(Flobul POV, sometimes before)

I was listening to mom singing when I caught something flashing in the corner of my eye. A blue and red light, it was Alibul. I decided to ignore the troublemaker and let mom’s song lull me to sleep. But the flashing was coming back again and again, and finally, I made the mistake. I turned my head toward him.

I don’t even remember what he told me exactly, I probably just caved at some point and stopped asking. I’m following him into his new “secret tunnel”. Each time it’s the same thing. He claims he found a new tunnel, that’ll allow us to go beyond the barrier without getting caught. And each time it’s a dead end. Often a death trap too. I leveled seven times last week, when we got into the Blood Moray Eel lair. And that was only by fleeing till an adult came by and wounded it enough for it to go back!

But the adults think it’s good for him to take risks, and he’s actually helping them mapping some places. I tried talking to mom about it, try to get her to step in, so he would leave me alone. But she’s too busy. She says the barrier is behaving strangely as of last.

“Flobul! Look, it’s there!”

“Come! You’ll see, it’s amazing!”

In front of us is a wide bush of red algae, with some fishes going out of it. I look warily as Alibul dive inside, disappearing from view.

Why does he always insist to show me everything he does? Mom says I’ll understand one day, but I don’t think I will ever.

I dive after him, following the soft light of his photophores. He’s waiting for me inside a small tunnel, barely large enough for him to swim through. Since I’m smaller it’s not a problem, but I can easily guess why no one’s ever gone through that one. We start advancing, Alibul lighting the way with his photophores.

Mom told me that when I was younger, I used to cry all the time, only calming in front of a light show. That’s why Alibul came often. He’s the son of the neighbours, and my elder by three years. He was always very proud of his red photophores. It’s true they’re pretty rare, and for the hunt, it’s basically a cheat. There are so many animals and plants that are red! And it’s almost impossible to see red, unless there’s someone or something with red or white photophores around. Something about light, but I didn’t listen to that part in school…

I notice the tunnel is slowly angling upward, and let a deep sigh escape my mouth. If I’m right about the angle and our speed, we should hit the barrier in a few moments, and we’ll be able to go back home. Alibul is guiding me through the twists and turns of this tunnel, and I start to notice that the tunnel is unnaturally smooth, and…

Hm, what’s the word? Like a heavy stone falling? Straight? Yeah, Straight!

Somehow, someone or something made it so there are four straight walls, instead of letting them be round like everything. What a waste of time! And because of that, there are small vortexes everywhere, slowing us.

I notice my air bladders stopped filling a while ago, so we must have been going on the same level for a time now. I have no idea exactly how deep we are, but I think I never had my bladders so full until now, so pretty high. Suddenly, I see Alibul going up, and disappear.

An air bubble! Those are really precious, they allow us to make our lungs work a bit. Our ancestors used to speak and trade with the surfacers, but the barrier doesn’t allow us to go that high since a long time. So we need those bubbles to use them, make sure we don’t lose them, in case there’s a need one day. Plus, they’re fun. The way the songs are twisted in it are pretty fun, though it’s hard to get used to all those strange tunes. Those are sounds you can’t hear below the surfaces.

I follow him, but surface calmly, without jumping out. It’s a strange room, all straight, with old mosaïcs all around. They look like they haven’t been cared for for a long time. Alibul is standing inside the room, out of the water. I feel a chill going through my dorsal fins just thinking of it. Even just surfacing like this I can feel the strange pressure of the world trying to keep us below the surface. I can’t imagine what it would be if I was fully out. But Alibul’s an apprentice hunter, he can probably take it.

“Look, there’s a tunnel there!”

Alibul is pointing toward a dark straight hole on a wall. Outside the water. I quickly refuse, and he start trying to convince me. We’re so deeply ingrained in the conversation, we don’t notice the sound of something coming from the hole. I hear a deep gasp, like when you try to do a long tune in air and draw in air quickly to stay singing. I turn my head, and see two strange adults. What are they doing there? We stay in silence, the two groups looking at each other.

They’re wearing ceremonial garbs, but they’re very poorly made, without any sense of beauty. Their frontal air bladders are inflated, so they must be singers. I’ll try that.

(Sarah POV)

When I made it to the room, I was surprised by the two kids, that looked like they were having a rap battle in mute sign language. The smallest one seemed to hear the small gasp I made when I saw them, and locked her eyes on me after a quick look around. I used this time to check on them.

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The small one looked like an eight year old kid, with clear green scales on a pattern quite reminiscent of a skin tight suit with a V-shaped collar. The skin shown was a deep red, almost brown. He was still inside the water, but I could see a fin on his head, that started the same color as the skin, to lighten progressively until they were almost pink. He also had one fin on each forearm, the same green as his scales. His eyes were green too, and he seemed to have long hair of an even brighter green.

