Chapter 37: The Drowned Capital
"...There's no way we can swim over those. My fins would fall off before we got halfway." Robin said, staring up at the gray mountains growing from the sea floor. The long peaks looked like they might even pierce the ocean's surface.
Of the other Mer, there was no trace. They'd likely taken the long way around… And yet, Robin
couldn't bring herself to move away from the pass and follow them. That pulling feeling in her chest had only grown more and more insistent.
"I could try carrying you…" Chrom offered. Robin quickly shook her head, and fought to keep the heat off her face.
"I-I don't think that's necessary. And besides..." There was something tickling at her memories. A sense of being here before. She twitched forward in the water, hand stretched out as her fingers ran over the wall of jumbled rocks. "Something about this is familiar."
Robin peered closer, letting her hands feel their way around the stones. Their cold touch and smooth texture tugged at a faint thought in her head; that there was something more than just rocks in this place. And right as the thought solidified, she picked out an odd, jagged dark spot cut into the stones. In the same moment her hand dipped into the space, and she found herself looking at and tracing out a rent cut into the mountains; a gap just large enough for someone to swim through.
"And I think I've found our route forward!" She nodded over her shoulder for Chrom to follow, before easing her way between the stones. The mountains closed over her head, turning into another twisting tunnel. Visibility faded as she plunged inside, turning into faint wisps and a long stretch of shadows before her. Even the water temperature plunged, giving her a chill as she swam
'Try not to lose your nerve about swimming underground, this time.' She told herself, trying to swallow the claustrophobic feeling in her throat before it had time to take root. Lucky for her, the odd pulling in her chest was a growing distraction, and it tugged her forward.
Robin narrowed her eyes in the gloom of the passage. Scant rays of light pierced the tunnel, diminished by the ocean depths and turning the surrounding stones to a nightly azure color. Robin swam downwards, sticking close to the floor and using it as a guide.
Her fingers skimmed along the patchwork, hexagonal stones lining the floor. The edges of them nipped at her skin, but Robin did her best to ignore it. This was still the best path she could follow, now illuminated by the soft glow from her scales and skin. The violet shine mixed with a faint aqua, proof that Chrom followed close behind.
"Just a little further… I hope." Robin tried to coax herself along, stretching her hand out and pulling herself along. Behind her, Chrom responded to her words and mirrored her motions. It was slow going, feeling their way along the floor, brushing fins or elbows against the rock walls… Or having soft gleaming rays shine down on them from above. Robin glanced up, towards the new source of light.
Jellyfish lined the passage overhead like a dozen silvery lanterns, giving off a wane glow. It might have been beautiful, if not for the thread bare tendrils lacing off their forms. And it made for one more reason to stay low to the floor.
"Stay close. Those things can leave a mark, if you let them." She told Chrom and took another turn, clinging close to the ground to anticipate any rocks. The passage had more twists than Robin would have thought, and lasted longer than the previous tunnel.
"How can you even tell your way?" Chrom murmured. Robin glanced over her shoulder, barely picking out his blue flecked scales from the scant star glow of the jellyfish. He was haloed by their light, carefully avoiding the tendrils.
"Because…" This time she didn't need to look, knowing there was a sudden rise in the tunnel and swimming upright. For once, there wasn't a gap in her memory. Instead, she had a faint notion, even if it turned her stomach.
"Because I used this passage once before. To escape."
"Wh-what were you trying to get away from?" In the wane light she caught the blue of his eyes, stretched and searching.
"A… A warlord, I'm certain of that much." Robin answered. "And, I think that was how I met you for the first time."
Robin pulled herself up, moving hand over hand along terraced ledges as she squinted into the gloom.
'I swam through here in the past, trying to evade any guards and get into open water…'
There was a sudden glare of light as the passage opened up before her. Robin threw up her hands to shield her eyes. She blinked through the webbing between her fingers to see a purple tinged city.
