Mythical Creatures, Part V
And this time, I swear I'm going to sleep. Will further edit tomorrow. It probably needs some editing. Woo.
In the Chamber
Night and morning were impossibly mixed in her head. It was always light in a way, where she was, and all of her needs were simply provided for. If she’d had some free will about it, it wouldn’t have been the worst situation in the world. As it was not her choice, Maia was a little worried that she’d lose her mind, and she was a lot worried that she would never live her own life again. She wanted to feel the ocean rolling beneath a ship, again. She needed to see Harry again.
And yet, there was something about this place...something deeply healing, on a physical level. Maia gathered it was what had kept her from sustaining noticeable injuries from the fight with the leviathan and why, despite her kept existence, she was so keenly aware of her own strength, of late. Even the scar Valdas left at her neck seemed somewhat improved. The phantom itch of an aborted vampire curse haunted her no longer. She wondered if it was still as pink as it used to be.
Where she had once seen the rather airy mentality of the merfolk as novel and unthreatening before, Maia was beginning to worry they weren’t even aware of whatever it was that she was supposed to help them with. She needed to help them in order to get home, or rather, for home to find her. The day that everything changed was something of a blessing, on that front.
Tero looked haunted when he arrived with a meal for her. It had taken her the better part of her time there to get him to stop addressing her as ‘My Liege.’ She had settled for ‘ma’am,’ eventually, as at least it was familiar in her ear. That day, the first thing Tero did was address her in a rather uncertain stammer.
“My Liege,” he said, and he did not look up to greet her.
“What is it, fish-boy?” Tero smiled weakly at her attempt to put him at ease with her jest. Maia had figured out early on that this merman was probably her ticket out of this gilded cage, so she had been gentle and relatively kind with him. Familiar. Matronly, perhaps. She could see on that guileless face that he had begun to trust her. Though it was all an act, at first, lately she had begun to feel genuinely fond of him in an odd way.
“It’s happening again. After you have finished with your meal, I am to take you to see.”
She simply nodded and took the covered plate from him. The cover unscrewed from the shallow dish, rather like an upended jar. She wondered if she had been brought through the water to this place in a person-sized container like that. It was a mildly unsettling thought. Inside was fruit that had long been out of season in Rhydin-berries and melons, mostly. Some cucumbers. A sweet drink she had been told was nectar. This was a typical meal; nothing they ever brought her was cooked. No fires in mer-land.
“Please tell me what is happening again, Tero,” she said as she knelt near the water, placing her dish on the floor beside her. Maia lifted a slice of cucumber, and glanced furtively at the spooked creature. He was very clearly afraid.
“Come here, now,” Maia said gently. He complied, as he always did. She placed her palm along his cheek, which was cool and damp. His skin felt different from her own flesh in its firmness. The warmth of her hand was as foreign a sensation to him as most of this experience was to her. He felt a jolt from her hand that peeled through him and steeled his fraying nerves. His eyes slipped shut, and even the pomp and circumstance he carried with him fell away.
"I would never let harm befall you, ma'am. Not for all the world."
“I know, boy, ” she said. So long as this creature was her link to the world, Maia felt certain that she could believe that. She knew it just as certainly as she knew that she could slit his throat if it would buy her freedom back. It was sickening to be put in such a position. Tero didn't know. At her touch and her kindness, he was quiet a long moment, as though trying to pull the right collection of words together. “My Liege. They are dying again...my people. We cannot tell the cause or the source, but all have faith in you, ma’am.”
“I understand. And I shall go to see, with my own eyes, what has happened?”
Tero looked grimmer again, and Maia watched him with care. “There is a place the shells are left for us to see. Sacred waters, profaned by the blood of my kin.” He trembled as he spoke, and the pieces started to fall into place. He was going to take her away from the chamber, and she was going to have her chance, perhaps, to find a way out of this.
Maia wondered if this was the short way out of captivity, or if perhaps she would finally get a clue about the ones who had recruited her for demon duty. If she could figure out what it was that they thought she owed, maybe she could finally stop being haunted by Celaeno, and by every nasty thing that goes bump in the night. Escape, and continue run from the past, or remain captive and perhaps free herself from it. Only the ‘perhaps’ gave her any pause; Maia knew the price of running.
