by C Bilici
Webbing had also developed between her fingers and her toes felt uncomfortable. They felt constricted by her boots and must also be webbed. She spread her fingers wider to catch more water and covered more distance. It was a thrilling experience feeling so adept in a usually hostile environment. She had never been a swimmer, certainly not a good one, and feeling at home in the water was a new experience. She couldn’t help but smile and revel in it and wondered how fast she would be able to go with bare feet.
As she swam, she looked about, wondered how long it would take them to reach the Enclave.
A dark shape shot past in a blur.
Stacey froze and her heart hammered.
Were the waters here inhabited?
As Arnoald and Komi looked at each other and her in concern, she wondered if they had the same concern she did. Would their powers even work in water? The others apparently didn’t want to wait to find out and swam faster, darting their heads about. The shimmering mirror-like surface glittered close ahead of her.
Pushing her hands out and flattening her body as she had on her first visit to Earth’s Enclave, Stacey slowed as she neared the sparkling film. The others watched her back before Arnoald motioned at Stacey then the surface. She flipped him off. He shot her a glare
Rolling her eyes, Stacey clawed toward the skin, and stuck a hand out.
The water bulged. Something took hold of her and dragged her at speed. She hit a solid surface. Then the water around her exploded in a flurry.
Droplets large and small pattered on her and the a puddle she lay in. She opened her eyes and watched as first Komi then Arnoald were vomited out of serpentine tubes of water. Standing, water expelled from her gills, but again with no sensation to gag or cough, the remaining water in her windpipe draining out.
“Well that was fun,” Arnoald said, giving her a cocky grin.
“Pull your shorts up, Eurovision.” She flapped her hand at him, which was returning to her usual pale complexion. “I can see your soggy eel.”
Komi laughed from somewhere and gave her a thumbs up when she turned to him.
Skin slack once more, her gills closed, and Stacey lifted her shirt to watch the slits conform to flesh and bone, barely visible once more.
“Go-go gadget gills,” Stacey muttered to herself.
Lowering the top, she looked about. The place was deserted. There were ruins of buildings that looked like they hadn’t been used in a long time. The temple in the distance in contrast looked well maintained.
“Where the fuck’s Fenton?” she growled, looking about.
“You do not think whatever we saw got him, do you?” Komi asked.
They watched the surface and waited a while before setting off for the temple. Someone there should be able to answer what that thing was and mount a search and rescue if needed.
By the time they reached the temple, she found she was dry apart from her clothing. Her skin and hair seemed to either shed water. Her boots, however, were full of water and her socks sodden, though she felt none of the discomfort she might have usually. She also wasn’t cold and the wetness felt pleasantly refreshing.
Telling the others to go ahead of her, Stacey sat on the steps of the temple waited a few more minutes to see if Fenton showed up. She also took the time to empty her boots and squeeze her socks out. The temple was unlike Earths, far more ornate in design and decorated with what appeared to be gold. There were also no blind guardians.
Boots retied, she stood and glanced down the road, then strode through the doors.
The Cardinals of Mhyrr stood about their table in the main hall, as did the delegates of the other realms. Her arms crossed tightly.
“You finally made it, then?” Fenton said. He stood Fenton by one of the male Mhyrr Cardinals she had seen in the temple meeting.
“Ah. Your apprentice,” the man said.
“Yeah. Last but not least it seems.” She glared openly at Fenton.
“I am Haerys.” He held his hand out to her.
“Haerys, this is Stacey.”
“Ah, yes. Moorna’s lover.” Haerys motioned them to a corner other Wards had taken. Young Mhyrr were attending to and entertaining them.
“If it’s all the same,” Stacey said with a frown, “I just want to see Jasper.”
The Cardinal bowed his head. “As you wish.” As he led them, Haerys glanced at the other worldly Wards with restrained disdain, but Stacey saw its signs. She’d seen similar looks aimed at her often enough to recognise it.
“I trust your crossing was not too harrowing,” the Cardinal added.
