The waters around them were silent as Marlow followed Nix through the dark channel. Neither of them had spoken since they left the cavern and Nix had instead turned silently and begun leading Marlow deeper through the crevice trench that housed the pod’s cave. It was a little eerie, with the close rocky walls looming over them. But it was also more or less uninhabited save for some long-tendriled plants and a few tiny fish that darted by. Marlow appreciated that at least. With how Nix and Delthor and the rest of the pod behaved, there were definitely far worse things they could run into.

She ran her fingers over the spear that she was carrying. It felt awkward and bulky in her grasp, but she maintained a tight grip on it. Despite her complete lack of knowledge on how to use it, her fear of the water had not abated much in the last several days and it was dark and spooky enough this deep that the weapon offered at least a little comfort.

Marlow glanced up again to sneak a glance at her guide. Nix blended well in the water, and Marlow could only see the white parts of her body as her darker skin seemed to vanish into the water around her. It was eerie, but Marlow supposed it made a rather excellent camouflage too. But despite how the dark kept her partially concealed, it was still easy to note how slumped Nix’s posture was.

The mer had always seemed so confident and strong, so regardless of how cross she still was, it was hard for Marlow to see her looking this defeated. She fingered the spear a bit and then sighed. “Nix?” she called.

As soon as she spoke, Nix stopped and turned to her, only to rear back with her blue eyes – now darkened by the depths – widened to saucers. Marlow flushed when she realized that the way she was brandishing the spear had levelled the tip with Nix’s chest when she turned. Nix tilted her head. “Do you esillke – hate – me that much, Marlow? It would not be a wise course of action. My mecur – my blood – would attract predators to you.”

Her words suggested Nix was attempting to jest, rather than seriously implying that Marlow wanted to kill her, but the incredible sorrow leaking into her tone still made Marlow’s gut squeeze and she hastily pulled the spear away with a frantic shake of her head. “I do not, I was not…”

Nix shook her head. “It is my fault,” she acknowledged. “I should have shown you how to properly hold a saskuk.” She reached out and touched Marlow’s wrist. “You must carry a spear properly or you risk injuring yourself or others. Do not hold it by the center as you do. Move this hand towards the yurar – the head – and the other down here,” she instructed as she indicated lower down the spear.

Marlow’s tail stirred the water as she held herself steady and hesitantly complied with the instruction.

“Ilkarm – better – now move the spear. The tip should always be up near your shoulder, but out just a little like this.” Nix paused in her instruction to adjust Marlow’s spear. “There. Now you cannot skewer anything you do not intend to, but it is still in front of you in case you are lurived – attacked – suddenly and do not have time to properly swing or aim.”

“I am sorry,” Marlow murmured.

Nix tilted her head. “For what? I did not teach you before we left and I should have. Your ignorance is innocent.”

Marlow shook her head. “No, not that. I’m sorry for making you think that I hate you…I do not. And I should not have renounced our friendship the way I did either. It was cruel and childish of me. I am still very angry with you for what you’ve done, but I know that you were only trying to help me…in your own misguided way.”

“I accept your apology, Marlow, but I am the one who owes it to you,” Nix replied. “I know that it was not right of me. I was afraid of you getting hurt or killed, but in trying to protect you, I stopped considering what you actually needed.”

Marlow sighed. She still felt torn about how to feel towards Nix. The mer had been a steadying presence throughout her change, but now Marlow was not certain how much of that was a lie. “Just…promise me you won’t lie to me again?”

“Akqe, Marlow. I promised once, I shall do so again. No more lies,” Nix agreed. “Does this mean you are willing to offer forgiveness?”

The desperation in Nix’s tone made Marlow want to cave, to reassure her and let go of her anger. But she could not quite bring herself to do any of that. “I do not know,” she answered finally. “I do not like being angry, it is exhausting.”

Nix nodded along as Marlow spoke. “Tanem. Yes, it is,” she agreed.

Marlow sighed. “But that does not change the fact that I am angry. I am so upset with you. We are still friends, but I do not think I am ready to forgive what you did. I know you did it with good intentions, but it still hurts a lot. I do not even know if I can trust you anymore.”

Nix sighed and sunk to the sandy ocean floor at the bottom of the trench, where she perched on a short, flat rock. She curled her tail around it and lowered her spear into her lap.

When Nix’s posture slumped, Marlow followed her down a settled in the sand. “Is it your shoulder?”

