If I was going to escape this, I would have to get a weapon. Or tear off that stolen medallion, and drown the slug myself. Maybe I'd bury it in the ruins of Neridora, where it was always meant to stay.
He whispered to the guards again before waving his hand in my direction.
"I'll see you in the morning, my sweet angelfish. Then, I'll take you to your home." the silt-spider said, and my heart ached for the ones already in his possession. I may be meeting them soon, anyway.
"Tell them Hu-weh Athena is excited to meet them." I said, grinning with the sickly sweet taste of bile rising in my throat.
"Very well then, I'm glad you say such." he grinned. Good, he didn't speak the tongue of the sea. Otherwise, he'd know that Hu-weh meant Queen. If they were raised in the sea to the age of four, at least, they might have some joy in knowing that royalty was joining them.
The men left, and the lights were snuffed out. There wasn't any hope of messaging my confidante, since he would not be able to see the writing.
I was laying on the floor, drifting to an uncomfortable sleep, when there was a noise of a door opening. I bolted up, cursing the sleep that I missed, but then I saw something quite curious.
It was dark for a human, but mer's eyes were used to seeing through murky water and long distances. Standing in the darkness now was a cloaked figure, and I saw as they snapped their fingers and all the lights returned.
Unfortunately, this made my companion fall from the stony bed onto the stony floor, and I was sure that something cracked.
"Hu-weh Athena, it is a wonder to finally meet the legend herself."
"And you are?"
The cloak stepped forward and dropped their hood, revealing an old woman. There wasn't anything familiar about her except the tattoo on her forehead. It was a marking only given to the masters of magic, those who held the currents in their hands.
"May-werh Loralei." the title proved that she was once mer, however, the legs she was steadily walking with hinted at a long time on land as well. What's more, her name was Loralei. A name only given to sirens of birth. I was looking at a woman of great strength.
A woman of my youth, and of my people.
"Veindeh, May-werh Loralei."
"Veindeh, my queen. I was under the impression that you needed some help with an escape?"
This made a laugh of relief gasp out of me.
"Yes, May-werh, that would be most appreciated."
"I can bespell you with temporary legs, so you may leave this place better hidden." This made my eyebrows knit. She wanted to make me a bi-ped?
"And it would be temporary?"
"The spell would dissipate as soon as you got wet to your knees, my queen."
"Very well then, May-werh. But, can you unlock his cell? He could guide me to the water, and he has been much help already."
"As you wish." With a wave of her hand, the lock clicked, but the door didn't move, so the dark-eyed man didn't know it was open.
"I'll need you to float, Hu-weh. We wouldn't want you to drown, now, would we?" The two of us giggled, and after a chant that lasted anywhere from a minute to a day, I felt my fins tear my tail in two, then, nothing. Not even the water around me. I pulled myself to the edge of the pool, but the walls were nothing more than a slight fog on my hands.
"I cannot feel?"
"Worry not, that is only the price. Your feeling will return when the spell is broken. With that, I must be off. Greatest victories, Hu-weh Athena." She silently took off her cloak and set it on the ground, and I waved the onyx-eyed man over to help me out of the water.
His grip on my skin was like sand passing over me, but I knew his grip was stronger than that. I set myself onto the ground, barely able to balance. I wasn't sure wear the floor began, and where I ended.
My first steps were clumsy, and I fell to my knees to get the cloak. It didn't even hurt, to slam into stone, but I heard my companion gasp behind me. He lifted me up again, and I raised the hood to avoid the question in his eyes.
We hobbled up stairs-the little corners confusing my blind feet-and into a busy street. It seemed like the black market used stalls of a market, since we stepped into loud bartering that filled my ears.
Everything was so loud, so sharp.
Then, the crowd grew quiet and the people went to their homes. We must have looked the same, but we were going to the docks rather than inside of a house. Nobody stopped us, and eventually, we stumbled onto the shore.
I tried my best to walk alone, and gasped when my feet touched the water and I still didn't feel it. But, the witch did say I'd have to go deeper.
I dragged my feet into the surf, deeper and deeper. But nothing happened when the water reached my knees. Then my thighs. Then I was half-submerged. Still, I couldn't feel the water, and my legs remained.
Standing there, in the newly-quiet harbor, with only a deaf man near, only the stars heard my frustration. The witch wouldn't have tricked me, that would be too dangerous for her. Which means that the spell was damaged because of me.
I was standing in the sea, and I couldn't even feel it.