Liars (Lake Baikal | Siberia)

[Thalia]

Thalia laughed for the tease of Kemala’s snapping arms, surprised at the frivolity, and delighted too. “Well, me either. She looks like a giant sturgeon, all plated along her spine. I haven’t seen the carvings in person though, just online.” A brow rose, playful in kind. “You know, sometimes the whirlpools spit the boats back out, a few days missing from the memories of those on board but otherwise no worse for wear.” She didn’t know whether she believed it herself, but these days she didn’t write anything off as impossible. If Aylin was to be believed, she never had, though she did not dwell on patchy childhood memory, or more recent. Her gaze drifted to watch Kemala’s examination of the drawings, wondering if she told the woman exactly why she’d come here the sooth of her unperturbed stoicism would instead recoil. There was a difference, after all, between strange and crazy.

Her attention caught by chance on the revealed tattoo, different from the nautical theme of the rest she could see against Kemala’s dark skin. Her head tilted a little, though she was uncertain if the pry of her curiosity would be met with a favourable reception. Her fingers brushed idle against her own chest over the damp t-shirt, though no mark was there. She thought about other symbols given strange life in the pages of her sketchbook, and felt the majesty of its mystery sweep her into its current. “There’s a place on the lake’s eastern shore called Snake Bay. There are hot springs there. But apparently no actual snakes.” She gestured the spot beneath her own collarbone, plainly curious to witness the other woman’s reaction. Though presently, she smiled and added. “So if we were going to look for a secret in the lake, where do you think we should start?”