It started out humble enough, time and tide worn buildings rising in chunks from the ocean floor. The towers were tangled with strands of kelp, while some of the roofs were overgrown with coral. But as the city climbed upwards, the buildings looked better preserved. They twisted in beautiful spires, ancient and unbowed by time-
'Like those old carvings came to life.' A flash of deeper blue caught her eyes. Chrom was swimming past her and towards the buildings. He did an awkward roll over after being freed from the tunnel, but he didn't let that slip up stop him. He kept going, focused on the city.
"H-hey, wait!" Robin swam towards him, one eye on him and the other on the tall buildings and crumbling archways. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Getting a better look. I… I think I almost remember something like this. Or having it described to me, once." There was a touch of awe and curiosity in his voice. Robin clapped a hand on his shoulder, but he was so focused he only pulled her forwards.
"To think, a sunken city down here… Though, I guess there'd NEED to be something like this. We couldn't all live in the wilds… Could we?"
He narrowed his eyes, shaking his head back and forth… And looking ill at ease in his scales.
Robin spoke up, trying to draw his focus away from how awkward he might have felt.
"Y-you're right. I faintly remember a place like this. And if it means understanding ourselves better, then… Maybe we should take a closer look." Hopefully it would give Chrom something to remember, or at least make the two of them less of an easy target. She was well aware of just how exposed they were, out in open water between mountains and city.
Chrom plunged down, taking them off the slopes and into the city. Buildings clogged with coral and blue tinged stone closed in around them, masking their presence.
Parts of the city stood proud, unbroken by centuries spent submerged… But others were collapsed, the sea taking over and growing its own gardens on the broken columns and buildings. The stones that formed streets alternated between pristine, and overgrown.
'After all, what do Mer need roads for, other than a reminder of what they used to be?' Robin thought. She swam over the beds of vibrant coral and swaying plants, forgoing the long forgotten "foot paths." Chrom lingered below her, seeming to find solace in the closeness of the ground.
The growth broke apart over sections of the streets, seemingly pruned away to reveal patterned tiles that should have been buried by seagrass. The murals were preserved, even as the buildings crumbled away. Purple glass was pushed into the floors, forming-
'A mark. A six eyed mark.' A shiver worked its way from her fingers to her tail, and her skin and scales both seemed to squirm. Chrom was staring at her as well, picking out the mark along her fins.
"Robin, why do you-?" His fingers ran over the cape, where his own mark was echoed along his shoulder. It repeated along his own fins, flickering as his tail moved. Seeing the flash of aqua now made her almost relieved that the streets were so eerily empty. No eyes to dwell on their brands, except their own.
"Forgive me for asking. But what is the meaning of these marks? It feels like… There's something important to them." Chrom said.
"To tell you the truth, I don't know why I have this mark on me." Her hand balled into a fist, like it could banish the symbol if she squeezed her fingers hard enough. Her tail thrashed back and forth, like it was trying to shed the pattern on her fins. "But I think… It ties me to this city. And it's why I had to leave in the first place."
Chrom didn't answer that right away, watching her carefully as they swam.
"I'm sure…" Chrom whispered at last. She didn't miss the way his hand closed around hers, trying to twine their fingers together, until the webbing stopped him and made him wince from the sensitive touch. "I-I'm sure I've heard of this before. That the marks are important, and something about a drowned city-"
"P-plegia. The drowned capital." Robin told him. It shared its name with the pirate nation. And she had memories of this city now; more concrete than any half remembered tales playing through Chrom's head.
There was an odd thrumming in her ears, as she weaved between the broken buildings. It was like someone was whispering in her ears, urging her onwards as she remembered.
She looked around the streets, where there was supposed to be bustling markets dealing in fish meat and plants from underwater orchards, scriptoriums where stone tablets were carefully carved with spells and histories-
And yet right now, there were only empty currents filling the streets. There was still no trace of other Mer, and it pushed the uneasy feeling in Robin's stomach up into her throat. Just what could have happened here, after she left?
-o-o-o-
Chrom couldn't stop staring, to the point that he was getting dizzy from turning his head every which way. More than once he found himself drifting upside down because he'd tilted his head too far, getting distracted by the towering arches and curling sea serpent sculptures presiding over the paths.
