Chapter 32 - The Farm in Irttat
Chapter 32: Lament of the Deep Sea 08
Amala had once considered imprisoning these mad kin of hers and keeping them alive. She had also thought that if their ferocity returned and they continued harming others, she would have no choice but to purge them herself.
But she had never imagined a scene like this.
A faint shadow lingered above the sea, not yet fully dissipated. It seemed to notice them and slowly drifted closer.
When the figure drew near, Lily suddenly gasped.
“It’s you!”
Everyone looked at Lily. She rubbed her head and explained, “She’s the merfolk who saved my life and let me return home.”
The shadow seemed slightly surprised as well. After a moment, she smiled.
“You survived after all. What good fortune.”
Lily smiled gratefully: “I really owe you my life. But you……?”
The shadow spun slowly in the water, showing her fading spirit form.
“As you can see.”
“The curse that plagued us has been lifted, hasn’t it?” she sighed wearily. “After that light appeared, we all experienced a brief moment of clarity. We remembered the past and understood the present. But it was only temporary.”
The blade that once hung above the merfolk’s heads was gone now. But the blade had already fallen. The blood it spilled would never flow back, and the minds it had tainted would never fully recover.
The shadow looked back at the foaming sea behind her.
“We only have two choices left. One is to continue living in confusion, as a mad creature. The other is to end our lives while we still have this brief moment of clarity.”
“So this is the outcome.”
Among the remaining mad figures on the sea, the final shadow gradually faded, dissolving into foam and disappearing beneath the incoming waves.
Merfolk had no souls. They were born from the sea and returned to the sea. Everything returned to its origin.
For a long time, no one spoke.
When they returned to the ocean depths, the crystal palace was filled with music and celebration.
Amala invited the guests from Irttat to stay and listen to the concert. They gladly accepted.
While the others celebrated, Amala brought Lucita to the largest structure in the palace, the library.
Calling it a building was not entirely accurate. The entire library was built along a steep undersea cliff. The bookshelves were actually orderly caverns carved directly into the rock wall, with different categories of books stored within them.
Looking across the strange rock formations, one could see an enormous wall of books.
The entire library was enclosed in a massive water membrane. The air inside was dry, though sound carried poorly. Amala’s voice sounded slightly muffled: “This contains the entire history of the merfolk race, far more than just the past five hundred years.”
Amala floated up to the third level and pulled out a book titled “The Complete Compendium of Mental Arts”. After flipping through it carefully, she handed it to Lucita: “I promised to teach you mental healing. Now it’s time for me to keep that promise.”
Lucita hesitated: “You only promised one spell. I don’t need something this extensive.”
“Take it,” Amala said with a smile. “What you did for us is worth far more than this book.”
That was true. Lucita didn’t feel guilty accepting it.
She stopped refusing, thanked Amala, and stored the book in her personal space.
After the concert, Amala asked about their return journey.
“Your ship was destroyed, wasn’t it? We can escort you to shore. We’d also like to visit the town mayor. In the future, perhaps the fisherwomen will be able to come to the deep sea.”
Lucita and Lily had enough food and fresh water stored in their space to sustain them easily. In the water they moved like fish; swimming back with their supplies would not have been a problem.
But Amala’s offer was difficult to refuse and unnecessary to reject. They all agreed.
After arranging affairs within the tribe, Amala selected several attendants and set out with them.
The journey back was peaceful. No more crazed merfolk appeared to attack them.
Clownfish and shrimp darted among the seaweed. Strange rocks and coral stretched beneath their feet. Small fish released bubbles that slowly floated toward the surface.
They swam like this for an entire day. By evening, Amala and the others took out luminous clam pearls they carried with them. Their light illuminated the surrounding waters, rippling shadows dancing across everyone’s faces.
Lucita expelled the seawater around herself and formed a bubble of air. She took out fried fish, French fries, and hot soup and shared them with everyone.
Merfolk usually caught fish in the sea and ate them raw. As long-lived beings with resilient bodies, they only needed to eat once every three days. Strictly speaking, they didn’t need dinner tonight.
But everyone accepted the food.
These were dishes rarely seen in the ocean.
Merfolk naturally possessed some control over water and could create dry environments like the one in the library bubble, where they could cook and experience human food. But they were still ocean creatures and disliked living in dry environments for long, preferring to catch fish themselves.
Fried food carried a unique aroma. In the ocean, where the air always held a faint fishy scent, it was especially enticing.
Faced with such delicious food, Amala and the others made no attempt to be polite. They eagerly accepted and began eating.
The food was still as fresh as if it had just come out of the pan, steaming hot with crispy edges. The tender white fish tasted utterly different from the raw fish they normally ate.
