Chapter 18
Small Mer Seas
o—o—o
18 February 1985
"Look at this," Harry sung as he held up a small object towards me.
On closer inspection the crystal sphere seemed to hold a small coral home with little moving fish that swam about. It seemed to be the Mer equivalent of a snow globe. Harry was happily working his way through the small stall, picking up every single sphere and studying the animations within them. I looked for a price while he made his way through the merchandise, but nothing appeared to be listed at the stall or on the spheres.
We had spent the morning on a balloon ride over Luxor before finishing up our tour on the Nile with a trip to the Temple of Hatshepsut. Then we had set off to the Mediterranean in an airship, our destination was the grand Mer city of Erdra in the Adriatic. It was the night before Carnival and we had plans to celebrate in both Venice and Erdra.
This day is associated with traditions that date back thousands of years to pagan celebrations of spring and fertility, including Saturnalia and Lupercalia, as well as more modern celebrations like Mardi Gras and Shrove Tuesday. Carnival, as they call it in Italy, had also become a day of celebration between the Mer of the Mediterranean and the surrounding magical communities because of the pact between them.
When the lands surrounding the Adriatic Sea were torn apart by war, the magical humans found a way to unite and formed a peaceful pact between themselves and the Mer. Then as the witch hunts began, magical beings retreated into hiding, the larger communities along the west and north of the Adriatic banded together to form a single magical community. The areas of Italy and Greece opted to remain separate and observe the borders as prescribed by non magicals, but were still considered allies.
A century ago, the magical communities and the Mer renewed their pact, allowing humans to visit the underwater city and villages of the Mer. The Chief of the Mer was enthusiastic about the idea, and the communities worked together to establish the Grand Resort in Erdra, which became a popular destination for magical people from all over the world. The Tuesday of Shrovetide was the biggest day of celebration, marking the signing of the pacts after weeks of smaller parties.
"Excuse me," I sung to the mer at the register, "How much are these?"
I had read about the interesting development of currency in the Mer population. They had started as a barter system hundreds of years ago, but as the humans they interacted with moved more towards metal bars and pieces for money they had to adapt in order to continue their association. They still had a mainly barter system between themselves, using the prescribed metal that humans found value in to purchase or trade with them. When humans began using paper more and more as time went on, they had to adapt again. It was actually a major undertaking, they researched human currency systems all over the world and decided that they would make a non currency.
"Loo, Morro Dedra, it is the colors which tell the pricing of objects in Erdra. Half a bar is the white color here and then you have the different hues for each bar number," patiently sung the Mer at the stall. Harry and I were in a practice dome and the Mer here were perhaps more understanding of such clumsiness while we learned to work with our Safety Nets.
The Mer had figured out a way to recreate, improve even, the way that gillyweed worked. All one had to do was wear a sarong that looked like thick strung netting, wrapped around the waist and secured with a large silver buckle. It only went to the knee, but it would help us swim in a more Mer way in addition to the other attributes.
I couldn't help but wonder why the Safety Nets weren't used during the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. As it turned out, the Nets were too valuable and labor intensive to be given away or even bought. Attempting to steal one would result in forceful pursuit by the surrounding magical communities, and if it could not be recovered, the thief would be required to work off the debt with hard labor under the direction of the Chief of the Mer. The current debt was equivalent to 205 years of labor.
I looked around the stall and understood just how stupid I had been with my clumsy question.
Coming from a future where money was not tied to gold, or any other fixed valuable of physical origin, the Mer's non currency made perfect sense. They basically invented eCurrency, which used to be called crypto currency, several decades early. The Mer ran a completely digital currency without having anything digital, just magical. Instead, their bank held small amounts of Goblin and human money for exchange and a long detailed system of magical accounts for visitors to put the crypto currency into.
The real problem was less the currency and more with the travel guides that had described the color based number system for each bar. There was a nice graph with each color pictured and their numerical value for Mer, Goblin, and British Muggle currencies. But I could see that there was no tag, no sticker, no little plaque which featured the colors in an order that I could then practice deciphering and parsing into numbers. When the shopkeep pointed it out to me I felt incredibly stupid. Why would they have such things in this completely different environment? The only reason they called their currency bar was because that was how humans on the surface had first introduced them to it. When would the Mer have been introduced to price tags?
