Greetings, readers. To those of you who have encountered my work before, yes, I am branching out of the Harry Potter fandom (not that I won't continue there, of course). I didn't expect the first branch-out to be a Young Wizards fic, but I was reading Deep Wizardry and this idea just wouldn't leave me alone. This fic will be quite short by my normal standards--I still can't quite get the hang of oneshots, but this'll be three chapters, four at most. And as a general note, yes, I will be using quite a bit of Diane Duane's original dialogue in this fic. Let me know if it bothers you, and maybe I'll try to work something out.

Disclaimer: what you recognize is not mine.

Please review. ;D

His first impression of her was wrong. That in itself was strange; his first impressions were usually dead on. And sometimes there was a very literal emphasis on the dead part.

He'd been feeding on a very nice school of smallfin tuna when he saw one whale he'd been expecting, two he had not. He kept silent for a moment after S'reee greeted him, circling the small group and studying the two unfamiliar ones. They were afraid, and that made them interesting. One of them—the sperm whale—shuddered, and there was something so un-whale-like in that shudder that he had to take a closer look. No, it wasn't a whale at all, but a human in a whalesark. And the other, the humpback holding so still—she was human, too, clearly effecting a shapechange.

Finally, after his third circle around them, he answered S'reee's salutation. "Young wizard, well met." He questioned her about the business his people had had with her two nights ago, when her blood had been in the water. The wizard imitating a sperm whale seemed indignant about the affair, but the other kept still and silent. Terrified, he thought with disdain, terrified and ignorant.

Then S'reee turned to the business at hand. "Since you heard the Calling, you know why I'm here."

"To ask me to sing the Twelfth in the Song," he answered with some boredom. Oh, the Songs were interesting enough, and there was always good feeding, but sometimes he balked at the thought that sooner or later, he'd have to go through it all again. And again, and again . . . "When have I not?" he asked, even though he knew the dry humor was lost on S'reee. The ignorant young humpback didn't know how old he really was. "You may administer the Oath to me at your leisure. But first you must tell me who the Silent One is." He liked knowing what he ate before it came to that, and the Silent One was sure to avoid him as much as possible until the actual Song. It was always the same.

"She swims with us." S'reee motioned toward the second, yet silent humpback.

"Sir. I'm Nita." It surprised him—just a little, of course, for not much could surprise him anymore—that she met his gaze. Her eyes were what had led him to the knowledge that she was a human. Whales, as warm-bloods, were expressive enough, but as creatures who depended on sound more than sight, their emotive eyes were no match for a human's. There was an honesty in those eyes that couldn't hide anything.

"My lady wizard, you're also terrified out of your wits." How would she react to that? Let her be honest about that, if she dared.

She hesitated. "Master-Shark, if I were, saying so would be stupid; I'd be inviting you to eat me. And saying I wasn't afraid would be stupid too—and a lie."

He laughed. He couldn't help it. This Silent Lord was quick on her fins. He allowed himself a grudging respect for her, as he had not felt for any whale playing the Silent One in a very long time. He exchanged a few words with the other human, Kit, and took note in his bravado, the kind that masks a deeper fear than that of the honest ones. This one felt he had to protect Nita. How amusing.

"She is not as frightened as she looks, Kit," he said, imparting the secret to Nita's friend. "And at any rate, I suspect you're more so." He took great pleasure in watching Kit's reaction to his subsequent and rather matter-of-fact warning, describing the exact procedure of dining on sperm whale. And he was amazed at the human's stupidity as to suggest he caused fear.

"I frighten no one," he corrected the irrational warm-blood. "No one who fears gets it from anywhere but himself. Or herself," he amended, glancing at Nita. She didn't notice. "Cast the fear out—and then I am nothing to fear . . . " It really was amazing the misconceptions warm-bloods had about fear, he thought idly. "No matter, though; you're working at it. Kit, Nita, my name is ed'Rashtekaresket."

"It has 'teeth' in it."

He regarded the young human in mild surprise again. "You hear well. And you're the Silent One? Not the Listener?" He meant it as a joke, but S'reee, as per usual, took him literally.

"The Listener's part is spoken for, Pale One. And the Silent One's part needs a wizard more experienced than any we have—one already tested against the Lone Power, yet young enough to fulfill the other criteria. HNii't is the one."

Already tested? he thought as he noted S'reee's accented use of Nita's name with slight scorn. He regarded Nita again. Really, it was getting a little ridiculous, the amount of double-takes this young wizard was beginning to require. Already tested against the Lone Power indeed—then what right did she have to be afraid of him, a mere shark, albeit the Master-Shark? "Then these are the two who went up against the Lone One in Manhattan," he said slowly. He spent a few moments of annoyance that Kit might think he didn't know the human name for Manhattan when he'd eaten so many humans, then at Nita's shock for his admitting to the last. Even so, they were interesting, these human wizards.

