Chapter33: She's a Witch

Maxiana The world is hazy and dark as I move through water so shallow it barely brushes my ankles. It ripples with each step I take, disturbing the millions of stars reflected on its surface. It’s totally dark here save for the stars hanging overhead, and silent, even as I splash through the water. I have no idea how I got here, but I feel like I’ve been stuck in an endless, watery, starlit loop for hours now. My long, white slip of a dress floats on the surface, gathered around my ankles, as I move through the nothingness, wondering when it’s going to end. Soft, whispered voices drift around me–unfamiliar and tangled, like they’re speaking underwater. I must be dreaming, right? There’s no way this is real. This endless, shallow ocean of stars is a figment of my mind, my too-active imagination. It has to be. I pause, squinting into the dizzying starlight. A small rise is just visible in the distance, I believe. An island cloaked in shadow and mist, but there is, in fact, land. My chest