So, this is my first ever fanfic, I've only ever done original work before. Just hope I can match some of the rest of you's brilliance. Enjoy. xxx GC

"What is it Faro? What's wrong?" I had asked upon racing down the cove after hearing him call so relentlessly for me. I flopped to my knees on the sand, trying to get my breath back.

"Conor was supposed to come too. We called for him also. Where is your brother, Sapphire?" Faro demanded, as if it were my fault that Conor hadn't raced to answer the summoning in quite the same frantic way.

I forced myself to sit up, still whooping in air, wonderful air into my temporarily starved lungs – I don't think I had ever run that fast anywhere, but I had to put the portcullis around my mind before Faro could read it, see that his distress had reached me no matter how hard he'd tried to hide it. "I... Don't... Know..." I panted out, "He'll be here... in a minute." I finally gasped out, after hearing Conor's pounding footsteps above and behind me.

Faro scowled at me, making his displeasure roll through my mind like a tidal wave, along with badly-hidden urgency. What was Faro so panicked about, it was almost like the way Mum got when I was running late for stupid school.

"Saph? You okay?" Conor asked, pulling me up. There was a bleeding scratch on the back of his hand – must've brushed one of the more unfriendly rocks.

"Yeah, Con, ran too fast."

"Enough chit-chat! We need to go!" Faro shouted angrily, throwing a pulling sensation into my head, as if he could force me to move that way.

Conor and I glanced at each other in that way only siblings could, our eyes spoke legions to each other when we wished, all we said right now was 'What could be so pressing?' But, regardless of how childish Faro was acting for a fifteen or sixteen-year-old, we walked into the waves.

Breaking through was simple now, there was no transition or pain, nor even the struggle to block out the world of Air. I belonged to Ingo, and she would welcome me with open arms, pretending I was her own, just as my dear whale does.

Welcome, Friend-Of-Ingo. The sea whispers, using a slight current to wash the hair from my face.

"Hello Moryow!" I yelled aloud, embracing empty water, and my voice caused a few fish to flicker away, and a crab to click his claws at me huffily, as if I was mad – which I probably seemed from doing something so bizarre.

Conor seemed to agree with the fish and crab, by staring at me weirdly, like I was something from another world.

Faro, however smiled as he took my wrist, letting our woven bracelets touch, almost appearing to fuse into one single, beautiful piece of adornment. But surely it was Faro's hair making it seem so perfect?

…

Sapphire... I had called her, and she had come, she always came. But... then again, more often than I would like, so did her brother. The said brother was watching me cautiously, as if I were some foreign creature other than Mer, one he had never encountered, and had no reason to trust. Why the sudden animosity? Conor had always got on my nerves, but I did my best to keep that to myself – we had a laugh sometimes, but he was so... so... close to Sapphire.

That was it, that was when I realised that I hated Conor, hated him with a passion. Not because of anything to do with him, but because he was one of the tiny collection of things that stopped Sapphire from belonging in Ingo. If it were not for Conor, she would come more often, and not spend all her time thinking about going home. If Conor did not exist, then she would be all mine, and nothing would prevent me from spending time with her.

Sapphire, brave and wonderful Sapphire, who was smiling at me as we tried to untangle our deubleks. Her teeth showed when she grinned, they were a little crooked, and not quite white, but so strangely cute that I decided that making her smile would be one of my goals for the rest of my life.

"What was so important you had us run down to the cove in the middle of the night?" Conor asked, breaking the magic of my study of Sapphire. "Saph could've broken her neck going that fast in the dark!" he fumed like a geyser.

No... Oh no... I hadn't thought of that, hadn't realised the danger of Air at night. But Sapphire always gave the impression that Air was safe for her! No. I had to stop panicking, or she would see it in my thoughts.

"My sister, that's what's important!" I snapped, angry, not with Conor, but with myself for the thought that had rolled around in my head for some time. The thought that if I had to decide, I just might choose Sapphire over Elvira.

Sapphire floated gracefully in the water, reddish-brown hair like some seaweeds but shining in the moonlight as it drifted around her face, framing those shrewd brown eyes. "Elvira is leaving, isn't she?" Sapphire bit her lower lip as she murmured the event that was trying to tear my heart to pieces.

Even if I had to make the choice and chose Sapphire, it would destroy me to lose my sister, my true sister, my hwoer. And that's exactly what was happening, my first and now my only sister was leaving, declaring that that North was more important to her than I – but Sapphire was here, with me, and I would not be attempting that Air thing called 'crying'.