“I have finished, Tero,” she said, putting the plate back together and handing it to him. He took it with a gracious nod, then said “Ma’am, we will arrive in moments with your transport. Is there anything else you will require?”
“My sword.”
“You will have guard.”
“And if I am to leave the safety of this chamber, I will have my sword.”
“Of course.”
He ducked beneath the surface, and she stood at the water’s edge, watching him swim towards the side of the chamber where things entered and exited. She had as many questions as ever, but at least she was starting to get some answers. In minutes, the transport arrived.
Maia had never seen anything like it. It was the sort of thing one might dream up in a fairy story. Its hull had a smooth ivory gleam, and even ridges. It was narrow, and shaped to glide through the water with ease. Spaced along the hull was what looked like thick glass windows, placed with an offbeat, but discernible sense of symmetry. On either side of it, dolphins began to surface, and circle around the perimeter of the chamber. Tero came up next, with a smile.
“All is prepared. Your sword awaits.”
“In there?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
And then the vessel opened as though on a hinge, rather like a clam shell. The inside was the color of a stormy sky, a pale blue grey. Inside were three odd little seats, seemingly formed of the hard grey surface. Maia was suddenly quite happy that she was not a very big thing. Her sword (thank goodness) was sheathed in its scabbard and still attached to the old leather belt that had served her for ages. Her own things- a sight for sore eyes. Maia gingerly stepped in and settled into one of the seats, which, miraculously, was not completely uncomfortable.
“How does this move?”
“The allies, you see, will take it.”
“Wait, you mean the dolphins?”
“Yes.”
“Are our allies?”
“Yes. They helped us to find you.”
“Huh.”
That was the last she said before the odd clamshell ship closed. Through the windows she watched as the dolphins, six to be exact, took rank and formation around this transport, holding what Maia assumed was the merfolk equivalent of hardy rope in their beaks. This just continued to get wilder in her mind. She had been made a captive monarch by mermaids after being set up by Celaeno and apparently ratted out by dolphins. Maia found herself, then, en route to a mermaid murder scene by way of giant submerged clamshell carriage. A sad little smile tugged at her lips as she watched out the window as other merfolk took rank near the carriage and followed the procession.
“Harry would never believe this.”
In the Chamber
Night and morning were impossibly mixed in her head. It was always light in a way, where she was, and all of her needs were simply provided for. If she’d had some free will about it, it wouldn’t have been the worst situation in the world. As it was not her choice, Maia was a little worried that she’d lose her mind, and she was a lot worried that she would never live her own life again. She wanted to feel the ocean rolling beneath a ship, again. She needed to see Harry again.
And yet, there was something about this place...something deeply healing, on a physical level. Maia gathered it was what had kept her from sustaining noticeable injuries from the fight with the leviathan and why, despite her kept existence, she was so keenly aware of her own strength, of late. Even the scar Valdas left at her neck seemed somewhat improved. The phantom itch of an aborted vampire curse haunted her no longer. She wondered if it was still as pink as it used to be.
Where she had once seen the rather airy mentality of the merfolk as novel and unthreatening before, Maia was beginning to worry they weren’t even aware of whatever it was that she was supposed to help them with. She needed to help them in order to get home, or rather, for home to find her. The day that everything changed was something of a blessing, on that front.
Tero looked haunted when he arrived with a meal for her. It had taken her the better part of her time there to get him to stop addressing her as ‘My Liege.’ She had settled for ‘ma’am,’ eventually, as at least it was familiar in her ear. That day, the first thing Tero did was address her in a rather uncertain stammer.
“My Liege,” he said, and he did not look up to greet her.
“What is it, fish-boy?” Tero smiled weakly at her attempt to put him at ease with her jest. Maia had figured out early on that this merman was probably her ticket out of this gilded cage, so she had been gentle and relatively kind with him. Familiar. Matronly, perhaps. She could see on that guileless face that he had begun to trust her. Though it was all an act, at first, lately she had begun to feel genuinely fond of him in an odd way.
“It’s happening again. After you have finished with your meal, I am to take you to see.”
She simply nodded and took the covered plate from him. The cover unscrewed from the shallow dish, rather like an upended jar. She wondered if she had been brought through the water to this place in a person-sized container like that. It was a mildly unsettling thought. Inside was fruit that had long been out of season in Rhydin-berries and melons, mostly. Some cucumbers. A sweet drink she had been told was nectar. This was a typical meal; nothing they ever brought her was cooked. No fires in mer-land.
