warning(s): none that I think needed to be tagged, do let me know if anything bothered you.
notes: FINALLY GETTING SOMEWHERE WITH THE PLOT! If you're interested in seeing how I picture Manaka in this AU, I have art posted on my tumblr that I drew a while ago. Aaand I just realized that none of my scene breaks have been posting? Oops. I added them back for this chapter but if they don't show up, they'll definitely be on the AO3 version so you can read it there if any part of this is confusing. Also: for all intents and purposes in this fic, Manaka is disabled! She uses a wheelchair for the most part, and later on she'll be using other mobility aids to help her walk. If my portrayal of this isn't accurate, please let me know so I can fix it.
Manaka dreams of swimming. She's swimming as fast as she can, up to where the sun streams down in bright beams to light up the water. Behind her she leaves a trail of shimmering scales and glittering flakes of ena. The sound of something shattering fills the water around her. She needs to hurry, there's somewhere she needs to be and she doesn't have enough time to get there. She needs to breathe, but when she opens her mouth only water fills it and she chokes, coughs-
When she opens her eyes she is overwhelmed with sensation. She is warm all over and there is something covering her that feels smooth against her skin. She is not underwater, but she can hear something that sounds like waves from somewhere farther away. Manaka braces herself against the soft material she's lying on and sits upright. She lifts her arm up to the light coming in from an open window. Her skin is dark, almost like driftwood, and the glitter of ena is gone from it. A fizzy feeling rises in her chest, like a cloud of bubbles. She examines her hands, pokes at the soft pads of her palms and the rounded curve of her nails. She combs her fingers through her hair, which is long and dark and soft to the touch. Her throat and neck are smooth, with no gills for her to breathe with. Her whole body is softer than it was before and moves differently, too.
Her new legs are thin and just as dark as the rest of her skin. Manaka leans over and watches with fascination as she moves her toes and then her legs, one at a time. It feels so different from having a tail and she giggles at the novelty of it. She flops back onto the soft things and sighs. She touches her face a few times to reassure herself that she's not dreaming, that she really did make it onto land. Her eyes feel heavy so she blinks once, twice, then closes them as exhaustion drags her back into sleep.
When Manaka wakes up again, the room is darker. The window has been closed, and there are lights on the wall that hadn't been lit earlier. There is also someone sitting nearby looking at her. Her first instinct is to curl up and hiss, but the sound doesn't come out right from her new throat, and she ends up coughing instead.
"Finally, you're awake! You've been asleep for a whole day, you know," the human says. They stand up and walk over to where she's lying down. They aren't dressed like any of the humans Manaka's seen before, not even the one she'd rescued from the storm. They look more like her, but their hair is shorter and lighter in color, pulled back from their face and tied in a round ball at the top of their head. The material covering their body is brightly colored and reflects a soft glow from the lights on the walls.
"Who-" Manaka tries to say, but her throat is dry and the words feel like something sharp is digging at her neck so she chokes on them, falling into another coughing fit. The human rushes over to her and hands her a cup.
"Drink before talking to me, it'll make your throat feel better."
Manaka obeys and automatically lifts the cup to her lips to drink. The cup is empty before she knows it and the human takes it from her to refill it.
"Who are you?" Manaka manages to ask. Her throat isn't dry anymore but it still feels like something is trying to choke her when she talks. She unfolds her legs and looks apprehensively at the human, who is giving her an equally suspicious glare.
"Isn't it bad manners to ask someone who they are without introducing yourself first?" they ask her. Manaka feels her face get hot and she looks down. Is it bad manners? She's never thought about that before. The human continues without waiting for her to answer. "My name is Sayu Hisanuma. I'm Lady Shiodome's lady-in-waiting. Who are you?"
"Me? I'm Manaka. Who is Lady Shiodome? Where am I?"
"Manaka who? Lady Shiodome is the one who found you lying passed out cold on the beach. She brought you back to the palace to take care of you."
