The condemnation came swifter this time, with less of a sense of kindly tolerance. They separated the girls at once, like before, only this time Khrystal didn’t return after the initial interrogation. Cali waited most of the night for her to return, tears welling up as she thought about how much Khrystal must hate her for all this. Just because she was so damned curious, and had she really chosen some stranger boy over her best friend? Maybe Khrystal had a right to want out. The thought of being abandoned sank her spirits to the lowest lows.

Desperate to find a way to get Khrystal out of hot water, Calistya appealed to her teachers “I’m the one who egged her on,” Calistya said. “I should be punished. I went down there before. I was just showing her is all. Kick me out, not her.”

“Watch your tongue, girl,” one of the water-sports coaches said, “else it really will be you. And not a trade, either. Both of you will be out on your butts.”

Calistya rode out the threat without retort, but pressed on with other teachers. Beside herself with guilt over Khrystal paying the price, she couldn’t just let it go. Determined, she resolved to confront the headmaster the next morning.

The city guards who’d returned them this time were outside the office again when Calistya arrived. What’s that all about? She wondered. She could hardly just walk up and ask them, so she took a seat outside the door.

She could hear raised voices, one of them Khrystal’s defiant alto, trying to mount a defense but getting shouted down. When she came out, they weren’t allowed to exchange so much as a glance before the guards took her by the arms and marched her off. Though Calistya didn’t realize it at the time, they were taking her to clean out her room, while Calistya was preoccupied in the headmasters room making ineffective apologies.

By the time she got out, Khrystal was gone. She only knew from second-hand reports, other girls who saw her packing up. They were going to send her to the trade school across town, that was the scuttlebutt around the school.

Calistya couldn’t escape the crushing truth: this was all her fault. Khrystal, with her fiery courage, had always stood by her—and this was how Calistya had repaid her?

Without the ability to attract the attention of those that could potentially do something, she resorted to telling the tale to her classmates. Maybe she was hoping they’d go back and tell their teachers. The headmaster, even. Though Cali hardly thought it’d do much good. Khrys was already out of the program. Probably already settled in somewhere. Justice was swift when it came, and they seemed to be blaming her for everything. Why else then wouldn’t Calistya herself have been kicked out too? She’d been just as bad, broken the same rules. Even gotten caught twice with the same person. Couldn’t they see there was a logic in punishing them both?

And yet here she stayed. And they weren’t even treating her badly. The students least of all. They, too, seemed to have decided that Khrystal was the bad influence. Clearly the teachers had been spreading lies, and Cali didn’t know how to stop the lies from growing. She’s already shouted herself hoarse. Nobody was listening.

So against all rules and logic, in the face of an almost certain censure by the headmaster, despite the fact that she’d gotten in trouble for it once already, Calistya headed for the dark. She was sick to death of being ignored, and not a little upset over the fact that she’d escaped punishment. If they needed someone to blame, why not her? Who else, right?

Thinking back, she realized that her escape was too easy. In fact, they hadn’t even confiscated her breathing equipment. How foolish was that? She should’ve known this was some sort of game they were playing. They were avoiding punishment for a reason. A reason she couldn’t fathom but it felt calculated, like they were waiting to see what she’d do next. And they seemed bent on allowing her to continue on the misbehaving way she’d been doing with her friend. Again, for what reason she could only guess. Not even that—she hadn’t a clue.

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She got to the dark line and looked around, daring the city guards to come forth and take her in. She almost wanted it, in a perverse way. If she were locked up, it’d seem somewhat more fair that poor Khrystal would only be stuck with trade school. If she were thrown to the wolves, then the real punishment would finally fit the crime. If they came to take her in, though she saw no sign of them yet.

So she dove back down. Down out of the shadows above, down into the glowing spaces that were fast becoming familiar. Down to where the sea creatures glowed with eerie luminescence, casting the chasm in a spectral light. A special, secret place where her merboy lived. She believed it now. He lived down there, somewhere—the real article, like in the history books.

