Slowly Zafrina sat on the very edge of the stone Rhapsody had dragged out, while Bay sat beside. They looked stiffly at the pair, the atmosphere tense and very awkward. This event, the two merpeople facing two nightlings and attempting a civil conversation, was the first to happen in decades.
Rhapsody had a red shawl draped around her shoulders, no ragged cloak in sight, while Lokia was wrapped in a blanket, for she had been awakened by the commotion. They looked lazy and comfortable, both a little dishevelled, with Rhapsody's hair half falling out of her bun, and Lokia's pixie cut spiking in all directions, suiting her dainty features.
Rhapsody took a seat on a rock, while Lokia slipped to the sand, leaning against her tail. What surprised the two merpeople most of all was how pretty they were, contrary to the stories they'd been told. The skin of their tails were like shark skin, although Rhapsody had a lilac tint, while Lokia had a hint of blue. Their eyes, while fiercely bright, were shades of blue and emerald green, with dark areas of tiredness below. These were not fiends of Lysidus sent to hunt down the stone.
The two were unsure how to speak to the anxious merpeople, with the clear suspicion. Perhaps it was safest to give them context first. "I'm Rhapsody, and this is Lokia. We were part of his group in the war... we were under a sleeping spell for fourty years, before we spent ten years awake in prison after Circe died and the spell wore off." Rhapsody absent mindedly played with Lokia's short, spiky hair as she spoke. "It was..." she closed her eyes and shook her head slightly at the memory of madness, and Lokia reached up to give her hand a gentle squeeze. Bay blinked, surprised that both of them appeared sane, after ten years in prison. A little sympathy stirred within them both.
"Me and Rhapsody have always been more attached to one another than the rest," Lokia continued for her. "We were together before Lysidus found us. During the war, when the merfolk started to hunt our kind down..." Zafrina felt terrible guilt, remembering the part Triton had played in that, and she had to look at her hands. "We stuck with Lysidus to survive after the prison break, we thought we'd be safe because nightlings still make people uneasy. But we realized that Wundagorians are more accepting - the perfect place for us to disappear. We didn't want any part of Lysidus' awful plans, so we eventually left in the middle of the night. We haven't heard a word from them since."
"So you..."
"Yes, we betrayed them. We just want to live a normal life." Lokia tilted her head. "Are we right in assuming that you're part of the group taking the stone?"
"As if it wasn't already obvious." Zafrina was very guarded still despite it all.
"Yes then. Do you still have it?" Lokia asked, offering them some food, and although they initially made no move to accept it, Bay accepted it out of politeness. "I can't sense it, so no."
"Sense it?" Bay interjected. "Did that..."
"...yeah, sense it. It allowed us to follow you, unfortunately." Rhapsody sounded bitter whenever the stone was mentioned. "We're latched to it, thanks to Lysidus. He didn't have the decency to inform us that he was going to stop the aging process." It dawned upon Zafrina and Bay that these two were different - they viewed their immortality as a curse. They had no desire to live forever, or for the stone - they wanted it gone. "The gem...?"
"We don't have it, not anymore. We took it to be destroyed -" Bay was encouraged by the sudden look of hope in Rhapsody and Lokia's eyes. "But it's creator is dead, as it turns out." The hope was extinguished - while they'd known that Circe was dead, it didn't stop them from hoping. "Our group... separated, after two of your aquademons -"
"Don't call us that, please." Rhapsody interjected, and they noticed how offended they both looked. Bay glanced at Zafrina who muttered the real word, when it slipped his mind.
"Okay. Nightlings... they ambushed us. They even -" Bay anxiously ran a hand through his hair, trying to say it - even if it actually looked good, Bay missed his long hair.
"Did Proximus cut it?" Lokia asked, to their surprise. It was here they noticed her pixie cut. "He heard me and Rhapsody were thinking of leaving, so he cut my hair in my sleep, warning me not to leave. What a lie - he's a sadist, it's his thing, cutting people's hair. He enjoys doing it, it was an excuse to cut someone's hair. It was a little longer initially but I made it more stylish..."
Zafrina was still uncomfortable and bewildered, especially at how normal Rhapsody and Lokia seemed, with their openness, kindness and the tenderness at which they looked at one another. It was a far cry from the stories Alana and Adonis had told her and her sisters. They weren't so different from merpeople afterall. But one thing didn't make sense...
"Would you mind explaining to me how they got their hands on this?" She extracted Ontari's necklace from her cloak pocket. "Lysidus sent two of them ahead with this to try and get the stone faster. It came at great personal cost..." the two nightlings took a moment to recognize it.
"A mermaid appeared - brown hair, purple tail -"
"Ontari." Zafrina said. "We have a little history with her..."
"That was her name. You knew her? I'm sorry, but.. she's dead." They blinked in shock. "She came to us, offering infomation on you. She seemed in mourning, bitter. Ontari gave us everything. She told us what you all went through in Belixia, and that you had the stone, and what makes you vulnerable. I think, it was your friendships, that inspired Lysidus to try and fracture your group." Rhapsody hesitated. "Lysidus demanded her necklace, but she refused, so he killed her. I'm sorry -"
"We weren't on good terms, but thank you for telling us." Bay said, in case Zafrina found it difficult. And while she felt awful, Zafrina was also relieved. The last supporter and ghost of Nia was dead, but most of all, Ontari and Icarus could be together now.
"Just tell us about the stone." Zafrina murmured.
