The Lores of Lyra - Rising Star
Drowning

She was suffocating. Miriam was sure that she would die now, her head kept coming down under water, and she couldn’t swim—the stream was too heavy. She was with someone, but she couldn’t see the person. Reaching a hand out, she tried to grab onto something. To no avail, she was drowning.

Her muscles started to relax as her body gave up on fighting against the water. She might as well go peacefully. Death had been trying to claim her for so long, but her own stubbornness—and her mother’s money—had always managed to keep her alive.

A large bell sounded—maybe there were bells at the gate to heaven? She hoped so. Miriam had always enjoyed the sound of church bells, and it would make sense if they were similar in heaven.

Her chest ached. It felt as if someone was punching her solar plexus repeatedly. Was it the pressure of the water? Would this be the last thing she felt?

“She’s cold, bring me some blankets,” someone said. She knew that voice, but she couldn’t remember from where. “Can you get my bag? This seems to be inland water; so I want to make sure it doesn’t get mixed with her blood, so she doesn’t suffocate from lack of oxygen.”

Inland water? Miriam couldn’t make sense of this. She lived near the coast. Wouldn’t it be salt water?

“Uncle, what is this?” Darkness followed that voice. Yet it warmed Miriam’s heart.

“I honestly don’t know, Blake. The signs show that she was close to drowning, though, I can’t understand how that is possible.”

Her lungs fought against the water, and she coughed. Someone lifted her, and she was out of the water. Was it an angel? Did Solem always treat people this nice?

“Will she be okay?” Darkness again.

“I think so; I need to give her an injection, and then she need to rest.”

Miriam opened her eyes to see Blake leave the room.

Don’t go, she wanted to ask, but her throat hurt too much. Her mother sat down beside her, stroking her hair.

“Thank god for Christina.” Veronica muttered. Miriam looked at her. Her mother’s eyes had unshed tears.

“You should rest for a bit after I give you this. You might feel lethargic and tired, that is common when people have been close to drowning,” Dr. Johansson said, and Miriam winced when she felt the needle penetrate her skin. Soon after, they both left the room, with promises to return to check up on her occasionally

Miriam was tired. She had slept badly, having a weird dream of running through a forest. The dream had ended in a river. Her head pounded, and her body ached.

These attacks are getting worse by each time, she thought.

In the last couple of years she had her share of unfortunate events, though, the last two topped them all. This was also the first time she had ever been close to drowning; the previous attacks had covered everything from minor injuries, to broken bones.

She wondered if there could be some kind of connection between the weird dreams, and the recent attacks.

The more she thought about the dream, the less she could actually remember. The area around her diminished as she tried to recall the memory of the dream, her eyelids were heavy, and finally she closed them and drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

The maids woke her up every half hour to ensure that she didn’t go into a coma, and after the third time she gave up on trying to go back to sleep. She asked Beatrice for something to eat, and shortly after, a tray with fresh fruit and a sandwich was placed in front of her.

It hurt to swallow, her throat was sore, and a coughing fit hit her after the first bite of the sandwich. Deciding on the fruit, she looked around her temporary quarters.

This was the guest room right next to her old room. When she was younger, she used to pretend she had a sister who lived in here. Her bed had been moved to the wall separating the two rooms, and at night she talked to the wall, pretending her sister was on the other side listening. Miriam had grown out of it though, and when she moved rooms, her mother placed the bed in the middle of her room, her mother thought it suited a young woman rather than a child.

Thoughts swirled around in her head; they made it impossible for her to eat. Pushing her food away, she attempted to stand. Her legs were trembling, and she almost fell down onto the floor as she tried taking a step. Her legs felt like she had been running. She slowly made her way over to her own room, using the wall as support.

Luckily, her mother wasn’t keen on having furniture in the hallways. This made it easier for Miriam to go the distance between the rooms.

Her bed was made, and she sat down on it. She looked around for a book; whenever she was forced to stay in bed after an attack earlier, she always spent her time reading. Her eyes skimmed the table, and she noticed the book she had found in the library.

The golden letters glinted in the sunlight from the window. She leaned towards it and grabbed the book with both hands.

It looked old. The pages felt rough, and the ink was smeared, Miriam skimmed through the pages. She stumbled upon the ‘war’ section once more.

Her schoolbooks hadn’t mentioned anything about a war. Interested, she dug into reading.

’After the collision of Solem and Nemesi, black holes started forming around the universe; these beings were massive sources of energy that thrived in the despair from Nemesi. Over the years, their power grew. They consumed the energy from the surrounding stars, leaving them nearly burned out. They starved for more, and some of them dared go after Terra. Solem obliterated the black holes that came too close.

For years, the Black Holes tried several times, and Solem couldn’t protect and take care of Terra at the same time. She took five stars from the sky, and sat them on earth, to protect the world. Years passed, and the Black Holes formed an entry into the world, in disguise as real humans. They feasted on the magic in the world, and the conflict between the Stars and the Black Holes, went on for years. Thus causing the Stars to leave only one place with magic in the world.’

The following section Miriam already knew about. The five stars chose the five elders.

She flipped through the book and skimmed the pages. Her eyes caught something and she began reading.

’The powers that were bestowed upon the five elders have been widely discussed. Many believe it’s the power of an element. However, critics have discussed how this is even possible. Solem is the god above all; she and only she can direct the flow of the five elements.

When the five stars left Astron, it sealed off Astron from the outside, leaving Astron with the purpose of protecting the magic. The Elders purpose was to prevent Black Holes from ever consuming the magic in the sacred land.

It is safe to assume that the Elders were bestowed the gift of Reading the Stars, and with that, came incredible wisdom. However, whether the Elders received any other gifts than that has to this day never been proven.’