The taller one was lankier, with stringy muscles, and had a deep blue hue on his scales. His skin looked closer to a human one, a deep black, thought after a time, it seemed more blue than brown. His hair was a bit shorter, while still long enough to brush his shoulders, and a dark blue. The only parts of him that weren’t almost black were his electric blue eyes, and the small red and blue lights all over his body. He had small claws on his fingertips, and a rather fearsome looking trident. He looked less surprised and more excited than the other.

We stayed like this for a good thirty seconds, when I caught a small spark in the small one’s eyes, the kind when someone has an idea. I saw him inspire deeply, and… What in hell? Are those boobs? They can’t be boobs! No one grows boobs in seconds!

I was still pondering the sudden appearance of a quite generous (for an eight year old) cleavage on the fish-looking kid when he opened his mouth, and an heavenly song rang in the room. I felt like the world was colder, and this… wonderful song was the only thing able to bring joy and warmth to it. I had to protect this song with my life if it was needed!

I was walking forward when I felt something soft hit my head from behind. I turned around to see Audrey holding my arm, and Giiru looking at me with cold eyes. He opened his beak, and shouted a piercing shrill, interrupting the song.

“Kid, they can’t sing. They’re not like you. They’re humans.”

The kids seemed abashed by this. I looked back to Giiru when I heard him speak again.

“And you, with stats that high, how come you didn’t resist that? It’s only a kid’s song! What will happen the day you meet a real Siren?”

“Wait, aren’t Sirens a Norse mythology thing? I thought the legend was about harpies around here?”

“Siren is a class. And it’s in no way exclusive to Mertrides. Just people with mind-altering songs. You’re thinking about Mermaids, and they’re an evolved species of Mertrides, nothing more.”

I zoned out for the rest of the berating. After a while I came back to my senses, and Audrey was speaking with the kids.

“So, you live under a barrier, at the bottom of the sea? It’s strange we never found it…”

“ 'Cause the barrier draw things toward it, so there’s a kind of rock dome over it. I saw it once from one of my tunnels.”

The “boyish” one with the trident is excitedly talking about his home, and his search for tunnels out of it. The small “girlish” one is more reserved, and is still waist deep in the water. Well, I need to ask them questions.

“Excuse me, but do your people now about what happened in the past? When the gods were trapped?”

The boyish one shrugged and spoke.

“I asked a bit, but they kept telling me that I would know after my evolution, or if I started thinking a bit more, so I started searching something else. Flobul, you know more?”

The small one then answered.

“Alibul… It’s in our main song… Second-last verse :

The ones-that-live-above-us were becoming restless,

And Oldegol felt the power of the One-called-Nameless.

He called for the great assembly in old Fellolagi,

And the Mertrides came from every sea.

They talked and thought deep into the night,

But in those of the sea there was a wedge.

Talks didn’t work and we soon were on the ledge,

It was then that started the Great Fight.

During a full round of the Pearl-in-the Sky,

Mertrides of all seas fought for their ideas.

And when the end finally came by,

There were far fewer under the seas.

Oldegol brought the survivors together,

And with songs and magic they began.

They together threaded the great Barrier,

And under it we survived the Nameless Plan.

Of course it’s not a perfect information, but it’s the best I got. Though you should ask my mother, or old Gelibul. They know pretty much everything we know as a people, I think.”

That song is questioning. It seemed to imply that at least some people knew what was happening, and some time before it did. And it quite directly accuse the Nameless One of it. On that note…

“Giiru, isn’t the Nameless One the name of the Atlantean god? Or something like that?”

“A lot of gods or beasts used some variation of it, but the main one is certainly the Atlantean god. But it’s strange… If this was his plan, he should have survived the events. And he seems to have disappeared… You should go talk to those people the small fish-people told you to see.”

“We’re not fish people! We’re Mertrides! And I’ll soon be a Mermaid!”

The small Mertride seemed outraged, and her chest was bulging outrageously.

“Right, right, and you and your whole race will have disappeared thousands of years before I start caring about mortals…”

“Giiru, stop it! You should at least be respectful of people if they haven’t done anything to earn your ire.” It seemed Giiru dismissive response didn’t please Audrey.

“Tss… Fine, I’ll try a bit.”

I suddenly noticed the tall Mertride had approached me, as Ceadsul, perched on my shoulder in his crow form, squawked to alert me. He seemed to be puzzled by something.

“What is it?”

“Are you both mages? It’s imprudent to move around without any weapon, even I know that.”

“Your small friend doesn’t wear one though.”

“Of course she does! Flobul, show them your dagger!”

The small one (Flobul apparently) then unsheathed a small coral dagger that was hidden under the water.

“Plus she’s a Singer, she doesn’t really need weapons. So, why don’t you wear one? Are the monsters that weak on the surface?”

“Hm, we don’t really HAVE monsters…”

There was a long silence, as the two Mertrides were gawking at me.