Chapter 115. Long Story Short
Rhys told his tale. He skimmed over some things, like the names of the people he’d broken out, or exactly what he’d done to regain his magic, since he wasn’t sure of Mouse’s allegiance—though he was rapidly leaning toward ‘on his side’—but otherwise told the tale faithfully. The whole time, he kept the water clean for Lira, refusing to let anything break his hundred-meter perimeter. At last, he wrapped up his tale. “And that’s how we ended up in the sewers, and here we are!”
“You’ve been busy,” Lira commented.
Mouse nodded thoroughly, her whole body bobbing with the effort.
Rhys scratched the back of his head, embarrassed to be praised, then laughed a bit. “Compared to my three years of hard labor in the mines, it feels like I’ve been slacking off.”
“Ha,” Lira muttered.
“So what happened to you?” Rhys asked, gesturing at her.
She took a deep breath. “Oh, nothing much. Just, you know, insulted the Empress and personally pissed off one of her best guard dogs. You know.”
Rhys gave her a look. “Lira.”
Lira giggled—something that made Rhys’s heart leap, that she was still able to find humor in things after everything she’d been through—and waved her hand. “Gods. It’s so good to talk to someone. I thought I would be down here forever. I thought I would die in the shit in the dark, and never see anyone ever again…”
Her voice trailed off, and her eyes dimmed.
“Lira. What happened?” Rhys reminded her, bringing her back to the moment. For all that she was in good spirits now, she clearly wasn’t unscathed mentally. Who would be? He paused a moment, then quickly added, “If it’s too hard, you don’t have to say.”
“No, I want to say. I want someone else to hear the bullshit that happened to me, because I’m sick of being mad at it all alone in the dark.” She straightened up, standing out of the water, and steeled herself, then began.