“It was fine. Thanks.”Fenton smiled thinly, apparently wanting the small talk over with.
Stacey couldn’t agree more.
As someone waved for his attention, Haerys excused himself, leaving Stacey and Fenton to speak. It looked to Stacey like the other male Cardinal.
Fenton gave her sodden clothes a perplexed look.
“Don’t even start,” Stacey said. “How did you get here before us, anyway?”
“You didn’t use the core, did you?” Fenton looked at the enforcers, shook his head. “You I can understand. But them?”
She remembered the shape they’d seen speed past them. “That was you? Speeding through the water?”. There must have been a similar flagstone here on the core.
After some time, Haerys beckoned them to a side alcove.
“Fucking finally.” Stacey set off for the man at brisk walk.
The Cardinal held out his hand and they each placed one of their own atop his so Haerys could lead them hopping from the Nexus on to their intended destination.
They appeared in a small circular side-room of glass with a domed ceiling overlooking a gleaming city at a great height. Stacey looked out on a world with sparse, large buildings built on what looked like an atoll, which curved out of view. The side of the building faced into the atoll and the water in the lagoon below them was a clear green-blue, the sky above it bright, and a different shade than she was used to. Fluffy clouds and a flying conveyance that looked like a jumbo jet mated with a marlin drifted across that striking sky.
In contrast to the Enclave, the outside world was modern but with a twist of history, tradition and mysticism. There was an eclectic mix of electronics and runes, glass and stone, aged metal, stainless steel, and what looked like more gold. Some sort of water tube system crisscrossed the city as a means of travel, people hurtling through them at break-neck speed held by nothing but water.
“That looks similar to how I reached the Enclave from the core,” Fenton commented.
“Yes, quite right. Similar system,” Haerys said.
Stacey was reminded of the tube system she’d used to empty the registers when she used to work check out during high school, but without the capsules. However it worked, it was impressive. When she turned around, the building they were in was no less so. The architecture withing was as mixed as outside. Then there was the Mhyrr.
The fashion of the people within ranged from thin floaty robes to catwalk fashion swim wear, a necessity of living an aquatic life, no doubt.
Despite the impressive differences to Earth, the architecture and peoples were essentially the same, and she quickly turned back to the Cardinal. It was also obvious from the similarities to home that this was a hospital, the thinly robed people nurses and doctors. The difference was, they all looked like they had just come off the set of a bizarre beach hospital soap opera.
Haerys led them out of the small annex through an ornate gilded arch to a counter. Stacey turned back to look at the room, and saw the Ward eye at the crest of the arch. With a backhanded slat to Fenton’s arm and a tilt of her head, she drew his attention to the eye.
Fenton raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Not exactly a state kept secret here, then.”
“No, and they seem to get VIP treatment,” Stacey said, looking to Haerys who was being given reverential preference over others before him. He also seemed to be something of a celebrity. “It’s li
ke the fucking Pope-mobile just touched down.”
Haerys walked back escorted by an attractive female that Stacey assumed was a nurse, though the nurses in pornos wore more than this woman and didn’t look as half as attractive.
Looking about again, Stacey didn’t see an average looking person let alone an ugly one. Or overweight. Suddenly feeling very out of place, she also wondered if there was some sort of genetic engineering or culling at work. She would ask Jasper if she remembered.
“She will take you to the girl,” Haerys said. “Jasper, did you call her?” He looked on as Stacey nodded in excitement, giving her an obvious fake smile. “I must leave you as I have other matters to attend. The delegates, as you know. You may return to the Enclave at any time you wish using these niches, reserved exclusively for Ward travel. Please do so only from these locations if you are in public view out of respect for our culture.”
“Of course, Haerys. Thank you for your kind assistance,” Fenton said, bowing his head to the Cardinal.
Haerys returned the gesture before entering the glass niche and vanishing.
The woman gave them a saccharine sweet smile that seemed just as fake, her gaze holding on Stacey longer than was polite on any world as far as Stacey was concerned.
