The Ash Girl
by A’Lis Bly
For my daughter Claire
Hun Vedverte
Chapter XIV
Muck-North
They lay askew there in the muck—a stillness so complete you would think them dead. Silt billows up in dark, languid puffs. The body has settled on its back, not quite flat. Arms splayed, outstretched, palms to the sky; back arched, as are the feet, curling into the seabed as if grasping for purchase.
Chapter XVI
Oxford
Charlotte clicked the remote on the projector. “Behold the ever-expanding universe. The latest triggering event spurring this research was the unexplained sudden influx of stars in the constellation Ara. Some counts say by over a million newly visible astronomical objects. By calculating . . .”