Chapter 23: Captive
"Exalt, we need to speed you away-"
"No." Emmeryn gave only one word, but it stopped Frederick cold. She brushed past him, keeping her eyes fixed to the horizon.
Emmeryn kept her back to the others; she didn't want them to see the fear in her eyes. Her own family had been taken from her, sacrificing themselves for her… and she'd been able to do nothing.
'It won't happen again.' She promised herself. 'I am the Exalt of Ylisse. And I do not stand back and watch my people OR my family suffer.'
The wind was finally dying around them, no longer twisting their sails. Emmeryn brushed her bangs from her face, glancing around at their surroundings. There was no trace of the other ships… Or any hint on what had become of Chrom and Robin.
"Frederick. I refuse to believe that marks the end for Chrom, OR Robin. I know they won't give up, no matter how dire the situation… and neither shall I."
Frederick blinked at that, and the underlying steel in her words; things Emmeryn seldom needed to bring out unless dealing with the worst of diplomats or unruly nobles. It was all the more reason Frederick paid attention to her words, and followed up with a quick bow.
"Orders then, your grace?"
"We pursue Walhart, and do our best to find out where he's sailing. Virion will search for the ship as much as possible. Sumia and Cordelia will follow in the clouds and act as scouts, as will our newest crewmember Cherche."
"It would be a pleasure your Grace." Cherche answered with a polite smile.
"And from there… we'll figure out how best to assist. After we determine where they've been taken to."
"I.. Do have some notion on where they might be." Cherche offered. "I doubt Walhart would instantly kill them; he's a man who prefers to extract whatever he can out of his captives, whether that's a public execution, or a long and drawn out interrogation. Either way, there's one place he'd take them."
The wyvern rider didn't immediately meet her eyes, and Virion also looked subdued.
"What would that place be…?" Emmeryn still forced herself to ask.
"There's an old fortress on an island off the coast of Valm. Well fortified and notoriously isolated, and Walhart's prison of choice. It might have once gone by a different name, but these days, everyone calls it Forlorn."
-o-o-o-
Robin blinked her eyes open... And promptly wished that she'd kept them closed. But no matter how she tried to shut her surroundings out, stone dug into her cheek, and manacles bit at her wrists. The chill of the cell was determined to sink into her bones, no matter how she tried to flinch from it. Even through thick stone walls, the crash of waves were relentless in her ears and chased away any lingering sleepiness, demanding she stay awake.
"Ah, so the wayward child stirs at last." A voice, clearly tinged with amusement, slid into her ears. Robin couldn't shut it out, and her eyes jolted open, recognizing the speaker. The witch from the pirate ship gazed down at her, perched on the lip of a worn wooden cot while Robin lay on the floor. Her lips pulled into a smug smile, and she looked like a cat with a crippled bird in its paw.
"Our prior meeting was cut a bit short, with you coming into your powers. But now we have a bit more time to speak with one another."
"You… you were with Gangrel-" she rasped out.
"Ah, is that ALL you remember about me?" She tsked in disappointment. "So turning your back cost you more than your tail; you sacrificed your memories too." Robin stared in confusion, prompting a rich laugh. "Still, now it falls on me to have you remember. And I suppose I should inform you now, my methods aren't gentle."
"What are you talking about!?" Robin whispered. Her hands dragged, the chains scraping the ground and tying her down. She was locked in a room with a mad woman.
"I'll see if I can't jar your memory, child."
With that she yanked Robin up, fingers latching into the sodden cloak. Robin did her best to make it hard for Aversa, kicking and squirming against the woman's hold. A dagger appeared in Aversa's hand, flashing in the torchlight and rivulets of seawater streaming down the blade. Aversa offered one last pitying smile, before giving an almost callous flick of her wrist. With that motion she slashed open a line along Robin's ribs.
-o-o-o-
His world was reduced to his own raspy breathing and pain in his sides. Chrom uselessly licked at his cracked lips, his tongue long since gone dry. His throat ached from thirst, swallowing uselessly in hopes of abating it if only a little. All of his senses cried out for water, desperately needing it-
A wave crashed outside, sloshing into the chamber. It yanked at his body, flooding his nose and mouth with stinging saltwater. He hacked at the taste. Chains rattled and bit at his wrists, keeping him anchored to the floor despite the tide's insistent pull.