…

I squeezed his hand, somehow feeling that he needed to know that I was here, I would always be here, I wouldn't ever leave him like Elvira was about to.

But you do, whispered a cruel voice in my head, you always leave, you always go home and leave him alone to wait for you. What kind of life is that for him? What kind of life is it when you spend it all waiting for someone you don't know is going to come back?

I told the voice to shut up, and did my best to blank my thoughts from Faro so he could not see that I was already thinking about how tired I would be at school tomorrow, how I was going to almost certainly fall asleep during maths.

No, I told myself, you need to focus on Faro, and how much he's hurting. You need to make him feel better. You need to fill the void his sister once belonged in. You need to close the wound she's giving him, you need to love it closed.

I really hoped Faro was not trying to read my thoughts, because it was very hard to send him waves of reassurance and friendship when also having a million thoughts a second, and keep all the embarrassing ones hidden in safes.

…

Sapphire was hiding her mind, I could feel the smooth walls surrounding whatever she was thinking, but I knew I could break in if I wanted – I was better than she, had had more practise with such things – but I wasn't going to. I had always laughed when she begged for privacy with her thoughts, but from how much I was trying to hide right now, I could understand the reasoning, and promised to never force my way into her head.

My tail powered the two of us along, and a small but powerful current took us near enough to where the family waited. All of my small bunch of relatives were there: Aunt Mellina, Cousin Mordowrgi, and a few of Elvira's teachers and friends who I didn't really care to notice. Saldowr had made a point of not being present for whatever reason.

My attention was wholly on the dark red hair of my sister as she hugged her baby cousin. She looked up and smiled faintly upon seeing me and Sapphire, then turned her gaze to Conor with a mournful expression. "Well... um, hello Conor and Sapphire." she handed Mordowrgi back to Mellina and swam to us in three strokes "I wasn't exactly expecting all this Faro." she stated, for some reason looking at Sapphire, not me.

"Did you think I was going to let you leave without saying goodbye?"

"No, but this is a bit more than... Oh my brother, can you please stop looking at me like that?! I am going to the North so I can belong, and be happy. Don't you want me to be happy, gevell?"

I relinquished Sapphire's hand to draw my gavelles to me, holding her tightly and having to grit my teeth painfully so as to keep the promise I made myself to not suddenly 'cry'. "Of course I want you happy, Elvy. But why can't you be happy here?"

She drew back to frown at me "How many times Faro? How many times must I tell you not to call me Elvy, that was my baby name."

"At least once more." I replied, as always, to watch the small smile that followed the words.

"Oh my brother, if only you would all come North with me, then my heart would not be breaking."

"I'm happy here." With Sapphire, I added silently, blocking the thought from all of them.

"And I'm happy there, so you see, we can only resolve this by my going and your staying."

I sighed, knowing that all eyes were on us, and feeling one pair in particular gave me the courage to say "Then I guess we have no choice but to let you go."

Elvira nodded, her gaze over my shoulder showed the distant look of her mind being elsewhere "Conor wants to speak with you, quite vehemently in fact. I would suggest you speak with him before I go." then she swum immediately to Sapphire, who, with a single pulse of fear, followed my sister to solitude.

My heart began to pound as I went to Conor. I wasn't afraid of what he'd say to me, I was scared what Elvira was saying to Sapphire, what was she saying about me?

Conor's arms were folded, and he looked as serious as I'd ever seen him, with rage carefully hidden in his brown eyes. "I just wanted you to know something. If my sister were not here I would have hit you by now, but since she is, I'll have to do something else to dissuade you from ever touching her again."

What?

"How dare you touch her? She's fourteen, a child! And here you are already trying to follow in your aunt's... example and lure my sister to become Mer!"

"But—"

"No! I'm not finished, you are. If you ever touch my sister again, you'll regret it, because I'll know. While you were in a trance staring at her, I made it so I'll feel it if you make contact with any part of her."

I did not know Conor's abilities here in Ingo, so had to believe him when he said it was possible. "But I'd never hurt h—"

"I don't care! You're going to end up making her turn Mer and leave her family. And I'm not going to let you." he smiled bitterly.

"Even if I did, and I don't," Though I'd certainly thought about it while watching her swim so slowly beside me "How would you stop me?" I was genuinely curious then.

"I'll reveal Ingo if you do." he stated simply, with no particular intonation, but it sent a shiver all the way to the tip of my tensed tail.