“Angu,” Nix refused with a shake of her head. “My shoulder stings, but it is manageable. It is you, Marlow. You have every right to feel as you do, but the trip we are making becomes more challenging and dangerous without derdeaire, without trust.”

Marlow bowed her head and shrugged. “I want to trust you. I don’t like feeling like this. But after everything that just happened…”

“I am not trying to make you feel guilty, Marlow. I do not blame you for how you feel. That is the consequence of my behaviour and I will not pretend that I did not make poor choices. But before we can go any further, I need to know that you can at least trust me enough to milagta, to obey me. If we run into any danger, there will be no time for argument or contemplation. If it comes to it, can you do as I say without questioning it?”

The silence that followed Nix’s statement was broken by Marlow’s sharp intake of breath as she squeezed her hands into fists. Despite the fact that an easy answer came to her lips, that she would do whatever was necessary to get back to her family, she knew that the question should not be taken lightly. The ocean was a very unnerving place and she knew better than to assume that Nix was simply being dramatic. “It is keeping your word that I am having difficulties trusting you with right now,” she admitted after a moment. “But I do trust that you want to keep me safe.”

Nix’s eyes were still deflated to a darker shade of blue, but she straightened up from her slumped position and forced a grim smile. “That will have to be enough. I will not break the trust you do have in me, Marlow.”

“I know,” Marlow acknowledged. She followed Nix as the mer pushed off her rock and resumed swimming through the narrow trench. “How long is this chasm, anyway?”

Nix clucked her tongue. “Angu martu, not long enough, I am afraid. We will have to rise into open water soon. We often use the iluna for save travels whenever possible. It is too larkite, too narrow, for most threats to enter or traverse. In truth, we should rise now, but continuing will not take us off course by much and this is your first time out of our cavern. If you will tolerate a slight detour, there is something I believe you may wish to behold.”

“What is it?” Marlow inquired. She grimaced at the obvious distrust in her tone, but Nix wanting to steer them off course felt like a trick. Still, it did not feel nice to see Nix flinch in response.

The other mer lashed her tail and put on a burst of speed, so Marlow hastily began swimming faster to keep up. “I promise that it does not take us out of the way of the shore. It is just following the trench a little longer and it is something you should see. You have a lot of fear of the ocean still, and it is not without danger, but you should experience some of the wendroew, the wonder as well. Come and see what awaits at the end of the iluna.”

“Okay,” Marlow caved. She was curious and while Nix had tricked her before, the stories that she told about the ocean were fascinating and Marlow knew that continuing to fear her new surroundings without holding any knowledge about them was dangerous. If Nix felt the detour was worth it, then she wanted to see what it was.

Around them, the walls of the crevice were beginning to widen and Marlow no longer felt quite as closed in. She strayed close to one wall to brush her fingers along it and found that the rock had developed a smoother, warmer texture. “It is warm here,” she murmured. “And there is more space.”

“That is because we are approaching the mouth of the iluna. When we exit, you must emairte, be silent and swim close to me,” Nix instructed.

In addition to the channel widening and the water growing warmer, it was also getting brighter. Marlow could see Nix clearly now, but her skin, like the water, was being stained with an odd, rusty orange hue. But it was not until they swam through the mouth of the chasm back into open water that Marlow understood why. The ground dropped away below them. If anyone had asked her, Marlow would not have guessed that the ocean could be deeper than they already were, but she was wrong. The water all around them was lit up with that same orangy hue and it came with a sudden rush of heat so warm that Marlow was nearly convinced she was back in the open fields with a sun beating heavily down on her shoulders.

But it was not the sun bringing this incredible rush of heat and light, but rather what lay below them. A huge, sprawling field of raised vents were spewing chunks of ashen and cherry red rocks from their peaks, while large rivets and veins of lava flowed and twisted across the ground like a network. It was quite a ways down, but pulsed brightly as if they were a living organism. It was such a bizarre sight to see lava flowing like a river while already underwater.

“How is this possible?” she whispered to Nix as the mer hugged close to the sheer cliff face and dove deeper. It was getting very warm now, but Marlow continued to pump her tail to keep pace. “Would the lava not all cool to rock when it hit the open water?”

Nix did not immediately reply. Instead, she veered sharply to duck into a nook in the rock wall. It was a tiny cave just big enough for the two of them to settle without being squished together.

“It is too warm at the seafloor for the water to cool it, I believe,” Nix answered once they were situated. “It is not safe to stay here too long, but I thought you might like to experience it. I know that bright light is one of the things you miss about the surface.”