She didn’t have to wait long for him to appear. And the way he looked around as he came whooshing up, she knew he’d been nearby the last time, too. Watching, but not emerging. For fear of Khrystal, Calistya supposed, though why he’d be afraid of her she had no idea.

“Hello,” she gurgled.

The sound seemed to startle him, and he zipped backwards and down slightly. Lord was he fast.

Calistya giggled at the sight of his discomfort. She realized that he wasn’t much for talking.

Or, maybe he just didn’t speak the language?

She pointed to her mouth, opening and closing it to mime speech.

The merboy smiled, turned away, and sped off. In moments he was back, a head of kelp in his fist. He held it out with an awkward reverence, as if he were offering something sacred. But this wasn’t ceremonial or symbolic. He was offering her food.

She giggled and pushed it away.

“Talk,” she said, softly as she could manage in a watery setting, “Can you?”

He froze, his sharp cerulean eyes locking on hers. This time, he didn’t retreat. Instead, he looked closely at her lips, pointed to his own, and said, “Ghoi Nyu. Hya Kaial.”

Calistya had no earthly idea what he’d said, but it sounded beautiful and lyrical all the same. She tried to imitate it.

“Goi Nyoo. Is that your name?” Goi?”

His smile flickered, hesitant, as if weighing her understanding.

“Hyhya Kaial,” he said finally, with a nod.

He looked so thoughtful, she almost wished she could reply. Instead she said, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re saying. You’re saying you’re Kyle?”

He nodded again, but looked disappointed. Well, she thought, at least the kid’s not scared of my voice anymore. And he was a kid, she could see that now. At least a handful of years younger than herself, though muscular and fit. He could pass for an adult at a distance. Being a seafarer tended to do that, she recognized, which made identification hard. Now that she was up close, though, she could see it clearly.

He had an angelic face. Soft golden curls bounced in the surf. The rest of his chest and torso was chiseled and smooth, down to the fin, which was a deep green. He held his flipper behind his body, so it was hard to see the end of it, but if this were a mechanical thing she couldn’t see the works behind it. It was some amazingly sophisticated technology no matter how you examined it. She wanted to ask him about it, but knew that level of conversation was beyond them for now. So she started simply.

“Calistya,” she said, pointing at herself. “Cal-is-tia.”

The boy looked amused, and made no attempt to mimic. He swam slightly backwards with a bemused expression. Then he grabbed her wrist, oriented towards the chasm, and swam the both of them downward.

It was so sudden, Calistya had no thought to scream, but it did seem rather invasive, so she pulled up and started swimming the other way. This made her wrist hurt where the boy had taken hold, and still they were on their way down. For a smaller child, he was extremely strong. She didn’t want to hurt him, fighting back like that, but she suddenly dreaded what she might find at the bottom of the chasm.

She pulled hard and broke his hold. She didn’t want to lose sight of the boy, but neither did she want to lose track of the light-line above. Bioluminescent creatures were pretty enough, but they weren’t nearly sufficient to see which way was up, and she was feeling rather disoriented down here. Or perhaps it was simply her nerves.

The merboy continued downward, undeterred. He barely even gave Calistya a backward glance as he made his way down. With a sinking sense of disappointment, she realized that she was going to lose him again. He wouldn’t be coming back. It was almost as if he had an instinctual urge. Quite the opposite from her own, in fact. Beings of the sea generally flocked to the light, not the other way around. Not unless you were one of these glowing creatures she was seeing by on the rock-face.

As his figure disappeared into the abyss, Calistya’s chest tightened. The currents swirled emptily around her, and she was left wondering.

Regret weighing her down, Calistya reluctantly pushed upward toward the thin sliver of light high above. She’d managed her orientation easily enough, but now the inky depths where her mystery boy had fled were lost to her. Would she ever see him again? The lure was too great—she had to know more.