Brynna

Brynna disengaged herself from the conversation around the promoter and headed for the couch in the corner of the green room where Thessaly sat, poking halfheartedly at her phone. The mermaid sitting quietly out of the way somewhere after a show was nothing new, but usually she’d be working – scrolling diligently through her social media feeds, showing her fast-growing army of fans that she took an interest in them and their responses to her performances. Tonight she seemed to have switched off the instant she sang her last note.

She looked up as Brynna approached, lips twitching in an effort at a smile that turned into a shrug before it reached her eyes. Then she tried to go back to her phone, but Brynna slid onto the sofa next to her and caught her arm. Thessaly’s attention sharpened with worry, a sad frown pinching her face as she faced Brynna.

“What’s wrong, Thessaly, sweetie?” Brynna knew better than to approach her charge’s emotions obliquely.

The mermaid looked down at the phone in her lap. She didn’t speak. That already put Brynna on the map of the problem. Thessaly’s training was emotional as much as physical or musical, being an idol meant processing and storing powerful feelings, always, for later reuse. Of course, that’s not how human beings work and no idol was ever perfect at it, but for the last few weeks only one topic could wriggle out of Thessaly’s grasp.

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“Oh, sweetie, you still haven’t heard from Phoebe?” Brynna put her hand on Thessaly’s shoulder, as she seemed to find herself doing more and more often these days.

The mermaid’s head shook, very gently. “She came in eleventh today, all the way out of the points. And those photos of her with Mynah…”

Brynna didn’t believe for a second that Mynah Darling, maybe the biggest idol in Occidens right now, had actually struck up a relationship with Phoebe Tenryuu so quickly as to completely displace Thessaly in the dragon rider’s life. What Thessaly had told her about the time Phoebe had taken the mermaid for milkshakes rang too true for that.

But Brynna had years of age to her advantage in appraising the situation. Thessaly was head-over-heels for Phoebe, and even Brynna had distant memories of what that could be like for the young. Carefully, she slid her arm across the back of Thessaly’s hunched shoulders. “Give her time, sweetie, her life is even wilder than yours right now. You haven’t heard the last of her, I promise.”