There was something about this place that inspired awe in him… Even if it pushed a shiver into his back.
'The stories could never compare.' A thought bubbled up. Despite the vague feeling of nostalgia, Chrom couldn't remember any solid details about the tales. Where he'd heard those stories, or who he'd heard them from was a mystery; his only hint was of a woman's gentle voice-
His heart squeezed painfully before dulling to an odd, lingering ache. The sensation weighed on his chest, as though his lungs were filled with stone.
'What's wrong with me? Why does that make me feel so… Sad?' He finally put a name to the emotion roiling through him, right before something yanked at his hearing. His ears, and the thin webbing around them both stretched, trying to pick out more. A call was echoing down the streets, pulling him from his thoughts, and lifting his and Robin's heads up.
They didn't even need to speak, to decide they'd both follow that noise.
The sound grew, turning into a chant, then a song; a strange, echoing hymn. Chrom kept his eyes fixed forward, wondering at the chill the waters seemed to take on. He kept a steady grip on Robin, letting her guide him.
As they swam further, the chant turned into a single, clear word.
'Grima-?'
Chrom whispered that name out loud, and Robin went shock still at it. Her face drained of color, and her head and neck twitched like someone had hooked fingers into her skull-
Robin surged towards the chant, dragging him along. They rose up from the tiled streets, past bridges and above the buildings towards the focal point; a hill outlined against the blue, rising above the rooftops.
A hundred scaled forms rippled at the hill's base, where the buildings had fallen away to form a massive courtyard; the cobblestones were almost completely obscured by shoals of Mer.
He'd never seen so many before; Chrom was certain of that much. Their scales seemed to tangle his eyes, the fins as numerous as blades of grass in the farmland meadow.
"W-well, we managed to find those missing Mer." Robin said. "But what are they doing-?"
She eased her way forward as she spoke, still pulling him along. They had to keep their motions slow, to keep from drawing any attention. Now the two of them weaved against the buildings ringing the open space, drawing out of the city and towards the fringes of the crowd.
The Mer took no notice of them. Their heads were all uniformly raised towards one spot, a central palace ringed with gold tipped bones and rising like a mountain above everything.
As he craned his head up, Chrom picked out a cluster that stood apart from the crowd, hanging in open water. It was a single, dark figure, ringed by others bearing weapons or with thin stone tablets firmly in their arms. An honor guard, it seemed.
The mages of the guard drifted in the back, wearing tokens of gold on their necks and arms; bands hung with what looked almost like fangs. The warriors did one better; the metal of their armor fashioned to look like skulls and teeth of underwater predators. Their necklaces were strung with polished and gilded shark teeth. But even with all their finery and ornaments, they were dimmed by the man they guarded.
His scales were flecked with black and violet, like someone had spilled a night stained sky across his fins. He carried so much gold that the waters seemed to ring when he moved. Bands circled his neck and wrists, and a thorn-like golden crown threaded through his inky black hair. His eyes gleamed red, taking in the crowd.
"Who… is that?" Chrom only managed a whisper, his voice going tight when that scarlet gaze moved over him. Robin didn't answer at first, shrinking against him and curling into her black shawl and hood. It looked for a moment that her breathing would stop, as she looked at the dark figure.
Before he could think, Chrom ran his webbed fingers against her cheeks. It was the only way he could think of breaking Robin free. She looked straight at him, eyes wide.
"I… All I know is that we don't want him to notice us." Robin whispered, and her fingers shivered over his arm. She looked ready to run, and it was only the barest traces of courage keeping her in place.
"Children of the waves and Grima!" The central figure called out, his voice sounding well practiced and sure; a voice used to commanding and being obeyed.
"We remain blessed in the eyes of our god. There will soon come a day when the air breathers learn to fear us! When our domain stretches across sea and land! We are gaining the tools needed for just such a thing!"
He lifted his hands… And in them Chrom caught glints of colored light, nestled in his palms and caged by his fingers. Against the dark scales were glints of violet and… Silver.
