Chapter 790: Water

The water in the basin trembled. A narrow ring rose along its edge, then fell when Luna gasped.

Mingyue lifted her onto her lap.

"There’s no one speaking here except us."

"I can still hear them."

"I know. Listen to me first."

Luna’s shoulders had begun to lose their solid outline. Mingyue could still hold her, but water ran through the cloth beneath her hand and gathered against the chair.

Petricia pulled the basin from the table and set it on the floor beside them. She spread a towel beneath Luna’s feet rather than trying to drag the water away from her body.

"Should I bring someone?"

"Keep the doorway clear," Alex said. "No one brings a call in here."

He crouched in front of Luna.

"Can you hear me?"

She nodded, then shook her head.

"There’s too much."

Mingyue felt her own grip tighten and forced it to ease. Holding harder would not put their daughter back together.

Alex was watching the clear patch spread across Luna’s shoulder with the same concentration he brought to an unfamiliar formation. His fingers moved, beginning a familiar sign.

Mingyue caught his eye before he finished it.

"Don’t put more power into her," she told Alex.

"I wasn’t going to."

His voice was tense. He looked at the hand he had almost raised, then rested it against Luna’s knee instead.

Feeding her energy had made her adapt before. Mingyue watched the clear patch spread across her shoulder and refused to risk another change.

Mingyue bent until Luna could see her face.

"Feel my hand."

Luna looked down at the fingers resting against her cheek.

"Here," Mingyue said. "You’re sitting with me. Dad is in front of you."

"I’m wet."

"You can stay wet."

Luna’s mouth trembled.

Mingyue kept her voice level. She was frightened by how little she understood of what was happening inside their daughter, but Luna did not need to fight that fear as well as her own.

"You don’t have to tell us about the door. You don’t have to listen to those people."

"They’re shouting."

"Let them. Stay here."

Alex held his hand where Luna could see it and waited. She reached slowly. Her first attempt slipped around his fingers. On the second, her hand kept its shape long enough to close.

Mingyue watched water gather back along Luna’s wrist. No one spoke while her hand settled.

Outside the room, a bed rattled across the floor. Petricia pulled the door almost closed, leaving enough space to answer the next attendant without bringing them inside.

Luna turned toward the sound.

"Are they going away?"

"The bed is moving," Alex said. "We aren’t."

She held his hand more tightly.

Color returned to the clear edge of Luna’s shoulder. Mingyue could feel her weight settling against her instead of running through the chair.

Luna’s next breath came without a gasp.

Mingyue brushed the damp hair away from her face. She wanted to ask whether the voices were gone, but did not want to make Luna look for them again merely to give an answer.

She waited until their daughter spoke first.

"It’s quieter."

Alex nodded.

"Keep resting."

Luna looked at the empty space above his hand.

"Did I do something bad?"

"No," Mingyue said.

"You said to stay."

"I did. I also should have moved you away when your hand changed."

She had mistaken Luna’s curiosity for something harmless until the strand touched the call.

Luna leaned against her.

"I wanted to hear the lady."

"We heard enough to start looking," Alex said. "You don’t need to hear her again."

Mingyue looked at him sharply.

He met her gaze, then turned his empty palm upward so Luna could see it.

"The call stays closed here."

Luna touched his palm with one finger. This time it stayed solid.

Her eyes began to droop.

Petricia brought a dry cloth and helped Mingyue change the towel beneath her without lifting her from the chair. They moved slowly, careful not to disturb her.

After a while, she fell asleep against Mingyue’s chest.

Alex stayed crouched until Petricia drew another chair beside him. He sat carefully, one hand pressed against his bandaged side.

Mingyue looked at the small pool on the floor. It had stopped moving when Luna’s body settled.

"The response stayed with her after you stopped feeding it," she said quietly.

"Something from it stayed with her."

"How much?"

"I don’t know."

Alex looked toward their sleeping daughter, then away from the faded mark on his palm.

A door. Red steps. Water rising past a shelf.

Mingyue remembered each word. Luna’s hand was still curled in Alex’s sleeve; neither parent moved to wake her.

Vesa spoke through their private connection, keeping her voice out of the room.

"The woman’s response was local. I have part of her earlier directions. I lost what she said after the shelf, and I can’t recover it from the closed trace. The water matches what she tried to tell us before that."

"Use those," Mingyue said.

"The stair color may distinguish the two service buildings. I can ask the people who know that district."

Alex glanced at Luna.

She had tucked both hands beneath her chin. Her breathing was steady, but her hair and clothes were still damp.

"No more calls near Luna," he told Vesa. "Keep those directions separate from the other reports. We work from what we already heard."

"And the ship?" Vesa asked.

Mingyue looked toward the doorway. There were wounded people waiting beyond it and a frightened crew still trying to keep one of their own from tearing open a cabin.

"Bring their reports to me through the bond," she said. "Alex stays with Luna when I go out."

Alex started to object, then looked at the child holding the edge of his sleeve even in her sleep.

He remained seated.

Petricia picked up the basin. She did not hurry out to make the decision easier for either of them.

"Tell her before you leave," she said to Mingyue. "Even if she’s asleep now. She asks me where you went."

Mingyue looked down at Luna.

"I will."

There was more behind Petricia’s words. Mingyue would not make her explain it here while Petricia cleaned water from their daughter’s feet. She took the dry cloth and finished that herself.

When Vesa returned with the first answer from the district, Mingyue listened without waking Luna.

Someone remembered red steps outside an old water-control building. Its lower rooms had been used for storage before the outbreak.

It gave them somewhere to begin checking.

Mingyue waited until Luna stirred, told her she was going to help look for the woman, and made sure she could see Alex sitting beside her before standing up.

Their daughter did not have to go back into the voices to show them the way.