Nisong coughed. Half the beads on her tunic had ripped away; one was embedded in her upper arm. She pried it free and tossed it onto the sands, pressing a palm against the wound and hissing at the pain. “Leaf!” she croaked out.

No one answered. After the cracking and rumbling of the sinking island, the beach felt eerily silent, only the call of gulls and the washing of the waves upon the shore. Disaster had come and gone and now she was alone in the aftermath.

She stumbled to her feet, testing her ankle. Not broken, just sore. She remembered knocking it on the side of the boat when she’d been tossed overboard.

“Nisong?”

She whirled and saw Coral in the trees where the beach ended, two war constructs at her side. Relief swelled within her. Coral hurried down the beach, picking her way across the sand and through the broken bodies. She caught Nisong by the elbows before she could fall. “Are you all right?”

How could she be all right? She would never be so again. The world had cracked open and swallowed Luangon. It had swallowed Grass. She let herself be held, unsure whether or not the water running down her cheeks was seawater or tears. “I tried to save Grass.”

Coral rubbed her back. It was the same way her sister had once, when they’d been young and their parents had scolded her. Coral had known too, that juniper would help her concentrate, that she hadn’t been able to concentrate when thinking of Shiyen. “You have some of Wailun’s memories, don’t you?” Nisong said.

“Yes,” Coral said simply. “Not as many as you have of Nisong’s, I think, but they’re there. I’m still Coral. I’m not her.”

Nisong wasn’t thinking straight. Her head pounded and she coughed up more seawater, wiping her mouth on the back of one wet, salty sleeve. “Leaf,” she said. “We need to find him.”

Coral directed the two war constructs to search, helping Nisong along the sand. She shook off Coral’s hand after a few steps, deciding she didn’t need it. Her ankle still hurt and everything ached, but she could stand on her own two feet.

“There are survivors trickling in from Luangon,” Coral said. “You said there was enough death for one day, and I agree. We’ve left them alone. Some are setting up camps in a clearing near the city. We’ve been consolidating food stores and have left some for them.”