Chapter Twenty Three

Confrontation

Sage glared as the elder narwhal approached, sneering within his eyes. The surprised and afraid eyes of dolphins and orca round stared, unsure and un-understanding. Elli gabbled in fear, as Uton cringing behind them growled.

Several healing tooth scrapes revealed Uton's damage inflicted upon dark singer, his left side reddened slightly over the spotted skin of before. Nartec glowered, his eyes flashing a dangerous hint of intelligence within them, as he slowly moved towards the conclave of singers, as his pike lazily pointed from singer to singer, as if accusing.

"I suppose," Nartec derided, his song mockful and near laughing. "You wish of an explanation to my deeds, and of my intentions do you not? For an explanation is always requested for a singer that steps out of line, is it not exiled Sage?"

Scowling, Sage snapped, "And of what use is it to us, if your intention is but to kill us all?"

"Oh, but to the contrary my demon dolphin," Nartec mocked, his eyes dangerously locked upon Sage as his tusk rounded to its target, as Nartec drew level with the large abomination that obeyed his whim. "I intend not to kill all these singers before us. I merely aim to kill the one who attacked us…" His eyes glanced down upon Uton. "And the only one who can stop us… You.

"But regardless you want it or not," Nartec continued, blowing in lazy gait as a twisted grin spread across his jaws. "I shall tell you." There was a long pause from, Nartec before he began his long winded tale, whispers and growlings from the singer behind and motions to move forward and eat from the larvae, "Among my people, the narwhal, we start to go insane at an early age, for the visions of vengeance are implanted within our brains at an early age from the songs of the elders. I was not part of the pod at this time, for my mother had bore me within the icy paths where she breathed live to me, but soon more drowned.

"Unsure of where I was, I was found by a pod of beluga, which took me in for their generous natures of their kind. They sung to me, nursed me with the mother with a calf already and shielded me from the songs of madness with their songs of ego. When I was of age that my tooth began to erupt from my jaw as you see it today, I abandoned those to seek my own kind of the narwhal.

"What I came across was a species driven mad. My entire lineage were insane creatures of burden from every other singer in the world! I grew angry, yet I did not follow them in their slipstreams to become full of the decay of insanity. Rather, I observed and learnt, growing more and fuller of rage…

"Then, a chance came. I was able to express my own worth, challenging the elder Oracle of the narwhal for his title role. I had learnt to control my rage and frustration and channel it through fighting, than to bottle it within and go mad. I slaughtered the elder Oracle within seconds; my first blood shed, but not to ever be my last.

"As the Oracle, I was given reign over the shrine, the skeleton of the legendary Big Blue and protection over the Stone of Ages that we narwhal worship." The eyes of Nartec glowered to Sage once again, sinister dwellings deep within the pupils. "The stone I discovered was an egg. The last Vortex egg in the entirety of the universe was within my control, and all I had to do, was hatch it.

"I tried everything, but nothing worked. And then, something happened one night. As if drawn by fate, for its eternal foe had indeed arrived at the same time, it hatched. The larvae began a desperate search for food, and I provided, teaching it to obey my command as I fed it with my own actions. Trespassers within our domain were brought to the chamber to feed the infant, which began to grow…

"After several seasons, I was brought someone who startled me. I had learnt of the songs of Ecco and of the Seer lineage he hails from, for I wanted to make sure that nothing could stop me… A young orca, with the star markings of the Seer arrived and requested songs…

"How I knew this was too good to be true," Nartec sneered, glowering at Sage who stared back with equal viscosity. "The next Seer, the only one who could stop me within my grasp. The infant sensed your power within you Sage and cowered within the skull of the Big Blue, for it was still too weak to challenge you and though I stared, commanding it to attack, attack it did not.

"I allowed you to pass unscathed, for I wanted it to be the one to kill you, but I knew that now was not the time. Not yet. For the infant feared you, and knowing that you could combat it; I could be rest assured that it would not rebel against me until it was time…

"I took her to the open seas, to feed greatly upon the vaster creatures and grow did she. Within a moon, the infant doubled in size, and smaller fish were replaced with dolphins and hungry ones. A foolish dolphin named Kia I remember was taken, thinking I was saving her from hungry ones…

"And then, I heard your song again. The Vortex feared you not anymore, and took to you, powerful and large enough to confront you at last, but somehow you escaped in the dark depths. After searching for many days, I returned to our waters to allow the Vortex to morph into its adult phase, but I was encountered by a strange beluga, which claimed of an orca that passed by not so long before. An orca of the White River pod, which sung with the song of many pods.

