The Pensieve

By Lauren Derrick Part 3 of 3 The same panic that had overwhelmed Nauni the day she was exiled dove back into her. She sank to her knees, breathing heavily. I'm going to dissolve into nothing, she thought. The injustices the day had brought seemed to stack atop one another without end. Chang engaged, her true status as an exile revealed, her blessing required at a marriage she did not support, her body turning to sea-foam. Everything had been going her way, and in a single morning, everything had come crashing down. Current. I need to get to Current. Nauni thought desperately. There were guards at all the doors. There were guards everywhere. And she was a goddess that might decide to return to the sea at any minute. But perhaps… There was one stone tower of the fort that came out directly above the ocean. Nauni used the wall to steady herself as she rose onto shaking legs. She breathed in heavily and began marching towards that southern tower. The stairs seemed to go on forever in

  By Lauren Derrick Part 2 of 3 Three months later. Stone walls enclosed Nauni. The large fort was sturdy and gray, and she felt like a hermit crab hiding within its walls. She could go where she wished inside, but this hardly felt like freedom. A few servants bobbed their heads respectfully at her as they hustled tea over to the island's lord. She smiled courteously and nodded back, but then she frowned. Of course, she couldn't expect them to keep reverencing her like they had at first. She was just beginning to feel as though she could understand their language, but she knew that they still spoke about the day she had come to their shore. They whispered about how she had been gently carried to the shore in a turtle's shell, adorned with more pearls and precious shells than anyone had ever seen. The son of the Island Lord had been there and seen it himself. A beautiful maiden, dressed in shells and pearls and in a deep sleep carried to the shore—the same woman who had resc