During dinner, everyone focused on eating. No one had time to speak. Only the quiet sounds of chewing filled the water, occasionally broken by an unrestrained “Delicious!” Lucita finally felt relaxed.
In the midst of that peaceful silence, a timid voice suddenly spoke: “Your Majesty… Sister Lucita… I want to eat that too.”
!
Everyone turned toward the voice. A small red-haired mermaid peeked out from behind a rock formation.
Lucita recognized her immediately.
When Lucita had first awakened in the sea, this little mermaid had been the one to discover her and call her friends. Later, when the curse was lifted and the girl accidentally crashed into her, Lucita had helped steady her.
Amala pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Linnea… how did you follow us here?”
Linnea clearly knew she had caused trouble. She slowly drifted closer, glancing nervously between the adults before looking at Lucita: “I wanted to go to the shore too…”
At this point, sending her back was impossible. A round trip would waste two extra days.
Amala’s expression darkened, though she restrained herself in front of Lucita and the others and didn’t immediately scold the bold child.
What if Linnea had gotten lost? What if she had followed the wrong path?
Moreover, Linnea was special. Her mother had been one of the Fallen. The tribe had raised her collectively, making her everyone’s child. Amala had a responsibility toward her.
Linnea lowered her head and fiddled with her fingers silently.
Lucita pulled her gently to her side and smoothed things over: “It’s alright. She’s just a child. Curiosity is natural.”
She handed the girl a plate of fried fish.
Linnea was a child that got hungry easily, and she hadn’t eaten all day. She devoured the plate quickly and even licked the oil from her fingers afterward.
And so Linnea ended up joining them on the journey back to town.
After arriving in town, Lily and Sylvette said their goodbyes and returned home to rest.
They had both been unconscious for a long time and had suffered serious mental exhaustion. They would need a long recovery.
When they parted, Sylvette glanced at Lily with a complicated expression.
Lucita noticed and smiled quietly.
Perhaps some old knots would finally loosen now that the truth had been revealed.
Lucita accompanied the “merfolk delegation” to visit Javena and helped establish friendly relations between the two races. The next day, Javena announced the news to the town.
But those matters no longer required Lucita’s involvement.
After introducing the merfolk to Javena, she returned to her farm, just as Lily and Sylvette had done.
When the gate creaked open, Violet immediately dropped the book in her hand and pushed open the window of what had once been the study, now the guest room, calling out: “Who’s there?”
“Lucita?” She hurried out to open the door, “Where have you been? Why are you only coming back now?”
Lucita had been exhausted for days. While traveling she had forced herself to keep going, but now that she was home, the soft wooden bed, the slanting afternoon sunlight, and the drooping lilies in the window filled her with overwhelming drowsiness.
“Let me sleep first,” she mumbled vaguely as she walked to the bedroom. She collapsed onto the bed, wrapped herself in the blankets, and immediately fell asleep.
Dusk fell.
In a withered forest, a slender elf knelt on the ground, holding the body of her friend. She lifted her head toward the sky in despair.
In that moment, the dry branches in her eyes and the countless stars above looked exactly like Violet beneath the lake.
The same despair.
Their innate ability was fading. Their ability to reproduce had nearly vanished. The elves had migrated again and again, and even under the protection of the gods in the Esti Mountains they were nearing extinction.
With her friend’s death, she had become the last elf in the world.
She walked on.
At some point the forest had turned into a silent deep sea.
Before her was a scene of blood and chaos. Mad merfolk had completely lost their sanity and were attacking one another like monsters.
A strand of red hair tangled with seaweed drifted past. She reached out and wound it around her finger.
The hair was stained with flesh and dark blood.
Foam churned endlessly across the sea. Beneath her feet lay the ruins of the crystal palace.
On a barren island, massive bones lay half-buried in the soil.
White, darkened, covered in dust and cobwebs.
No life had existed on that island for a very long time.
She looked up. Before her stood human cities across a continent engulfed in war and screams.
A king wearing an elven crown shouted furiously at the archmage of her kingdom: “Where are the mages?! Where are the mages?! Send them all to the battlefield!”
The elderly mage had already removed her hood. Her gray hair fluttered in the wind as she gave a bitter smile: “Your Majesty, the last four mages died on the city walls. The only thing left is to send the civilians to defend the city.”
Mountains collapsed. Rivers ran dry. Shallow seas turned to dust.
Volcanoes erupted. Floods surged. Plagues spread.
Lucita stood silently in place.
Her perspective was high above everything, like a god watching the world below.
The continent had collapsed. All life had been extinguished.
She reached out her hand, trying to approach the scene: “Is this the great catastrophe from five hundred years ago?”
A distant, gentle voice echoed beside her, like a quiet sigh: “No. This is the future.”
Comments
Post a Comment