"Destroying that thing won't harm us, it'll merely make us mortal again, and that's what me and Lokia want. But it'll kill Lysidus, since he depends on it."
"You speak as though Lysidus is connected to the stone... as if he needs it to live."
"Years ago, in the war..." Lokia looked very uncomfortable. A truth was on it's way. "He got his hands on the stone. He thought by doing it, that he'd have more control over the thing..."
"What did he do?" There was a pause.
"He put his soul into the Abraxia stone." Zafrina and Bay stared at the two nightlings at the truth that had just been revealed.
"He... he put his soul into it?"
"Yes." Said Lokia, softly. "He hoped that it would give him more control over it. And it did. He can't die unless the stone is destroyed. He can self heal. He can heal others. He hoped that placing part of himself into the jewel would perhaps let him wield it's power if he were to lose it. It didn't work to that extent though. He's preserved himself, the selfish -" Lokia stopped herself from cursing before leaning forwards. "The closer he is, the more control he has over it. If he concentrates, he can manipulate it from a distance, project his voice through it..." Zafrina stiffened.
A voice. What had she been hearing over the last few weeks?
"Melody doesn't care about you... it's her fault you killed Icarus... wouldn't it be nice to just get away from it all?"
The manipulative voice Zafrina had been hearing, seeding anxiety and suspicion into her mind, tormenting her and making her believe that Melody didn't care. She flashbacked to the cave, when Melody had hesitated before using the stone - Zafrina had heard that same voice moments before the beam had veered off and hit them.
"His plan, since Ontari gave him the information he needed, has been to split you up, so you're all at your most vulnerable. He wanted to test you, to break you. It's all a game to him. He can hear what happens around the stone, when he's closer, he starts to even see the stone's surroundings. We couldn't stand by and watch as he did that. We left when he was asleep - he can't use it unless he's awake."
The subdued glow that occurred at night, when Lysidus was asleep - if he was as close as they thought when they'd reached Circe, the stone had worked perfectly fine. Then, when the glow returned and Lysidus awoke, he managed to make it stop working for them. That was why they couldn't reach Bay sooner - Proximus and Corva must have alerted Lysidus somehow, so they couldn't use the stone to find him.
Zafrina heard Bay's voice and felt his grip on her hand tighten as it all began to fall into place. She didn't need Rhapsody and Lokia to tell her. It had been Lysidus' plan all along to drive them apart, so when he reached the stone at last, it would be so easy to get it. And he had succeeded. His soul had been placed into the stone like a parasite, listening to everything, waiting for the chance to split their group in half...
"Lysidus. It's his fault the stone struck us, Bay. It makes sense now..." Zafrina whispered. "The voice, putting thoughts into my head, manipulating all of us, how didn't I see it? He split us up, and now we..."
It dawned upon Zafrina at last. Lysidus had taken advantage of the rift that could have so easily been fixed, if only she had let go of her stubbornness, and they'd communicated. Any amnesty she felt was gone. What had she done to Melody? Her cousin, her best friend, her sister... "We've left them there with the stone, for Lysidus to find them! And when he finds them... what will he do to them? We have to go back and warn them!"
"Zafrina, we have nothing to fight him with!" Bay realized. "If he can't die because his soul is in the stone, this can't end - without that sword Circe made, it can't be destroyed!" Yet there was something. Rhapsody and Lokia gave each other a look that Zafrina and Bay caught. "Is there something you both know? If you know something, we have to know." Rhapsody looked afraid. Lokia once again took her hand. "Please!" Rhapsody close her eyes and looked down.
"He can never know that we told you, but - that sword. The Abraxia Sword. He has it." Zafrina and Bay stared, dumbstruck. "You see, the lock to our prison was meant to be unbreakable, but that sword can cut through anything. Years ago, someone broke into Circe's lair and stole it. Eventually it fell into the hands of one of our group who was in hiding all those years, and they brought the sword to the prison. The sword freed us by breaking the binding magic that sealed the lock. Lysidus kept hold of it knowing that it's the only thing able to break the stone - but it's also indestructible, with all the dark magic Circe imbued it with. Better he protect it than allow it to fall into the right hands..."
Their solution was painfully obvious. To get the sword and destroy the stone, they'd have to go to Lysidus.
"Oh, Neptune." Bay murmured, simply. Zafrina and Bay got up abruptly, knowing what had to be done. "We need to get back to Melody and Finn, now, before he finds them..." Lokia rose to rush into the cave.
"Take this, you'll need it." She handed Bay one of the glaives. He flinched briefly, remembering his wounds, but he took it.
Zafrina turned to the two nightlings, who shrank away - she knew that they couldn't ask for them to come and help. Rhapsody started to cry with panic, whispering frantically to Lokia. "What if they fail? What he wins -"
"He'll never win." Lokia pulled her into an embrace, pressing her lips to her temple. "It'll be alright, I promise..." Zafrina and Bay looked on, touched at the tenderness shown between them. Zafrina went right up to Rhapsody and Lokia, all distrust gone, as she realized how alike merfolk and nightlings were.
"We promise we'll get that sword and destroy the stone. We'll never tell him where you are and - I'm sorry for how our kind treated yours, all that time ago. It never should have happened. We'll tell everyone the truth, and if you need shelter, we'll make sure you're welcome in Atlantica. Thank you for all your help." She took Bay's hand, and then with an explosion of purple smoke, they were gone, leaving Rhapsody and Lokia holding one another. Lokia pulled Rhapsody close, watching until the last of the purple smoke had dissolved.