They held each other like that for a long time without caring what anyone else thought. Some of the crew appeared on the deck, and more quickly followed once word that the mist was gone got around. Arthur didn't even care that they were looking. He presses his lips to the mermaid's and enjoyed the way she tasted. There were a lot of whistles and hoots thrown their way because of it, but he didn't care.
She pulled back after a while and blushed deeply. "Everyone's watching."
"Let them. The gits are probably all jealous."
"It was strange, that fog," the mermaid whispered. "I saw some weird things."
"Yes, I know."
"Ivan...I don't think he's...normal."
The Captain took a quick peek over her shoulder at the tall man, who was wearing a small smile on his face. "What happened?"
"He found me being strangled to death by the fog, but he rescued me. I'm fine though, honest," she said after seeing the panic in Arthur's eyes. "I asked him what he saw in the mist, but he wouldn't say."
"And that makes him abnormal?"
"No. I started seeing things in the fog that I think were meant for him. Horrible things, Arthur. They were horrible. And he just..."
"Just what, love?"
"He just laughed and slashed them apart."
This confirmed a suspicion Captain Kirkland had ever since he met the large man. There was just something fundamentally wrong with him. It wasn't anything that could be seen by just looking, but it seeped out and clung to him like an odor. A very menacing odor. It was no wonder death wouldn't touch him. The Captain was glad they had made it through because he wanted Ivan off his ship as soon as possible.
The island Arthur had seen was actually part of a chain of islands. They formed a large crescent around a shimmering blue bay with water as clear as glass. A faint breeze pushed the Queen Lady swiftly through the water. The Captain stood at the helm and guided his ship carefully around the bay's perimeter. He wasn't sure where to land, but hoped he would find it soon. The opportunity arose not long after.
"Here! I would like to get off here!" Ivan stood next to the Captain and pointed to a tiny island covered in nothing but sunflowers. "How wonderful."
"You'll have to find your own way back," Arthur informed him.
"Da, I know. I still would like to get off."
Arthur was more than happy to oblige. He steered the ship as close to the island as possible and dropped anchor. Ivan said goodbye to everyone and jumped off the ship before a plank was lowered. Several people ran to the side of the ship, but reported not seeing the tall man anywhere. The Captain glanced back at the island and saw a few of the yellow flowers closest to the edge of the island swaying. If Ivan had managed to go that way, he was nowhere to be seen.
The anchor was raised, and the ship began its course once more. A very tall mountain peak began to grow closer, and Arthur saw something unbelievable on that island. A large structure that looked like a huge stone castle sat nestled between the mountain and the beaches of the island. There even appeared to be some docks protruding into the water near the castle. The Captain had no doubt this was where he was supposed to go.
It took less than an hour for him to sail to the castle. Most of the crew was already gathered on deck to marvel at the gigantic gray structure with an even larger mountain for a backdrop. The mermaid's eyes sparkled with hope and wonder, and Arthur knew they were both thinking the same thing. This was the end of the line. They were finally here and were about to get some answers.
But he had a tough time feeling completely happy about it. He did want the mermaid to be happy, which he knew meant she gets her fin back, but he was afraid of what that meant. She couldn't stay on the ship with a fin. She would have to go back to her family, if the Council even let her back into their city. Arthur couldn't picture a scenario in which she gets her tail back and is able to stay with him.
"There be people!" Squeaker cried from the crow's nest. "Lots of 'em!"
"Wonder if dey look like moon people."
"Well, dey prob'ly don' look like yew! Yer too ugly!"
"Moon people?" the mermaid asked the two men conversing.
"Yeah, moon people," one of them answered. "'Aven' ya 'eard? Rumor 'as it dat the people livin' 'ere are from da moon. Dats why it's called de Lunar Islands."
"Oh." She nodded as if it made sense.
Arthur rolled his eyes. Rumors spread faster on his ship than a market full of women. Even so, he was also curious as to the name's origin. He ordered the anchor to be dropped as soon as the ship came to a stop beside a long wooden dock. Once that was accomplished, his crew waited on deck for orders.
"I'm sure you're all excited to get on shore," the Captain said to his men. "You all have my permission to go, but if I hear about even one of you causing trouble..." He paused for dramatic effect. "Let's just say I have a long list of things that could use a good cleaning. You're all dismissed."