"I'm glad you brought them, S'reee," he admitted. "If this 'Heart of the Sea' the wizards always speak of actually exists, then these two should be able to get its attention. And its attention is needed."

S'reee looked and sounded irritated. "It exists, Pale One. How many songs have you played Twelfth in, and you still don't admit that—"

"More Songs than you have, young one," he reminded her. She might not know his exact age, but she knew he was old. The memories weighed heavily on him for a moment, then he pushed them away, cast them out. "And it would take more still to convince me of what can't be seen by anyone not a wizard. Show me the Sea's Heart, this Timeheart you speak of, and I'll admit it exists."

"Are you denying that wizardry comes from there?"

"Possibly, if it does not. Don't be angry without reason, S'reee. You warm-bloods are all such great believers."

He changed the subject, seeing he would not be able to make S'reee see his point of view. It was tiresome to try to convince someone to look at things from a different angle when they were locked into their own. The four spent a few minutes talking about the upheavals of the deep—he was surprised to hear Kit knew about the krakens—and the recent deaths of so many Senior and Advisory wizards. He told them he was reminded of Afállonë, or Atlantis, as the humans called it; but he didn't expect anyone to catch his hint that he'd actually been there. They probably thought he'd only heard of the event, just like anyone else. By the sea, he felt old.

"Uh, Ed—ed'Rak—Look, can I call you Ed?"

He regarded this surprising young wizard once more. She couldn't know of the history behind his name. She couldn't know that only one other had ever dared call him by such a name as Ed, that he'd been as close to being friends with that one as he ever got with anyone—and that he'd eaten her as the sacrifice in the very first Song. Oh, he'd had other nicknames. There had been the odd Killer or two—supposed patrons of laughter—who had been daring enough to call him Karesk or Resket. But those names still had the 'teeth' in them.

"At least I can say it," Nita continued in hurried explanation, "And if I'm going to be singing with you, it can't be titles all the time."

Can't it? he thought dryly. The other Silent Ones rarely had a problem with it.

"We must know each other, you say," Nita finished, looking at him a little anxiously.

Ed. Would it be so bad to be called that again? "A sprat's name," he said as he cast the memories out again. "A fry name—for me, the Master." Ah, the irony. H'roonhiit had always said his name gave him far too much dignity. He paused. He was slipping in his ability to cast out the memories. But the audacity of that young wizard to suggest H'roonhiit's name for him . . . He laughed. "Well enough. You are the Sprat, and I'm Ed."

She looked unnerved, but her voice didn't show it. "Great. So, Ed, what happened? In that Song, when it went wrong. Was anyone hurt?"

Oh, the naiveté. He described the fall of Atlantis as he remembered it happening. Then S'reee dived in with her own explanation, and he let his mind wander. He studied Nita and Kit as they swam, determined not to underestimate them again. But then, he supposed he shouldn't like to overestimate them, either . . . They were still young, after all. And the young were stupid.

"So we tend to be very careful about the Song. 'Lest the Sea become eh Land, and the Land become the Sea—'" S'reee was saying as they swam.

"And the krakens are breeding," he finished, bored with the conversation and ready for it to be finished. "Well. I'm for the Northern Rips tonight; there's trouble in the water there."

The look in Nita's widening eyes was one of horrified awe, and her movements were suddenly filled with that first terror that had almost disappeared in their conversation. Her thoughts practically screamed distress, and he gave a reflexive turn towards her before schooling himself. Trouble in the deeps, he reminded himself. It was important he didn't eat her just yet.

"Beware, Nita. Only a dead shark could have avoided hearing that thought. If we're to know each other well, as you say you desire, best mind how you show me your feelings. Else I shall at last know you most intimately, sooner than you are planning—and the relationship will be rather one-sided." He looked at her steadily, making sure she got the message, then turned back to other matters. "I was going to say: matters swimming as they do, I will see you three home. It's getting dark, and—"

"Dark!" Nita practically wailed in shock, interrupting him. She looked at Kit, who returned the distress.

"The Sun's going down. We're really in for it now."

He watched as Nita reined in her panic before addressing him. She was getting better at hiding her feelings. "Master-Shark, we have to get back to, uh, our feeding grounds. And in a hurry. Our parents are waiting for us, and we had orders to be back before it got dark."

He wanted to laugh again. Feeding grounds indeed. Hadn't he shown them he knew the human names for everything? But no matter. "As you say," he replied calmly. "But we will not be at Bluehaven before many stars are out and the moon is about to set."

He allowed Nita a few moments of pretended calm and inward panic as they tried to decide what to do. But really, panicked about getting home a little late? He found the concept strange indeed. S'reee wouldn't be expected to return to her own feeding grounds at all these next few days.

"Sprat," he said finally, addressing Nita, "this is an odd thing, that your sire and dam impose restrictions on you when you're doing a wizardry of such weight."

It was Kit that answered, and the words made the panic suddenly understandable. "They don't know we're wizards."

He watched calmly as S'reee reacted in shock, letting the surprise wash over him and then dissipate long before S'reee was finished babbling and Kit explained the differences of views of wizardry on land.

