Chapter 37

Fey’s party sped through the ocean in a southeasterly direction, individually towed by a quartet of dolphins.

Requiem and Sirena were in charge of using their bardic skills to enhance the dolphins’ speed, and did so by performing a medley of high-energy pop songs. Unlike Requiem’s earlier performances, which granted a boost that lasted for an hour after the end of the song, the merfolk players now utilized their Continuous Song ability, which produced a larger buff that ended as soon as the singing stopped.

Fey thoroughly enjoyed the music during the trip. More often than not, she joined in on the singing, not to train a skill but just to be part of the music. Her telepathic voice was the idealized version of what she wished she sounded like in real life, the notes rich and pure, with a much larger range than her vocal cords could manage.

Requiem was surprised and impressed by Fey’s singing. When he had a break from singing the dolphins’ speed buff, he took the opportunity to compliment her. :You sing great.:

Fey shot Requiem a disgusted look at his use of an adjective where an adverb belonged (*grammar snob*). Pointedly looking away from the (confused) merman, she joined in on Sirena’s music without replying.

Not missing a note, Sirena continued singing while casting a (maliciously) amused glance at Requiem and his utter failure to gain a single speck of Fey’s favour (it’s almost like he was designed that way…).

In a good mood from the music and group dynamics, Sirena boldly experimented with her bardic skills. At the beginning of the next section of music, she left the melody to Fey and launched into a harmonic line. Such an attempt would have resulted in a mess of discordant notes in real life, but the girls managed to meld their telepathic voices in a hauntingly beautiful sound.

The female party members broke off singing in light of the new development, causing the dolphins’ movements to visibly slow.

:New skill! High five!: Sirena exclaimed.

Her taxi dolphin (hereafter known as Splash) humoured her by swimming close enough to Fey and Whistle for the girls to slap each other’s palms, then gently reminded, :If you could resume singing, please.:

:Oops, sorry.: Sirena launched into another high-energy song, allowing the dolphins to regain their earlier speed.

Requiem naturally wanted to learn Harmony as well, but was stymied by the fact that he could not improvise harmonic lines. In fact, he had no experience singing in a choir or even in duets, so his ability to sing harmony at all was in question.

Fey caught the merman’s expression and said, :Can’t sing harmony? Me neither.: She grimaced in empathy. Not even two years of singing lessons had taught her to sing anything but the melody line in a group.

:Yeah.: Requiem was surprised at Fey’s perceptive observation and uncritical attitude, especially after her earlier reaction to his compliment (really, our scatter-brained heroine has already forgotten about the whole incident).

When Sirena finished her song, Fey suggested, :Why don’t you let Requiem sing melody and you sing Harmony?:

:We have another harmonically-challenged one here, do we?: Sirena missed no opportunity to subtly belittle the merman who would treat her friend’s emotions (if Fey had normal ones) so callously. :Time to vote him off the island.:

:She’s joking: Fey reassured Requiem (untruthfully). :Sing something: she urged.

After a moment’s hesitation, Requiem decided that he simply did not understand Sirena’s sense of humour and launched into a song. When Sirena joined in with Harmony, the two bards’ skills were elevated to a new level and the dolphins surged forward with extra speed.

Fey glanced over at Blade. The human warrior appeared to be passively enjoying the music, listening appreciatively but not joining in. She judged that he was doing well without her interference (actually, Blade is generally in a healthier state of being when Fey’s not interfering) and turned her attention back to the music, joining in on the melody an octave higher than Requiem.

Of the party members, Blade was the only one without musical training. He knew what he liked, and listened to music without singing along.

He definitely liked Sirena’s beautiful telepathic voice. It was beyond his abilities to consciously articulate, but Fey’s idealized voice sounded so crystalline and pure that it was a little bit inhuman, while Sirena’s had a warm undertone that he could connect to.

:No skill at all. One person should easily be able to sing three lines.: The muttered comment came from Click, Blade’s chatty taxi-dolphin.

Blade frowned in confusion. He did not have enough knowledge of how music was written to understand the implications of Click’s words.

He did not have the telepathy to ask for clarification, and did not consider the matter important enough to interrupt his party-mates’ singing, so he shrugged off the comment and returned his attention to the music.