Instead there were little ribbons that floated upwards in the water, displaying the different prices for each section of the stall. They were waving in the current letting anyone who wasn't an absolute moron know that most of the spheres were only four and a half bars. A perfectly reasonable price, if I did the math right. Even if I didn't, we were still getting one.
It was good that the resort had more than just swimming practice at this Safety Net introduction. This way even people who thought they had read enough, could do silly things and be corrected without anyone feeling insulted. Harry and I had met with the rest of our tourist group in the lobby just a short while after arriving in Erdra to start our lessons.
"Thank you all for being prompt," our host had said before we set out into the practice domes. "My name is Luca and you will be seeing a lot of me during your stay here at the Grand Resort of Erdra." Having only read the name of this grand city, instead of hearing it, I learned at that moment I had been mispronouncing it. Luca said "Air Truh," the rolling of the "r" causing it to sound more like a "t" and not at all like what I had thought.
Which meant when we arrived and exchanged our money for a shiny bronze colored disc about the size of my palm that could be used with the registers at various stalls, I had made a fool out of myself by mispronouncing the name of the city.
"If you have any questions or concerns," he continued, "feel free to approach me about them. Now, these are the Nets that you will be able to use during your stay with us. These must be returned before you leave or the consequences will be most unpleasant."
Harry and I followed Luca as he lead our group of twenty or so towards a smaller dome. The whole resort was made up of interconnecting domes, webs of colorful magical coral with clear shielding in between. We could make out fish and merpeople swimming around outside the barrier. It looked as though the resort just continued, people in the sarong like Nets could be seen milling about in the waters as well.
It was amazing what this Mer magic could do!
The vast Mer city was hidden with special magics that they had crafted, both to hide it from others and to allow for it to be so large. When we had arrived, we weren't sure if the magics would interfere with our suitcase. Just in case, we had taken out the clothing and things we would need while we were here. We weren't doing too much the first day, just checking in and doing our Safety Net training. Mer magic was a complete unknown to me and that made me cautious.
As we entered a small corridor, the door closing behind us, Luca handed each of us our own Net and assisted us in putting them on properly. There was barely a couple feet of water in the hall, but once we were all properly dressed for our drills the water began rising.
"As you'll notice the Loo Ba, or Safety Net, will alter your natural buoyancy," Luca sang, "Simply allow yourself to be surrounded by the water as it flows into the corridor."
Speaking with the Loo Ba on was very different as well. The Nets had complex magics that allowed all of us to understand each other underwater, regardless of our native languages, but Harry and I had learned to speak Mermish at the Euro-Glyph School as one of the four languages we learned before leaving. This allowed us to speak in what definitely felt like a more natural way. But even in the air, as the water rose, all of us had an additional melodic sound reverberating through our words when we spoke.
Harry and I had been practicing with water since the beginning of our holiday. We were ready for this adventure and the new pool waiting for us at home. But that didn't mean the natural inclination towards panic when one is being slowly surrounded by water wouldn't pop up. The slight twitching and agitated mumbles from the rest of the group attested to the discomfort of the others. Luca seemed prepared for this, however, and was slowly making his way through the crowd, speaking all the while to calm everyone as we submerged for the first time.
With the children being so much shorter than the adults, Luca had recommended that we all crouch to our children's height. This made the whole experience much more bearable for me as I could simply hold Harry and close my eyes while the water overtook us, his dyed blond hair brushing against my face. The waiting would have gotten to me otherwise.
Once we were all submerged, and calm, the door on the other side of the corridor opened up and Luca herded us through. It was difficult to figure out how to swim. My legs and arms seemed almost thicker, though they did not appear to have changed physically. Instead of the more conventional up and down kicking I was used to, Luca was encouraging us to swim with a side to side motion. It was more fish like in nature, but it must only work by magic for surely the motion wouldn't propel us like it did without magic.
Out in a large dome, fully submerged, we began trying to get the basics down. We would only be able to visit the rest of the city after passing our Safety Net class. I had hoped that Harry and I could do a small tour that night, though I thought it might be difficult with all the festivities.