"You wouldn't." I countered, hoping severely that it was true.

"If you have Ingo take my sister, then you make Ingo my enemy, and you've already seen what I can do if I must."

This was not the Conor I had once known, this Conor seemed to take pride in the decimation of Ervys being his doing, instead of the horror that he had felt before. I had heard that killing changes people, but had never really believed Conor capable of this... malicious tone.

What could I do? I couldn't say anything in rebuke, out of plain fear of what he'd do. But how could I live without touching Sapphire? What if she needed me to? What if she were in danger?

I had to tell her. But I couldn't. How could I tell her that Conor had done such a thing? She would begin to fear her brother. What's more, how could I tell her how I felt about her... No. I mustn't tell her a thing, and I must somehow live the rest of my life without her – for if I was near her, I would want to touch her, hold her hand, her wrist, touch that soft flesh, the fine bones of her face.

No. I could not bear to think of what I was to lose.

"So, Faro, what's it to be? My sister? Or Ingo?"

I couldn't breathe, my chest was being crushed like when we were all in the Deep together. How could I betray Sapphire like this? How could I do such a betrayal to myself? "Ingo..." I mumbled miserably.

Conor smiled "Good, good fish-boy."

And I could not lash out at him for saying that. For fear that he would destroy my world by opening it to the Air and wrath of humans. I should never have trusted a human with the wonder of Ingo!

Oh Sapphire, what have I done...

…

"Elvira? What is it you wanted to tell me?" I asked when she finally stopped, and Faro and the others were tiny specks in the distance.

Elvira pushed her hair from her face "I know we have not always got along Sapphire, but we both care about Faro, do we not?"

"Um..." where was she going with this "I guess so."

Elvira grinned "You guess so? Well, I happen to know so, Faro has called you his hwerik since the day he met you, and recently he stopped. Why is that Sapphire?"

"Because I'm not little. In fact, I'm nearly sure that I would be taller than him, if he were human."

Elvira laughed, and I felt a wave of jealousy at the beauty of the sound. "Well, I do not know about that, but, I must ask you do something for me, for Faro really." she had a cheeky glint in her eye as she added that last.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Look after him. He pretends to be brave and conceited, but he's really... vulnerable in certain ways." I blinked at her in disbelief, but she carried on "He's in so much pain even at the idea of my leaving. I just hope you can make him, well, how can I put this? The best way I can say is, just, you know, make him get on with his life."

"You want me to help him get over it?"

"Yes. Yes that is exactly the human phrase I was looking for."

"Um... How can I put this? To be honest, I think that's a bit of a mean thing to say, he has a right to be upset, someone he's known all his life is leaving."

"To be happier!" Elvira scowled slightly "Oh Sapphire, I am going to a place I belong, and I know you cannot ever feel what its like, and I'm so sorry, but please, please, let me go."

"Okay Elvira. I understand, but I still think Faro should be allowed to, well, grieve."

"I'm not going to Limina, Sapphire, I'm going North."

"I know, but you're not going to be in his life anymore, and that's the definition of grieving, it doesn't have to be someone who's dead."

"Oh..."

"Was that all?"

"I hope you're better for him than I was." she answered, and began back to her farewell party.

I floated for a while, trying to understand whatever message she was trying to get across with her fancy words. When I thought I'd found one, I sincerely hoped I was wrong.

When we were all there, everyone hugged Elvira, and said their piece, then watched her form departing North. It seemed such a weak goodbye after all the build-up, a real anticlimax. All I wanted to do was have a little cry over how sad it was, how the water seemed to turn cold with melancholy, just go home and cry myself into a numb sleep.

"Faro." I murmured after everyone besides him, Conor and I were gone. I didn't want to speak in his mind, from his expression it was loud enough in there already.

"Mmm?" He replied, looking into the distance Elvira had vanished from.

I was about to give him a hug, and opened my arms to receive him, but... he turned his back to me, and began to swim away, pausing only to give a follow-me gesture to Con and I.

"We do need to go home sis." Conor reminded me as we did our best to keep up with Faro's faster stroke.

"I know, its the middle of the night and all that."

"Might not be, Saph, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah, time difference and all that, but I was only gonna give him a hug, it wouldn't take long! …He looks like he could really use a cuddle right now is all."

Conor gave me a strange look, one that I hadn't seen on him before, but seemed to be very reminiscent of his guilty-face.