* * * PARTHIA – MARY * * *

Mary watched as the harpoon guy launched his small outrigger canoe into her lagoon. She felt a certain degree of excitement and anticipation as she carefully manoeuvred one of her new schools of flying fish into position.

Once everything was ready she triggered their attack. Her Mk.2 Flyers launched themselves into the air. But they all missed! They missed a standing target – harpoon guy didn’t even need to dodge!

‘They missed! All of them! Why! What went wrong? Mary asked herself. Well at least harpoon guy seemed unnerved. Mary watched in irritation as he turned his canoe and paddled back to the shore. ‘ Well it kind of worked,’ she consoled herself.

Mary returned her full attention to her Mk.2s and started to examine them once again. She was jerked out of her contemplation by her exasperated sprite.

« Not now Mary! You need to be ready to welcome the priests, they will need somewhere to live and Purple Murex and Blacksand would also appreciate somewhere comfortable. »

« Um sorry, but the Mk.2s failed and... »

« What do you mean failed? They flew! Fish have never flown before, they’re great, » enthused Trisha.

Mary sulked for a while then felt ashamed of herself; she hadn’t even made a home for Trisha yet. Now what kind of a home would a Sea Sprite want ... mmm, best ask them.

« Trish, what does a Sea Sprite want in a home? »

« Somewhere secure with an alternate entrance so as to prevent being trapped, a dry spot for storing things would be nice. »

« ‘K then. Different homes or shared with separate chambers? »

* * *

Mary decided against using the mangrove island, it was just too wide for her ideas. Instead she selected the smallest island for her experiment, it was totally deserted and only had a handful of palm trees.

‘Palm trees, wonder if I can make a breadfruit... oops concentrate girl... sprite homes first!’

She found that making caves was easy, dungeons seemed naturally inclined to underground development. After thinking about that for a bit she decided that it was logical, after all dungeons and underground kind of went together like ham and eggs. Beep why was she constantly thinking of food!

It didn’t take long before she had a small complex of sprite sized caves running under the island. The rooms and caverns were linked by small tunnels to both sides of the island, allowing access from the ocean or lagoon.

There was a central meeting room, with three smaller rooms opening onto a corridor leading off from it, and one small chamber above the waterline – only possible due to how small sprites were – supplied by a small ventilation tube that exited under the roots of one of the palm trees.

The sprites were appreciative, more so when Mary figured out how to fuse sand into glass and was able to direct some light into their home.

Another few weeks went by, Mary got to know the, or rather, what she was coming to think of as her sprites. The islanders marvelled at the flying fish, which their elders labelled unnatural.

* * *

Things were not as easy when it came to ‘homes for the priests’. Well it could have been, but her sense of aesthetics when it came to her domain wouldn’t accept the easy answers. She recalled so many possible examples from back on Earth, so many possibilities. With her new home being so primitive she reckoned defence would be important. She ended up by settling for a central courtyard design, with added crenellations. Just how big should she make it though?

« Four clergy, one with family, plus five families with children, they’ll need a schoolroom, a guardroom and an armoury. »

‘Huh... ‘K one of the bigger designs then.’

She decided to create her new architectural masterpiece at the south end of Mangrove Island, she absorbed part of the island and created the building underwater. She wanted to hide it from the natives until the people it was destined for arrived. She already knew how to raise a building above the waves. Not being in a hurry, she worked in fits and starts.

Mary enjoyed watching the sprites as they settled in their new home. She made another unsuccessful stab at creating a breadfruit tree. And she continued studying her Mk.2s.

* * * PARTHIA – GARONMOUTH * * *

Sanderson the Wise was not pleased. One of the men killed by his god had been the captain of the Star of Ocidon. And the Star was the ship he had intended to use to transport Danilus and his staff to the ass end of beyond. Now he had to appoint a new captain and vet the crew.

‘Let me see, I need three acolytes capable of operating underwater, well most of us can, but these will need to.