Harry and the other children seemed to catch on a bit faster than the adults. While the other adults and I tried to figure things out the children were left to watch us struggle.
Finally getting the hang of things, I went over to encourage Harry to play with me. It would allow us to gain better dexterity and confidence in the water. We spent some time talking in our musical voices before eventually going off to play. Apparently, Harry had noticed a young mer outside the dome watching us as we practiced. He was very excited to get the chance to meet some mer in person.
"Wonderfully done," sung Luca, his voice even more melodic in the water thanks to the Loo Ba. "Now that everyone has gotten more accustomed to the use of the Loo Ba we will move further into the submerged domes of the resort. This will allow you to interact with others and explore in a more controlled environment. After an hour, we will reconvene in this practice dome before going back into the main air dome. We want to ensure that you are capable and comfortable with leaving submerged environments as well."
The seller of the Mer snow globe equivalent tapped in the number total into her register and I touched my currency disc to it for the transfer. It was very advanced as far as money exchange and currency systems went for the time period, perhaps without anyone realizing just how ahead of the times they were. Afterall, people still used cheques to pay for groceries when they didn't have enough cash on hand.
After paying for Harry's little globe, we had an interesting few moments of trying to figure out how to swim and carry things at the same time.
As our little group floated through a selection of stalls and vendors, Luca was making sure to check in on everyone and answering their questions. While Harry and I were looking over some interesting foods, we overheard a conversation between Luca and the parents of a small family.
"What is this Loo Moo Row Day tRa that they keep saying to us?"
Luca explained that the translation spells don't always have a similar enough word to translate, sometimes the original word is left as is. For instance, the Mer word for both "hello" and "goodbye" is "Loo," which is why the Safety Nets are called "Loo Ba," meaning "Hello Friendly/Trader/Upperworlder." Luca clarified that because there is no direct translation for the Mer word in their language, it remains as "Loo Ba."
The use of "Morro Dedra" is a part of the respectful culture of the Mer. The Mer have a unique way of identifying each other that differs from many cultures in the upper world. They address each other and others by their full name, except for family members or romantic partners. It would be considered extremely impolite to call someone by any other name or to shorten someone's name without their permission. Additionally, the Mer refer to people they don't know as "Morro Dedra," meaning "Customer" or "Guest" and "from far away" or "from a foreign place." Until a relationship is established they would continue to refer to visitors like us in such a formal and polite manner. The other way around was for the customer to address the person working as "Tahmen."
There was suddenly what would have passed for a gasp, if any of us were breathing air at the moment, and my elbow was tugged down to a more Harry friendly level by the little boy himself. Following his gaze, I saw a small mer making his way through the stalls. It was odd because, unless they worked at the stalls, this part of the resort was solely for teaching humans how to maneuver through the underwater environment and very few mer would be here for any other reason.
"Uuurm," the little mer stumbled when it got closer to us. I was a little anxious of someone who would seek Harry out so intentionally, but some random kid was very unlikely to be trying to kill him or report back to his enemies.
I decided to try out the proper Mer greeting that I had recently learned. "Loo," I said gently, and Harry quickly followed suit.
"Hello!" the mer loudly and excitedly exclaimed. He introduced himself as Ruvyn Rophyra, enunciating each word carefully and slowly. Despite his awkwardness, I found him adorable and tried to suppress a smile.
Harry gave a smile and a wave that the little mer, Ruvyn Rophyra, returned clumsily. There was a slight chortle and shuffling movement from behind me, when I looked the shopkeep had turned away to organize another part of their stall. When I turned back, Harry and Ruvyn Rophyra had already started a stilted conversation about the things we had seen in this practice marketplace.
"... I was going to swim out to get a Spresso from Tassarion Elawraek. She makes the best Spresso. Don't think they have much choice of food here, you're better off waiting to get to the real market, I think."
"What's a Spresso," Harry asked his new acquaintance.
"Well, you have liquid drinks and things on the land, right?" Harry nodded. "We live in liquid. So that's not something we can really do. Instead we have these cube type shaped things that are squishy and filled with flavor. Spresso is my favorite."
