I followed the Alpha and her group down the tunnel of water I had constructed. I noticed a few features I would need to discuss with Bob as I swam and some changes I thought should be made. Light the most pressing issue. No one had thought to add any lighting, so the tunnel, although broad enough to allow the Hindel to navigate easily, seemed claustrophobic.
The Hindel were sure to have an ability to see; they would be unable to traverse the ocean's depth without a means to navigate in that murky darkness.
We had barely arrived at the estuary the tunnel opened into before the Alpha, and a few of her people began experimenting with my suggestion. Their attempts were fumbling at first, the sphere of water ungainly and hard to manage.
I had suggested a water bubble, and although they could create the construct I had envisioned, it was hard to maintain cohesion when applying lift and movement. The spheres leaked as they were buffeted by air pressure.
The Hindel did successfully move, laboriously, from one location to another, but that movement wasn't sustainable. They spent most of their energy and focus on maintaining the shape and size of the water sphere they had created. It left little focus and energy for movement.
"Why do we need such a large sphere of water?" Baamai asked finally, her frustration getting the best of her. She had just lost control of her latest attempt. She was one of the few that had managed to create the water construct and apply the lift, but that was where her success ended. She had never gotten the sphere to move.
The ocean's water had splashed dramatically as the bubble failed, taking her with it an ungraceful belly-flop. The pain and indignity of that flop left her embarrassed and angry. Her anger was directed at herself instead of anyone else. I understood her emotions; no one liked being made to look like a fool.
And for someone that had just achieved her position? So soon after becoming Consort? It probably left her feeling more than embarrassed.
"To breath?" I said, the answer obvious to me, not intending the sarcasm that my answer might have conveyed. "The transportation devices you use are huge. Aquariums on wheels. Don't you create them so large to provide a large enough supply of water so you can cycle that water to breathe and remove waste by-products?"
"We do need water to breathe," the Alpha agreed, "but I wonder if we aren't going about this in the wrong way. That isn't the reason those transports are so large. We use the water inside to apply pressure against a mechanism of paddles. The water forces the paddles to move and the vehicle with it."
"Something similar to a watermill," I surmised.
The vehicles had probably been adapted to connect the rotating paddles to a crankshaft, more like a bicycle than a powered vehicle. I wondered if anyone had ever considered creating steam engines. They should work with enchantments to make boilers structurally sound and cores or spirit stones to power arrays.
"Baamai, create a tight water barrier close to your body," the Alpha directed, watching and offering advice until she got the desired results.
"Thinner, I want a skin-tight barrier.
"Good, now add spin and rotation to the water. Be careful to maintain cohesion so that you don't lose any of the water you've collected or absorb any from the surroundings.
"Now order the water to lift.
"See if you can move.
Baamai reacted to each instruction easily, forming a shimmering shield of water that perfectly encapsulated her. One that fit her like a second skin. As she rose from the ocean's surface, she took on the appearance of a knight in shining armor. The water refracted the light in prisms of rainbow colors.
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Her movements were jerky, stiff, and clumsy at first. But as she gained proficiency and confidence, as she gained control, she became almost graceful. She would never have the agility and ease of motion an Elf would have. Her movements had nothing in common with the fluid and controlled acrobatics I enjoyed. The aerial ballets I enjoyed were missing, but there was a dancelike quality in her movement. It was more hip-hop than anything, jerking and disjointed at times, but hip-hop had a charm all its own.
And as her confidence grew, as she stabilized the water barrier and managed to automate the water so that it spun and revolved, her speed and maneuverability increased.
"Interesting," the Alpha mused once Baamai had swooped across the water's surface. We watched as the woman that was part seal seemed to surf just above the water's surface, whopping in joy. Her antics had all of us laughing.
The more adventurous of the Hindel had soon emulated Baamai, slowly mastering the technique the Alpha had suggested. And as they did, they began to play—flying Hindel, who chased her in a game of tag.
"How are they able to breathe?" I asked in confusion.
"It doesn't require a great amount of water to provide us the oxygen we require, not much more than the breath of air you might take. The spin and rotation of the water barrier work to keep the water fresh, the movement keeping it from growing stagnate," the Alpha explained.
"The same way that wind and wave add oxygen to the ocean," I replied, understanding what she had done.
"What about waste by-products?" I asked, not worried that she would be insulted by the explicit nature of the question.
"The Hindel have the same control over their excretions the Elves enjoy. Do not shit where we eat is a lesson taught early to our youngest. There is no waste for them to manage. When the need arises that they do have to deal with that bodily function, the waste matter is stored in a spatial device so that it can be processed."
"Do you use it for fertilizer?" I wondered in confusion. "I didn't think the Hindel farmed."
"We don't farm, not in the manner you are used to. We cull seaweed and kelp forests to encourage growth, and we use the plants we harvest for food, but our waste by-products aren't processed for fertilizer," Alpha explained.
"We extract phosphorus from our urine to create devices that emit light.
"The Hindel don't mine. Our feces are processed, and the rare metals are extracted to fill our demand for gold, silver, copper, palladium, and vanadium. We process feces and bones to supply most of our need for metals and trade with Elves for the rest."
"What do you need metals for?" I asked.
"The same things you use it for. Runes, arrays, jewelry, enchantments, tools, armor, and weapons. Along with maintaining and creating the few buildings we do build and maintain.
"I think the ability to refine metal is vital for a civilization to prosper and advance. Without that fundamental trait, our ability to influence the world around us is limited. That is even more true for people who roam and live in the vast oceans," she pointed out.
"With our ever-changing community and no central authority, our ability to create, communicate, and learn from the advances of our ancestors has allowed us to create a civilization. These changes have allowed us to evolve our intelligence and taught us to harness the world's energy so that we could advance our abilities with Qi.
"Qi guides us and makes us stronger, the ability to communicate unites us, but metal frees us from our limitations," she concluded.
She didn't give me a chance to respond before she created her own skin-tight water barrier and proceeded to fly. She managed the transition from water to air with a fluidity the others from her pod had lacked.
I believed that only made sense. Alpha was more powerful than the others. Older and more versed in Qi use and spellcraft. She managed to project the same precision and ease of movement flying as she did in the water—a graceful introduction to a new world as she took her maiden flight.
The broad smiles of delight spread across her pod as more and more people joined their brothers and sisters in the sky. One enterprising young man made a production of it. He was leaping into the sky, controlling the water to form a reverse waterfall, a water current that streamed upwards, following him as he left the ocean.
Once he reached a height he was satisfied with, he released the water and dived in a somersaulting display of precision and proprioception that left everyone applauding. Eventually, a song eerily reminiscent of the deep harmonies of whale song filled the estuary as Hindel, after Hindel raised their voice in song, a melody of celebration.
The Hindel had claimed the skies, and I wondered how the Empire would react to this development.