"I was not foolish. I saw this as my chance and attacked your pod. After murdering the pod of beluga, I moved towards the pod of White River. As the Vortex fed upon the infants and smaller, I meanwhile slew the rest of your family. No sign of you, but a lone figure appeared, attacking me from rage. I lashed back, and injured the orca fled, with we in pursuit, as we are now…

"So you see Sage, heir of the Seer, we simply cannot yet you live, lest you discover some way to end our alliance by destroying the Vortex. Under my control she…"

"The Vortex does not obey you!" Elli barked, her bulk pressed against her mate Sage for protection as she remembered the song of the Asterite. "You think you control it, yet it is the Vortex that controls you!"

Eyes darting to Elli, Nartec laughed as he saw her actions speak what his mind suspected. "So, the Seer has taken a mate… That is good. Better to break you and make you long for death than to fight one that is passionate to live…"

Growling a low orca growl, Foxin barked, "You act and sing as of the narwhal of the past! Since when do two murders give life? You think acting in this way to avenge your people will aid them in healing their minds and settling the past? No! The narwhal drive themselves insane and it is their fault. One day, when a calf steps up to be different, breaking the cycle of madness…" Foxin continued her speech.

"Stop it! Stop it! No! Come back!" a delphine voice from behind, among the others Sage heard squeal, as a smaller voice protested.

"Big brother Sage!" the squeaky small voice cried, flying towards Sage, who snapped his eyes back at once to see his 'little brother' Ecco charge him, squeezing between Elli and Sage. "You return! You return! Azure say you return!"

"Ecco, I'm glad to see you," Sage answered, his voice strict. "Now go back to Azure for now! You must stay away from this creature and me for now!"

"But, but…" Ecco protested, his eyes hurt.

"Do it!" Sage glared, his eyes fierce, as Elli stared back at the smaller dolphin with curiosity. With confused, hurt eyes, Ecco shrunk back alongside Azure, who nodded to Sage, the dolphin's honour directed towards the orca that had taken in the young one she watched over.

Glaring towards the Vortex larvae, Sage observed its gelatinous body, running through what the Asterite had told him of the powers of the song. With the mixing of the songs of dolphin, orca and narwhal, the creature moved uneasily, as if the songs hurt it. The skin of the front seemed to dry and harden from the song, as if it drained away the very fluids that the Vortex used to remain rubbery. Using its thick tendrils, it covered the front of its body that started to solidify, shielding its jelly bulk from the vibrations of the conversation, as its body pumped and eyes frenzied around, wanting to hunt and feed and kill.

"I tire of your preachings!" Nartec roared at Foxin, who was cut from her song. "You think I not heard these before you obtuse female! I care not for any beliefs of what could change, when I can change everything now. I have the power, and I aim to use it…"

How could Sage use his song that melded every song of every singer, and assault the monster from all sides at once? Perhaps he could turn the creature into stone, drying all its bodily fluids and leaving behind just a husk of its former self? But how…?

"On killing innocent calves? You are none better than hungry one in the Bleeding Murder," Foxin snapped, her song strong and resolute. "How you can be called a…"

Could it work? Sage pondered as he observed the item lying abandoned, something forgotten, that could perhaps aid… It was worth a try…

"Enough Foxin," Sage spoke out, his voice calm and neutral. Fluking out from behind Foxin, Sage addressed Nartec himself, continuing to glower in the eye, but watching the Vortex larvae from his corner. "What Elli speaks is correct. The Vortex uses you Nartec, waiting for the moment where it is large enough for you to be its next prey…"

"Carp bile," Nartec sneered, waving his tusk around in angry fashion. The effect of the narwhal race had began to take its toll on Nartec, slowly driving the narwhal mad with his thirst for power. He was beginning to ignore warnings that were painfully obvious. "It obeys me, for it knows me. I am its mother to it, and I control it!"