Harry looked up at me with a quizzically hopeful expression.
"From what I read in our books, most of the food has a gelatin like structure to it. It's like jellies that taste like dinner. Or in the case of Spresso, taste like coffee. That was an interesting tangent the book went on, how food flavors of the upper world influenced the Mer culinary world."
"Very well done everyone," came the booming voice of Luca over the market. "This ends the marketplace portion of our Safety Net class. We will now make our way back to the air dome, allowing you to experience the reentry in a controlled and regulated way. After that you will have officially passed and be allowed to move around freely. Please, do not forget to return your Loo Ba at the end of your visit to the city. You will not like what happens if you forget. Follow me this way please, back towards where we started earlier."
"I can meet you at the official entrance point?" Ruvyn Rophyra offered. "I was going to go out to the best stalls anyway. I'm officially allowed to, all by myself, but I could show you where they are. If you wanted?"
With Harry looking up at me so hopefully, how could I say no?
o—o—o
As the kid wove us through the watery crowds of the true marketplace, I wondered at my growing anxiety. The markets of Egypt had surely been just as crowded, why become anxious about a crowd now?
After the panic attack - and very small mental breakdown - I had on our dahabiya tour of the Nile, the overwhelming sensations had again receded. Perhaps it was the underwater nature of the square that made it feel more inescapable. Though, the children were having fun and the mood of the crowd was happy anticipation. But I kept catching quick movements from the corner of my eyes, causing adrenaline to unfurl in an effort to be ready for action.
Perhaps I had hit my wall. It took me long enough, I suppose. I had counseled others who had worked with me to gather information during the war when they hit their wall.
When living in such a heightened sense of panic and danger became too much for them to take. The small quick movements of innocent strangers. The unexpected noises. The people who got in the way of easy exits. A lot had happened to me since I died, decades from now, and woken up as a whole new person. It was all starting to catch up with me. I was being more jumpy than was reasonable.
It was the song.
That was what the big difference was between the crowded markets and tourist spots we had visited, the song.
Markets and gathering places were often noisy, but in the Agorin everyone was speaking Mermish. Or rather they were singing it. Though Mermish sounded like screeching above water, when spoken underwater it caused everything to have a melodic quality. Those of us wearing the Loo Ba were having our native languages translated to Mermish so that we could understand each other. The Loo Ba translation causing a jarring contrast against the songs of the native Mer. Though, because Harry and I could actually speak Mermish, our speech was more like that of the merpeople around us.
I floated for a moment and listened intently while the boys were busy looking through Celebration Day favors. It was quite peculiar to hear what amounted to the music of Babymetal, Irving Berlin, Oasis, and Deviant Souls– their greatest hits being played all at once, but at somehow softer volumes. As though they were each their own intense accents in song. My brain was picking up on and freaking out over the strangeness of the conflicting melodies. I didn't even know how to begin trying to cope with such a deviation from my norm.
"And this one will let out light in different patterns. I like the blue ones."
"Can we get one?" Harry asked me.
I did try to smile at him, but it must have come out more like a grimace since Harry shrunk into himself and looked away. Obviously anxiety was being confused as anger, which was totally understandable given his background. But Sweet Fanny Adams I did not want to go into an overly emotional discussion with the child in front of his new friend in a large crowd of singing beings. I took a deep breath in, realized as I exhaled that this was not actually breathing, and then nearly had an existential crisis as to why I felt the need to breathe while underwater.
"I don't think we can use those inside the resort," I said as I shook my head. "It might be better to make sure anything we purchase is allowed."
Harry gave a nod and looked up at me with a shy smile. I counted it as a win.
"You do have some spending money left, since we didn't spend much in Luxor this morning. For right now, let's not get anything that seems to be explosive like fireworks. There's plenty here and we will have plenty of time to look around, a whole week, so if you decide you want something later the stalls will still be up until the end of the month. We can just come back."
Harry nodded, but Ruvyn Rophyra just shrugged and moved on to the next thing that he thought was the greatest thing ever. I tried to relax a little bit more, but the anxiety was still churning beneath the surface. I really needed to not be in the middle of this cacophony.
