Even though I’m unconscious for two days and two nights, Rufus doesn’t speak to me. I only know I've spent that long in hospital because Ondine tells me, when I wake up to find her sitting at the side of my bed. She holds a plastic cup with an oversized straw in it to my lips, and I drink all of the water that’s in it, and croak out that I’d like more.

“Wow, that’s the first time you’ve left please out of a sentence since we met,” Ondine said, smirking. “You really are sick, aren’t you?”

I ask her what happened, and she tells me that when the paramedics arrived I was unresponsive, and they rushed me to hospital. Dr. Pendle went with me in the ambulance, and the others followed closely behind in Max’s car.

“They did a million tests, and concluded you have some kind of aquatic fever – something in the water that caused swelling on the brain.”

My tongue is fat and flabby, and I can’t seem to get any words out. “And swelling of the tongue – I forgot. They said that might never go away. You might be doomed to a life of saying wahwahblah like you just did.”

I must look as terrified as I feel because guilt flashes across Ondine’s face. “Nah, that was a joke. This is awful – the brain fever sucked all the Canadian and the humour right out of you.”

“Wahwahblahwah.”

“What’s that?”

“I said they’re not mutually exclusive – you can be Canadian and full of humour,” I say, pleased that the swelling has gone down in my tongue already.

“Of course that’s true,” Ondine says, patting my hand. I know she’s being deliberately patronizing, but I don’t care – I’m just glad she’s here.

“Do you remember what I said to you back at the house?”

“Do you remember what you said to me back at the house?”

“I mean one thing in particular. About Rufus.”

Ondine bit her lip and nodded. “I do. You said Rufus is why you’re like this.”

I sink back into the pillows, relieved that my memory about telling her isn’t faulty.

“But then you slipped back into the netherworld, so I didn’t have time to ask you the burning question - Rufus is why you’re like what exactly?”

I try to answer but the words come out as squeaks. “A Sentinel,” I manage to say.

I see Ondine’s brain working, as it sifts through everything she knows about me – my Sentinel status, Rufus’s abduction that I did nothing to prevent, The Wash. “You mean your Sentinelness – if that’s even a word – was triggered by Rufus’s abduction.”

I shake my head. “No – I mean that Rufus somehow made me a Sentinel. That’s what he told me.”

The images I saw when I was sinking underwater flash through my mind again, and I know that Rufus wanted me to see them – he planted them there. He was trying to explain something about his disappearance. But he also showed me things I couldn’t have seen with my own eyes – or at least I don’t think I saw them – because I'd mysteriously passed out.

“I think Saphrine gave Rufus some kind of power so that he could live underwater. He wasn’t supposed to say goodbye to me – to hug me I mean – but he did anyway. I think he passed some of his power onto me. I wasn’t a born Sentinel – this isn’t my birthright. It’s just something that happened to me. That’s why I couldn’t save Rufus, because the powers hadn’t absorbed yet, or whatever the right word is.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Ondine’s eyebrows furrow, and she bites her lip again. “So if this absorption theory is correct, it took some time for you to develop your power, and be able to use it.”

I nod and gesture for another cup of water. Once she’s poured me some she holds it while I guzzle the contents. “I think that’s what happened.”

“So this means Rufus is a Sentinel too?”

“I guess so. He was going to tell me more, but then I woke up.”

“He’s an underwater Sentinel?”

“I guess – I mean I have no details, except that it seemed like he was deep underwater, waiting for me to reach him so he could explain everything to me.”

“Wow. But who is he guarding underwater?”

I shake my head. “No idea. And I have no idea how to get back to him so that he can tell me.”

Ondine puffs her cheeks out. “Okay, what do we know? Pendle had the idiot idea for us to talk about all of the sea beasts in the world, which seemed to trigger some kind of panic attack or something in you. You had pains in your chest and felt faint, and then you passed out. That’s when Rufus came to you.”

“Maybe it wasn’t a panic attack – maybe Rufus somehow caused me to be in that state so that we could talk.”

“But if that’s the case, why did he never do it before? He could have put your mind at ease a long time ago. You’ve been beating yourself up about this for years.”

In a rush I hear his words Nothing to do with what you did – it’s what you’re planning to do.

“He said he needed to talk to me because of what I’m planning to do.”

Ondine’s eyes grow huge. “What are you planning to do? Are these secret plans, or can you share them with me?”

“That’s the thing – I have no grand plans. I can’t even see my way around finishing my work and submitting it. That was my plan, but now I’m aimless. I’m trying to figure out what to do with all this knowledge I’ve accumulated. And this power,” I add, embarrassed to hear myself say it.

“But wait – that’s not entirely true is it? I mean, you’re planning to go back home in August aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” I say, thinking that what I really want to do is go back to Dr. Pendle’s, have another panic attack-type experience, pass out, and talk to Rufus again.

“You thought you’d be able to carry out a rescue, didn’t you?”

“Maybe,” I say again, seeing and smelling the putrid water of The Wash as I say it.

“Well then that must be it. Rufus knows you were going to try to save him. He either has some plans about how you can do it, or he doesn’t want you to do it.”

Ondine has figured out what my foggy, swollen brain could not. “Because he’s a Sentinel. He has to stay in the lake.”

Robbo sticks his head around the door frame. “Hey, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Thirsty.” Ondine takes the hint and gives me another cup of water. While she’s holding the straw to my lips I widen my eyes and nod at Robbo, trying to silently communicate that she can tell him what we’ve just discussed.

“What are you trying to say?” she asks.

“Tell Robbo.”

“Tell Robbo what?”

“Fill him in on what we just talked about.”

As Ondine starts to tell Robbo what we’ve just figured out about Rufus, I sink into the pillows again. I’m exhausted, and just want to go back to sleep. But before Ondine is finished updating Robbo, Dr. Pendle and Dr. Sidris appear in the doorway, and she starts all over again.

Everyone is quiet for a minute and then Robbo says, “How about when you’re back to full health we get on a plane and go back to your hometown? Let’s see if we can’t get to the bottom of this once and for all.”

I don’t want to think about going back to Juniperville. All I want to do is sleep, and talk to Rufus.

“Going back there is going to be very triggering for Thom. Getting better just so he can go back to all that sounds like a poisoned chalice to me.”

“I’ll be with him,” Robbo says. “He won’t be facing it all alone.”

“You’ve known Thom for all of five minutes,” Ondine says, worry etched across her face as she looks at me. “If you’re going with him, I’m going with him.”

My heart thumps and I realize I might be able to go back home, if Ondine comes with me. Robbo is strong and he’s obviously been in plenty of tricky situations, but Ondine is my best friend. I feel safest when she’s with me. But I also know she has her own dissertation to work on, and I don’t want to drag her away from it.

“If you’re both going, we’re going,” Dr. Sidris says, smiling like he’s just won a dream holiday on a game show. “Alasdair, you can apply for a short sabbatical for overseas research. If you get back before the teaching team starts, they shouldn’t put up any fight.”

Dr. Pendle is looking at me so intensely I want to close my eyes. Finally he says, “I’ll contact them today and ask if it can be arranged. Thom do you think this is something you want to do, when you’re feeling better?”

Of course not, I think, don’t be ridiculous – Juniperville is like a portal to hell. But then I look at Ondine, whose face is lit up with enthusiasm. “I guess so,” I mumble.

“What? What did he say?” Dr. Sidris asks.

“He said yes,” Ondine says happily.

“But don’t get your hopes up – the place is really the shits.”

“I heard that,” Dr. Sidris says, still smiling. “But still, I can’t wait to go.”