Chrom forced his eyes open with a groan. He was in a cell, carved from stone. Granite walls surrounded him on all sides… save for one entrance, gaping out to sea. Chrom strained against his shackles, but they held strong against him. A paltry few feet separated him from the ocean; its gray waters painfully close but just out of reach. The closeness taunted him, called out to him, as another wave crashed through the opening, slashing him with biting cold seawater.
-o-o-o-
The winds howled, making the sail lines of the Shepherd taut. Frederick kept a death grip on the wheel, keeping the brig tacking. They skimmed over gray waves and into a rock-strewn harbor. The Shepherd danced past the worst spires, and angled in on a solitary rock taking up a center spot in the bay.
The rock jutted up in a great spear, standing defiant against the sea and sky both. Buildings clung to the granite sides, sculpted from dour stone and steel. There wasn't a single window that didn't have bars, or ruddy orange torchlight shining from inside.
Emmeryn swore there were screams drifting out from the windows as well. She tried to keep her expression blank, to hide the dread twisting up inside her.
"...Okay, that's more than a little daunting." Lissa muttered under her breath.
"The Forlorn Fortress. Walhart's great prison island." Virion intoned, unease creeping into his voice. "Carved from a rock no wind or sea could ever wear down; now he keeps any number of prisoners. Captives of rival dynast families, rebel leaders… Cherche and I would have ended our days in there, if we hadn't fled for Ylisse or escaped onto the coast lines."
"Does… Does anyone ever get out?" Lissa whispered.
"On occasion. My understanding is that the corpses get thrown into the sea, to keep the sharks swimming about well fed." Virion said.
"Oh. GREAT." Lissa groaned out.
"Then we'll have to form the first escape attempt." Emmeryn answered.
-o-o-o-
Eventually the waves ceased. But only after he'd been bashed and dragged countless times across the cell floor, the ocean and the chains fighting over who would get to keep him.
Chrom had given up struggling, laying on the sodden stones. After the battering he'd gotten, and the maddening thirst still clinging to his throat, Chrom didn't have the strength to stand or kneel.
"It seems the drowning cell is doing its work quite well." There were voices outside his prison, and they dragged his eyes back open. He could faintly identify one as Gangrel. Instead of resigning himself to simply lay on the floor, Chrom lifted his head. He found himself meeting the Pirate King's eyes. They peered through a shutter cut in the metal cell door, glinting with amusement.
He wanted to growl back at the pirate, but there was no strength left in his lungs.
"Oh, and yet he still has SOME fire left in him. Doesn't seem even saltwater can douse it completely. Perhaps he needs another turn of the tides,"
"Have some caution, Gangrel," said Walhart, his words far more measured and cold. The conqueror didn't even bother to look through the shutter, his voice ringing through the cell. "He can't tell us about how to acquire the Emblem if he's too far gone."
"I know how to torture a prisoner," Gangrel snapped, following that up with a half hearted "…Your Grace. And based on how much fight was in him, he can last another day or two before we need to seriously worry. Still, I'll be checking in on him routinely… given what an amusing sight he makes!"
Chrom wanted to talk back, but all that came out of his throat was a dry rasp… and the words that came half formed onto his tongue didn't make any sense. Strange syllables seemed to catch on his lips. A foreign language that his pain and thirst fogged brain couldn't make sense of.
-o-o-o-
A clink of metal on stone brought Robin back to the waking world. Her eyes found a bowl sculpted from silver, with a deep basin. Water, dull and gray, sloshed inside of it, spilling onto the stones of her cell. Long nails clicked against the edge, making the dish chime. Robin followed the arm up to its owner, the Plegian witch looming over her again.
"Back with us, I see. Now, how shall we begin?" Aversa touched a finger to her lips, seeming all too pleased at her options.
"I suppose we may as well start with this." Aversa whispered, yanking Robin's hand over the bowl of water, slashing her knife along Robin's palm. She didn't even have time to gasp, before Aversa plunged her hand into the water. Salt stung at her wound, making her vision swim.
A flood of blue stained her vision, the rocks of the cell fading out. Instead she was floating in an azure expanse. Despite the water hugging her body, her lungs worked perfectly… and furiously. Her swimming was frantic, trying to escape from something. Her stroke was matched by a pair of dark shapes on either side of her, mirroring her motions. Helping her escape from-
Her hand balled into a fist. The vision cut out, and her body went heavy against the stones of the prison. Robin struggled against Aversa, but all the strength had drained from her limbs.