"Ruvyn Rophyra, is there somewhere that's a little less chaotic? There's an awful lot of people around…"
"Oh, sure. Tassarion Elawraek has a stall and the shop has a little area to eat at, it won't be so busy over there. But there's still waaay more people than normal 'cause of the Celebration."
"Well, maybe we should go and try that Spresso you were talking about earlier. What do you say?"
As the kid quickly led us away, I kept trying to not have a melt down. There was too much to process and my brain was quickly calling it quits. My stomach turned, as I realized I had effectively come out without any weapons in a thin disguise so that the Loo Ba wouldn't have any interference. We hadn't even worn our Fabulousa charms, just used a temporary dye on our hair, and it was packed with magical people crowded against the mer.
"Here it is!" proclaimed Ruvyn Rophyra, his arms thrown wide to show off the stall in a patch of more open waters. Tassarion Elawraek's food stall was obviously not as temporary as the colorful ones nearer to the resort. Where those had seemed almost like tents set up on concrete blocks, this was made of shining coral with shields in between to create windows into the shop. The oranges and pinks of the building created an intricate web dome and, as we entered, I was distracted enough by the stray thought of colors at this depth to calm down. The Loo Ba magically affect the eyes so that we can "see" underwater, but colors rely on the amount of light that can be refracted off the surface of an object. Would we even be able to see the bright colors on the outside of the shop without the Loo Ba? What would the colors be if we saw them on the surface?
As Harry pulled me into the shop, my brain quieted from its anxious state and I was able to give a real smile as I looked around the interior. Who would have thought a coffee shop under the sea would look just like any other coffee shop on the surface? It almost looked like a Starbucks. There were high pedestal like tables with bar chairs, though the chairs had a cushioned ring around it to create a low backing. It was much more peaceful here. I felt as though I could finally relax. I slowly realized that I had misunderstood him, he had led us to the real shop instead of the stall he had wanted to visit.
"Loo, Ruvyn Rophyra!" sung a large mer with a fascinating collar of tattoos that seemed to mimic the shop's coral dome.
"Loo, Faraine Balharice! I brought some upper worlders with me. They are called Ingrid Weber and Christian Fischer."
"Loo, Morro Dedra! Welcome to our shop, Ingrid Weber and Christian Fischer."
"Loo, Tahmen. Ruvyn Rophyra has been showing us around the Agorin. My grandson and I have been quite appreciative, but I needed to be away from the big crowds for a bit of rest."
"That is very nice of Ruvyn, it is the first Celebration Day he has been old enough to wander on his own. Good that he has made a friend, even better that he has made a good impression. We have a wonderful assortment of Mer delights here at Neremyn Beigeiros. My partners and I make everything ourselves. I am glad that you have come to the shop, instead of making your way to the stall that Tassarion is working nearer to the center of the Agorin. It is very popular during Celebration and would be too much for you perhaps."
As the mer spoke they motioned us closer to the counter, which looked very much like a bakery in appearance. Under domed glass were a rainbow of colors in all different shapes and sizes. Some were small squares that looked like Turkish Delight, some were the size of eggs and a mix of colors that would fit in with Robert Delaunay's later works. Colors that were magically moving. There were little plaques next to each of them describing the food, probably made just for the confused and clumsy upper worlders. I could see that the Spresso was the most popular as it came in a variety of flavors. Spresso with caramel flavor, Spresso with mocha flavor, Spresso with spice flavor.
"How do you get the caramel into the those little cubes, Tahmen?"
"Oh, we didn't use to have so many flavors. We have to trade with the upper worlders to get them. Spresso was the first ever upper world flavor to become popular with all the Mer. Over, maybe… two decades? We have been bringing more flavors in through our contacts in the upper world magic communities. They make the caramel and put it in the dispenser. The dispenser comes down to us and we can put it all together to make a mim or lat of whatever."
"What's a mim?" Harry asked in a very shy voice.
Faraine Balharice gave a little chuckle and reached over take out two of the Spresso treats, the one that was the size of a Turkish delight and the other twice as tall. "A mim is the little one, the lat is the bigger one. They don't have to be cubes, though. I've got all shapes and sizes. Gotta keep it pretty and interesting, wouldn't want to get boring."
