
“The kind that changes everything.”
She looked at the horizon.
The sun was rising.
A new day was beginning.