It was the silver stone that called to him; that made something in his thoughts stir. He'd seen that thing somewhere before… And a part of him KNEW this man had no claim to that gem. He had to fight down a growl, watching the thing staying frustratingly out of his reach.
"Gemstones?" Robin whispered, half to herself. "One of those looks familiar, almost… But the hillside is littered with gold. What's so special about-?"
"The storms listen to our calls!" The speaker continued, deafening Robin's words and Chrom's anger. "The veil between water and air weakens! With each treasure we find, so our might grows! And with each sacrifice…"
Another set of guards swam forward, carrying limp figures in the place of weapons. The Mer in their grasp were bound, slumped forward.
"Prisoners…" Chrom whispered, feeling an extra burst of heat blaze in his cheeks. "What sort of sick dastard parades captives like that? What's he trying to show to the others…?"
But even with his anger, he still found himself looking closer. One of the prisoners carried pale green-gray scales on their tail, and was festooned with bits of kelp in their hair and tied across their arms. The captive had the look of an outlaw, with how he glared at Validar.
"You see, even the rebels can't-"
"Spare us the grand speeches." Snarled the captive, still defiant. The leader frowned at him, before making a curt gesture. The guards lashed out with spears, slicing the rebel's throat and letting clouds of blood fill the ocean. Chrom tried not to go sick to his stomach at the sudden, brutal decision.
The blood seemed to congeal, before falling down in a strange dark rain. The currents shifted, and tugged at Chrom's bangs; he turned his head to follow the pull of the tides. Bordering the city was a gaping chasm, cut like a wound into the ocean floor.
"So does Grima drink in life and blood, and rouse from slumber." The leader finished, to cries of "Validar!" and "Grima!"
Far overhead, at the surface, the clear blue faded to a bruised purple. The waters trembled with the faint echoes of thunder, the sound managing to drift down to his ears.
"H-he calls the storms?" Robin whispered.
"Rebels can't match our power." The leader, Validar, called out. "They hide in their forests, because they know they're little more than phantasms compared to our storms!" He gave the dead Mer a last disdainful glace, before motioning for his guards to cast it aside.
The body floated for a moment, before drifting over the abyss that framed the city. The shadows seemed to stretch out and grasp at the body, and the weight of the dead Mer was dragged down into the gorge. The shadows ate across the scales and skin, until the Mer vanished from sight.
"…This isn't just boasting and brutal executions. It's a sacrifice." Robin whispered. "T-to-"
"To the glory and hunger of Grima!" Validar shouted, and hundreds of Mer echoed his words. As Chrom watched and listened, there was something squeezing at his heart, trying to settle into a knot of resolve. Something about this moment, what he'd just discovered was urgent.
"You're right… This is the cause of the storms." And that was important, even if he couldn't figure out why. Chrom narrowed his eyes, daring to sift through his memories. Though they were brief, he caught wisps of something; someone charging him to find the source of the storms.
'Well, I've done that much… even if-' Even if something about that faint memory was pushing a familiar melancholy back into him. The odd pang from before scratched at his heart, but he forced the feeling down, keeping his grip tight on Robin.
She gave a pained noise in the back of her throat. The hum of the Mer and their spells seemed to affect her more than it did him.
He worried about Robin, but before he got a chance to ask, he was silenced by a wave of Validar's black talons. The guards swam forward, clutching another form between them. Another sacrifice.
"And now we have one more offering. One to prove the might of Grima over the scrabbling weak struggles of the outsiders."
The Mer brought forward an emerald and gold scaled prisoner, bound in chains. The stranger wore odd and tattered fabric around their shoulders, and it was made from a paler silk than anything that adorned the Mer around them. It was the costume of an outsider.
"A witch who has pledged herself to the wrong god." Validar continued with a sneer.
"What is he talking about-?" Chrom murmured, trying to get a better look at the captive.
The prisoner swam forward, head cast low, a listless sense to her motions. Almost like she was drugged… Or like Chrom, she didn't fully understand how to use her fins.