“I am Tirra,” the nurse said. “I am a custodian in this house of healing. I will lead you to Moorna now.”
The woman spoke to them like they were tourists who didn’t speak her language.
“So, how come we can understand them, and vice versa?” She quietly spoke to Fenton behind the woman’s back, but not so quietly that the woman wouldn’t be able to overhear them. “It’s not like we speak fish.”
Fenton grinned at the woman as she shot Stacey an angry look, her face tightening before smiling once again, clearly not wishing to offend a Ward. Stacey wondered if that was a crime, but decided against pushing her to find out.
“Do try not to offend our gracious hosts, Stacey,” Fenton Whispered. “As well as re-arranging our bodies to accommodate this world our minds have been tuned also.”
“It really is a shame you could not hear our language in its natural tongue. It’s quite beautiful when compared to the chattering of other races.” The woman smiled at Stacey, and cut her off before she could respond. “We are here. I am sure you can find your way back.” She didn’t wait for confirmation, leaving them where they stood.
Fenton scowled at Stacey and walked into the room before her.
“What? Fishes be crazy.” Another nurse passed her, giving her an odd look. “Amiright?” she shot at the man, who walked on faster, shaking his head.
Stacey hesitated. She couldn’t say why, but nerves crept over her like fire ants. Anger, joy, love, and hate all tore through her mind as she entered the room.
It all fell away to be replaced with heartache when she crossed the threshold.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THE SMALL FIGURE floated within a massive metal and glass tank at the head of the room and had it’s back to the door. The size of the tank made the girl within look like a sickly alien child. It’s skin was drawn tight and olive green in the same way that Stacey’s had been when she had entered the Mhyrr Enclave waters. If Stacey hadn’t recognised the the waving expanse of blonde mane, the still familiar curve of the body, She wouldn’t have known it was her Jasper.
The bright cityscape and archipelago view that Jasper was watching did nothing to lessen the dread Stacey felt. The only movement within came from the long, golden wave of hair.
Feet faltering as she moved closer, Stacey gasped. Gashes raked the girls right. It looked like Jasper had been mauled by a shark, her abdomen and thigh a mass of discoloured scar tissue. As she ran to the tank, the thing was even bigger and more intimidating, standing around chest height. The not quite clear liquid withing softly bubbled as her hands pressed against it. She felt a hum of a motor or something as she pressed her forehead to it.
“Jas,” Stacey said, voice soft.
The bubbling pushed the hair waving hair clear as Jasper’s head jerked. She rolled to face Stacey. Her eyes slowly refocused. Stacey had seen her with that faraway look on many occasions and knew she’d been in silent meditation or contemplation, though there was also a sadness that wasn’t normally there.
Jasper’s eyes locked on hers and that dejected expression was swept away to be replaced with shock. Jasper hammered on the curved top of the cocoon.
A nurse stood by the machine, some kind of glass tablet in hand. She frowned, but, pressing something on the tablet, complied.
As the lid split lengthwise, Stacey took a step back and the halves folded out to rest on the sides of the tank, like mechanical insect wings.
As Jasper rose and floated to the head of the tank, Stacey ran to climb steps that slid out to meet her. She took the wet hand that reached out and pulled gently, gingerly helping Jasper up similar steps within.
Jasper rose out of the water, gasping to speak as her gills emptied. She climbed as fast as she could then descended slower with Stacey’s help. “Why— How are you here, Stace?”
The wet, healed over wounds caught the light. Stacey could only stare at them and wince.
Jasper followed Stacey’s gaze. “It looks worse than it is.”
“I— Can— Can I hug you?” Stacey looked confused. Jasper smiled, stretching out her arms. Stacey all but jumped into them.
“Ooh, careful.” Jasper’s face twisted in pain, but she laughed.
“Sorry, sorry.” Stacey relaxed her grip and backed away, not letting her hands off the girl. “Does it hurt?” she said, looking at the wounds again.
“Only when I laugh.” She gave another chuckle, then her face fell. “Do you think I’m ugly now?”