:We’re here: announced Whistle. A deep chasm came into view on the ocean floor. To either side were rock and sand; occasional scraggly plants were the only sign of life. No signs of movement could be seen, nor could mysterious music be heard.

Eventually, all four players gathered at the edge of the chasm. Peering into the crevasse, they could only see a few lengths down before the darkness became impenetrable.

:We don’t have to go down there, do we?: Fey asked doubtfully. Going into a chasm of indeterminate depth and populated by unknown monsters did not seem compatible with staying alive.

:It seems likely: said Sirena with a touch of regret, the same casual tone normal people would use to say, ‘We’re going to have to walk in the rain without an umbrella.’

Blade found a fist-sized rock and dropped it into the chasm. It quickly disappeared in darkness. The players waited a full minute to hear it strike the bottom, but no sound came.

:Well, that’s reassuring: Fey said in a cheerfully ironic tone. She looked around in a last-ditch effort to find something safer to explore. The landscape did not oblige her by spontaneously creating a point of interest. She sighed and resigned herself to probable virtual death. :What’s the penalty for dying again?: she asked.

“You lose a level and some items,” said Blade. He looked into the chasm. “It can’t be that dangerous down there.”

:Clearly, you have an underdeveloped imagination: said Fey, her voice dark with foreseen doom.

Requiem was impatient. :Let’s just go already.:

:Why don’t you take the lead?: Fey invited politely.

Requiem nodded and began descending (completely missing the implied, ‘first to go, first to die’ belief that prompted the invitation).

Sirena and Blade followed (congratulations to Blade, who has apparently been promoted from ‘meat shield’), and Fey (cowardly) brought up the rear.

Down and down they went. Light from the surface quickly attenuated, and Amethyst’s bioluminescence quickly became the only source of light. It occurred to Fey to pull out the bottle containing Squishy-the-jellyfish as a second pet lamp. In terms of brightness, Squishy’s pink glow outshone Amethyst’s purple light.

As they swam, the players remained watchful of their surroundings, on alert for quest clues (or bloodthirsty monsters, depending on their individual levels of paranoia).

Ten minutes later, the party (anticlimactically) reached the bottom of the chasm without incident. They had seen nothing but bare rock walls, and the bottom was no different.

:This can’t be right: Requiem muttered. Of the four party members, he desired the siren’s song ability the most. Casting about for clues, he picked a direction and began swimming along the length of the chasm.

The other party members followed, but Fey and Blade lagged behind when swimming under their own power. Requiem found his pace limited by how far he could see beyond the glow of Fey’s pets.

Before long, Requiem lost patience. Swimming back to the group, he grabbed Fey’s wrist and towed her along with powerful strokes of his tail. As a low-strength mage, Sirena could not hope to pull Blade and keep up; before long, the two halves of the party had a considerable gap between them.

Fey allowed the man-handling for several minutes while she considered her options. This was the second time Requiem had grabbed her without permission (see Chapter 34 if you don’t remember) and he clearly needed some positive punishment (1) to discourage further offences.

All avenues of possibility were open as Fey plotted. Requiem paid her no attention while searching for quest clues along the chasm, and likely would not react fast enough to any kind of attack that Fey unleashed.

I could just stab him with my spear, she reflected idly. Nah, that’s not creative enough. I could let Squishy out of the jar and sting him. Meh, not painful enough. I could scream at him and scare the bejeezus out of him, but that might attract some scary monsters. Hmm… Fey twisted her lips in consideration.

Amethyst watched alertly as she trailed along like a strange scarf, ready to participate in whatever mayhem Fey desired.

The slime’s eagerness settled the matter. With a discreet hand signal, Fey shooed her other pets out of range, then said quietly, :Amethyst, be a dear and cast all your poisons into Poison Sphere.:

The slime squeaked cheerfully and complied.

(Really, really, really dedicated and detail-oriented readers may have noticed that sea nettle poison did not appear; due to the way jellyfish neurotoxin works, it is strictly a contact poison)

Most of Amethyst’s poison collection consisted of weak toxins that could easily be shrugged off without an antidote, but the combined effect hit Requiem in a wave of agony.