The crew didn't hesitate to disembark, and Arthur wondered if he had unleashed a plague on the island. He didn't even know if the people were friendly. His thoughts were interrupted by someone clearing his throat.
"Do ya need someone t' go wit ya, Cap'n?" Christov stood behind him waiting for an answer.
"Yes, thank you."
"Don't forget me!" The mermaid appeared from behind Christov with a smile.
"Never, princess."
"I'm coming too!" Alfred popped up from the stairs leading below deck.
"If you must..."
"Oh, me too! I'm coming too!" Peter came up the stairs next with a big grin.
"Of course." Arthur looked at his group. "All set?" They nodded. "Okay, let's go see what's going on."
Crowds of very strange looking people had gathered around the docks to welcome us, or maybe just to stare at the new arrivals. We must have looked as odd to them as they did to us. The people were very tall, but willowy and slender as well. Most of them had fair hair and skin, but all of their eyes were dark. It reminded me of a half-full moon with a portion of light and a portion of darkness. The image was further strengthened by the faint light that seem to emanate from their bodies. It might have just been the white robes they all wore, but I wasn't sure.
I felt Christov shuffle behind me, and I watched him glance around nervously. It wasn't like him to be so skittish, but I supposed it had to do with the strangeness of our situation. This was a land of legends. Even I felt awed by it all. The crowds whispered and murmured to themselves, but no one spoke directly to us. I couldn't tell if they were even speaking our language.
"Where did everyone go?" Peter asked in reference to the Queen Lady's crew. The only people around that came off the ship seemed to be us.
"You don't think they took 'em away to eat them, do you?"
"Alfred!" I chided. "That's horrible!" I thought back to the incident with the cannibals living in the ruins, and I really hoped these people were nothing like them.
Arthur stepped forward to address the masses. "Greetings, people of the Lunar Islands. I am Captain Arthur Kirkland. My crew and I come peacefully in search of knowledge." There were exclamations of surprise from the crowd. "Is there anyone here we can speak with?"
Gasps rose up from the crowd as it began to part. A hunched old man hobbled his way toward Arthur while leaning on a thick walking stick. He didn't look too impressive, but he carried an air of wisdom and importance. "My people are surprised to see humans from the outside, stranger. It has been a long time since your kind have come."
"We would have come sooner but your fogs proved to be a challenge."
Surprisingly, the old man chuckled at Arthur's cheeky remark. "Yes, I suppose that did give you trouble. How did you manage to get through?"
"There was a man who had gone through before," Arthur explained. "He showed us how, but it was quite the ordeal."
The elderly man stroked his long white beard thoughtfully. It was hard to tell what he was thinking because his eyebrows had grown over his eyes. I wondered if he could even see. "It is strange that you need someone to help you. You appear to be strong-willed, stranger, so the mists should not have affected you. They are meant to deter fools and those of weak spirit."
"They've wrecked more ships than we've been able to keep count."
The old man's hand froze. "I'm sorry. I thought I heard you said the mists have been wrecking ships."
"They have."
"Oh dear. I was afraid of this." The elderly man's long brows furrowed together. "We knew there would be a day when men grew too weak to resist our magic, but we did not expect it so soon. We will have to decrease the amount of magic we use. That explains why we haven't had guests such a long time."
I could tell Arthur didn't like being called weak, so I reached out to touch his arm. The last thing we needed was him going off on a helpless old man and inciting the wrath of the native people.
"Oh ho! I see you have a mermaid with you, stranger. How interesting." The old man hobbled toward me faster than I imagined possible. "It is unfortunate that this must happen to you poor creatures. It pains me every time one of your kind arrive here, although they are usually in much worse shape than you and do not have quite the, uh...entourage."
"So there have been others!" I gasped.
"Yes, of course! Come, come, my dear! We will talk more once we reach the castle and fill your bellies! The rest of your friends are already there feasting on the tastiest delicacies our cooks can create!"
He gently grasped my hand and began to lead me through the crowd. His grip was surprisingly strong, but not enough to hurt. I glanced back to make sure the others were close behind, which they were. Arthur's emerald eyes met mine, and I felt a little better. This whole situation was so much weirder than almost every human encounter I've had so far. I had the impression these people were about as human as I was.