"Do you even know the life of the Vortex kind?" Sage asked, tilting his head as he blew. "I do, with aid from the songs of past. And they sing that the Vortex are very intelligent. This infant is a Vortex brood mother and will start to lay eggs after its metamorphosis, spreading the Vortex kind around the world to feed…"

"And I will control this legion!"

"You, Nartec, will be dead!"

"Enough of this!" the narwhal screamed, the Queen shuddering at the loud delphine song. "I came to kill the only one whom may stop me, and kill I shall!" Turning to the glutinous beast, Nartec ordered to the brood mother, "Kill him."

But the larvae did not move, turning its eyes to Nartec. The jaws opened, revealing the mandibles and gullet into the transparent monster, as a shriek was given. Fear flooded the eyes of Nartec as he saw that the Queen was no longer obeying his commands. The Queen clashed its soft, rubbery jaws together in an angry gesture, then rounded back towards Sage, the Seer with the mark that would stop her.

Releasing a loud blast of song, a melody composed with the chitter of the dolphin, the fluting of the orca, the barking of the narwhal, the crooning of the humpback, the rumble of the blue, the roar of the sperm and the grunting of the beluga, Sage sung. A song that never before any had heard as the orca repeated a loud composed tune that sung of a single word.

Hope.

At once, the infant Queen went berserk at the sound. Screaming that caused many of the dolphins and orca nearby to cry out in pain, Sage drowned out the pain and forced his carol on. The larvae trashed as it faced the origin of the song, screaming her death cry as she lashed out with her thick, numbing tendrils.

Twisting his head down, Sage directed the song not at the monster, but at a shard of glyph. At once, the glyph lit a brilliant blue, started to vibrate rapidly and reflected the song, twice as hard at the larvae, which thrashed about screaming ever more at the pain it brought her soft, spineless body.

But the glyph did more than just rebound the song. It passed the song of hope to another shard, and then another, as these new shards of song reflected the song upon the Queen and passed it onto more glyphs to use against the monster, creating a web of vibration and song from the glyphs.

With another scream of rage, pain and fury, the Queen charged towards Sage, who was busy repeating the song over and over. The skin of the larvae was beginning to harden, turning a dull russet colour as it charged at Sage, prepared to end the song once and for all…

A new song appeared. Not of many, but of one, and the Queen thrashed back in pain, her tendrils lashing in a blind rage to assault the million and one ghosts that sung. The new song appeared next to Sage as Elli arrived, carolling a song of her undying love with as much strength and passion as the female could muster in her weakened, tired state.

And then, one by one, the dolphins and orcas, Wind, Azure, Gale, Foxin, Stone and the many, many others gathered, all carolled alongside, reflecting their songs at the glyphs which pulsated with raw power of the song towards the threat to their future. They sung of their undying love for their world and to end the evil that plagued it.

Uton stared around, the only silent in a sea of singers, remembering his words long before… "You sing whiner. What powers are there in singing? The song is merely a tool used to hunt and for entertainment." He saw now, the raw power that the song held within, he witnessed the untapped strength that hymns contained, and then, for the first time in his life…

Uton sung with the pod with the passion that only a song-master could sing with.

Shattering screeching erupted from the larvae as it lashed about, its flesh transfiguring slowly from translucent gel to a rocky brown shell. The body grew harder to hold afloat and slowly the husk of the Queen began to sink towards the sandy floor of the sunken city. Wrapping its wisps around its body, the Vortex glowered one final time at Sage, who stared back as the last of its body, the eyes were consumed with the ever-growing plague that devoured it…

Sage did not understand the language of the Vortex kind, but he did know one thing he could read from those eyes of the larvae before they hardened over…

This time… You win…

The sinking crust of the Vortex landed upon the sand, stirring the ancient grounds with its heavy rock-like body. Indeed, the entombed larvae looked little more than a large rock now. The glyphs repeated their final verse of the song as the singers all around, congregated at the city's edge, stared in amazement, their own songs all dying.

Leaving Elli's side for a moment, Sage risked the chance to observe the stone that had been the Vortex larvae and the threat to all of the sea. There was a quiet, revered silence as all eyes watched Sage, hearts beating in fear and worry. Tapping the stone with his snout, it was solid, thick and nigh-unbreakable. There was no sound of a heart-beat or any sign of life.

Sage smiled within his soul as his heart spoke the truth that his mind questioned.

The danger was at last over.