Khrystal didn’t mind her new environment much. She’d only been doing basic orientations so far, but what it really came down to was an apprentice program, learning how the city operated, and how to fix it. A life in the trades, for the ones who couldn’t do better. She’s expected nothing better when she got out of school anyway, so she looked at it like she’d just boosted the timeline by getting here early.

Besides, keeping her chin up was the only way to deal with the insult of being kicked out. She still couldn’t figure what she’d done so wrong, but she wasn’t proud of herself anyway. She’d been a bad influence, that’s what they told her, and Cali being so impressionable—it made sense why the school had decided they needed to be separated.

So, getting into the groove some, and not minding the day to day so much, and almost happy to be here when her old headmaster and some school officials stormed in, insisting that they needed to speak with her. Surprise turned into irritation, as she was whisked off to see them all she could think was, ‘Why can’t they just leave me in peace? They haven’t done enough?’

“We need to know where Calistya has disappeared to,” Headmaster Oliver demanded.

Funny that she’d never even known his name until that very moment, when they had come and fetch her from her toolkit and training channels and dropped his name as if it were something significant. And now, seeing him off-campus and with a name badge and everything, he was both more and less intimidating than before, in different ways. Out of his element, sure, but also, he looked like he was ready to take any action to get answers.

Khrystal had no idea what kind of an answer they were expecting. The city guards had picked them up at the edge of The Deep, after all. There was no reason to think she’d gone anyplace else but there.

Where else is there? she answered with a shrug, knowing it was the most logical thing in the world, and wondering why that wasn’t obvious to these important people.

No, she didn’t know of any other sorts of places Calistya might be off to. There were no other places they gone together, aside from around The Shallows here and there. Even The deep was only a time or two, and look where that got her. So why would she even go back there again, either?

The grilling went on for an hour. The same questions over and over. Why they were so frantic to find her, she didn’t know, but she noticed that there was less of a scapegoating impression this time. They seemed genuinely concerned, but not necessarily for her safety. Just…concerned.

One thing they didn’t ask, and Khrystal felt no reason to volunteer, was anything to do with that boy Calistya was so obsessed with. Khrys was sure that was the reason Cali had gone back again, and although she felt a heavy sense of guilt for the fact that she’d gone and gotten herself kicked out, and was no longer available to save her friend if need be, she realized that there would have been no stopping Calistya either way if she’d been of a mind to go searching again.

With a strong desire to do right by her friend, Khrystal quickly agreed to accompany the officials to the perimeter of The Deep, and show them where Calistya might had gone off to from there. In the company of these important officials, they were deferentially escorted past the sentries and shown straight out to sea, taking the familiar plunge down that Calistya liked so much.

Down they swam, the whole lot of them, with Khrystal in front and the headmaster pulling up the rear, until they reached the chasm. Aside from the glowing creatures there was nothing more to be seen there, though Khrystal did mention that Calistya had seen something odd coming from down below. Despite the danger, the entire party began the long swim down into the chasm, until it grew so tight that they could barely all fit together in a row. Then, even deeper still, they could no longer fit at all.

“We never came so far,” Khrystal mouthed, pointing down with a headshake, then forming an ‘X’ with her arms.

They got the message. There was no telling where the wayward girl had gone off to, but if she’d swum all the way down here, she wasn’t around anymore. And there was little more below but ocean floor.

They attempted to call to her a number of times. Each in turn, shouting her name as the bubbles streamed from their breathing gear. They got no response, and at this point they were all feeling rather frustrated and foolish. It was entirely possible that Calistya wasn’t in these parts whatever. That she might’ve simply gone somewhere within the city, and even now might be back in her room at school.

There wasn’t any more to be done. If they were to sweep the ocean floor, they’d need help to do it. If their lost girl were to be found, it would take a concerted effort.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

* * *

Aside from the sea beyond the city, the city guards was fanning out, checking in every corner of the city proper for their lost mergirl. They even checked the swimmer section, though a girl of her abilities could only last there so long. Yet so was the case with the open sea, and it was unlikely that she’d last more than a couple of days with oxygen supplies and carnivores to contend with.