“Please tell me what is happening again, Tero,” she said as she knelt near the water, placing her dish on the floor beside her. Maia lifted a slice of cucumber, and glanced furtively at the spooked creature. He was very clearly afraid.
“Come here, now,” Maia said gently. He complied, as he always did. She placed her palm along his cheek, which was cool and damp. His skin felt different from her own flesh in its firmness. The warmth of her hand was as foreign a sensation to him as most of this experience was to her. He felt a jolt from her hand that peeled through him and steeled his fraying nerves. His eyes slipped shut, and even the pomp and circumstance he carried with him fell away.
"I would never let harm befall you, ma'am. Not for all the world."
“I know, boy, ” she said. So long as this creature was her link to the world, Maia felt certain that she could believe that. She knew it just as certainly as she knew that she could slit his throat if it would buy her freedom back. It was sickening to be put in such a position. Tero didn't know. At her touch and her kindness, he was quiet a long moment, as though trying to pull the right collection of words together. “My Liege. They are dying again...my people. We cannot tell the cause or the source, but all have faith in you, ma’am.”
“I understand. And I shall go to see, with my own eyes, what has happened?”
Tero looked grimmer again, and Maia watched him with care. “There is a place the shells are left for us to see. Sacred waters, profaned by the blood of my kin.” He trembled as he spoke, and the pieces started to fall into place. He was going to take her away from the chamber, and she was going to have her chance, perhaps, to find a way out of this.
Maia wondered if this was the short way out of captivity, or if perhaps she would finally get a clue about the ones who had recruited her for demon duty. If she could figure out what it was that they thought she owed, maybe she could finally stop being haunted by Celaeno, and by every nasty thing that goes bump in the night. Escape, and continue run from the past, or remain captive and perhaps free herself from it. Only the ‘perhaps’ gave her any pause; Maia knew the price of running.
“I have finished, Tero,” she said, putting the plate back together and handing it to him. He took it with a gracious nod, then said “Ma’am, we will arrive in moments with your transport. Is there anything else you will require?”
“My sword.”
“You will have guard.”
“And if I am to leave the safety of this chamber, I will have my sword.”
“Of course.”
He ducked beneath the surface, and she stood at the water’s edge, watching him swim towards the side of the chamber where things entered and exited. She had as many questions as ever, but at least she was starting to get some answers. In minutes, the transport arrived.
Maia had never seen anything like it. It was the sort of thing one might dream up in a fairy story. Its hull had a smooth ivory gleam, and even ridges. It was narrow, and shaped to glide through the water with ease. Spaced along the hull was what looked like thick glass windows, placed with an offbeat, but discernible sense of symmetry. On either side of it, dolphins began to surface, and circle around the perimeter of the chamber. Tero came up next, with a smile.
“All is prepared. Your sword awaits.”
“In there?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
And then the vessel opened as though on a hinge, rather like a clam shell. The inside was the color of a stormy sky, a pale blue grey. Inside were three odd little seats, seemingly formed of the hard grey surface. Maia was suddenly quite happy that she was not a very big thing. Her sword (thank goodness) was sheathed in its scabbard and still attached to the old leather belt that had served her for ages. Her own things- a sight for sore eyes. Maia gingerly stepped in and settled into one of the seats, which, miraculously, was not completely uncomfortable.
“How does this move?”
“The allies, you see, will take it.”
“Wait, you mean the dolphins?”
“Yes.”
“Are our allies?”
“Yes. They helped us to find you.”
“Huh.”
That was the last she said before the odd clamshell ship closed. Through the windows she watched as the dolphins, six to be exact, took rank and formation around this transport, holding what Maia assumed was the merfolk equivalent of hardy rope in their beaks. This just continued to get wilder in her mind. She had been made a captive monarch by mermaids after being set up by Celaeno and apparently ratted out by dolphins. Maia found herself, then, en route to a mermaid murder scene by way of giant submerged clamshell carriage. A sad little smile tugged at her lips as she watched out the window as other merfolk took rank near the carriage and followed the procession.
“Harry would never believe this.”