"What… what was that? What did you do to me-?" Aversa didn't answer any of her questions, giving her an unimpressed look.
"You're so close to remembering… And yet you keep jolting out of complete understanding. Stubborn of you. Something more forceful seems needed, to make your body and mind remember. A shame, that." Aversa sighed… before plunging Robin's face into the water.
Her world turned into bubbles, as she thrashed her head and tried to get clear. Her efforts only made the water rush into her nose and throat. Her feet kicked out, useless.
The water roared in her ears… but at the edge of it was another sound. A few faint notes.
Pain slashed across her neck, though it didn't feel inflicted by the dagger-
"Not quite."
Aversa's fingers dug into her hair, yanking her free. She didn't meet Robin eye to eye, instead looking at her throat. The pain vanished from her neck as Robin gulped in air… and Aversa let her fall free, and slam into the floor.
She lay gasping on the stones, retching up water that had made it into her lungs. The cuts on her hands and sides stung in the cold air. Aversa wiped her hands clean, leaving Robin to fight down body wracking shudders.
"That's enough almost-drowning for the moment." Aversa's voice reached Robin's ears, but she kept her eyes screwed shut. Aversa sighed at Robin's pitiful bit of defiance. "…Trying to shut it out won't do you much good, you know. There are few places pain can't reach."
'She's wrong. There's one thing-' One other thing she could focus on. Robin turned her thoughts inward, to the melody resting inside her. The sound also seemed to seep up from the floor, blanketing her aching body. She let the song slowly flow out, blanketing her against everything else.
And at the edge of her hearing, woven into the song, she swore she heard Chrom's voice.
-o-o-o-
Emmeryn stood near the ship prow, eyes fixed to the fortress. She searched for a weakness they could level their spell fire on, but found only stern prison cells. Behind her, Lissa paced between Miriel and the other spell casters, waiting for Emmeryn's word.
The wind screamed again in her ears. Emmeryn did her best to ignore it, instead turning her attention to the empty harbor. The sky gave an ominous rumble, showing why there was no fleet rushing out to intercept them. And on the edge of the thunder and screaming winds-
She swore she heard something more. There was a voice carried on the storm, and it seemed to stream out from the windows. When she listened to it, her surroundings wavered, like the world was becoming less solid. There was something familiar to those voices, and the strange cadence to them. She couldn't make out any words, just a faint rising and falling melody-
"Your Grace!" That was Virion, pulling her attention from the sound. "Mayhap you should wait the storm out in the cabin? It could be less dangerous-"
'The storm.' Her thoughts whispered.
"We can use it." Emmeryn eased her breath out, gazing at the growing storm clouds.
"I… Beg your pardon, your Grace?" Virion blinked at her.
"We can use the storm. There's power in it… something that might be able to fuel the spells of our mages, and break open the prison. Hopefully before they can retaliate and turn this into a fight." She could all but taste the power in the air… And a part of her shivered at that, and wanted to hide away from it.
Lissa did more than shiver, wincing at the streaks of lightning biting across the clouds. She flinched from the slow roil of thunder.
"We don't have Chrom OR Robin for this," her little sister felt the need to point out. Emmeryn nodded at that. "A-are you sure-"
"As certain as I can be." Emmeryn assured her. "Because right now… this feels like our best opportunity to get them back."
Emmeryn supported that by moving towards the spell circles, sure of her choice.
She'd never stood in a combat circle before. Never needed to call magic with an intent to do harm. Her hands shivered, wanting to flinch away from any violence, before she crossed that line.
"Emm-?" Lissa whispered, only for Emmeryn to shake her head and hold up a hand to still her sister. She needed her concentration, with what she was about to do.
'It's for Chrom.' She told herself… and the thought steadied her hands. The storm rumbled, almost in anticipation of what was about to happen.
'For Robin.' She told herself again, drawing her hands up and letting the magic snake along her arms, coiling in her palms and ready to fly out on her command. Nearby, she heard the other mages doing the same. Waiting for her command to loose.
She thought she heard something from inside the cells. Something that wasn't screams; the voices of Chrom and Robin, and a snatch of music that drifted out across the bay.
There wasn't a lighthouse this time to explain the strange melody growing in her throat. But it was still there. It called out to her. She couldn't keep her voice from joining it in song, keying her notes to Chrom and Robin's voices.