Stacey frowned. “Because you’re scarred? No, dumb-arse.”
“No. Because…”
“You’re a mermaid?” Stacey chuckled. “No, but I just got why you always really hated when I made jokes about fishy smells.”
Someone coughed, and they turned. Fenton stood there, looking uncomfortable. Stacey had forgotten all about him.
Jasper nodded as she saw him and his pendant. “I knew your being here would mean a Ward of Earth was involved. I’d been hopeful that someone had rescued you.”
“Some might say I rescued him.” Stacey winked, and released her power in that eye as she did.
A frown played across the tight skin of Jasper’s forehead as she shook her head, her look of pain now emotional rather than physical. “I didn’t want this life for you and Paul.”
“Jas, I have to tell you something.”
Stacey filled her in on the events since her disappearance, and the Mhyrr girl looked mortified, tears staining her cheeks as she was told of the deaths, and Paul’s mutilation at the hands of the Shadow Man.
“The Cardinals told me the protections would hold, hide our presence. I never meant to hurt anyone.”
“What about when your mission was up?” Stacey couldn’t help but raise the obvious. “You going would have hurt us too.”
Jasper’s hair, now dry, shook with her head. “When the mission to visit another realm came up, I volunteered, without hesitation. I didn’t ever expect I would meet anyone I would care for, let alone two people.” Jasper’s eyes rose, full of anguish. “Causing those deaths, endangering you and Paul, I—”
“I get it.” Stacey took her hand, gave it a squeeze. “If there’s one thing I know about life is that it’s not fucking science. There’s no formula. And that was before all this Ward and Umbra shit. You do what you can. You learn as you go. And sometimes you make rookie mistakes, like falling for an alien fish girl.”
Stacey knew she was trying not to, but Jasper let out a sad laugh, tears overflowing as she shook her head. “You always know how to make me feel better, even when I don’t deserve it.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not just great in the sack, you know. I can do feelings and shit, too.”
The nurse, who had been staying back, had grad
ually worked her way forward. “You really must rest now, Moorna.”
“Before that,” Fenton interjected, “we really need to ask her some questions.” The nurse looked unsure. “I promise it will be brief.”
She gave a single nod. “Not much more though.
He took the woman’s hand, pressed it gently and smiled. “Thank you.”
After rolling her eyes at Fenton, Stacey caught Jasper smirking at her. “Shut your pie hole,” she muttered to the girl, who mimed zipping her lip.
Jasper knew her too well.
Did that prove that no matter what, Jasper was the same girl she loved? The whole thing might still be a ruse, a cover that would come unravelled with the truth. Infiltrate and blend in. Why else would she get into an complicated relationship? She could pull the ripcord at any time and someone else would be there to pick up the pieces. Plausible deniability.
But the reverse was just as plausible. Why would Jasper shack up with her and Paul when she had such a covert and important mission? Surely bunking with whoever she had gone to Earth with in the first place made more sense?
“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Jasper’s voice broke Stacey’s thoughts.
“Jasper, Fenton. And vice-versa.”
“I know you must be tired,” Fenton said. “But can you tell us when you first noticed the Umbra were on to you?”
The girl shook her head. “I didn’t.”
“What?” Stacey said. She couldn’t imagine something escaping Jasper’s attention. She didn’t know her as a Ward, but in her human life she was always on the ball.
“Believe me, I’ve given it much thought. There was no warning, no lead up I could discern. I spent my days searching for betrayers, month after month of observing the Wards in the Enclave and about Earth, just as the others did. I didn’t encounter any signs of unusual activity.” Jasper frowned in thought. “I don’t recall ever seeing you.”
Fenton smiled at the girl as if complimented.
“Fenton’s a hermit, lovey, so no shock there.” Jasper looked at Stacey as if she’d just asked the Queen whether she scrunched or folded. “It’s no wonder you never brought in much money in your day job,” Stacey said changing the subject. “You were too busy travelling and chatting up Wards, little miss social butterfly.”