The crowd parted easily for us and watched our little group move toward the castle in the distance. It seemed so much larger as we got closer to it, and I wondered how they built something like that. Maybe they used magic. They were certainly capable of wielding it. We soon passed into a market area just outside of the castle gate. It was nowhere near as busy as Xerux, but there was still a surprisingly large amount of people there. They must have gathered from all of the other islands surrounding the crystal clear bay behind us. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing to watch us walk past. I couldn't tell if it was to give respect to the old man, who was still holding my hand, or because we were outsiders.
The large stone gate blocking entrance to the castle were made of a different white stone than the rest of the structure and were already opening for us as we approached. I marveled at the silent power it held. It was even more impressive than the coral doors leading into the Council chamber back home. We hurried through the gate to find some kind of a courtyard filled with more people. They didn't look like the merchants and common people on the other side. It was obvious they were of higher importance and cut from a finer cloth.
"Messengers and couriers from different chieftains," the old man whispered to me. "The chiefs like to think they're so important but don't even bother to come to meetings themselves." He let out a snort.
"They're dressed pretty nicely to be messengers," Alfred commented.
"That's the chiefs' way to make themselves look better. Others can only imagine how rich the chief is if his messenger is dressed so extravagantly."
The old man quickly led us away from the scurrying men gathered in the courtyard. He guided us to a small wooden door instead of the large stone ones at the very front of the castle building. I thought I heard some groans when we saw a set of spiral stairs behind the door, which I assumed led all the way up the tower we stood under.
"We usually only use the big doors during ceremonies. Besides, these stairs will take us straight to where we need to go." The old man began to climb at a brisk pace, his walking stick thudding on every other step.
"I don't know if I can do this, (y/n)." I looked back at Alfred, who seemed to be paling before my eyes. We were the last two who hadn't gone up the stairs yet.
"Your foot! I'm sorry, I forgot."
"It's no big deal. I'll just wait here."
"Didn't he say the others were at a feast?" I wondered out loud. "We need to find someone to get you there. Hey, you!" I shouted at the nearest courier. "What's your name?"
The man stopped in his tracks and stared in surprise. "H-Henry."
"Okay, Henry, I need you to find out where all the pirates were taken and make sure my friend gets there."
"But that's not my-"
"Get it done or I'll tell everyone that you've been bad mouthing your chief during meetings. You wouldn't want that, would you, Henry?"
"N-no! Of course not! If you'll come with me, sir." He gestured for Alfred to follow him.
"Sweet! Nice going, (y/n)." He smiled at me before following the disgruntled courier to wherever everyone else was.
That left me by myself at the bottom of a ridiculously long staircase. I sighed and began to climb. The sooner I started, the sooner I'd be at the top. By the time I got to the top I was so out of breath that I had to rest on my knees until my heart stopped trying to jump out of my chest. I really shouldn't have sprinted the first couple hundred steps. After another moment of rest, I stood up straight to face an open wooden door.
"(Y/n)! Look at this!" Peter ran toward me with an open book in his hands. I met him in the doorway and leaned down curiously.
"What is it, little one?"
"They move! Look!"
The book appeared normal at first glance with words and pictures, but then I looked again. What looked like normal pictures were anything but. The figures moved and interacted with their surroundings. A girl in a red cape walked with a large black dog down a forest road lined by flowers that bobbed and bowed as a breeze ruffled their delicate petals. My eyes widened in amazement.
"How is this possible?" I breathed.
"Magic!" Peter answered excitedly. "All of the books here are like this!"
I stepped past him into a large room filled with books. Rows and rows of books lined every shelf against every wall and every shelf in between. A small smile tugged my lips as I thought about the thousands of stories contained within all of those pages. I wasn't old enough to be a Healer or in the Guard, so I had spent a lot of time reading books at home. The thought of so many books in one place made my heart swell up.
"(Y/n)." I turned to see Arthur watching me. He walked closer and placed a gentle kiss on my temple.
"What was that for?"
"I couldn't help myself. You looked so happy." He brushed some hair behind my ear. "Where's my brother?"
"I got someone to take him to the others. He didn't think he could make it up the stairs."
"Finally, he thinks with some sense," Arthur sighed.
"Ah, how nice that you could join us." The old man and Christov were standing at a table behind Arthur. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "We were discussing your...predicament, if you will. Please, join us."
