Melody leaned against a boulder, running her fingertips on the two-inch scab above her eyebrow. It didn't bother her much, nor did the deep scratch on her arm. Finn kept suggesting she use the stone to heal them, but for some reason, it made her uneasy. She thought she had heard a voice last night, and her skin had been cold ever since. Zafrina had the stone in her bag, but she kept stopping, holding the bag to her ear, as if listening to something. What was going on?
Melody was unable to keep her eyes off Zafrina. Her cousin had slumped to the floor, and now she was anxiously gnawing her nails. At least she had stopped clawing at her neck, which Melody had patched up with a special kind of seaweed known for it's healing properties. Melody had put some in one of the bags, just in case, not thinking that the journey would be this dangerous. Yet Melody had barely received a 'thank you'. Zafrina hadn't said a word to her all morning. Her eyes had acquired a worrying blankness and her face was tormented.
They were having a rest; Bay had ventured off in search of food, while Finn had gone to get a good viewpoint. They'd passed the peak Narcissus had mentioned to Finn, and apparently it was about to get more volcanic, although Melody didn't notice it yet. They'd left at dawn, and now it was the afternoon. This part of Wundagore was getting more sparse and more rocky, with less lilac sand and less people. The last merperson they'd passed had been three hours ago.
Conversation had been near dead. Bay had briefly asked Finn how he was feeling; he'd replied, "good". Any talk had been between Melody and Finn, or Zafrina and Bay - couple to couple, not friend to friend.
"Stop staring at me." Zafrina's gaze shifted from space to Melody, yet what concerned her was the anger in her tone, and in her eyes. She chose her next words carefully.
"I'm worried about you."
"Stop pretending you care." Melody couldn't believe her ears. Never, in their six years of knowing each other, had Zafrina said something so near the mark or false. Of course she cared! Didn't Zafrina remember anything she'd said to her last night?
"Zafrina!"
"Oh, stop saying my name! I'm sure everytime you've spoken to me, it's been my name and nothing else. Can't you get it into your thick human skull that it's obvious I want to be left alone?" Zafrina snapped, too bitter to care about the hurt in Melody's eyes. She got up, and her voice rose as she came forwards, with almost threatening body language. "I killed someone, do you expect me to a chatterbox?"
"Of course not!" Melody shrank away - what was happening? Zafrina looked so angry, and for the first time, she felt afraid of her. Zafrina noticed this. She felt, once again, guilty, but didn't apologize. Her lips shook as she covered her face.
"Then do me a favour and keep swimming!" Zafrina pushed past Melody and disappeared to where Bay had gone. Melody tried to catch her arm, but she was already gone.
"I can't keep swimming, we're on a break!" Melody gave up, and dragged her staff in the sand. It was slowly dawning upon her the seriousness of what had happened. It was an accident, but it was Zafrina's worst nightmare. And worst of all, something told her that Zafrina blamed her. She kept catching Zafrina staring at her, with the most angered look. Melody felt so responsible, as she realized that it was her attacking Ontari that had caused Zafrina to draw an arrow, which had lead to Icarus flinging himself into its path. But then if she hadn't, Ontari would have tried to finish the job on Finn, or she would have attacked her anyway. What else could she have done?
Her attempt to comfort Zafrina last night had failed - she'd been sick outside, Melody had put her back to bed - but even though she'd thrown everything she had into comforting her, it hadn't made a difference. Zafrina hadn't slept at all, with extreme darkness under her eyes from how tired she was. As a result, she was sleep deprived and extremely angry at anyone - except Bay, who seemed to know what to avoid. He hadn't said much, offering physical comfort, by holding her hand, or offering his arm. Melody had tried to link arms with Zafrina and she'd almost bitten her head off. Zafrina had briefly asked Finn how he was feeling, but nothing more.
Unable to find Zafrina or Bay - or afraid of what Zafrina would say - Melody swam up a rock column to where Finn had gone to get a high view point. He perched on top, staring into space - not scanning the horizon or consulting the map. She shook her head slightly.
"How are we looking?" She asked, softly, but he still jumped in surprise, a if expecting someone like Ontari.
"I know where we're going... its straight on." Melody sat beside him, and leaned on his shoulder. "How's Zafrina?"
"I've been trying all day. I'm so worried about her - neither of them want to talk to us. Bay does more so, but the pair of them are sticking together."
"We're doing the same thing."
"I suppose that doesn't help. But what can I do? She won't talk to me, no matter what I try. I want to help, but I can't, if she doesn't let me."
"You've tried your best. Look, it's going to be extremely raw. When I killed Nia... I felt awful for days. And I hated her, and I was trained not to feel..." Finn's voice faded away as he realized the darkness of such a statement. Trained to not feel regret. Trained to kill and hurt without question or hesitation... "Zafrina and you had a very different upbringing to me and Bay. We feel less regret... and people are affected differently. You can feel awful, you can feel nothing. What I'm saying is, that Zafrina is one of those people who carries that guilt and finds it hard to drop. But with time, it'll get better."
"I hope you're right." There was silence. "I'm just... worried about something else."
"What?"
"Ontari." Finn glanced her way, but she noticed his hand instinctively cover his belly. The water between them seemed to turn cold at the mention of her name. "Do you think we've seen the last of her?" They'd killed her lover. Ontari wasn't the sort of mermaid to forget it.
"I don't know. Her new magic trick doesn't make it any easier. I know where she got it."
"That necklace?" Melody remembered the small glass bottle hanging on a chain around Ontari's neck, filled with the purple sand or powder.
