Chapter Eight

The Contract

My mind was on fire, jumping from one fragmented subject to another, I kept catching myself reaching for the pearl around my neck, hidden safely under my shirt. I was exhausted, my eyes were crusty with sleep grit, and I couldn't stop yawning. These late nights were killing me, all I wanted in the world was to go curl up in my bed and sleep the day away, but I couldn't risk drawing too much attention to myself.

"Nene-chan~"

I gnawed absently on my already abused fingernail, my anxiety had become like a living thing lately, consuming me from the inside out, I couldn't continue to live like this.

"Nene-chan?"

But what could I do? What WOULD I do when the island was gone and life returned to normal? The thought alone was agony. I loved Aoi and the others, but I couldn't bear the monotony of my life in the village. Peace and boredom are very close relatives.

"Yashiro Nene! Look at me right now!" Aoi's angry voice snapped me out of my thoughts, I jumped, startled.

"Ao-chan, sorry! I…" I wrung my hands, "I spaced out I guess, I still don't feel too good."

Aoi swam closer and pressed a cool hand on my forehead, her thin brows wrinkled in concern.

"Not feverish, that's good." she absently patted my head, a very maternal gesture that sent a spike of guilt through my heart. "I'll be so relieved when that island is gone, it has some kind of hold on you Nene-chan, it was a mistake to go investigate it."

I backed away from her, it was the first time we had discussed the island since...well, since that disastrous first night. I found the heavy weight of the pearl through the rough fabric of my shirt and squeezed it tightly in my fist.

"It's almost gone," she continued, looking up, "Minamoto-san can barely see it on the horizon anymore," her indigo eyes were cold, "good riddance."

xXxXxXx

"You knew it would be gone eventually," said Mei, picking at her teeth with a fish bone, she was spread out languidly on the sandy floor, her gray-green tail in the air, the lacy tips of her fin drifted back and forth in the current. She turned to face me, propping herself up on one elbow, eyebrows raised.

"I didn't expect it to be gone so soon," I said, clenching my fists at my sides, my nails biting into the soft flesh of my palms. "What am I going to do?" I whispered, mostly to myself, but Mei answered anyways.

"You're going to make a decision, of course."

"A decision…?"

"To stay here, or," she pointed upwards, "to go with the island,"

"I can't just go…" I said, but I didn't sound convincing, not even to myself. I settled down next to Mei, resting my chin on my knees, we sat in silence for a while, watching the schools of silvery fish wind in and out of the coral reef.

"Are you happy, Nene?" Mei tucked a strand of flyaway brown hair behind her ear, "do you feel fulfilled here?"

I hung my head, unable to answer in the affirmative.

"Can you go on like this? Day after day, hunting for pearls in the reef, catching fish, dodging sharks? Is this the life you want?"

"I don't know,"

"Let me tell you your future here, Nene. In a few years time, you'll likely marry Minamoto-kun, not because you love him but because he's safe. You'll have a few kids and maybe you'll scrape together some modicum of happiness, but you'll always wonder, perhaps until you lose your mind, what would have happened if you followed your heart."

"And if I go?"

"I can't predict what will happen on the surface, if you go, you're taking a risk, that's for certain."

"I can't just go up there and live on land, Mei, if the sun rises while I'm on that island I'm sea foam, you know that. I can't live my life chasing the island by day and wandering the forest by night."

"That isn't the only option," said Mei, perfectly calm despite my growing distress, "there is another way, but only if you're serious."

"What other way?" I asked cautiously. Mei picked herself up off the sea floor, grinning.

"Come with me, I'll show you."

xXxXxXx

Mei led me down, deep down, into the bowels of the ocean. So deep my ears popped and my head swam from the pressure, it pressed down on my body, compacting my spine and making swimming difficult. Mei pressed on without any difficulty, at last stopping at the yawning mouth of a massive cave.

The smell of sulfur poured out of it like foul breath, and beneath that a smell I couldn't place, the smell of heat, the smell of lava moving like sluggish blood through a clotted vein right under the cave floor. It was dark down here, and darker inside the cave, bone white stalagmites ringed the mouth of the cave like jagged lace. And all was silent but the soft ghostly shushing noise of the current.

"What is this place?" I asked, hanging back from the entrance. Mei turned to look at me, her curly hair spilled out behind her head like a halo, she looked eerie in the low light, predatory even. Fear wrapped it's cold fingers around my heart.

"You'll see," was her only answer, she wasted no time before darting into the cave, leaving me behind.

