The sixth floor, or the combination of fifth, sixth, and seventh now, was one of only a few naturally noisy levels, and the only one that sounded quite like it did. Carmine had just gotten informed that she could rest her voice again, and the Song she had been singing for the past half hour finally drew to a close, before she gave a delighted giggle.

She was happy with her Song, though she had wished that they had been able to listen to her for longer. Still, there was a consolation in knowing that her music had ended early, it meant that she had put on a great show. Now that her Song had ended, however, she had little to do beyond wander these halls and regret that she was unable to seek out her fuzzy compatriots without risking being drawn into a battle she could otherwise avoid. In fact, she wasn’t sure she could find them without being seen by something not of her home first, and she knew it wasn’t worth the risk.

Thankfully, the Voice was merciful, and it always guided her so that she never crossed paths with her audience after she asked Sela, the first time it happened. Even though it wasn’t a particularly scary creature, she had worried about running into something worse later on and didn’t want it to happen. She had been thinking about Sela more often lately, and every time she realized she hadn’t seen her in a long time she was forced to wonder why that was. The last time she had seen the little lady, she had been forced to hold on to one of those awful bundles of light, and she felt a bit hurt that Sela made her do it, even though she knew that she’d been wrong by screaming.

Thinking about it more, she realized it was kind of a mean way to treat her, especially since Sela was quite literally an angel in her mind, why else would she just decide to Name her. She hoped Sela wasn’t upset at her, but maybe she was, and that worried Carmine. Thankfully, she knew nothing bad had happened to her, something made her feel like she was obviously alright, and the thought that she could’ve gotten in trouble hadn’t even crossed her mind; she knew Sela was fine, she just didn’t know where she was.

She decided that maybe tonight she would try to find her, instead of playing with the starfish. If she found Sela she’d try to apologize to her, and hopefully she’d be forgiven. It’d be best if she wasn’t forced to carry one of those things again, something about them made her feel really upset, and the last time one wandered through a hall when she was singing she just couldn’t avoid screaming because of it. Apparently it worked, because it left her alone really quickly, but it still upset her and she couldn’t sing again for a little bit.

As she further considered how exactly she’d find Sela, as well as how nice it’d be to never see another living light again, she got a tiny tug on her mind, which swiftly became more noticeable until there was once again a pull on her mind, telling her that she should be going away from wherever she was, or towards wherever they weren’t.

So she started following the instructions, moving quickly away from where she had stopped to think while also humming a soft tune to herself. Eventually, she found her tune, her Song, and her quiet hum very swiftly blossomed into something much more. She sang words only she knew, to a tune only she could follow. It was fast and subdued, or slow and frantic, or whatever else she wanted it to be, and she got lost in her song.

In moments, there was nothing around but her and her Song, and the Voice telling her where her Song was needed most. She trusted it, and she followed the tunnels it marked. And so, she sang and she swam, sometimes needing to go up into the darkness, sometimes needing to head deeper into the light. The longer she sang, the happier she became, and after some time she couldn’t help but laugh, overjoyed that she could bring something so beautiful into her world, that she was being heard and loved.

After all, she could feel that her song was being heard, that was why she was so happy. She knew that they heard her and they listened, and that they thought her song was just as beautiful as she did. It made the strain on her voice and the stress on her mind feel like they were nothing, because it was worth it all to her. But she also knew that her song wouldn’t, couldn’t, last forever. She felt her audience as they stopped asking for more. They had heard her song and felt her happiness with her, and now they were ready for the music to end.

It was saddening, knowing that her Song had to end, she felt as they, too, regretted that it couldn’t go on, but there was joy in the ending, too. And so it was with mixed feelings that she felt her Song come to an end. There was a final chorus to her music, before the melody came to a close. It was around then that the Voice also stopped its own contribution, once more she felt the guidance ending almost exactly as her Song did, though the Voice had always been much more abrupt than she.

Carmine was always concerned with this, she knew the Voice to be powerful as well as merciful, but despite how many of her Songs it had borne witness to it never seemed to realize that it too was a part of the performance. Despite this, she didn’t even know how to let it know, and thus, she could only hope it learned.

She spent a moment longer thinking about this, before she returned to simply relishing the feeling of a successful Song. It felt like it was far too often lately that she had a poor audience; they ruined her music by cutting her off or shutting it down, even interrupting her. She resented those who would do this to her, she simply wanted to share her joy with them through her Song, as she had with so many others, but they ruined it and hurt her by doing so.