Not to mention the girl had no source of fresh water or food out there. Not so, in the city, so the general consensus was that she’d have to have come back at some point. They swept the chasm several times, going off information gleaned from the girl named Khrystal. They even sent robotics down below the crack where grown men could not pass. Nothing showed up on camera nor sensors, so they brought the machines back up and called it done. The search would continue, but it would be confined to the city. If she were out there in the open, chances were she was dead already, so there was no sense in wasting resources out there.

But they spared no resources in the city itself. They cross-examined every teacher, every child, every known associate of the girl. They had long conversations with the sentinel Marla, who was beside herself realizing that she was probably the last person the girl had spoken to the day she vanished.

All their efforts yielded no fresh clues, and the trail was growing cold. It was a hard decision, to abandon the search, but it seemed as though there was little more to go on. When they brought in Khrystal one more time, to ask if she had any other ideas, they caused the poor girl to break down. She realized just from the looks on their faces that her friend was good and gone, probably forever. And Khrystal had taken to blaming herself, at least according to her supervisor, so a few of the city guards got into an argument afterwards about the wisdom of bringing her in at all.

At any rate, they’d done all they could. There was little to be gained from prolonging the inevitable. So the authorities closed the case and informed the school. Then the headmaster informed the teachers, and the teachers told their students. It was a tragic day for all, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place, save for the full merpeople on faculty who’s eyes were constantly watery anyway.

* * *

As much as the sentinel patrols had been beefed up following the Calistya disappearance, Khrystal had been designated a full adult at this point, so there was little they could do to stop her.

Don’t go out there, Khrystal” Marla warned. “Whatever you think you’ll find, it’s not worth the risk!”

Khrystal didn’t bother answering. She’d already made up her mind. With a look that was part defiance, part misery, the sentinel knew enough not to push.

Wending her way to the chasm, in not so much of a big hurry now that she’d gotten on her way, she took in the beauty of the sea. Though in her current mood, it did little to sooth her spirits. It still offered a calming effect.

She made the grand plunge just as she’d done with her friend, and felt that same chill when she got close to the demarcation line between light and darkness. Only this time she never hesitated, plunging straight through and down, down into the chasm.

When she reached the top she continued a few fathoms more, then took in a breath and screamed Calistya’s name.

She paused, letting it resonate.

No response.

She screamed again, until her throat turned raw.

The silence that followed felt like an accusation. Every bubble rising from her lips seemed to pop open the same truth: You abandoned her.

Khrystal swam down a bit further, calling out the whole way. She even tried calling to the boy a few times, though calling out ‘merboy’ seemed pointless. Would he even answer to that name? Would he answer at all? Calistya was the only one he’d ever actually approached, at least as far as she knew. Maybe he only comes out when she’s around?

Khrystal reached the reverse-apex, where it became too tight for a grown merman to pass. Nor even a woman, perhaps, though Khrystal still wasn’t fully grown herself. She was, however, a bit bigger than Calistya, and somewhat round in the midsection, so she wasn’t sure she should chance it. What if she got stuck?

A sudden thought, of her friend in crisis, stuck somewhere down there waiting for help, steeled her for the squeeze. She went through fin-first, then used her hands to help push the middle through before finishing the plunge with arms and head. It was a tight squeeze, but she never became dangerously stuck. It was an open question whether that would be true on the way back up, but she would cross that reef when she reached it.

Now at the bottom, she wondered if their machinery had captured all that was down here. It was an hourglass cavern, with more space below than would seem possible. And still a lot of seafloor to cover. As she peered across it, she thought she saw the sand shift off in the distance, like something was stirring beneath it. A wave of unease washed over her, but after a blink and a shake of her head, it was still again. Just the floor, she told herself, trying to regain control over her quickening pulse.

Thinking there was nothing more to do, she began to feel around much as her friend had done, searching for some hidden truth. And when she found it, she practically leapt for joy, or the watery version of leaping at any rate. The sands seeping downward offered the one clue the authorities had missed.

Now Khrystal had another decision to make. She could try and dig her way down, see where this mystery portal wound up. Or, the mature and reasonable side of her said, she should go back to the city and alert the merfolk, have them come back with proper divers and equipment and the like.

As it turned out, she hadn’t the chance to make any decisions whatever. With a sudden ferocity, a pair of tiny hands poked up out of the sand, grabbed Khrystal by the wrists, and pulled her down under the seafloor.