A/N: For all those who hated me and/or Llyr, here is the next chapter, which may alleviate your issues.
No warnings, no disclaimer.
Enjoy! Jimli :)
Chapter 6
Almost every day after, she trekked to the beach, hoping against hope that they might be there. She went home, disappointed day after day. After several weeks had passed, her belly was round with Llyr's last child, another boy, she'd learned, and she was cleaning out the nursery in preparation. She ignored the tears that trailed down her cheeks as she put away the things she wouldn't need, mostly her daughter's things. She'd be nearly five now, Psyche remembered with a pang.
That miserable task done, she went back into the room she'd shared with Llyr. She'd slept in here constantly after he'd left, but then had begun sleeping on the couch instead. Dreams of Llyr, their children, and the ocean had plagued her while she'd been in their bed, and she could only seem to sleep with any restfulness on the couch. That really had to change, so she decided to clear the room of Llyr.
She washed everything, despite the washings it may have already had, aired out the room, and packed away things that had been his. She found her beach tote under the edge of the dresser, forgotten since Llyr had taken his scales out of it. She reached inside to grab the miscellaneous items that were no doubt in the bottom and found something hard. Psyche pulled back her hand and looked inside the bag. There were some scales left inside.
"Llyr," she breathed, hope filling her for the first time in months.
She grabbed a cup off the table near the bed and started fishing scales out of the bag. There weren't many, just enough to fill the cup, really, but she hoped it was enough.
She remembered what Llyr had said about changing back, but a small voice of reason gave her pause.
Llyr had been a neptune to begin with, so using his method would be more like reverting: that's even how he had talked about it, 'returning to the sea'. On the other hand, Shell and Llrián weren't neptunes, at least, not wholly, and not born so. If Llyr had used the same method for them, there stood a chance it would work for her. The other thing that concerned her was how well she knew Llyr.
Llyr had a tendency, especially at the beginning of their relationship, to simplify things, even to the point of oversimplification. He had said combining blood and his scales and smearing the mix over his legs would change them back into a tail. Did it reverse the entire process? Was it really as simple as that, or were there other steps that he hadn't thought were important enough to mention?
She shook her head. It all came down to one thing, really: was she going to follow his instructions to try to get back her husband and family, or was she unwilling to chance what would happen to her and the baby inside her?
She took the cup downstairs and found a sharp knife before heading to the beach.
She stopped just above the tide line, stripped off her shoes and dress, and sent out a prayer before slicing down each leg with the knife. The cuts were shallow, but painful, and blood welled up quickly. Taking the scales, she caught the blood in her cupped hand and mixed the scales into it.
The scales started absorbing the blood, hydrating, and she splattered the mess onto her bleeding thighs, spreading it around. She kept working, trying to ration out the scales. When she was nearly finished, she felt a strange sensation, like the squeeze of tight clothing. Psyche looked down, seeing the scales spread and overlap into regular patterns, creeping up her thighs and butt to pause just above her hips and below her ribs.
Her knees gave way, and she tumbled gracelessly to the beach, her legs folding. Bones cracked painfully, flesh pinched, squished, and crawled. She felt a stitch in her side, like she'd been running for far too long. She reached down, feeling the split tissue above the new scales, and the tender, moist gills inside.
The neat, new scales were joining the mess smeared on her calves. Her ankles turned to each side to the breaking point, then they snapped painfully. A sharp sensation raced through her feet before they went almost numb. Had it been this awful for Llyr?
Her hands felt odd, her fingers sticky, and when she looked, new webbing had grown between the digits. Locks of her hair tumbled around her exposed, pregnancy-swollen breasts, and she picked one tendril up curiously. Her once copper colored hair was now a deep fuchsia with copper tones, and her pale, peachy skin now had a delicate pink tint. Not a fleshy, human pink, but a flowery pink.
She felt a little weak, and the baby was kicking inside her now half-scaled abdomen, but all the pain and crawling sensations were finally gone. She wriggled, trying to get a feel for her new muscle structure, then crawled towards the ocean. She had always felt a pull towards the ocean, and now both her aching heart and her new physical form increased that draw exponentially. Psyche dove into the waves, striving to learn to swim, to reach her family.
Her body adapted quicker than her mind did: gills pulling oxygen into her system, filmy lids covering her eyes, little flaps covering her ear canals while actually increasing her sensation of sound and vibration. After blinking a few times, her eyes adjusted to the gloom, making the water seem as well lit as the beach had been. She let the current guide her in the direction she had seen Llyr go after their first encounter, hoping she could find his city kingdom on the vastness of the sea floor.
Psyche knew it couldn't be too far away. Despite the implausibility of an underwater city being undetected so close to the shore, Llyr had easily swum back and forth between their beach and his city in a day. Soon enough, she did see something in the distance, and she aimed for it like a homing pigeon. Between her pregnancy, her transformation, and her long swim, her energy was quickly depleting; however, as she came closer to the city, a group of neptunes spotted her.
"Hey! Hey, salacia! Are you all right?" one of them asked, concern in his voice.
She shook her head, too tired to answer him. "Llyr? Please, do you know where Llyr is?"
"Llyr? Prince Llyr?" another voice asked, but Psyche was falling, slipping away.
Llyr…