Listening helped to steady her… And let her know exactly where they had to target the prison.
"Fire there." She motioned to the cell blocks halfway up the rock, and the mages answered. Their spells arced out, stretching beyond their usual reach and carried by the song notes.
'For my family,' she let the spell fly from her hands. She'd never felt magic blister the air like that, or scream across sky with the intent on doing harm… And knowing that she was the one that gave that command. Emmeryn watched the spell blaze and shatter the side of the fortress. The stones shuddered under the impact, the mortar between bricks shredded under the spell fire. She gave one last shiver, as she watched the masonry fell in a strange, heavy rain.
-o-o-o-
Foreign words kept humming in his throat. They were still in nonsense patterns that his ears couldn't decipher… but brought him some measure of relief. It dimmed the pain in his limbs, dulled his senses in favor of filling his hearing.
The words dipped and swelled on his tongue in a melody Chrom had never heard before. Notes of something familiar tickled at his ear and wove its way into each line. It carried the hint of Robin's voice.
Song flowed out of Chrom's lips. His voice was cracked, and his throat strained from the effort… But it also took him away. Away from the pain, the blinding thirst. Chrom let the song pull at him, stealing his thoughts and leaving him to drift.
No one moved to stop him; Gangrel wasn't at the cell door, and had likely gone to whatever comfort this place provided.
He slumped onto the floor and curled against the corner, while his eyes slid shut. Instead of black waiting behind his eyelids, Chrom was greeted with blue. The sea rushed back into his head, filling his thoughts and vision. A set of white towers loomed from the depths, like parts of Ylisse had been dragged underwater. His breath hiccupped as he watched. All around those towers floated a countless number of bodies, looking half drowned-
One shape twitched, and then another. Their battered forms writhed against the ocean, fighting against the water in their lungs. They shivered, the notes of song taking hold of their bodies. Their limbs shifted, distorted legs fusing into a single tail.
A rumble of thunder yanked him back to the present. On the heels of it came a different voice, an octave apart from his and Robin's voices.
'Emm-?'
Lighting crashed into the prison, painting everything in blinding white.
He was vaguely aware of his eyes blinking, trying to will his sight to return, until the world snapped into focus. The rent in the wall had grown greater, showing the expanse of a bay-
A familiar ship floated along the waves, her sails a beacon of white atop the gray. The broken walls framed the Shepherd, sailing on the storm winds.
Prison stones toppled down into the waters far below, dislodged by the lightning blast. Each splash was louder than the last, but there was something else to the noise.
It was a single stray note, humming in the back of his mind.
The song worked its way back into Chrom's throat, stronger than before. Making his entire body hum. The parched quality of his throat faded out, as did his cracked lips, his burning skin… suddenly none of that mattered. Another wave rose up, and Chrom climbed to his knees to wait for it. The chains clawed at him and tried to drag him down, but Chrom resisted and strained after the waves, waiting for them to wash over him.
They crashed into him, flooding the entire cell. The chains snapped tight against the pull of the waves as the sea attempted to reclaim him. The links screamed against the water… And then one of the links frayed, and broke apart. Followed by another, and another. The wave receded, and despite himself, Chrom found himself smiling as he lifted one arm and shook his chains free.
-o-o-o-
"…What are you singing about?" Aversa hissed in her ear. Robin tried to shut her words out, focusing on the hum in her throat, and the shield it gave her mind from the visions Aversa tried to draw out from her.
In answer, Aversa snapped fingers around Robin's throat. Sharpened nails sunk into Robin's skin and choked out her voice. She struggled to keep singing, but the pain and pressure drove out the notes until all that was left were pained gasps.
She screwed her eyes shut, trying to shrink away from the pain. Her ears strained for something, anything to distract her.
Slowly, a voice began to bleed into her silence. Something that didn't belong to Aversa, and it picked up where Robin had left off.
"You wretch. You can't run from the truth forever-"
The thrum of stone beneath her knees was the only warning Robin had before the room flooded with white-hot light. All sense of her surroundings were robbed from her, replaced by ionized air and the crash of thunder threatening to tear her apart.
The room shattered around them as electricity arced through the stone. She could barely make out the form of Aversa, off balance and off guard as she dropped Robin and flinched backwards.
Into the path of the lightning.
