In the heady excitement of meeting up with actual, true-life finless ones, the merboy had barely gotten himself back in time. It was dangerous to be up there for extended periods, the enriched oxygen could only be tolerated for so long, and the warm water soon turned uncomfortably hot, slowing him to a perilous, sluggish pace.

He’d enjoyed his time in the city, and in particular the prize he’d run away with. The key to the school his new friends had come from. With that, he could access all sorts of places, maybe bring some of their friends out to the chasm. He was eager to please, and wanted them to stay with him forever, so he had to have access to their comfort goods.

This sort of manipulation would make the elders unhappy, he knew, but they didn’t need to know what he was up to. He’d found an unused portal and that’d been his way out and about for some time now. But he’d never interacted with the legged-ones until they’d come close.

Now that two of them had entered the portal, he’d been hoping for more, but the ones who he saw now were not beautiful or young. They were elders, and he had no use for them. Authority figures as well, which meant danger. He had no use for them in particular. He was a youngster himself, so he wanted young companions. And he wanted to have them for his own. As many as he could.

He’d gone to the city with the intention of looking around, but found it particularly difficult to get around. For the ones he heard being called ‘full-gill’, there was a series of tubes and tanks, like a fish in a maze it felt, and there was an upper level with more room to move but he feared someone would notice him. He was too young to be full-gilled, so he stuck out. He realized this immediately, so he stuck to the lower levels, flitting back and forth and seeing how far he could go between barriers.

And the city was rife with barriers. Bolted doors here, passcode protection there. Each whir and click of the city’s locks set his nerves on edge, but his nimble fingers, trained on seashell clasps, found a way through. Ever closer to unlocking that mysterious school Calistya had told him about.

‘Told’ isn’t the right word, he realized. She’d envisioned the school in her mind, during a time of homesickness, and he’d picked up on the imagery she’d created. The Solarians had such abilities, and were able to make use of it during times of deep connection. They couldn’t carry on conversations with strangers, not like they could with each other, but they could sense things. Loved ones. Familiar places. Important things like that.

In this way, he knew the precise structure where the girls had come from, though he sensed that the girl Khrystal no longer belonged. He got an impression of where the girls lived, where they studied. All of it. And because it existed in Calistya’s mind, he also obtained a vision of where the headmaster kept the emergency egress key. In the flowering bed outside the back double-entrance.

Because such access allowed for both fin and leg, he would be able to enter anytime he wished. And he wished to do so often, learn what the girls needed to survive and thrive, and perhaps entice another of their classmates to join the adventure. In his mind, making Calistya happy would adhere them, a bond even the vast currents that separated their worlds couldn’t break.

When he found the girl in the classroom, she’d been crying. Perhaps waiting for a teacher who’d never come. Or a companion who’d deserted her.

Her sadness pressed against his mind like a heavy tide, too raw to ignore. He had to show her the world he’d given Calistya—the chasm, the portal, everything she would need to be happy. She’ll understand, he thought. She’ll want to stay, too. Just like Calistya does.

He waited until she looked up, startled, but his gaze relaxed her, and he made her follow. She went with him to the city gates, put on her breathing gear and fin, and followed him to the chasm and down to the portal, all in a haze.

He sent her through first, examining for a moment the damage the legged ones had done to his shelf. It wasn’t nearly as hidden as it’d been. If too many of them started clomping about, he wouldn’t be able to use his portal.

He slipped under the seabed, tossed up sand for cover, and closed the hatch. Then he checked in the glass orb which showed an image from above, making sure no legged ones had appeared meanwhile. They had not, and his secret was safe.

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He descended with the girl in tow, blissfully unaware of where she was headed.

* * *

The city was in a state of panic. A pair of missing girls, friends at that, could have been seen as runaways. One even had a troubled history, so there was that. But a third missing girl meant a disturbing pattern, one that required they turn the city upside down to get to the bottom of. The history of The Shallows was dark with stories of such abductions, and the technoquatics wanted answers.

Despite the fact that the girls were all taken from the same orphan’s school, parents were fearful for their own. They pulled them out of school, stayed home to care for them, and generally ground normal life in the city to a halt.