Gold hair flashed, made all the brighter by the flickering lightning overhead. Chrom's breath caught for a moment at the sight-
And the feeling that there was something familiar about this person. He strained his eyes, trying to pick out the features of the Mer, but her hair floated around her, obscuring her face until Validar hooked his fingers underneath her chin.
With a violent snap of the wrist, Validar forced her face upwards.
The motion pushed aside her hair, baring her forehead, and the symbol emblazed on it. The marking was an echo to Chrom's… And the second he saw her face, a flare of emotion exploded through him, almost like he'd been gutted.
"Emmeryn!?" Robin broke from her trance, staring at the woman.
Chrom did more than stare, throwing himself forward. He couldn't tell himself why, couldn't explain his actions. Not anymore than he could explain the red cloud flooding his thoughts.
'I can't watch her die again-!' He only managed one thought, frenzied and panicked.
"Chrom!?" Robin swam behind him as he tried to rush the ceremony-
A collection of Mer, hidden among the crowd, surged up from the lower levels. All dressed in the violet silks of Plegia, and brandishing metal weapons.
They all pointed at him… But he refused to slow. Chrom clashed with them, casting the threat of steel aside and lashing out with a flurry of motion. His fingers curled into claws, and he was ready to tear into the soldiers with his bare hands.
The first guard gave him a smug leer, taking in Chrom's lack of armor and weapons. He wound his own sword back, taking his time to build up the strike.
"You're eager enough to die. I'll indulge you-!" He slashed down, while Chrom reached out to try and grapple with his arms. His fingers grazed over the soldier's arms-
And came away red. The soldier dropped his sword with a bitten off curse.
For an instant Chrom forgot his anger, and his urgency; all of that fading in favor of shock. The tips of fingers had turned from slight talons to something sharper. The specks of blue doting his hands and wrists had shifted, giving off a faint golden gleam, beneath the coat of red. The same blood curled up from the ruined arms of the soldier, flooding out from deep cuts.
Another tried to close with him, and fury shot back into Chrom's limbs. His hands moved on their own, striking, clawing, staining the water with more scarlet.
The blood obscured much of his sight of Validar… But from what he could see, the man seemed to hesitate from the onslaught. His pause was short, and only a breath passed before he motioned for the rest of his guard to swarm them.
"Chr-!" Robin tried to call his name. By luck he managed to hear her through the pounding in his ears. Something about the urgency in her voice warned him to duck. Not a second after her warning, a volley of lightning seared over his head, the sharp snap of magic making his ears ring. It was a brutal attack, leaving him to watch, and wonder at Robin's next move.
-o-o-o-
Robin's skin buzzed, as the lightning arc and bite at the wall of Mer before them. But the strike didn't so much as dent them; they absorbed the blow, even as it blackened their flesh. Robin stared past them, instead focused on finding their leader. Her eyes skimmed the crowd, passing of throngs of bystanders milling in confusion, and finally fixing on the head priest. And on his captive.
Emmeryn.
"Impossible…!" Robin whispered. But no matter how she blinked, the sight wouldn't change.
'She was changed into Mer as well?' Robin fought to keep her eyes on the threat before them, instead of Emmeryn. The former Exalt hung limp in the grasp of Validar… and Validar seemed undecided on whether to watch the fight play out, or hurry along with the execution of another sacrifice.
Robin desperately scrabbled for a spell, while Chrom felled another Mer with his talons; and that seemed to be the deciding factor for Validar. His eyes narrowed on Emmeryn, and his fingers tightened around a ceremonial dagger at his side.
Chrom gave a high, desperate noise in the back of his throat. He flinched from one axe slash and tried to dodge away, but his motions didn't have the same grace they did on land. The axe bit across his ribs and sent Chrom spinning right towards her.
Before she could so much as wince, he crashed into her, and the taste of his blood flooded her mouth and nostrils. The impact knocked Robin back, and her next spell shot uselessly over the Mer guards. Chrom shuddered from the blow, and another gout of red clouded the water around him as he thrashed upright to stare at Emmeryn.