Blade and Sirena caught up a minute later to find Requiem contorting in obvious pain while Fey looked on with a detached-but-slightly-worried expression.

:What did you do?: Sirena asked in an impressed voice.

Blade did not need to ask; he knew the signs of poison (intimately). “Which poison did you use?” he asked.

:All of them: Fey answered, biting her lip. Her eyes were focused on the stat window she had called up; Requiem’s health bar was dropping at an alarming speed. :He’s going to die in less than two minutes: she reported. Her furyweed alone was enough to kill the average level 30 warrior; the other poisons simply compounded the pain Requiem felt and hastened his death.

Sirena slung a companionable arm around Fey’s shoulders. :Good job: she congratulated. :I couldn’t have done it better myself.:

Fey still looked worried. Her (callous and self-interested) nature revealed itself when she asked, :If he dies, will I get a player killer penalty?:

Sirena sobered. :Good point. Grabbing you probably doesn’t count as first aggression on his side.: She sighed regretfully. :I guess we better heal him up.:

Blade was watching Requiem’s death throes with a ‘that could easily have been me’ kind of fascinated horror. It took him a few seconds to notice the girls staring at him expectantly. “What?” he asked.

:Lend a fellow an antidote?: Fey asked hopefully.

Blade drew back defensively. “No way. I only have two left.” Blade’s stock of poison neutralizers had become dangerously depleted in the course of adventuring with Fey, and he was not about to risk himself in order to help a rude, obnoxious person like Requiem.

:Pleeeease? We don’t want Fey to get infamy: Sirena begged. Her expression was all ‘enormous puppy eyes’, making it hard for Blade to refuse her (*emotional manipulation*).

:I’ll get you more antidotes as soon as we’re back in town: Fey promised, making it hard for Blade to refuse on pragmatic grounds (*bribery*).

“Fine,” he acquiesced. With some reluctance, he dug out his second-to-last antidote.

:Yaaay!: Sirena cheered. She swam over and gave Blade an exuberant hug and kiss on the cheek, then plucked the antidote out of his surprised fingers and proceeded to be rougher than necessary in forcing the potion down Requiem’s throat.

:Thanks, Blade: Fey added gratefully. Blade had saved her the trouble associated with being a player-killer; infamy resulted in poor relations with NPCs, making it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain quests or purchase items. She did not hug him or kiss him on the cheek; her brand of affection consisted of making a mental note to buy him a lot of extra antidotes (which he wouldn’t need if she just stopped poisoning him).

Poisons neutralized, Requiem was now in a state of critically low health and its attendant physical weakness. :What happened?: he asked groggily; that many concurrent poisons had somewhat stunned him and the pain had driven memory away.

Sirena saw an opportunity to further toy with the beleaguered merman. Putting on a concerned face, she said, :You must have been attacked by a really poisonous monster.:

Fey made a face at the implication that she was a ‘really poisonous monster, but remained silent and let Sirena have her fun. At the same time, Amethyst squeaked proudly at the compliment (“Am I really, really poisonous?”). Fey smiled fondly and patted the slime. :Yes you are: she cooed.

Requiem missed the interplay between owner and pet. :What was it?: he asked, looking around in unease for the non-existent monster.

:I didn’t see it: Fey answered (honestly).

:Did you get poisoned, too?: Requiem demanded.

:Yes, but I have a fairly high level of Immunity.: At level 8, the ability made her immune to all but the poison mushroom poison and gloom blight, and she was tolerating the blurry vision and speed penalty so well that the other party members did not even notice she was affected.

Colour slowly returned to Requiem’s skin as his vitality restored his health out of the danger zone. Though his physical state was returning to pre-poison levels, his mental state was considerably more paranoid as he constantly scanned the environment for the poisonous monster Sirena had planted in his mind. (Ooh, she’s so evil.)

Before Requiem could ask any more questions, Fey distracted him by saying, :Let’s proceed cautiously from now on.:

Sirena nodded seriously (well, “seriously”). After being nudged by the mermaid’s elbow, Blade nodded as well, though with a distinctly unconvincing look on his face.

Fey now took the lead in exploring the chasm. Requiem now stuck close enough to the party that he started invading Blade’s personal space, causing the human warrior to shoot him an exasperated look. “Dude, back off. The poison monster is gone.”

