Shelly shrugged. "I haven't been to the surface. I'd like to some day. But Tahlia has shared some of her ideas with me, some of her experiences since half her family is human."
"I probably have more experience with human technology than she does," I said. "We'll talk about how some things that the humans have might be adapted to Fomoria later. Right now, I'd like you to focus on the top three ideas."
"I can't do it by myself," Shelly said. "I have all the plans ready to go. But to do this, we'll have to harvest a lot of materials. We'll need help installing all the wires and setting up the power plant and everything else."
I nodded. "We are in peace time at the moment. I think the merlegion is getting restless. I can commission them to help to get things started. But, of course, I can't guarantee that I won't need the legion for something else. A threat could emerge at any time, so this is a temporary arrangement to get things up and running. After that, we'll need to move some merfolk from other vocations."
"I think that's a good idea. What about Finn?"
"I think what he and Evan are doing is important. I'm not talking about Finn's romantic interests, of course. The watchers are probably the only legionnaires who can't be spared right now for this project. What I'd like for you to do is prepare a demonstration for the next gala. It needs to be more than just showing off a few electrified strands. The people need to see the potential. After that, I'll take applications for vocation reassignment and see if we can't grow a group of workers to eventually take over the work from the legionnaires."
"Thank you so much, Joni!" Shelly said.
"Thank you, Shelly," I said. "This is quite impressive. And I think you'll go down in Fomorian history for this. Sort of like Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison."
"Who?" Shelly asked.
"Ben Franklin is sometimes credited with discovering electricity by flying a kite into a thunderstorm with a key on it. Edison invented the light bulb."
Shelly furrowed her brow. "What are kites or lightbulbs?"
I pressed my lips together. "Not sure how to explain a kite. Basically, something that is tied to a string that catches the wind. You hold the string, and it flies high in the sky. A light bulb, however, well, there's something that should be on your list. It allowed humans to bring light indoors. Before that, they had to rely on candles and lamps."
"Sort of like how we use kelp?" Shelly asked.
"Exactly," I said. "But if we had light bulbs, we could turn lights on or off much easier. We wouldn't have to box up the kelp every night when going to sleep, and it would probably be brighter."
"Fascinating," Shelly said. "I'll add that to my agenda!"
"Probably should go with that before televisions," I said. "It's a more basic and more fundamental technology."
"Got it!" Shelly said. "I'll have another proposal for you tomorrow!"
I smiled. "I appreciate the enthusiasm. Let's focus on the basics first. Get the power plant up and running, work on the other technologies we talked about, and then we'll work on light bulbs."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I CHECKED IN on Finn and Evan. They were doing better than fine. I even detected a few sparks in the air, which is saying something since we were underwater. After that, I met up with Tahlia. She usually joined me on my regular home visits. I still hadn't seen Agwe much but, if I hadn't seen him, chances were that he was training with the wyrmriders and the other legionnaires.
Several legionnaires had been chosen to train as wyrmriders. They were practicing now on the backs of Nammu, Ruach, and Tohu V'Bohu. The younglings, while technically rideable, were another matter. They'd be ready soon enough. But they were immature. All of Nammu's children had been born with the ability to project some kind of acid-like saliva. When they spit it out into the water, it almost looked like black flames. It was pretty helpful when they helped take out the zombie sharks. Their acid spit was some pretty nasty stuff. Until the younger wyrms controlled it better, we weren't going to mount them too often. They were easily distracted and, sometimes, spat up unintentionally. Get some of that on a legionnaire, and he'd be done for.
Not to mention, they had to learn not to spit while swimming forward—for obvious reasons. It had a similar but much more devastating effect that you might experience if you ever leaned out the window of a moving car and spit forward. Or peeing into the wind. Tried it once, on a dare. The spitting thing, not the peeing one. In either case, though, I don't recommend it.