"I'm Manaka….from Shioshishio, I suppose."
"Shioshishio? I've never heard of it. Must be pretty far away, if you haven't heard of my Lady." Sayu hands the refilled cup back to Manaka, who sips at it slowly this time. The water is clear and tasteless. The lack of salt somehow stings.
Sayu bustles around the room, opening the wardrobe and pulling out a few of the dresses she was able to round up from the palace's charity bins and from a few of the serving girls who looked to be around the strange girl's size. She lays them out on the bed for the girl to put on. Manaka looks at the garments like she's never seen them before, touches them a few times before giving Sayu a questioning look. It figures, she's probably another noblewoman who's never dressed herself before. Maybe she doesn't even wear dresses in whatever country she's from. That wouldn't be a surprise given how Lady Shiodome had found her- curled up in one of the shallow caves that pockmark the cliffs by the seashore, unconscious and naked as the day she was born save for two strings of gemstones around her neck.
Sayu eyes those gemstones from where she'd placed them on the nightstand in plain view for their owner, who has so far ignored them. She's never seen a string of pearls that long before, not even on the neck of Queen Kihara herself. And she's definitely never seen so many diamonds, either. What on earth was that woman doing with her valuable items in such a place? She shakes her head and picks up the first shift from the bed, intending to get Manaka dressed and presentable enough to meet with Lady Shiodome.
Getting Manaka dressed is harder than she thought it was going to be. Manaka seems to have never worn clothes in her life if her reaction to the dresses is anything to go by. She keeps tugging at the sleeves and making strange little noises at the way the skirts flutter around her legs. Speaking of her legs, it seems like Manaka can't walk, either. She'd tried to stand and had promptly fallen over with a yelp. Subsequent attempts at standing and walking had her shaking like a leaf in the wind, even though her toes and knees had seemed to move just fine. Sayu makes a mental note to move Manaka down to a room on the first floor when there's time. For now, she has Manaka wait while she goes to fetch one of the wheelchairs that the palace keeps for disabled guests.
"Where are you taking me?" Manaka asks as Sayu wheels her towards another winding ramp that leads deeper into the building. She fidgets with the string of stones wound around her neck, kicking her feet childishly when Sayu doesn't immediately answer. Manaka watches the ramp reform into stairs behind Sayu while Sayu catches her breath.
"Lady Shiodome wants to meet you properly. It's about time for dinner, so you'll be joining her in her rooms."
"Oh," Manaka says softly. She sits back in the chair and lets Sayu guide her down the hall to a door near a large painting of someone with familiar dark hair and a stormy expression on their face. Sayu knocks on the door twice and when it opens by itself, she pushes Manaka inside.
The room she finds herself in is one of the largest she's ever been in, easily bigger than her own room down in Shioshishio's coral castles and possibly bigger than Uroko's cave had been. There are several other doors lining the far wall that presumably lead further into the palace. The color scheme is muted blues and greys that remind her of the bones she's kept in her grotto. It calms the strange heavy fright in her chest that had risen up when Sayu swept her out of the room she'd been staying in. Near the center of this room is a low table filled with covered platters and a few crystal cups that sparkle in the glow from the lights on the wall. Lady Shiodome is sitting on a cushion at the table examining one of the covered platters. She rises to greet them when Sayu wheels Manaka over.
Lady Shiodome is the prettiest human Manaka has ever seen. Compared to Tsumugu, who was warm and golden, Lady Shiodome is cool and silver. Her eyes are wide and lined with black the way Uroko's were, which makes the blue-gray color of her eyes that much more striking. Her hair is long and dark, longer even than Manaka's, and she wears some of it up in loops fastened with pearl-topped sticks of bone. Suddenly shy, Manaka looks down at her lap, still playing with the string of stones around her neck. She hadn't thought about it on the way here since she had been occupied with marvelling at the palace, but what exactly is she supposed to say? How is she supposed to behave? She's never been around anyone this beautiful before.