Fey shot Blade an amused look and Amethyst waved her bubble at him. Teasing (tormenting) done, Fey now focused on the quest as she moved forward. :Tell me if you see anything interesting: she whispered to her pets. She was amused enough by the fact that the party was relying on a person with poisoned vision to lead that she did not give up her position at the front in favour of pragmatism.

The glooms (and a gloom-riding boar) zipped off to explore. It was a gloom that found the site of interest, many minutes after Fey’s poison status had worn off. Squeaks brought her attention to a rusted lever on the chasm floor.

:Come look at this: she called to her party-mates. They gathered around the strange object, trying to figure out why it was there and what it did.

Fey held her jellyfish lamp closer to the metal. Under the rust, she could faintly make out lettering. :Do not pull: she read aloud.

The party members exchanged glances. They all had differing levels of desire to pull the lever.

Fey was fully against it. In her mind, pulling the lever equated with bad and probably lethal outcomes.

Sirena was of mixed feelings. She felt that pulling the lever would be dangerous, but also that it was a necessary part of the quest.

Blade was cautiously for it. He did not have a fertile imagination for unknown dangers, and felt that the party could handle whatever happened.

Requiem would normally be very eager do whatever was necessary to finish the siren’s song quest. However, in the wake of his traumatization-by-poison, his normally brash nature was temporarily subdued, and he looked at the lever with indecision.

Fey looked around the circle, saw that the other party members had some desire to court death-by-mysterious-lever, and took a deep breath, reminding herself that in-game death was (probably) not too unpleasant. :Okay, fine, let’s do it.: Before she could think too hard about the stupidity of her course of action, she grabbed the lever and yanked.

The other party members tensed, then relaxed as Fey’s strength proved insufficient to budge the rusted contraption (*second anticlimax*).

Trying to cover her embarrassment, Fey gestured at Blade to try his strength. The human warrior planted his feet and heaved; with a creaky groan, the lever slowly changed position.

For a second, nothing happened. (Error. Anticlimax limit for the chapter has been reached. Proceed with plot.) Then a loud rumbling began from the chasm walls as they slowly moved towards each other.

Fey acted quickly, expecting something of the sort. She grabbed Requiem’s arm and yelled, :Swim up! UP!:

The party raced madly out of the chasm, with Blade and Fey acting as severe handicaps on the merfolk’s speed. The chasm walls inched ever closer together.

Eyeing the distance still to swim and the distance left between the walls, Fey judged the party was not going to make it. Thankful that telepathy allowed her to talk even when she had laboured breathing from sprint swimming, she called the glooms over and had them take Amethyst and Squishy with them as they escaped.

Fortunately, Fey’s calculations were off. The movement of the chasm walls displaced a huge amount of water, which helped to propel the party out safely before the ocean floor closed with a deep boom.

Tumbled about by the turbulent flow of water, the party finally settled, panting from overexertion, some distance away from the chasm.

:Well, that was fun: Fey finally remarked. Even she was unable to determine the mix of sarcasm and honesty in her voice.

Sirena looked around. There was a crack in the ground where the chasm used to be, but the gap was gone. It appeared that nothing else had changed, and they were no closer in their quest to find siren’s song.

Requiem was the first to remark, :Do you hear that?:

:Hear what?: Fey asked.

:Low, low voices.: The telepathic sound was near infrasound; though the players were not relying on their ears to hear, they were still restricted by the range of signals their brains could process.

The pitch of the voices rose into the clearly audible range, travelling up and down. :It’s… singing!: Sirena exclaimed.

(Several hours after the close of the chasm, a small tsunami hit the town of Seaport. There was extensive property damage, especially to the buildings closest to shore, but the NPCs managed to keep any players from dying.)

(1) In the theory of operant conditioning, there are four ways to induce a desired behaviour. These are 1) Positive reinforcement, where the desired behaviour reinforced by a pleasant reward; 2) Negative reinforcement, where the desired behaviour is reinforce by the removal of an unpleasant stimulus; 3) Positive punishment, where the undesirable behaviour is punished by an unpleasant stimulus; 4) Negative punishment, where the undesirable behaviour is punished by the removal of a pleasant object/stimulus