"W-we can't let them-!" Chrom wheezed out, reaching to where Emmeryn was slack. Between Robin and Emmeryn the soldiers gathered themselves up, shrugging off the desperate attacks. And all the while, Validar lined the dagger up with Emmeryn's throat.
Panic raced through Robin, and scattered her thoughts. Now it was a question on who was going to die first; Emmeryn, courtesy of Validar's blade, Chrom from blood loss, or-
Chrom lashed forward, trying to drive the soldiers back as he struggled. Strands of his blood twisted across her face, clouding her vision and churning up her thoughts. The metallic taste and scent threatened to drown her, and Robin choked down a gag as she inhaled. Her head swam, and mingled with the desperation she felt. A fog descended on her mind, and tinged the corners of her vision a strange black and violet.
A wave of sound welled up from deep inside her, too large for her throat to contain. It hummed through her bones, clamoring to be let out. The uproar that surrounded Robin dimmed; the clash of the fight was muted, as was Chrom desperately trying to claw his way to Emmeryn and screaming for everything to stop.
Validar's answer was to build a spell in his hand. His blade crackled with electricity, and his eyes were pitiless as they looked at Emmeryn, heedless of the way Chrom screamed.
Emmeryn was about to die before her eyes again.
'No!' The note built to a scream in the back of her throat… And Robin saw no need to hold it back any longer. It ripped its way out of her mouth in a long shriek.
The scream twisted its way out of her throat, high and undulating, like the call of a wounded beast. The force of the wail slammed into the Mer and scattered them like sand before a wave; their panicked cries mingling with her own howl.
The force of her voice carried on towards Validar and slammed into him, drawing bloody furrows along his face and arms.
And the cry attacked more than flesh; soldiers stared in shock as their armor began to flake like fragile shale. The weapons in their hands lost their sheen, turning the color of dry blood. Even the dagger in Validar's hands was reduced to a rusted wreck.
Chrom roused from his terror and rage, and stared at her in confusion; both he and Emmeryn were unmarked by the strange magic.
"What did you-?" Before he could finish, a pair of Mer closed with them. They swam with a purpose, reaching out with bare hands. Robin tensed, ready to fight them...
Only to still when she caught a flash of snowy white hair. There was something almost familiar about it, and the surprised, boyish face underneath it. The boy's eyes were oddly pale, the edges of his eyelids crinkled with smile lines.
Though he wasn't currently smiling, and instead looked surprised to find her in front of him.
"HEY, THARJA!" The boy heedlessly called out. "TURNS OUT YOU WERE RIGHT! It is her!"
A black haired Mer drifted closer, staring at her in disbelief.
"Who are y-?" Robin tried to ask. Her confusion died on her tongue as a sudden, odd sense of calm flooded her head. That calm was at odds with the chaos around them, but deep in her heart she felt that she knew these two from somewhere. That they weren't enemies.
"After all the work we put into helping you escape… You show up here with a strange Mer, and ready to throw away your safety at a moment's notice. Is your head even working right?" The dark haired Mer, Tharja, grumbled low under her breath.
"Think we should dwell on it later?" Asked the boy. "When we're not about to get gutted by Validar's goons? Innards are cool, but I'm not interested in seeing everyone's floating around right now."
"…Got a point, Henry. We need room." Tharja muttered in response. Her mumbling faded into a low hum as streams of light threaded down her arms to the tips of her nails, feeding into her magic. Her fingers traced through the water, and the currents churned in the response, magnifying the motion.
Tharja's voice rang out, harmonizing with the leftover echoes from Robin's own scream. She seemed to draw on the lingering notes, weaving them into her song and spells.
The waters rang, coaxing another call from Robin, the rhythm of the spell almost hypnotic. Robin added her voice, wondering at the rawness to her throat-
Tharja finished with a near shriek, and threw her hands out. The advancing Mer were knocked backwards, tangled in the roil of the currents. The soldiers crashed together, drawing blood from their own armor and rusted weapons. Robin sucked in her breath as she watched, staring at Tharja and wondering at what sort of power she was drawing from.
