Chapter 281: Rocking

Talial Back and forth, back and forth. That was all I knew. Nothing more, nothing less. It was the rhythm I had come to accept, the phase I followed him to. Nothing mattered, nothing seemed important. The gentle rocking of the metal ship against the water was all that made sense to me. It was all I knew, and I had long since accepted it. I didn’t know how long I had been floating. Time felt like water slipping through my fingers—elusive and impossible to grasp. It wasn’t that I didn’t care anymore; it was that caring required energy, and that energy had long since faded into something distant, almost forgotten. I woke up when I was told, ate whatever they gave me, and then went back to sleep. I barely registered what was happening around me. The constant swaying of the ship had become my world—an endless rocking that lulled me into a state of nothingness. The days blurred together. I had stopped trying to keep track. There were no markers, no reminders that time was still moving for