“It feels nice,” Marlow purred. She closed her eyes and leaned forward a bit so that she could get a bit closer to the heat. The cold water of the depths was not really an issue for her new body, but this reminded her what it felt like to be genuinely warm. “Thank you, by the way…for showing this to me. You were right, it is nice.”

Nix hummed in acknowledgement, but there was a strangle to the sound that made Marlow glance over. Nix had a wry smile on her face and her eyes glistened with sorrow still, but it was the odd shimmery quality around her that drew Marlow’s attention.

It was as if Nix was shrouded in a thin veil of mist, hardly noticeable unless she looked at the right angle, that coated the other mer from head to toe. It distorted Marlow’s view of Nix a little. Marlow’s brows furrowed and she frowned. “Nix, what is that?” she asked.

“What?”

“That…fog around you?”

Nix clucked her tongue and lifted an arm to inspect herself. “You can see it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I am lurenkun, impressed. Usually it takes newly-changed human-born mer longer to be able to notice it.”

Marlow’s frown deepened. “But what is it?” she inquired as she stretched a hand out to interact with the odd shimmer that was barely the width of a few hairs away from Nix’s skin. In her attempt, her hand came in direct contact with Nix’s shoulder and she hastily pulled her hand away. Touch had been awkward between them. But where her hand had made contact, the shimmering faded and the dark of Nix’s skin stood out prominantly against the orangy glow of the lava.

Marlow’s heart hammered in her chest and she swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. “Nix…are we able to see numb? Is that what that is?”

Nix sighed and nodded. “You cannot see it on yourself, but on others, yes.”

“Negative emotions make the numb spread faster,” Marlow recalled as her gut squeezed. Casting aside her earlier inhibitations, Marlow leaned sideways and pressed her side up against Nix’s. The mer’s skin was incredibly warm and Marlow assumed it was due to the heat of the surrounding waters, but it felt very nice when Marlow had been struggling to stave off her own numbing, so she pressed closer and wrapped an arm around Nix for good measure. She had forgotten how dangerous this could become. She still remembered her first experience with it, and how cold and stiff she had felt, how hard it had been to move or think. It was terrifying to recall and she never wanted to experience it again. She did not want Nix to endure it either.

“Marlow, you do not need to-”

“I want to,” Marlow interrupted. “Just because I am still angry with you does not mean I want anything bad to happen to you. You are still my friend, I still care about you. And you are only out here feeling negative and numb to help me, even though you are injured. It would be beyond selfish and cruel of me not to do something about it.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I now you are ancurt, reserved, with your touch. I will be fine, Marlow. I do not want you to feel pressured or uncomfortable with contact.” Despite how confidently she spoke, Marlow did not miss how Nix pressed up against her in return.

Marlow snorted and then spooked herself when bubbles shot from both her gills and her mouth. She brought a hand to her neck and rubbed awkwardly at her gills where the bubbles had left a lingering ticklish, itchy sensation behind. But her gills were tender and she felt short of breath as she rubbed at them, which left her awkwardly wheezing.

When she finally sorted herself out, she found Nix staring at her with a mix of amusement and concern that contrasted across her features and made Marlow blush. She shook her head to clear the lingering heat in her cheeks and cleared her throat to give herself a moment to regain her composure. “Nix…I am not uncomfortable being near you,” she assured the other mer. “I would not be sitting here if that were the case. Yes, I am upset and I feel a little betrayed still, but you are still my friend and I have come to accept that touch is part of being a mer. Earlier, I was furious and overstimulated and I did not particularly want anyone to touch me, least of all you because I was so angry. I am calmer now.”

At first, it looked like Nix was going to argue, and Marlow thought that she would, but instead, she merely shifted her weight to lean against Marlow more. When she hummed, Marlow mimicked the sound.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Marlow turned her face back to the lava flows beyond. Her face felt warm with the fiery glow and she purred deep in her chest. She had adjusted to the cooler temperatures of the ocean depths, but she did not truly realize how much she had craved the heat. “I can see why you love coming down here. It feels wonderful.”

Nix clucked her tongue. “That is not why I come down here. The heat is far from pleasant, but rather something I endure. I come from the ciku tilutu, remember? The ice waters are near cold enough to freeze the mecur, the blood in your veins. That is the climate I prefer. The waters here have always been just a bit too warm for me, but here where the lava flows above the surface? Makes my skin want to melt from my tumarns, from my bones.”