A second bolt followed, and the hairs on Robin's neck all stood up on end. She curled into a ball out of reflex, shutting her eyes right as lightning slammed into the outside wall of her cell. Stray spits of electricity shot through the air and struck Aversa over and over. The sea witch went rigid as magic scorched her skin and singed her hair.
The spell subsided, leaving only a remnant of thunder and an insistent hum buried in her ears. Aversa slumped to the ground, her sides barely stirring. Robin spared her only a brief glance as she shot to her feet.
Or at least tried to stand up. The shackles on her arms still held her fast. Her skin ached where it had been rubbed raw from her struggles. It left her chained to the floor, with the outside frustratingly out of reach.
The storm howled outside, driving rain through the gaps. The song in her head had only grown louder with the tempest, soaring above the scream of the wind. It swelled and abated with each strike of lightning or roll of thunder, but never truly faded.
'Chrom…' She heard a hint of his voice again. It banished the last of the pain from her cuts, ignoring how they still bled. Below her the ocean growled.
"Ch-Chrom…" she tried to call out, but her only answer was that same, faint note. Her eyes slid to the side, and saw that her cell door was still locked. She guessed that the guards had been yanked away to repel the unwelcome guests in the harbor.
She managed to raise her head and glance out through the half broken cell window. The Shepherd stood proud and defiant in the bay, and lit up by the glow of spell fire as it arced past the deck and sails.
'I don't think this was what Chrom had in mind when he told them to get away.' Her mind had enough room to sardonically note. But despite the sarcasm, Robin realized she was still in trouble. Even with the Shepherd so close, she had no idea how to get to them. No key, no opening large enough-
'So make one.' She glanced down to Aversa. The witch's bloody knife was laid out on the stones, but she doubted that would be enough to free her. Robin forced herself to look over the witch's body, even as her stomach turned; the blistered patches of skin clashed with blackened flesh… And a spell book, half pinned under Aversa's body. Robin swallowed the bile in her throat, and shoved at Aversa's shoulder. The witch gave a pained noise before twisting away, showing the gilded corner of a book. While Aversa carried scars from the attack, the book itself was unmarred.
'A spell tome.'
The tome seemed to tremble with power, coaxing her to lay hands on it. She wrapped her hands around the book, and yanked it free from Aversa's weight. Droplets of her own blood spattered across the cover, but the purple binding only drank them up. The red was absorbed by violet, and the book seemed hungry for more.
Her fingers found the corner of the book, the weight of it impossibly heavy as she turned it open. The pages were almost saturated with power.
It was a power that joined the thrum in her blood, once the pages fell open. Restless energy crackled from the script emblazoned on the pages, a mirror for the runes that had desecrated the floor of the Plegian lighthouse.
And now they were waiting for her to tap that same power, that same chaos once again.
With lack of a better option, Robin did just that.
'Come to me… help me-' The dark magic rushed out of the book in a fog, wreathing the cell in a black miasma. The magic pulsed around her once, twice… and then with a shriek it threw itself at the wall. Robin dropped the book from the sound. The teeth of the spell ate away at the wall, sending the ragged remains falling away in a hail of gravel.
Robin found enough breath in her throat to manage a weak note, and that seemed to call the ambient magic in the air. The spell lingered for a moment longer than it should have… and then snapped at her binds, all without ever touching Robin's flesh. The instant she felt the spell fade, Robin pushed herself to her feet.
Her shackles rattled to the floor in a rusted rain.
Robin hurried to the edge of her cell, searching for any possible escape route. She needed to find Chrom, and get out. Now.
'Where are you?'
A single note answered in Chrom's voice, a level below her. A second volley sprang off the Shepherd, and Robin threw herself to the ground. The prison groaned all around her, stone crackling as heat seeped into the air. When she risked opening her eyes, Robin was greeted with a red and orange glow. The Shepherd had switched from thunder to flame, with explosive results. Fire spells tore gouges into the stonework… And in the process formed hand holds.
Robin didn't stop to think. Didn't pause to consider how this could turn her into a smear on the rocks if the Shepherd fired another volley before she was done. Instead she threw herself into the new path. Her stomach lurched as she skidded and dropped along the walls, the stone unpleasantly hot under her fingers. But through it, Robin grit her teeth against the pain and kept scrambling down.