Miriam read on with increasing curiosity; this book dared to question the Elders power.

That was new, she thought. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t recall one memory of ever having heard of any event that proved that the power of the elements was in favor of the Elders.

She had also never heard of the occurrences of Black Holes on earth. The records only talked about the war in the universe. Miriam shivered at the idea that maybe somewhere in the world a Black Hole would be feasting on the energy that her beautiful world had to offer. She thought of the leading cities and their many inhabitants.

Everything that mankind had worked so hard to achieve, devoured in mere seconds by a hungry creature from outer space.

A red text in the margin caught Miriam’s eyes. She squinted and leaned closer to see it. It was written in a foreign language, and Miriam, who had been taught four languages, recognized nothing except for three little numbers. ‘176’ it read. Pondering what it could mean, she considered asking Leonora about the language. Her teacher spoke eight languages fluently and studied several others. Dismissing the idea, she thought it might be a page number.

Reading the small worn out number at the bottom of the pages, she hurried to locate page 170. Slowly she made her way through the next six pages, skimming the pages as she did so. No words stood out to her, and there was no red text in the margins. When she came to 175 her heart rose with excitement, but it fell again as she read the other page. There were four pages missing in the book.

Convinced that the number must indeed be the page number, she flipped the book upside down to see if anything fell out. It was a common thing in the Villa Hertz: if a page fell out from the book, simply leave it inside to the benefit of the next reader.

Miriam rolled on her back and stared into the ceiling.

So, the book is missing a couple of pages, and there is a strange text in the margin.

Maybe it was just a message for her mother that the pages were missing. She closed the book. Relaxing for a bit, she let her mind wander and the more she thought about, the more she was sure that this wasn’t the case. Something crucial was missing from the book.

“Oh, Miss Miriam, you shouldn’t have left the other bed,” Beatrice scolded as she saw Miriam on her bed.

“I was bored,” Miriam explained with a shrug.

“Bored or not, it’s a bad idea for you to be wandering around alone.” Beatrice came over and started slapping the pillows for her.

“Hey Trish, can you please escort me to the library?” Miriam sat up, taking the pillow from Beatrice.

“I’m not sure that is such a good idea, Miss Miriam. The Doctor said to let you rest,” Beatrice said, and gave her an apologetic look.

“I have been resting, and I will go down to the library, with or without your help,” Miriam replied with a stubbornness that surprised Beatrice. Usually Miriam did what she was told.

“Okay Miss, if you insist,” Beatrice said and offered her arm to Miriam.

Her legs were still shaky as she put pressure on them; Beatrice had to carry her full weight. Miriam felt remorseful for behaving like this to Beatrice, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that it was vital to find the missing pages.

They passed Blake’s room on the way to the library. Miriam sent a silent prayer that he wouldn’t be in the library now, and the creaking floorboards from inside the room answered.

The library was quiet, and the atmosphere in the room soothed her aching body. She was in her sanctuary. In here, she could be normal.

As soon as Beatrice left, Miriam got to work. She made her way over to the history section, and found the place where the book had been. She wasn’t surprised that the missing pages weren’t there.

The desk in here contained only blank paper for her lessons, and rummaging through the drawers she found nothing. She suddenly wished she knew how to read the stars because then maybe she had a way of finding them.

She took out different books that were placed in the history section, and turned them upside down. Nothing came out. Sitting down on the floor, Miriam tried thinking back if she ever saw the book being other places, but came up blank. In fact, she wasn’t even sure that the book always had been in here. She hadn’t seen it before the day with Blake.

With a heavy sigh, she looked at the door again. Should she try to make her way back on her own? She didn’t want to disturb the servants. With the arrival of Dr. Johansson and Blake, she knew that Gustavo would require them to work harder.

As expected, the hallway was empty. Once again leaning on the wall for support, she began walking to her room.

Miriam didn’t notice that Blake’s door was ajar until she almost fell into his room. Clinging on the door, she let out a scream and looked into the room. Blake was on the floor doing sit-ups, his face showed surprise, but quickly fell into a smirk as he noticed her gawking at his chest.

“Hello there, fancy running in to you here,” he said as he sat up. The muscles on his chest tensed, and Miriam found it difficult to tear her eyes away from the chiseled torso.

“Yeah, you know. I’m just hanging out,” Miriam replied, still clinging on the door for support. She felt her cheeks redden under his stare.

“Do you need help?” he asked and made a motion to stand up.

“No, no. Continue what you were doing. I don’t mind.” She realized what she had said, when Blake laughed.

“I’m sorry. Yes, please. Do you mind helping me to my room? I can barely carry my own body,” she admitted with burning cheeks. He hurried to stand up and walked over to her.

“Ehm, shouldn’t you put on a shirt?” Miriam asked, and tried to look anywhere else than on his body.

“Nah, I have to help a damsel in distress first,” he said with a wink and swung her up into his arms. Miriam squealed as she felt her feet leaving the ground.

“Why are you even out of bed? My uncle said you needed rest,” he said as he turned the corner.

“I was bored,” Miriam admitted. He chuckled, and Miriam vaguely registered that it tickled her face when he did that. It was hard to focus on anything else than how scolding hot he felt—not to mention how hot he looked.

“I guess I would have been too. So let me guess. You visited the library?” he said, and smiled when she nodded.

“So, your own room or the temporary, Miss?” he asked in a formal voice as he stood in front of the two doors.

“My own, please?” she responded.

He laid her carefully on her bed, hesitating briefly as he leaned above her with a slight mocking bow accompanied with a teasing smile. Before she could say anything, he turned around and walked towards the door.

“Hey Blake,” Miriam called. He turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure, now rest,” he said and left the room.

Miriam felt her heartbeat fasten, and all previous thoughts of the missing pages were long gone.

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