Tharja's answer was to shiver from her head to her fins, like the note still thrummed through her. She stared between the aftermath of her spell, and back to Robin. As Tharja looked at her, a sudden wave of fatigue slammed into Robin, all the spells taking their toll on her at once.
"…That was strong stuff." She muttered. "And here I thought there wasn't anything left that surprised me."
"Dwelling on it later!" Henry reminded. "You can swim, right?" Henry glanced from Robin to Chrom, sounding doubtful when he watched Chrom struggle in the water. "Never mind, we'll work it out as we go. Tharja, can you take Robin?"
He swam to Chrom, pausing over the blue hair for only a moment.
"Huh, this happens a lot, doesn't it? With blue haired people not getting how to swim. No time to think about it, though!" He snapped a hand around Chrom's arm as he spoke. Startled, Chrom tried to flinch away.
"H-hey! What are you-!?" His voice was pained, and his wounds still bled.
"Chrom!" Robin called, causing him to still in Henry's grip.
"It's okay. They're the only people here who don't want to kill us. It's probably best if we go with them." Her voice rasped, and the world seemed to flicker in and out, the waters still thrumming from Tharja's spell. She tugged at Robin's arm, pulling her down and leading her into the city. The buildings quickly rose up to hide them from sight, and Robin, drained from everything, limply followed along.
"But… What about Emm-?" Chrom's whispers faded in and out. In answer Robin's head lolled to the side; she just glimpsed Emmeryn, still laying limp against Validar… But alive. At least for the moment.
-o-o-o-
Validar watched as the rebels melted away, into the depths of the city. His guard milled around him, confused and crippled. Their blood mingled with the rust coming off their weapons and armor, adding to the chaos and roil.
The taste of iron spurred a red-hot anger in him, and Validar turned on the fleeing attackers. He prepared to lob a spell at the retreating Mer, as a parting gift that would hopefully part one of them in the process-
But the magic didn't come, only giving a few feeble sparks across his palm.
"What-!?" He growled in disbelief. But his magic wouldn't return.
'Impossible. There isn't another Mer in these waters who can match my magic-' Any Mer who could possibly approach his level were either dead, or well under his command. Even the rogue Mer rebels, as much as they resisted, had only been graced by a fluke of luck that kept them out of his reach.
'So who could stop my power?'
His spells had been shattered, torn from his hands by the force of the attack. The girl they'd captured slumped in her bonds, weakly tilting her head back and forth as the sounds tried to pierce her fogged mind.
"Wh-at…?" She whispered, her words still broken.
His own words seemed to have deserted him as well, seeping out with his blood.
He shivered as the note echoed in the water; most of its strength was spent, but it was determined to linger like a stubborn chill in his bones. He remembered the first blast of sound, almost like a scream from the abyss itself-
'Wait.'
He'd heard that spell and that voice once before. It had come from the depths of the rift circling Plegia.
"Lord Validar?" Came Mustafa's voice, thick with pain from his own wounds. "What on earth was-?"
Validar didn't answer him at once, marveling over the force that shattered his magic. Such a thing could only come from one source… from Grima itself.
A grin formed on Validar's face, followed by a chilling laugh.
"Lord…?" From the caution in Mustafa's voice, he seemed to half expect Validar to wheel around and turn on him. Validar let his hands fall to his side, even though his grin didn't diminish.
"We'll put a stop to our ceremonies for now. The storms have gotten a boost of strength." Validar turned his head from the choppy surface, glancing over his captive for a moment. She would have to live until a more opportune time, when his people could gather again.
'But all will work to Grima's plans and wishes. Our patience is being rewarded.'
"It seems fortune has favored us with an unexpected gift. I want you to find those who disrupted the ceremony… But don't kill them, under ANY circumstance."
"You're giving them mercy? To rebels?"
"Not rebels, General. It seems a wayward child has finally found her way back home."