Lost at Sea
KATE HUMPHREYS
Diti
They say a syren’s tears are so rare that we cry diamonds, that with a single tear you’d never have to work again. I think that’s ridiculous. Mermyds roam the Worlds freely, but syrens are water. You hear our song in the waves as we lament our existence, begging for salvation we don’t deserve. Syrens are trapped beyond reality. We are bound to Atchoshek. We cannot slip past the confines of our watery prison, but I plan to escape.
I swim to the edge of the underwater city. No one ever goes further than the city gates, but the dakarafel is far past any remnants of civilisation. The barrier between us and the Worlds is an angry blue fog. Few dare to speak of it, less dare to touch it. They say the dakarafel is limitless, that it will swallow you whole. I plan to find out.
As my face breaks the water I glance at our last cavern, littered with rundown houses and dejection. The smell of mould and dead fish makes my nose twitch. Even with night vision the cavern is barely visible. Dregs of bioluminescent algae flicker in warning, but I’m not turning back.
I drag my limbs out of the water, thanking the gods for our lack of fins and tails. Water seeps from my skirts; the silk glitters like the midnight sky. I race to the swirling edges of the cavern, and the dakarafel encircles me, hissing at my arrival. I fight the urge to smile. This is it.
My hand makes contact with the wall of mist. It’s so cold it burns, and like broken glass against my skin. I push harder. Blue tendrils embrace me with the tenderness of a rosebush. I see the dakarafel pierce my translucent flesh. I bite my tongue to keep from screaming. It’s excruciating, but I need to get out of here.
The pain becomes unbearable as I shove my shoulder in too. My body pushes onwards. The dakarafel is thick and suffocating, like wading through aerated mud. Atchoshek fades behind me and I am surrounded by a blue expanse. I guess it really is endless.
The dakarafel’s continual efforts to be rid of me are the only indicator of where I need to go. The pain doesn’t lessen, but it becomes insignificant as the blue fades and an image forms in front of me.
I see a girl through the mist. She’s not wading, she's running— on dry land.
It’s a surface girl.
The realisation catches me off guard. I stumble, and the dakarafel gets the upper hand. I try to fight it, but it shoves me back the way I came. Before I can find my bearings I am thrown to the edge of the dakarafel. Hands tighten on my wrist and yank me out.
The pain stops, and I sigh. I was so close. I rub my wrist before turning to find royal guards between me and the swirling blue mist. The captain of the guards meets my eyes. I don’t remember his name. He bows his head in greeting
‘You’re coming with us, Your Majesty,’ the captain grunts.
What’s the point of having guards? All they do is stop me. I didn’t ask to be queen, but I cannot remember a time before this. The guards force me back to the palace, through tattered cities and broken dreams. My mind won’t let go of the girl in the mist. I shiver, wrapping my arms around myself. Who is she? Is she still running away?
*
It’s evening when we return. The guards mutter their respects as they leave, but the captain turns to me.
‘This is for the best, Your Majesty,’ he promises.
He doesn’t mean it, they just don’t want me to leave.
He bows and I’m left alone in my rooms. I take a breath and assemble my cleaning supplies before swimming up to the dry rooms. No one else cleans them correctly and my guards never dare to stop me. I try to keep the girl from my mind, but I’m itching to go back to that cavern. I groan in frustration before throwing my cloth against the wall and diving back into the submerged half of my chambers. It’s an itch I’m going to scratch.
I return to the cavern. The dakarafel is no less resistant. I push through the fog and the surface girl appears just as I’d last seen her— running through a courtyard.
Maëlle
My feet slammed against the marble pavement. My arm skid against the roses as I ran through the palace gardens. Blood trickled down my hand. It didn’t matter. I had to get away. Screw being Amarian royalty, I was not getting married.
The shouts of palace guards spurred me into the garden labyrinth. I could lose them there.
I turned several corners before lifting a section of the wall. I threw myself under, tumbling into my sanctuary. I laid there for several seconds with my eyes closed. The air trickled into my lungs as I gulped down breaths.
I glanced up at the sky only to find my mother’s eyes glaring down at me.
Crap.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ My mother grit out.
‘Escaping hell,’ I muttered, pulling myself to my feet.
My mother’s hands were on her hips and her lips were pressed into a thin line.
‘Maëlle Elspeth Lynnette Vareda, it’s an engagement ceremony not the end of the Worlds. Be grateful we’re not marrying you off now,’ she hissed.
‘I thought tomorrow’s ball was for my birthday.’
She clutched the pendant at her neck and took a breath. I swore she never took that thing off.
‘It is. Remove the attitude before the court compares you to that dreaded faerie princess,’
‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ I spat before she yanked me out of the labyrinth.
I stalked to my rooms, trying not to glare at my guards. How could my mother compare me to Zeta? Faeries could grant wishes but making deals with the faerie princess was akin to dealing with the devil. Zeta literally wanted to tear the Worlds apart— I just wanted to escape mine. I dismissed the guards, but I was still restless. Thankfully, the library was in the tower by my rooms.
The smell of old books and woodsmoke greeted me as I walked in. The hearth in the fireplace never went out– sometimes I wondered if it was real fire.
I reached for The Tales of Prince Adamah, its cover now faded and the pages worn, and settled against the bay window.
‘Helloooooo!’
I blinked. How long had I been here? Was someone talking?
I turned my head. There was no one there, but the sky had faded into dusk.
