Chapter 282: Unlikely

Talia After the brief stop on the island, we resumed our treacherous journey to an unknown destination. To my slight amusement, they had moved me from the cage where I had been kept during the first few days and now placed me on a hammock that I vaguely remembered enjoying before the island visit. Back on the ship, everything returned to its previous state, and the vague memories of Ariel and him became increasingly distant. The constant rocking had almost become bearable, a lullaby that kept me in that strange state between waking and sleep, where nothing really mattered and nothing really made sense. The days blended together; the voices around me were distant and muffled, as if I were hearing them through layers of thick fog. I tried to make sense of them sometimes—tried to grasp at the snippets of conversation that floated past me—but my mind refused to latch onto anything solid. It was easier to let it all drift away. But there was one thing, one name, that kept coming up like a