-o-o-o-
The remaining chain weighed down his arm, no matter how Chrom lurched and pulled. He couldn't find the strength to wrench the binding loose. With a groan Chrom fell back to the floor in a frustrated heap. At this rate, it'd take him weeks to break free. Time he didn't have, and the tide wasn't in a hurry to come back.
The thrum in his ears wasn't helping, either.
"Chrom!" He jolted at the voice. Robin's feet swung in past the lip of the cell, with the rest of her following soon after. She crashed to the floor, skidding on the wet stones. A spray of sea water chased her in. "Well, you're still one piece- mostly."
Robin didn't miss the way he was slumped over. She reached out to brush her fingers against his shoulder, and her touch helped to steady him. He could already feel the fever fading from his skin. Chrom lifted his head, encouraged by the comforting press of Robin's fingers.
His eyes found splashes of red peeking through the tears of her robe.
"Wh-what happened to you?" He rasped out.
"The hospitality of this place. And I admit I'm not very keen on experiencing much more of it." She frowned at him, taking in the ragged state of his clothing and wane face. "It doesn't look like they were all that kind to you, either."
She wouldn't look him in the eyes, instead focused on the remaining binding.
"We have to get you out, before they come back…" She trailed off, a shudder traveling through her. She picked up one of the broken bits of brick, and slammed it into the chain.
Once, twice, thrice-
Another slap of water burst through the cell, and threw Robin into him. Her hands still managed to crash down, adding her strength to the tide. The binding sprang open with a rusty scream.
"C-Come on, let's go!" Robin managed, yanking him to his feet. Water swirled around the cell, dragging at him and urging him upright.
-o-o-o-
The edge of Chrom's cell had a slight slant; enough that Robin suspected he was chained in place so he wouldn't roll off in his sleep.
Robin steadied herself at the edge of the cell, watching the tides swirl and gather strength. The Shepherd drifted well out of reach, spells lancing from the edge of the ship to tear Valmese arrows and spears from the sky. The weapons blazed uselessly, burning out well short of the Shepherd… but also making it certain that an air rescue wouldn't happen.
"No pegasus will be coming to the rescue this time." Robin muttered to herself.
Chrom's limbs were still shivering, hardly able to support his weight. She doubted he could make the swim.
"I-I can manage." Chrom said, picking up on her hesitation. "I don't want to see the Shepherd at further risk, so…" He staggered forward, taking them to the cell's end.
Robin hesitated at the edge, trying to gauge the distance. The tide could reach this far up in ebbs and crashes, but she wasn't certain their bodies would survive the jump.
Chrom thought otherwise, his focus entirely on getting out of the prison. To prove that he was ready, he pushed himself forward, throwing Robin's balance off. The cell lurched sideways around her. Robin's feet scrapped against the rocks as she fought and failed to keep herself steady.
They hung there for one second, teetering on the edge before their feet slid out from under them. Gritting her teeth, Robin put the last of her energy into shoving off the prison, launching them towards the open ocean. Chrom followed, and they fell free from the fortress.
'Please don't have any rocks at the bottom please don't have any rocks at the bottom!'
Robin had enough time to pray, as the two tumbled helplessly through the air.
Robin forced herself to look directly down. She would have screamed, if the fall didn't steal the breath from her throat. Ocean spread out beneath them, but its expanse was divided by jutting spears of rock. They were rushing up to meet them, fast, and it seemed Naga wasn't listening to any of her prayers.
-o-o-o-
Over the flare of spells, two figures were outlined against the stone walls of the fortress. The violet of Robin's robe were unmistakable.
'We've found them!' Emmeryn felt a bolt of hope in her chest. Now all they had to do was bring the Shepherd in closer, and hopefully find a chance to carry out their rescue-
But neither Chrom or Robin seemed willing to wait for that. The combat slowed to a crawl, as the two approached the edge of a cell… and then overbalanced, and fell into the waiting ocean. Flecks of foam leapt up from the rocks, meeting the two halfway as they fell.
"Oh gods-!" Emmeryn bit out. Frederick uselessly shouted for them to pile on sail, even though that would do nothing to reach the two in time.
Emmeryn stretched a hand out, wishing she could somehow yank them out of the air with that gesture-
The water roared to life underneath them, and the Shepherd rose several feet up as a massive swell moved beneath the ship. The current sped forward like a serpent, following the direction of her arm and gaining momentum.