‘Bertina, possibly though considering her idea of entertainment her presence will be greatly missed.’ Sanderson smiled to himself, he chuckled. ‘Yes Bertina will do. Zorglub? No, with all his hair raising ideas I’d best keep him close by. Faaron? Yes why not. No bars out there for him to start brawls in. I’ll bail him out of the guardhouse one more time and ship him out. Doxser? No we always need archivists. Sirvanus maybe? Yes that will work. Right that’s three.’

Sanderson sat back in his chair and played with his pendant. ‘Best send along a couple of guards as well, and a few servants to look after them.’

* * *

High Priest Sanderson gave the appropriate orders to his deputy. On being informed of the High Priest’s decision the head of the temple guards chose four of his guards, two husband and wife pairings. He didn’t have much difficulty persuading Sanderson that this was a good idea.

When informed of the size of the party being sent to man the new temple the temple’s major-domo upped the contingent of servants from four to six and added a teacher for the children.

There was a fair sized crowd at the temple dock between those who were leaving and the well wishers who had come to see them off. Faaron was the last to arrive, he was being escorted by two members of the watch. The watch was ecstatic to see the last of Faaron. They had even delayed briefly at the local bathhouse in consideration for his fellow travellers.

They sailed on the tide, the new captain and mate of the Star of Ocidon took things in their stride, they had both been at the temple and seen and heard Ocidon speak. They were very proud to be able to contribute to their god’s plans.

* * * PARTHIA – HELL’S MOUTH * * *

Hel-Arlizzy manifested himself in Hell’s Mouth’s heart chamber. Arbogar bowed respectfully, “My lord God, be welcome to Hell’s Mouth Dungeon.”

« Why did you summon me? »

“My Lord, we had the displeasure of a visit from Azurea, she seemed both irrationally angry and incoherent. We felt that she was hostile to us, a danger to us. We seek to resume old loyalties, for however many times we went against your desires you were never actively hostile to my dungeon.”

« I am unable to give you much in the way of help, I have been greatly diminished of late. »

“My lord, any help would be welcome, we fear Azurea will work against us regardless.”

« I advise you to strengthen yourselves while you can, and to delay a breach with the ‘blue haired cow’ as a free dungeon I recently met calls her. Then ... »

And Hel-Arlizzy explained exactly how Hell’s Mouth could sever ties with Azurea goddess of Dungeons and resume ties with him.

* * * EARTH – MARY * * *

Mary woke and blinked at the ceiling of her room, things had been weird ever since the vacation on Fiji. Mama had taken her and Flip to meet her sister, their auntie Vera.

She had never empathised much with other people, but now she had to think things through extra carefully, ’cause she just couldn’t make herself care for most people.

She stared at the ceiling, ‘why do I feel as if it looks wrong? And how come I’m always deamin’ an’ thinkin’ ’bout fish, crabs an’ other sea creatures. An’ how the beep do I knew so much ’bout how they’re put together, how they – work!’

Mary was still a bit spaced out when she ate breakfast; she kissed her mama and headed off to catch the bus for school. She took one of the front seats as usual and endured the company of her fellow students. School went slowly. During Maths she had an epiphany, it all seemed to fall into place. She sat there staring at the board with her mouth half open. Then she answered almost without thinking, even the trick question her exasperated teacher threw in. She blinked away the irritating blue screen that was telling her she had ranked up in maths and missed the look of speculation on her teacher’s face.

She was heading for lunch when she saw Mr Kanuha her biology teacher, and on a whim she hurried her steps. Once she caught him she started asking questions and adding her – observations? And theories. She didn’t even notice when Dr Andrews the head of the school’s biology department joined them. The result was a missed lunch, and more questions.

That afternoon when she got home she was surprised to see her mama waiting for her. Her mama beamed at her with pride and said, “I’m so proud of you Mary. Dr Andrews phoned me this afternoon. He wants to meet us tomorrow. He says you might qualify for a course of advanced study in marine biology, well biology with a specialisation in marine biology. Why haven’t you told me you’ve been studying up on fish? I thought your interest started with them on your rod and ended with them on the barbie.”

“Um, well mama, I – it seems to have been sneakin’ up on me recently.”