All things considered, it was just as well I didn't see Agwe. I didn't want to inadvertently spoil the surprise. Plus, he probably heard that I'd left the city. Every time I do, the legion is on full alert. I was a little surprised he didn't check in on me after I got back. But, you know, I was my damndest to put the best construction on his actions. And it wasn't like I needed him to stop by to make sure I was okay. If I wasn't, I'd let him know. I can take care of myself. Still, a part of me felt like it might have been nice if he stopped in to ask about my trip ashore. Especially since he knew I was anxious about the whole being a vampire thing.
Tahlia met me outside the Royal Spire. She was keeping track for me who we'd visited already and who was left.
"I hear you went to the surface," Tahlia said. "How'd that go?"
I shrugged. "Stopped to check on a lead for something I thought that might be fun for Agwe and me to do. Marie Laveau didn't recommend it. But I think I have a better plan now, anyway."
Tahlia stared at me blankly as we continued swimming between the spires on the way to whichever one she'd planned for us to visit next. "And?"
I smiled. "Well, apparently, this whole vampire thing isn't as bad as I thought. It didn't take nearly as much magic as I anticipated to keep it under wraps, and I discovered a new ability."
"What's that?"
"I can see spirits."
"Spirits as in dead people?"
"Yeah," I said. "I even talked to one. Pretty wicked, right?"
"Insane, Joni! So if there's a dead person around, anywhere, you can see them and talk to them?"
"So far, only in human form, but yes. I'm working with Legba on a plan to try and channel that ability as a mermaid."
"And you can talk to anyone who has died?"
I shrugged. "Only those who haven't moved on."
"I wonder if Cleo is still hanging around, watching me, going crazy when she sees how differently I do things."
"Well, hopefully, I'll be able to tell you the answer to that soon." Cleo was the high priest before. She died saving Tahlia's life which meant, according to Fomorian custom, that Tahlia was to assume Cleo's vocation as a way of furthering her legacy, of honoring her sacrifice since now Tahlia's ongoing life was indebted to Cleo's sacrifice.
"You're going after the ghost pirates, then?" Tahlia asked.
I cocked my head. "So far, everyone seemed to figure that out right away. Legba also guessed it off the bat."
Tahlia shrugged. "It's the first development in any direction we've had concerning that issue in a year. But we still talk about it every day as if there's some kind of looming doom that could get sprung on us at any moment."
"I think it'll be a good thing for Agwe and me to do this together," I said. "Besides, if I can find them when they think they're hiding from us, it'll give us the element of surprise."
"I agree on both accounts," Tahlia said. "Good to see you're still fulfilling your duties, though."
I shrugged. "Legba's looking to something for me. Said to check back in a day."
Tahlia swam around to my front and stopped right in front of me. "What is he looking into, Joni? I know you. I can tell by the way you were cryptic with the word 'something' that whatever it is, you didn't want to say."
I rolled my eyes. "So now you are going to make me say?"
"Well, yes. That's exactly what I'm going to do."
"Fine," I said. "Legba told me I'll probably have to bargain with Baron Samedi to pull it off."
"You've got to be shitting me. No way you're doin
g that."
"He said if we catch the Baron in the right mood, the cost won't be too bad."
"And if you catch him in a bad mood?"
"Well, then it might cost me my soul or something. Which he can't have, anyway, since I'm a Loa like him."
"You have a lot of power as a Loa that you haven't even thought about how to tap into yet. Be careful, Joni. The one and only thing I really know about the Baron is that he's notoriously deceptive when it comes to his bargains."
"Yes, mommy," I said with wide eyes. "I'll be super careful. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Don't make that deal. The dieing one."
"I certainly won't plan on it. Look, I'm just looking for an advantage in what's probably an eventual battle with Nephtalie. This won't decide the battle one way or another. I won't give up more than it's worth. If this advantage would disadvantage Fomoria in any way, I won't agree to it."
"It's not Fomoria that worries me, Joni. It's you."
I sighed. "Look, Legba said all I had to do was approach him with confidence. Without fear. With pure motives."
"You and Baron Samedi have a past, Joni. Do you really think you can meet him without any fear at all?"