‘Hey!’ a voice shouted in my ear.
I looked over my shoulder to find a doll-sized faerie too close to my face. She was perched on a cushion, peering down at me with her hands on her hips.
‘Nice to finally get your attention. I have an offer for you.’
‘An offer?’ I pushed myself up on the cushions.
‘I’m working on a way to travel between worlds.’
I gave the tiny creature a blank stare. She couldn’t be serious.
She continued, ‘But I need a stronger power source than faerie magic.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Amare has the strongest natural magic in our world, perhaps you know where it comes from?’
I smiled, ‘Perhaps, if you’re willing to take on a partner?’
‘Is that what you wish?’ she asked.
‘It is.’
I held out my hand. The faerie grasped my index finger and shook it with a smile.
‘Call me Annie.’
*
Light was just peeking through the bay window when my mother found me. She wrapped me in her arms and kissed my head.
‘Happy Birthday, darling.’
‘Thanks Mum,’ I mumbled into her shoulder.
Guilt welled in my chest. I wanted to see other worlds, but did I really want to leave my mother?
My mother took my hand and led me through the library. We stopped in front of the hearth. It was still burning bright.
My mother smiled, ‘I want to show you something.’
Her pendant began to glow. The flames parted and a doorway appeared. My jaw dropped, but my mother turned the doorknob and pulled me through the fire. I stepped onto a floor of stars. Before me was a hallway lined with mismatched doors that seemed to go on forever.
‘Where do they go?’ I whispered.
My mother answered with a smile, ‘Everywhere.’
We walked through the halls in silence. I started to wonder if the hallway really did have an end. Before I could ask, I heard birds chirping.
We hadn’t entered any of the doors, but we were standing in an open field. I’d never seen anything like it. A sea of wildflowers lined a gushing river. Trees dotted the landscape, and animals grazed undisturbed at our arrival.
My mother grasped my hands, “This is the heart of our world, the birthplace of reality.”
‘Where are we?’ I asked.
‘Welcome to Tevaedan.’
Well crap. I didn’t need to make that deal after all.
Diti
I’m unsure if the pain has stopped, but I know the pressure certainly hasn’t. Every moment I’m here the dakarafel does its best to evict me, but I have no intention of leaving. The surface girl’s life continues mute before me. She is led into an open field and I feel my chest constrict. My breathing becomes short. Something is wrong. Something is very wrong. What is she doing, and why do I care?
Maëlle
‘I want to take back our deal,’ I said.
Annie raised an eyebrow.
‘I’m not showing it to you,’ I repeated. ‘Get your own magic.’
A burning pain seared through my right hand, but there were no flames.
Annie gazed down at me from the bookshelf she’d made home, ‘You can’t.’
‘Why not?’
Annie laughed, ‘Because you can’t break deals with faeries.’
She was lying. There was only one faerie you couldn’t break deals with. My heart dropped. I was an idiot. Her name wasn’t Annie. Her name was Zeta, the godforsaken faerie princess set on separating the universe— and I had become her accomplice.
Zeta smirked, ‘We have a deal, Amarian. Show me what you found.’
My body moved on its own. I couldn’t stop my legs from moving, from showing Zeta the fireplace. She blasted it open with her magic. I found myself leading her through the halls and into Tevaedan.
Zeta gazed at Tevaedan with hungry eyes and my chest seized. I could do nothing but watch as she started casting spells. Reality began to tear. Flowers disintegrated and the sky darkened. Fragments of other worlds appeared where the stream used to be. I heard the hallway crumble before I saw it. When Zeta finished, we were surrounded by a tattered mess of portals and rubble.
She turned to me, ‘Anything else you want, Amarian?’
‘I wish to forget.’
Zeta smiled, ‘Now you owe me your death too.’
Before I could blink she pushed me through the nearest portal. I found myself falling out of the sky, heading straight for roaring waves. My body smacked into the water. My bones shattered and my lungs filled with water. When oblivion overcame me, all I felt was relief.
Diti
My breath catches in my throat. I have no right to escape Atchoshek. I have no right to anything. My name isn’t just Diti. My name was Maëlle Elspeth Lynnette Vareda, the princess who smashed the Worlds to pieces. I was the princess who fell from that portal and drowned.
I let out a bitter laugh. How could I forget? Mermyds are living; syrens are dead. The dakarafel wasn’t keeping us in, it was keeping us out. Our broken dreams are ones we smashed and our tattered cities are those we razed to the ground.
Something wet drips onto my face, but it doesn’t fall from the ceiling. I touch a hand to my face to find it continues in streams down my cheeks. There’s a burning in my eyes. Liquid pools in them, desperate to spill over.
I don’t notice the dakarafel spitting me out, nor the guards hauling me back to the palace. I’m too busy drowning in memories I begged to forget. I can no longer tell if the dakarafel was doing me a favour; it retains everything we did to deserve this place. Perhaps it is better if we don’t know why we suffer; it is easier to accept injustice than guilt.
They say a syren’s tears are so rare that we cry diamonds, but there are no jewels or magic. There is no change in the tide. There is no change at all. There is nothing more than salt on salt and another heart lost to the sea.
Kate Humphreys is an aspiring young writer who is fascinated by worldbuilding. At thirteen years old, she was unable to find a world where all the stories she'd read could co-exist— so she created one. Now, the characters, culture and mythology of that world are ready to come to life.