Finn looked depressed as he rested his chin on his hand. "Nia stole it from a seawitch. She kept it in her lair, the owner made it to take them wherever they wanted, but it could only take up to four people at a time. She didn't use it because she kept using her own magic to try and tinker with it. She was trying to make it take more people at a time - say, a whole army. Luckily whoever made it was more powerful than her, so she didn't get very far. Ontari must've gone back to Belixia and retrieved it."
Melody remembered when she and Zafrina had been attacked by the shark, when they'd used the stone for the first time - which Ontari apparently knew about. The explosion the stone had blasted a hole into the sealed tower - had Ontari and Icarus gone in there to salvage weapons? There was no way Ontari had stolen the necklace beforehand. "When will this stop?" She whispered. "When will Nia go away?"
For Finn, he didn't think ever. He'd gotten used to seeing her lurking in the corner of his vision, and the dreams no longer surprised him.
"I don't know. We just have to get this stone to Circe so we can go home..."
Zafrina looked for Bay, feeling like a lost child without him. She tried to ignore the voice she heard, coming from the stone. She had shut the casket - but it still seeped through.
Listen to me.
Shut up. Who are you?
I wonder how guilty Melody feels. Probably not at all... you have to cope with everything, don't you? Zafrina furiously rooted through the bag, finding the casket, and she started bundling it up in some seaweed; she didn't realize that the casket close had been damaged, which was why the voice continued to seep through. The voice muffled, and when she put it first in the bag, and then her bag in the cloak pocket, Zafrina didn't hear it anymore. She breathed a sigh of relief. For some reason she had a mental block, that meant she didn't register the seriousness of what she was hearing. Panicking slightly from the voice, she called out louder than she intended.
"Bay? Bay?" Almost immediately, he came rushing around the corner, his hair in an adorable bun.
"Are you alright?" He asked, tentatively. Zafrina flooded with relief.
"Yes. I was wondering where you were." In Bay's company, Zafrina seemed to feel more alert and more stable. She lifted her face, and gave him a particular look, and Bay took that as permission. He gently held her face in both hands, and kissed her, softly, sweetly, and Zafrina felt a little better, her hands stopped shaking for a moment. Zafrina would often be the one to kiss him, but in her fragile state, she wasn't leading anything.
"How are you?" He asked, gently. Zafrina had snapped at Melody for asking.
"I don't know. But you just made it a lot better. I... don't judge me..."
"Never."
"I just want to... go." Bay looked startled. "I love you, I love them, but I just keeping wondering whether it's better if we..." Zafrina hated herself for saying it - it wasn't right, or fair. Bay knew it was unthinkable, to leave Melody and Finn to do it on their own. But it wasn't like he hadn't thought about it too...
It was this moment that the tremor reached them. "Woah." Bay looked about in alarm and Zafrina grabbed his arm to steady herself. A few pebbles slid down the rock slope as the area shook. The tremor continued for several moments, before it eventually lulled to nothing. They paused for a moment, in case it started again, but there didn't seem to be any more.
"What was that?"
"A tremor from below. It's getting more volcanic. Speaking of, you should see this, it's pretty cool." He tried to distract her and himself. Unsure of what Bay meant, Zafrina let him guide her, before they saw a faint glow. There was a crack in the stone seabed, and from it was oozing a glowing substance. Directly inside the crack, it glowed fiercely, but the rest of it that had spread along the sea floor was turning grey as it was cooled from the cold seawater. They looked at it in fascination, with it being a welcome distraction from their other thoughts. "It's getting more volcanic."
"Looks like we'll have to be wary from here on out." Zafrina slipped her hand into his, eyes on the glowing magma. She couldn't help herself confessing.
"I still feel -"
"Don't. Don't do that to yourself." Bay faced her. "It was an accident. It wasn't you. It was Icarus misunderstanding. He made the decision, not you." Zafrina nodded like a lost child, resting her forehead against Bay's chest. The moment was broken however, as Melody and Finn came around the corner. Zafrina thought she heard a murmuring from her pocket. "Yes, we felt the tremor." Bay said, before they could ask.
"We also noticed something else. The sand."
"Sand?"
"It's getting darker. From where we saw, it was turning black..." A painful memory of her grandfather revisited Zafrina, but then she remembered what he had said. Circe lived in a place where the sand was black... "We're almost there." As Bay and Finn discussed the direction, Zafrina heard the hissing inside her pocket again.
How can you stand the sight of -
"Leave me alone!"
"Huh?" Melody's bewildered look told Zafrina she'd accidentally said it aloud.
"Nothing! Just - just take this thing!" Zafrina shoved the casket towards Melody, who, startled, accepted it.
"What's wrong?" She shoved it into her bag.
"What do you think?" Zafrina snapped. This time, the boys noticed. Finn instinctively moved closer to Melody.
"She only asked -"
"Finn, just, don't." Bay, looking extremely fatigued, came between them and Zafrina, a little closer to her than to them. The two couples looked at each other for a moment in awkward silence. Eventually, Finn sensed the danger and broke it.
"Come on, then." Finn shook his head, pulling Melody by the hand. She followed, looking towards Zafrina with an anguished look, unable to understand her but too afraid to ask. Bay placed his hands on Zafrina's arms.
"You know I'm on your side. But why are you so angry towards them? I don't understand..." Zafrina didn't answer, just relieved to be rid of the stone, so it no longer whispered irrational thoughts into her mind.