"H-hey! Wait for me!" I drifted into the dark emptiness of the cave, cursing myself for giving away my sea star. I blundered around aimlessly, calling for Mei who was either too far away to hear me, or enjoying my suffering. I scraped my elbow on the barnacle crusted rock wall, and managed to get myself stabbed by a sea urchin, I ran head first into rocks more times than I'd care to admit, but at last I saw a brilliant light shining in the distance. I swam frantically, until I found myself, bloody and more than a little bruised, inside of a massive stone room.

The rocky sea floor was covered with a menagerie of rugs and woven tapestries pilfered from shipwrecks. More of these hung from the walls, or stuck out like brightly colored tongues from shelves scooped out of the soft stone. Jars full of mysterious potions, and tinctures and balms infested every bare surface. Clay jars, stone jars, a rare glass jar winking out from a darkened shelf, full of a glistening green sludge. In the center of the room was a mound of decrepit silken pillows forming a sort of make shift throne, upon which sat an extraordinarily beautiful mermaid.

Mei sat to her left, picking over a silver platter piled high with scallops, and muscles, and crabs baked in the steam of submarine volcanoes. The strange mermaid paid her no mind, her peculiar eyes were fixed on me, as green as poison. After studying me for a moment, she motioned me over, her expression totally unreadable. She wore a black robe covered with twisting crimson flowers, similar to the sort of robe Yako-san had worn, with long sleeves that belled out in the water as she moved.

"Welcome," she said, in a low, emotionless voice, "please, sit." she gestured to a lopsided cushion to her right, and I did as instructed, both captivated and frightened of her.

"Who are you?" I asked, once I had finally found my voice.

"My name is Nanamine Sakura," she said simply, "and you are Yashiro Nene," her eyes flicked over to Mei, who was on her third scallop, "I've heard a lot about you."

"You have?"

"I've heard about your visits to the land,"

"I see..." I felt the blood drain from my face, "I can explain."

"No need," Nanamine gave a dismissive wave of her hand, "I'm not interested in getting you in trouble. I'm here to make a deal."

I narrowed my eyes at her, and shot a questioning glance at Mei, who only smiled. "What kind of deal?"

"You want legs, correct? Permanently?"

"I…" I clenched my fists tightly as I processed the question "yes," I said at last.

"And what are you willing to give me in return?" Nanamine rested her cheek in the palm of her hand. I reached down the front of my shirt, and held out the pearl Amane had given me, the only money I had, Mei's eyes widened when she saw it, but Nanamine didn't even look at it. I didn't want to part with it, so I was relieved when she waved it away. "I don't need money, Yashiro-san. What I deal in is a great deal more valuable," she studied me for another long, uncomfortable moment, before saying "are you really serious about this?"

"I am," I said, without hesitation this time.

"No matter the cost?"

"I won't hurt anyone for you," I said, "but anything else…"

"Well then," the green haired mermaid leaned back in her seat, a small smile on her face, "I'll take your memories."

"My memories?"

"Yes, given willingly, of course,"

"You're the Sea Witch," I said, the words tumbling out of my mouth before I could think them through. The mermaid didn't look offended, she didn't even blink.

"I'm called that, yes," she tugged absently at the hem of her billowing sleeve, "do we have a deal?"

I swallowed thickly, mind racing. I felt crazy for even considering this, but Mei was right, I couldn't just accept this life.

"How will you take them?" I asked, "will it hurt?" I half expected her to hit me in the head with a large rock.

"It won't hurt," she said, "you won't even remember it," I think this was an attempt at a joke, but she didn't crack even the tiniest of smiles. "I won't take your name from you, and I can't take the feelings your memories leave behind," with a smooth, delicate gesture, she pulled her sleeve up to her forearm, revealing a twisting, serpentine tattoo that wound around and around her arm and disappeared under her robe. Looking closer, I could see that the tattoo was made up of tiny symbols, all names of mermaids and mermen who had made a bargain with The Witch. "If you sign your name here, our deal will be official, I will give you legs. In a way, you will be reborn."

"Reborn…" the word was like velvet on my tongue, a rebirth was what I had been craving since I'd seen the island, no, even before that. I hadn't belonged here since my parents died.

But if I forgot everything I'd forget them too.

My mother, with her sweet songs and soft hands, and my father sitting patiently, weaving nets by the mouth of the cage, singing along with mother in his horrible tuneless voice. Tears pricked my eyes as I nodded my head.

"Alright," I croaked, "I'll sign."