I chuckled. "When he came with the caplata when I was young, it was before I had come into my powers. It was before I took on the voidbringer. It was before I faced off with zombie sharks, for Pete's sake. Now, it's just the Baron. A Loa, like me. It's a meeting between equals. Nothing to be scared of."
"Well, you certainly have the confidence that you say Legba prescribed. And I guess you're right. It's not like the Baron wants to destroy the world. You've dealt with a lot worse."
"Honestly, every time I walk into another Fomorian's home, it's a bit nerve-wracking."
"I sense it, too," Tahlia said. "There are still those in Fomoria who don't like the fact that we're not totally Fomorian. That we aren't pureblood."
I nodded. "No one else would understand that. I've tried talking to Agwe about it. He's so oblivious to it that he doesn't see the same scorn thrown his way from time to time. And I don't really talk to anyone else."
"Titus gets it," Tahlia said. "He might be a full-blooded Fomorian, but he's more observant and empathetic than he lets on."
"And I never see that part of Titus either. Not his fault, it's like that with almost everybody. As queen, hardly anyone ever shows me their true selves. It's always your Highness this, and my Liege that. They see La Sirene. They don't know Joni. I saw Titus, for example, come to life on stage. Not saying his jokes were for me, but you know, whatever."
"His jokes were a bit fishy!" Tahlia said, dropping her jaw in a wide smile.
I snorted. "You two are made for each other."
Tahlia giggled. "I know, right?"
"What I'm trying to say is that I don't see that side of Titus. Don't get me wrong. I trust him completely. More than anyone else in Fomoria aside from you. He's fiercely loyal to me. But I don't know the real Titus at all."
"Shelly and Finn have taken to you," Tahlia said. "Shelly keeps coming to me for ideas. She looks up to you, Joni."
"They're good kids," I said. "Practically adults, anyway. But you know what I'm saying. They grew up under Conand but were still young when I came to power. They weren't so steeped in Fomorian tradition that they have all these expectations for what I'm supposed to be. They've opened up to me pretty quickly."
"For what it's worth," Tahlia said. "I think we're doing the right thing. Some of the Fomorians might be a little uncomfortable with us on account of our human and selkie halves. But I truly think the merfolk who see it that way belong to a rapidly shrinking minority. It's hard to deny that life has improved in Fomoria since you became queen."
"Well, considering that the whole kingdom was about to be sucked into the void when Conand fell, asking people to consider if they're better off now than they were before is sort of a no-brainer."
"More than that," Tahlia said. "Conand's rule might have ended miserably, but he presided over Fomoria for hundreds of years of mostly peace. Even so, he had a dungeon beneath his spire that was used to punish the disloyal. It was some kind of dark secret, but don't think for a moment that there weren't conspiracy theorists out there who were on to it. He ultimately ruled and maintained order through fear. You do it by inspiring people. They don't follow your lead because they're afraid of you. They do it because they love you."
"Again," I said. "Not everybody."
Tahlia shook her head. "Yeah, there are some backward, prejudiced Fomorians. You know how you overcome that? You make them look foolish. You kick ass at everything you do, so when they spew their hate, everyone else will see right through them."
"But no one can kick ass all the time," I said. "Everyone else has the right to screw up periodically. But when a pure-blooded Fomorian messes up, no one thinks twice about it. If we mess up, do you really think it'll take them long to turn on us?"
"I know what you mean," Tahlia said. "If a Fomorian pureblood does something wrong, they see it as out of character. If I did something wrong, some people would say that it's my true character coming out."
"You know, I never saw this sort of thing before. I mean, I sort of knew about it. But I was a pretty white girl, the apple of everyone's eye. Everyone expected me to do good, to succeed, especially since I came from a well-to-do family. Now, being something of an outsider and a minority, it's like some merfolk are waiting, expecting me to fail."
Tahlia shrugged. "There'll always be people like that, Joni. But it's not everyone. It's not even most people. And the more the merfolk get to know you, the real you, the more they'll love you."