Marlow flicked her fin and pursed her lips as she pondered what Nix was saying. The ice waters sounded horribly unpleasant to Marlow if it was too warm in the depths for Nix, but she could not fathom why the mer would want to endure the higher temperatures like this. “Then why do you come down here?”

Nix hummed low in her throat and grinned. As she did, her vibrant blue eyes regained some of the luster they had lost and shimmered with wonder. She turned her attention back to the waters beyond the alcove they were tucked into and jerked her chin. “For them.”

As Marlow followed Nix’s gaze, she did not immediately see anything out of the ordinary to indicate what Nix might have been referring to, but then the wide rivers of lava almost seemed to ripple and part as two large bodies emerged from their depths. Marlow felt her jaw drop open as she starred at the ginormous beasts that burst up into the open waters, shedding drops of lava and molten rock from their backs to rain back down to the ocean floor.

They were like whales, but twice the size of any Marlow had seen or read about, with large, spiny fins that errupted from their backs and sides in long, fan-like propellors as they glided forward. They were so dark a blue they looked black, with pulsing red veins and fiery eyes. One opened its maw to reveal a red-gold glowing mouth. It bellowed in a low, haunting coo that reverbrated through the water and sent a shiver crawling up and then down Marlow’s spine. “Woah.”

“Breathtaking, no?”

“You could say that…a little scary too.”

One of the…lava whales arched up higher, twisting to reveal a cracked underbelly spiderwebbed with veins of molten rock and liquid fire. The other turned its nose down to dive back down where it had surfaced. A massive tail pulled free as it did and flung spouts of the red hot water up. The fin was a hundred separate spines encased in rippling fin and all secured to the base of the tail. “Are..are they dangerous?”

“Of course,” Nix replied. “Marlow, that is what I have been trying to remind you. The ocean is beautiful, but there is the potential for danger all around you. These creatures do not hunt mer and they are mild tempered. But from what I have seen, they feed on virtually anything and they do not see well. Swim too close and you are likely to be swallowed whole or scalded by the fire that clings to their skin and burns in their bellies.”

Marlow swallowed the lump in her throat and shuddered. “Those sound like rough ways to die,” she agreed. “I grew up thinking that sirens were the nightmares and the monsters that would eat people alive. I guess it was whistful thinking that finding out those stories were false meant that I would not have to face being a snack for another creature.”

“Everything needs to eat, Marlow. That does not make any one creature a yuilriq. Monsters are those that kill needlessly or without cause. We do not like the ulurrugnaq because it hunts us, but it is not a monster, simply a predator.”

“I suppose so, though I still do not think I want to meet this predator of ours. That umm…that speech made it sound like you were referring to humans.” As she said it, Marlow purposefully redirected her gaze to the mountainous creatures still splashing in and out of the lava flows.

Nix grunted. “That was intentional. I am not saying that all humans are bad, Marlow, far from it. But the sacrifice hurts more than just the human victims. The people of power in this area are monsters.”

Marlow hugged her arms to her chest and shrugged. It was hard to voice, but she quietly agreed with Nix. Only monsters would sacrifice innocents and children to a fate worse than any imagined hell. But she did not like to think about the flaws in the society she still yearned to return to. So instead, she nodded towards the whales once more. “What are they called?”

“I do not believe they have a name,” Nix replied. “Most of the others avoid this place and I doubt that humans are aware of them. Perhaps they have a name for themselves that would be revealed if we understood their song. But I have been calling them the vivikneire.”

“The vivikneire,” Marlow echoed. “What does vivikneire mean?”

“Timeless. It means timeless. I cannot say for sure, but these beasts have a heart of heat and melted rock. They are as hot as the lava they come from. It is warm at the core of the world and only beings of ancient age and majesty could possibly survive there.”

Timeless. As Marlow continued to gaze out at the large whale-like creatures, she began to wonder just how accurate Nix’s name for them was. Their skin seemed to breathe and writhe of its own accord in a rippling orange and red glow. When one swept one of its huge gridlike fins out and down, Marlow narrowed her eyes. They seemed so delicate compared to the animal’s huge, bulky body that she could not imagine those fins being the most efficient for swimming and the whales did seem lethargic and slow.

But the more she observed them, the more it made sense. They were collossal and they did not need speed. Not when their bodies were hot enough to melt the scales off any nearby fish, and those wide spiny fins were like a fisher’s net, sweeping out and catching anything in the vicinity in their expanse. Each sweep arched down to shovel anything caught up into the whale’s mouth as it continued forward. It almost seemed like a dance, where one of the two would dive down and disappear while the other would spin slowly through the water collecting food before trading places with its companion.