"I'm no wizard," he commented, "but only a fool would try to deny a wizard's usefulness. It must be a crippled life youe people live up there without magic, without what can't be understood, only accepted—" He didn't understand wizardry, that was certain. It hadn't mattered how many times H'roonhiit had tried to explain it to him. But in the end, he had accepted it like anything else because he really couldn't deny it.

"This from someone who won't admit Timeheart exists unless he sees it for himself?"

He was surprised at the wry humor in Nita's voice. She was someone he could get used to talking to, no matter his custom of swimming alone. She was someone who might—just possibly—be able to see wizardry from the outside angle. So he actually bothered trying to explain to her: "Sprat, if it does in fact exist, can y not believing in it make the slightest difference? And as for understanding—I'm not interested in understanding Timeheart." He hid the bitterness, cast out the reappearing memory of H'roonhiit telling him that only wizards could exist in Timeheart . . . Worrying about it was a waste of time. He had discovered that long ago. "What use is spending time figuring out, say, why water is wet? Will it make breathing any—'Ware, all!"

The krakens were attacking. Finally, he could react to the fear around him. His teeth sank deliciously into the point where tentacles joined torpedo-shaped body, right where the eye was . . . Oh, the delectable feeling of the end of pain, the taste of blood in the water, and the stillness afterward. He didn't like the taste of ink so well, but it was hardly something to complain about. As he sailed free of his first victim, he spied Nita holding very still again, keeping silent. Wise move, young wizard, he thought, if completely pointless. He was hardly going to lose sight of her if she didn't move.

He reduced another kraken to bloody tatters, then went after and killed the last before it could escape. He returned to the group of whales, now near the surface, and explained. "That last one was in pain at the thought of returning to the depths without its purpose fulfilled. So I ended that pain."

"Purpose?" the imitation sperm whale asked stupidly.

"Surely you don't take that attack for an accident, young one. Any more than the shaking of the sea bottom these days or the ill chances that have been befalling S'reee's people have been accidents."

Nita took the comment the wrong way, thinking of his people rather than the whaling ship. "You mean that what happened to S'reee—I thought you were on our side!"

"Peace, spratling. I pay no allegiance to anyone in the Sea or above it; you know that. Or you should. I am the Unmastered. I alone. The encounter S'reee and Ae'mhnuu had with the ship-that-eats-whales was doubtless the Lone One's doing. It has many ways to subtly influence those who live. As for the sharks—They did according to their nature, just as you do. Do not presume to blame them. On the other flank, however, my people have only one Master. If the Lone One has been tampering with species under my Mastery, then It will have to deal with me."

"I'm sorry. I thought you meant you told the sharks to just go ahead and attack a hurt whale." She rolled over, as S'reee had done when greeting him, and exposed her stomach and flanks to him.

A gesture of trust and self-confidence—she was learning. He brushed past her and nudged her lightly in the ribs. But this business of her being shocked and angry that he might tell his people to follow their nature had to end. "In another time, in another place, I might have told them to. In another time, I may yet tell them to. And what will you think of me then, Sprat?"

"I don't know."

He almost smiled. "That was well said too. So let us be on our way; we're close to tiana Beach. S'reee, you and I have buusiness remaining that must be done before witnesses."

They went through the oath, she carefully and he impatiently.

"So up, now, the three of you. We are where you need to be."

Kit was surprised. "How can you tell? There's a lot of Tiana Beach, and you're never seen our house—"

Such ignorance. He knew for a fact there were human studies on how well sharks could smell. And he would have to be deaf not to hear the shouts. "I can smell your human bdies in the water from this morning. And besides, I hear distress."

"Uh-oh . . . "

"S'reee, when will you need us next?"

"Next dawn. I'm sorry we can't have a day's rest or so, but there's no time anymore."

"Do we have to be there?" Kit asked.

"The Silent Lord does. In fact, normally it's the Silent Lord who administers the Oath, since her stake in the Song is greatest."

He waited as the three whales panicked a bit more, then surfaced above Kit and Nita, providing adequate distraction for them to change back into their natural forms and get back on the beach. When they took a long time, he even went so far as to jump completely out of the water and dolphin-dive back in. In the brief second he hung suspended in the warm air, he spotted Kit and Nita in their pinkish, two-legged forms. "Until later, my wizards!"

Then he fell back into the water to meet S'reee again. They swam for a long way before S'reee finally spoke, right to the point where they were about to go their separate ways.

"You approve of the chosen Silent Lord, Master-Shark?" she said, a little timidly.

He glanced at her calmly. "It does not matter if I approve of the Silent One or not. What matters is if she is a powerful wizard and is willing to make the sacrifice. I will see you tomorrow."

"Really?" S'reee asked in a surprised whistle. She looked as though she were about to say something else, but he turned his back and swam away before she could, following the scent and sounds of distress in the Northern Rips. He had pain to end.