That was why, whenever someone listened to her Song, she couldn’t help but feel happy, and yet again she caught herself giggling in delight. It was like this that the rest of the day went, she spent it singing and thinking, celebrating the successes and mourning the Songs which failed, but in the end she knew that despite the pain she felt from being interrupted, the happiness she spread made it more than worth it.

And when the Voice shifted once more, she knew that the day had ended, and that she was safe. She almost began heading to the nearest way upwards, ready to search for the stars and spend the night the same as she always had before she remembered the promise she made to herself earlier.

She took a moment to make sure that was what she really wanted, before nodding her head to herself and turning away from where she was headed, to where she remembered the big room being.

“Sela? Sela, are you there?” Despite not being on the floor she remembered her being last, she still tried calling out for her, even if it was a waste of time. Her cries continued as she swam onwards, the smaller creatures she was familiar with swimming along sluggishly while she spoke.

She did find the way downward after what felt like entirely too long, and with renewed vigor she swam downwards, still calling for her tiny friend. Unfortunately, the floor was very different than before, instead of the big scaled beast, there were many big fish, all looking very similar. They were mostly grey, while appearing much more sleek than any fish she’d seen prior. Most noticeable, their fins were all triangular, rather than rounded like she’d come to expect. But by far the most important, where she remembered Sela’s house being, she found a barely recognizable mass of coral and seaweed left abandoned and overgrown.

“Sela, are you mad at me?” She said in the direction of the empty house, fully expecting to receive nothing in response. Instead, an answer wormed its way into her mind, suddenly and unexpectedly.

“Wait, coming.” She jumped back with a surprised squeak, but quickly came to realize what spoke to her. Despite having never heard it speak before, she knew immediately that the Voice had answered her. As soon as this thought crossed her mind, she couldn’t stop from blurting, “You can talk?”

“Yes.” Came the simple, straightforward reply, and she was simply too curious to not follow this up with a second.

“Why haven’t you before, then?” She spoke aloud, staring at a particularly large red and white fish as she did. It seemed to be eyeing her in return, but never bothered to come any closer than a few meters away. She was thankful that this was the case, the teeth she saw sticking out of its mouth made her more than a little nervous. There were also a few others that stood out to her, bigger ones with horns on their head or bright colors, but none felt nearly as dangerous as the red one.

Once more, the Voice spoke to her, this time with a sense of finality that, when combined with the message it had to share, left her confused.

“No.”

It perplexed her, she had no idea what the Voice meant when it said no and she got the feeling that asking anything more was pointless at best. Her musings were interrupted shortly, though, when she heard a soft voice come from the wall behind her.

“Carmine, you were calling?” There was no mistaking the voice, and she whipped her body around to face the source, disturbing the waters around her and drawing the attention of more than a few of the fish.

“Sela, it’s you!” She squealed, rushing forwards to the dazed little woman far faster than she could react, then scooping her up and giving her a tight hug. After a long moment she relaxed her embrace, allowing the flustered Sela to back away, an odd feeling in the back of her mind fading away after her friend broke into a big grin.

Carmine took this moment to examine how Sela had changed since they last spoke, noticing right away that she was much bigger than last time. In fact, she was almost a third the length that Carmine herself was, where before she was just over a quarter. Along with that, her scales and hair had grown a touch lighter, and her tail a slight bit more red than purple, but it was truly hard to tell because they looked much shinier than last time.

She took in all this information quickly, and before Sela could even open her mouth again Carmine spoke up.

“Sela, I’m sorry” Her apology was met with a blank look from the recipient, and she simply returned with. “Why?”

And so Carmine explained her worries to her, apologizing that she screamed and hurt her, or that she was rude to her, and even that she doesn’t like the living lights. In the end, Sela took a moment to process what she’d been told, then just giggled and said “It’s fine, I’m not mad at you, just be careful when you scream.”

The siren nodded enthusiastically at this, overjoyed to hear it, and she rushed at her tiny friend to talk, something she had realized would be a lot better if what she talked to was able to respond. It seemed that Sela agreed, and despite her losing her attention when Carmine got a little too enthusiastic in her conversation she seemed, at least to the siren, happy.