It exploded up into foam, launched upwards, and engulfing the rocks… along with Chrom and Robin. The two vanished in the gray waters and foam, leaving Emmeryn to stare, unbelieving. It was almost as though the ocean had acted on her command, moving as she needed it.
The warships of the Valmese fleet raised anchor, finally rallied enough to chase after them, and engage in close combat-
But the storm had other ideas.
The ships thrashed in the waves; the hulls creaking and breaking against the rocks lining the fort. Only their own ship managed to dance free, kept from being snared in the winds and tides.
'There won't be anything left of their fleet at this rate.' Emmeryn wasn't certain if she should have taken solace in that or not. 'Perhaps that's what they deserve-'
She blanched at the violent thought, and forced it from her head. She had more important things to focus on.
-o-o-o-
Robin sank, the sea soaking into her robes and turning them into a solid weight. Bubbles rushed past her ears, Chrom's clothing and arms sliding through her fingers. The depths were swallowing them whole. Saltwater rushed into her wounds and sent them throbbing. The pain blinded her, turning Robin's mind to haze.
Unfamiliar memories filled in the void.
This time the memories didn't come in blurred flashes, but instead a single, clear vision.
She swam. Not encumbered by clothes, and not on clumsy, weak legs either. She cut through the ocean, nimble as any dolphin or fish. And yet… she was straining her way towards the surface. The sky waited for her, and she refused to stay confined by the sea any longer.
Her heart pounded, and she gasped, the gills in her throat working hard to flood her lungs with air.
'Gills?' Her thoughts managed, while she stared into the depths below. Afraid something would barrel out of the depths.
Like the Mer, a part of her realized with a start. Her companions had long since left her, knowing she'd have to face this final part of the journey alone… And not wanting to be caught, if any pursuit managed to catch up with them.
She thought she could see a glimmer of scales in the depths. She couldn't linger, in case more began to gather.
A powerful tail churned in place of her legs, cutting through the turmoil of the waves. Her eyes fixed on the surface, trained toward the dim shine of moon light. Storm clouds obscured its glow, making the water grow gray instead of silver.
The compass at her neck shimmered, radiating an energy that spurred her on. She swore that with each pulse, there was a flash of lightning overhead. Her fingers moved on reflex, clutching the compass, while her mouth began to shape words. A spell hummed faintly in her ears.
'Naga, of the air…please free me from the realm of the sea. Please, take whatever price you must in order to free me from my fate.'
Her head broke the surface, right as a scalding sensation broke down the middle of her tail and split it in two. Her thoughts blurred, something digging fingers into her mind and tearing her memories free. All the while, hands like fire took to her body and gave it a new shape.
The vision faded out, and her lungs took up the burning sensation. Seawater rushed into her throat, threatening to take the air Naga once gifted her.
A pair of arms wrapped around her, yanking her to the surface. Robin blinked water from her eyes, and glimpsed Chrom staring down at her. He frantically kicked to keep them both afloat, while keeping his arms wrapped around her and held her head above the waves.
The Shepherd towered above them. As soon as Robin could focus on something other than breathing, she noticed the flurry of activity on the decks. The crew was working frantically, fireballs flying from the rails, while ropes fell into the water beside them. The crew swarmed the lines, dropping down to pluck herself and Chrom from the waves.
Even as she was lifted into the air, every ounce of her body protested leaving the waves; this all felt wrong.
"We have them aboard! Frederick, get us out of the harbor!" She distantly heard Emmeryn's voice. But her mind still felt foggy, her body still protesting the absence of water against her skin-
She came to when her face pressed into the ship's splintered floor. Lissa's hands worked their way up and down her back, massaging the water from her lungs. Robin hacked the stuff out, giving a pained groan when her throat finally cleared.
"How did you get so much into you?" Maribelle asked from nearby. "Did you forget that you couldn't breathe underwater?"
"N-no, I-" Robin broke off into another fit of coughing.
'I remembered. That once, I could.'
That she used to be Mer.
((Author's Note: I've decided to do a first, and discontinue posting on FFnet for the time being. The story will not be deleted, but will be going on hiatus for the foreseeable future. At the moment, posting new chapters feels more like a chore instead of something fun, and that's a pretty clear sign it's time to stop and step away from the project.
Hopefully the story, or at least Part I of it, will eventually be updated and completed. But it will likely be weeks or months down the line. Take care until then, everyone.))