City loudspeakers blared the curfew order, their metallic voices slicing through the usual hum of The Shallows. ‘All students are to return home immediately,’ a voice echoed, monotone and sharp. Parents herded their children indoors, some clutching their arms tightly, others murmuring reassurances they didn’t believe themselves. Above, the city’s bioluminescent warning lights flickered in an unusual pattern—a sharp, disjointed pulse of pale greens and yellows, signaling an unfamiliar escalation in the alert system. It cast the streets in a sickly, surreal glow, one meant to set the population on edge, but without sparking outright panic.

The ‘gang of four’, as the teachers and their sentinel friend had been branded, were reluctant to be seen in each other’s company. There were too many accusatory stares, too much to lose. Though there was scant evidence against them, that hardly mattered. Until the girls were found, they would be looked upon with suspicion.

“We should go public,” Albi whispered, nervously scanning the hallway for prying eyes. “To what end?” the headmaster replied. “They’ve already made up their minds.”

Their voices fell silent as a patrol swam past, their sloshing displacement reverberating like a passing storm.

They agreed to avoid each other for now, and go back to work—three in the school, Marla at her post. For now. None of them had been formally charged, never mind let go, but the hunt was on for a scapegoat. Or four.

The atmosphere in the school had turned grim. Guards roamed the halls, in order to protect the young technos and ensure no further abductions would be possible.

Ms. Terri had no more classes for the day, and had taken to retreating into empty classrooms at such times, to avoid accusatory stares or, from the guards, aggressive posturing. Of all the ‘gang’, she was the youngest, and the least accustomed to confrontation. At times she felt as if she might die from the fright of it all. But she soldiered on for the sake of the students, even if the students, too, were looking on her as if she were some sort of a monster.

In the empty room, she took a seat at the teacher’s desk and proceeded to review her notes for the next day. As she tried to focus, whispers of suspicion gnawed at the edges of her mind. She’d never felt so unmoored, even among her students. A glint behind her snapped her back into the room, her heartbeat loud in her ears. She took one look backwards, and screamed.

The scream was mere surprise, it was hardly a frightening sight. Quite the opposite. An angelic figure floated in the full-gill tank, but this was no technoquatic. He was far too young for full-gill, for one thing—he looked as if he belonged in school himself, not in a teacher’s tank. His piercing green eyes stared back at her, seemingly intrigued and repulsed at the same time.

She shook her head, clearing away the boy’s unsettlingly angelic appearance. He was just a child—lost, vulnerable, and impossibly out of place. Whatever had brought him here, he needed help, not judgment.

What do I do with him?

He didn’t belong in a school for girls, obviously, and his presence would raise a million questions. She thought to call in the sentinels, though recent experiences had left her skeptical of their intent. So she was on her own. But as she couldn’t get into the tank directly, she needed a way to make the boy stay put.

As if reading her mind, he looked up and kicked off, his powerful fin propelling him straight up into the ceiling. But in his haste, he misjudged the curve of the tank, and smacked his head, right on the edge. He floated down, stunned, eyes shut, and Ms. Terri screamed again.

The guards, sweeping the school as part their missing technoquatics investigation, hadn’t reacted to Terri’s outburst the first time. But the second scream, louder and sharper than the first, brought them running. They took one look at the tank and dashed out of the room. They’d go to the upper floors to dive in themselves, or call one of their full-gill colleagues to go in for them. They knew as well as she that this boy didn’t belong. But for Ms. Terri, her only concern was for the child. The last thing she wanted was another traumatized child on her conscience.

So she went up to the tank and, gently, started speaking to the boy.

“How did you get in here? Are you okay? I won’t hurt you.”

The merboy’s eyes fluttered, there was that watery green again, and as his eyes locked on hers, she felt her own eyes grow heavy.

“What are you? How are you doing that?” She shook her head to clear it. The boy was casting some sort of spell, it seemed. Or else he was so angelic that she was truly falling under the spell of his attractive looks.

She shook her head again. This boy was just compelling. That was all. This child had some sort of a way about him, but she was an adult, and a teacher, and she would be having none of it.

“You just take it easy, we’ll get help for you.”

A long arm reached down, followed by the head and torso of a full-gill city guard. He grabbed the boy around the arms and raised him up.