"I hope you're right," I said.
"I think it's cool that you are getting to know them, introducing them to Joni, not just La Sirene."
"But Joni is my human name," I said. "It stands for the part of me that makes some of the merfolk uneasy."
"Which is why some of them are probably reluctant when you ask them to call you Joni. But Joni is the person they have to meet, the one they need to know. La Sirene might save the world. But it's Joni, I believe, who can save Fomoria."
CHAPTER TWELVE
I FINALLY CAUGHT up with Agwe in the evening. He showed up just in time for dinner. Not like I cooked anything myself. I didn't have to, on account of being queen. And it was for the best. I'll tell you what, as a human, I was one hell of a chef. My baked goods, I think, were a part of how I worked my way into my baby daddy's heart when we first got together. We even met in a cooking class our senior year of high school. Food prep, in an underwater world, is totally different. All seafood, all the time. And they had the strangest seasonings. When your food is prepped under water, you can't just sprinkle something on it. It washes right off. They infused their fish and shellfish with various injectables. Most of it gave their food a sour flavor. What I'd give for a bottle of Cajun hot sauce. I'd told myself, for the last year, that I'd grab some next time I went to the surface. Funny how I forgot all about it. I suppose seeing dead people, dealing with vampirism, and the like had me a bit preoccupied. And, while I still had some money in human banks, I didn't have my old driver's license or debit cards. Getting my hands on it was a challenge that I never had time to bother with the few times I'd returned to land.
Tonight, we were eating shark. Not my favorite food. Most Fomorians considered it a staple. What a bucket of fried chicken might be to a southern family was what shark meat was to the merfolk. Everyone talked it up, thought it was the best thing ever, but even the Fomorians didn't actually think it was as good as they'd convinced themselves it was. Like my experience as a human with anything Kentucky fried. Never as good as you remembered it being. Chicken fry my steak, though, and add a peppered white gravy to it, and I'd be in heaven.
I took a bit out of a hunk of shark and chewed. And chewed. And chewed. Eventually, I'd be able to swallow it. Agwe, on the other hand, was going to town on it as if he'd been waiting for it all day.
"How'
d the training go today?" I asked.
"Quite well," Agwe said. "The young wyrms are coming along well. So is the new crop of wyrmriders. Give it a few more weeks, I think, and we'll be able to bring them into the wyrmrider legion. Push came to shove, they'd be ready to mount them now."
I nodded. I wasn't going to reveal my plan to him yet. He'd told me he wanted it to be a surprise. Not to mention, until I knew what sort of bargain the Baron would propose, I didn't want to get his hopes up. There was a chance, still, that my idea wouldn't pan out. "No more mishaps with the acid breath?"
Agwe shook his head. "It's been three hundred and twelve days since our last accident."
"Good to hear," I said, still chewing on my first bite of shark.
"I hear that we're going to have electricity soon. The legion is excited to get to work."
I snorted. I'd barely passed along the order to Titus after meeting with Shelly before I went on my visitations with Tahlia. "They certainly spread the word about that quickly."
"Haven't seen so much excitement in Fomoria in years," Agwe said. "Not since I returned to Fomoria in this host."
"I suppose, aside from the change in monarchs, this might be the biggest change in the society they'd ever seen."
"People are already sending in ideas," Agwe said. "I'm sure you'll be flooded with proposals before long."
"One thing at a time," I said. "Shelly already has plenty of ideas to work with. Have to get the basics accomplished before we can start entertaining other things."
"I think we should allow it. I mean, the armorers are already talking about machines that might help stitch together sea silk more efficiently."
"Smart," I said, gulping down a semi-chewed mouthful of shark. "With the young wyrms growing so quickly, they'll have to retailor their armor pretty regularly. I'm sure something like a sewing machine would come in handy. I'll pass the idea along to Shelly, get it on her agenda."
"And something like a loom," Agwe said. "Harvesting the sea silk is one thing, but they can only weave it together into a material thick enough and suitable for armor so fast."
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