They seemed so carefree, and why should they be worried? Marlow doubted there was anything in the surrounding waters that could be a threat to them. “How is it even possible?” she murmured. “Fire brings warmth, but its kiss is death for all living things.”

Nix shook her head. “I do not have all the vukrun, all the answers. It is hard to learn about creatures you cannot approach or converse with. It is like with humans. We only know what few details sacrifice victims offer up about how humans live now and what they do. It is not like we can go to land and inquire about their lives and their thoughts and intentions. The skin of the vivikneire is thick enough that it should protect them from the fire’s kiss, yet it is cracked and oozes with the same liquid heat, so it does not seem to need to protect them. I do not imagine we will ever understand. Some things are simply meant to be life’s mystery,” Nix explained.

“I suppose you are right.”

“Humans have their world and we have ours, and the vivikneire have theirs as well. It is only in certain times and places that our worlds overlap with one another and we can interact and observe each other. The others do not like to come here because it is not an environment for us. But I like that the vivikneire remind me how mortal I am. Sometimes that is a reminder of what I need most.”

Marlow shifted her weight and lowered her head until her chin was resting on her forearms. She pulled her tail close and purred. The vivikneire were still continuing their hunt, twisting their bodies and flinging molten rock into open water where it cooled and its colour dulled for a moment or two before it sank deep enough to reignite at the surface of the lava bed. Their sorrowful song echoed in Marlow’s ears. “I could watch them forever,” she admitted. It was mesmerizing to see.

Nix began to chuckle beside her, but Marlow barely noticed until she felt Nix’s hand on her primary dorsal. She glanced over at the black and white mer with a frown. Nix jerked her chin up. “We should go.”

“So soon?”

Nix rolled her eyes and swatted lightly at the back of Marlow’s head. “Yes,” she insisted. “It is hot enough down here to cook you alive, Marlow, and you are growing wuralate, lethargic. You require cooler waters to lower your body temperature once more. Besides, this was only a short stop to show you. Unless you have changed your mind, we still have a main destination to reach.”

“I have not changed my mind!” Marlow grimaced at how sharp her tone turned. She had not meant to snap.

Thankfully, Nix took it in stride and simply raised a placating hand. “I know. I was not attempting to dissuade you, only pointing out that we have lingered here long enough. Follow me and stay close to the cliffside. Do not stop swimming for anything.”

It was a little nerve-wracking to follow Nix back out into open water with the vivikneire still swimming about, but Nix knew what she was doing, so Marlow stayed right on her tail as they climbed higher and higher. Nix did not take them back into the trench, however, but instead continued up further until they were swimming along the sandy bottom of the shallower waters above it.

Marlow gripped her spear tightly as she followed behind Nix. Her gaze darted left and right. Now that they were swimming in open waters, still too deep for the water to brighten, Marlow felt far more intimidated by what she could not see. Nix appeared alert but unconcerned, but Marlow was not sure how well mer could detect danger either. But she trusted Nix, at least in this, so she swallowed the lump in her throat and caught up until they were swimming side by side. Nix’s brow was set with determination, but there was a grimace warping her features.

“Is your shoulder okay?” Marlow checked.

Nix smiled in response, but it was a weak, shaky grin. “It is painful, but manageable. It would be dishonest to pretend I am not looking forward to curling up in a nest for a while when we get back, however.”

“I am sorry,” Marlow sighed. “You are only out here because of me. You really should be resting…if…if you point the way I need to go, you can go back if you want to. As long as I can find the trench again, I can get back on my own.”

Nix scoffed. “I will not abandon you out here. I promised you I would see this through with you and my wounded shoulder is not going to change that. Unless we are both turning back, I am coming with you.”

“But-”

“Hush,” Nix ordered firmly. “It is better to listen and swim than to argue something so pointless. I am not leaving and we will be at the shore soon enough. Then it will only be a matter of finding where along it your family dwells. Maligte, Marlow. Follow me.”

Nix lashed her tail and shot ahead, leaving a flurry of bubbles in her wake. Despite her concerns over her injured friend, Marlow’s heart was thumping wildly in her chest with the excitement of seeing her family again. It had been long enough, far longer than she had ever gone apart from them.

She shook her head and raced to catch up with Nix. Now that she was finally getting close, she could hardly wait.