Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 23

Chapter 23

They had just steadied themselves and started to breathe again when a tile slipped loose and fell It hit the stone path below. The sound wasn’t loud, but every Wraith’s ears snapped toward it at once

Lyra flattened against the tiles, one hand clamped in the tile groove, the other pressing down on Lydia beside her. Don’t move.

Lydia clearly got it. She buried her face in her arm and hid even her breathing.

Another round of attacks came down, right where the tile had fallen.

‘BOOM!”

r

A second pillar snapped clean in half from the shockwave. Wood splinters exploded outward, and the pavilion roof tilted hard to the right.

Lyra’s toes locked into the edge of a tile groove, refusing to let her slide.

Lydia’s fingers jammed into the gap. A nail tore. Blood seeped from her fingertip. She bit her lip and made no sound.

The roof was tilted about fifteen degrees now, and the two of them hung there on a structure that could collapse any second.

Below, the Wraiths’ ears kept spinning.

One full rotation.

Two.

Nothing new.

They stood there a few seconds. Then the lead one turned dragging its hook-scythe across the ground, and headed for the eastern corridor. The other five followed.

The footsteps faded. The scrape of metal on stone grew softer, then vanished.

Lyra counted fifteen seconds before she finally let herself exhale.

Lydia rolled onto her back on the tilted tiles, chest heaving violently

She turned to Lyra and let loose a flood of Ursarian, words tumbling out fast, hands gesturing the whole time.

Lyra cocked her head and listened for a long moment. Didn’t catch a single word

“What are you saying?” Lyra asked.

1/5

38 am

Fedia rattled off another long stretch, this time with a few Draconian words mixed in

Amazing thank you you’re amazing.” Lydia said

Lyra frowned.

“Those the only two words you know? Lyra asked.

Lydia chattered on, expression earnest, eyes sincere, but everything spilling out of her mouth was still Ursarian.

Lyra was not pleased.

“You uneducated or something? You can’t even speak Draconian?”

Lydia blinked at her, clearly lost.

“I said-” Lyra dropped her voice and pointed at her own mouth. “Dra-co-ni- an.”

Lydia paused, then promptly launched into another stream of Ursarian.

“No Draconian, no more talking.” Lyra turned her head away.

Lydia panicked, leaned in and patted her shoulder, squeezing out a few syllables. “Heh… low?”

Lyra didn’t turn back.

Lydia patted again. “Heh… low!”

Lyra finally glanced sideways at her. “Wrong tone. Third tone. Hello.”

Hello!”

‘Barely passing.”

Over in the Draconia livestream, the chat had gone completely feral.

Lyra Myldol: I’m dying. Goddess Lyra is up on a roof giving the Ursarian player a Dracontan lesson.]

NeverAleVeggies: I can’t, six Wraiths just walked off and she’s already ruming language class 1

BornToCuss: [The kicker is Lydia is actually LEARNING What even is this scene’]

LuckyKoi: [I don’t get how Goddess Lyra socializes but it’s so satisfying to watch!

AnotherDayAlive: [Lydia poured out all those thank-yous and Lyra just hit her with Your uneducated?” I laughed so hard my neighbor banged on the wall |

2/5

CoDracenia: ttet me translate for everyone. It micans: want to roll with me? Learn Draconian first No Dracoman, no playtime I

LyraForeverGoddess. You guys notice? Goddess Lyra kept her voice low the entire time, right under the Wraiths’ threshold. That volume control is insane.]

“Crack”

The sound came from beneath them.

Lyra glanced down. The two pillars the Wraiths had cut were splitting wider, wood splinters dropping in a steady trickle.

The roof’s tilt deepened another notch.

This pavilion wasn’t going to hold much longer.

Lyra didn’t hesitate. She tapped Lydia’s arm and pointed toward the pine tree.

Follow me.

Crouched low, she edged along the tiles to the lip of the pavilion, stretched a foot out, and planted it on a pine branch reaching toward them.

The branch dipped, but she didn’t stop. She moved fast to the trunk, then swung up onto the loft’s roof.

Lydia followed, less smoothly. Her wound was still bleeding, and at the gap between branch and loft, her whole body shuddered.

Lyra glanced back, reached out, caught her wrist, and hauled her up.

The loft had a hipped gable roof, a ridge down the middle, and both slopes were wide enough tor a person to lie flat.

Lyra pointed at the right slope, eyed the blood on Lydia, and ‘mimed it out-lie down, don’t move.

Lydia didn’t argue this time. She lay down obediently, back flat to the tiles, eyes on the sky gulping

air

Lyra didn’t stay on the loft She skipped along the eaves into the bamboo beside it took two or three steps along the stalks, and dropped back onto the same courtyard wall she’d left before

She crouched on the wall and glanced at the sky. “Almost time

It had been close to an hour since the game began. In the first mission, the chest had spawned right

at the one-hour mark.

If the pattern held…

3/5

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