I followed Arthur toward the others. They were looking at a large map and a thick book. The pictures moved on both, and I had a hard time deciding which one I wanted to look at first. I eventually chose the book and watched as a mermaid collapsed as if struck by lightning. It reminded me of what I saw in the fog. When she rose, she had legs and wandered around the page for a while before being caught up in a swirl of colors. After the colors disappeared, she was a mermaid again, and the whole thing started over like it was stuck in an infinite loop.
"I see you recognize yourself in this picture," the old man said softly. "We have seen many young mermaids stripped of their tails and most of their magic. It's enough to break our hearts to see them like that. They come to have us help them and we have to tell them we cannot."
My heart stopped. "You...can't help me?"
He shook his head sadly. "Our magic is strong, but not that strong. No, there is only one who can help you."
"Who? Who is this person?"
"Not a person. The god of the ocean. Only he has the power to restore you to your original state."
"Why have I never heard of this before?" I asked.
"The merfolk are not very fond of him. He made it so they cannot go on land, he gave their names great power, and he made them very susceptible to humans. They resent him for being unfair to them, but they do not realize how great their magic is. I'm sure you have felt it, my dear, when you harness the power of the ocean. That is his power, which he has allowed you to use."
I thought about it and nodded slowly. Whenever I had used ocean magic, I had felt a huge force bending to my will. Even when I was angry, I felt the ocean respond. "How do I find him?"
"That's the hard part," Arthur sighed.
"Indeed," the old man agreed. He tugged on one of his long eyebrows before continuing. "We were just looking at this map here so your captain friend would know where to take you. It's not very far from here, but it's very dangerous."
"Why?"
"Perhaps you friend should explain."
I looked to Arthur. "Right now we are here," he said and pointed to a crescent shaped chain of islands in the middle of the ocean. "This is technically uncharted water. If you remember the map we looked at a long time ago, there wasn't anything here at all."
"Yeah, I remember," I replied with a nod.
"There are a few reasons why these parts of the ocean are uncharted. The first is that they are so far from land that there's no chance of making it back to shore if you become shipwrecked. The second is the mists surrounding these islands." He pointed to an image of fog swirling around the Lunar Islands. "And the third is by far the worst." Arthur looked me straight in the eyes. "South of these islands is a large area of uncharted ocean." He pointed to a spot a ways below the islands. "Sometimes it's calm and you can sail straight through it without a problem, but other times it's filled with the worst bloody storms you can imagine." As he said those words, a small storm appeared on the map where his finger was. Lightning flashed, and waves churned the ocean. I could imagine a tiny little ship in there being dashed to pieces. "This is where the god of the ocean is supposed to be."
There was silence. Even Peter had stopped running around pulling books off the shelves. "We can't," I said after a while. "It's too dangerous. I can't ask you to do that."
"But you want to get back to normal, don't you?" Arthur asked me. I nodded. "Then we're going." I tried to argue some more, but he put a finger on my lips to silence me. "We're going, and that's final. If you don't like it, then we'll tie you up until we get there."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"I would if you were tied to my bed, love." I was caught completely off guard by his comment, but I tried to act cool about it. Unfortunately, my blush gave me away. He laughed softly and wagged a finger in my face. "Don't forget who you're playing with, princess."
I leaned forward and bit his mocking finger. He winced. "Don't you forget either, Arthur Kirkland," I said after I let go.
He grumbled something under his breath before turning to face the others. "Alright, it looks like we have a new course. Let's get the crew together to set sail."
"Won't you stay a little longer?" the old man practically begged. "It's not often we have guests, and it would be a shame for you to miss out on a real Luxsparian feast."
"Feast?" Peter and Christov said at the same time. Someone's stomach growled, and I was pretty sure it was Arthur's.
"Yes, a feast. We'll also have baths prepared for you and fresh clothes. You are also welcome to stay the night at the castle and sleep in wonderfully soft beds."
I looked at Arthur pleadingly. "Please, Arthur. I can't even remember the last time I had a bath."
The pirate's gaze moved from me, to Peter, to Christov, and back to me. His eyebrows twitched once, and then he sighed. "Fine. We'll stay. Does that make you gits happy?" The three of us cheered, and Arthur sighed again. "Lead the way, old man, before I change my mind."