"It's about volume then?" I asked, trying to think if it would be acceptable for such a young child to have a mim of Spresso. If it was anything like the Starbucks drinks I was used to, it was probably more sugar than actual coffee. Not that it was better, but it would be a dessert treat instead.
"Yes, yes. The mim Spresso, it is maybe roughly a small size drink for most countries. Ruvyn here is not allowed to have a lat of Spresso, for instance. But he can have a mim if he wants one."
"Yes, please Faraine Balharice," came the sheepish reply. From the looks exchanged between them, I got the feeling he may have thought to try and get away with a larger size. "And a morriel with the pickled urchin please."
A long, thin rectangular plate appeared from behind the counter and the small mim of Spresso was placed in one corner. On the other side of the plate the morriel was added, it looked like wrapped Lembas bread to be honest. The square of green leaves hid within it, what the plaque described as, "the sandwich of the sea."
"Do you see anything you would like to try Christian?" Harry pointed to a small softly glowing sphere that had moving yellow and pink swirls lazily drifting on a soft white cloud. The plaque read, "Hot Stuff! Fire Coral is fermented with an upper world hot pepper before being mixed into Momer dough with Yellow Sparkling Jahma."
"Those are real spicy," said Ruvyn Rophyra. "I tried one once and it was way too much fire for me."
"Well, Christian does like spicy food so I think he can have one to try. And then how about one of those morriel? I'm going to get the one with wakame and crab. This green crystal shaped one sounds interesting too, a Spirulina and Pakkha melon mim for me."
"I think I want the Sole with… uhh- Pickled Thin Sliced Squid," said Harry slowly while pointing to the morriel. "Can I have a Spresso too? Please?"
"Okay, we will each have one mim of Spresso too." Looking back up to place our orders, I found that they were already laid out for us on the counter. Swimming over a little to the register, I paid for our food. "Thank you so much, Tahmen."
"Of course, welcome to Erdra. I hope that your stay during the Celebrations is very enjoyable."
Harry and I carefully kept hold of our plates as we swam behind Ruvyn Rophyra towards one of the tables. The chair was high enough so that the mer could easily relax to eat without worrying about their long tails getting in the way. The cushion on the chairs, that I had seen when we came in, was not in anyway a cushion as I had known it before. It was almost what I imagined an anemone might be like if one were a clown fish, it verged on being a short fluffy tuffet with a curved back that hugged us into the seats.
I watched as Ruvyn Rophyra got down to the business of eating. I wasn't entirely sure if I was supposed to remove the leaves on the outside of the "sandwich of the sea" and was glad to watch him nibble on his own morriel so that I knew to leave them on. The leaves on the outside were probably some type of seaweed and, though they looked perfectly preserved, they had become a gel like substance wrapped around the fillings of the morriel. Beneath the gel was the momer dough, which I knew was used in many of their foods, it was the consistency of mochi dough and probably helped to hold the flavors together. The crab and wakame was mixed with some type of thick spread inside of the momer. Taking small nibbles as I figured out how to eat underwater with the magical changes provided by the Loo Ba, I enjoyed a few moments of calm.
This was exactly what I needed. There were some who were softly conversing over their food, but the noise level was significantly reduced and the shop itself seemed to be just over half full. Harry was happily munching on his Fire Coral bun, each bite pushing the magical coloring into faster waves of color. I took an experimental nibble of the bright green crystal I had gotten with my meal. It had a very honeydew and floral taste to it and the consistency reminded me of jelly babies or maybe kohakutou. A sort of harder jelly that would crumble.
Harry finished the remnants of his Fire Coral bun and picked up his mim of Spresso. I picked up my own and we tried them at the same time. It was pleasant, but it had a more milk and sugary taste than espresso. We smiled at each other before we turned our attention back to the morriels.
It didn't take us long to finish up the lovely little meal. It was a great introduction to the food of the Merpeople in the Adriatic, even if the reason for it was to find a calmer place away from the crowds. Learning to eat in the underwater environment wasn't as difficult as I had worried. Magic is wonderful. But having finished meant we would need to go back out into the crowd and I wasn't certain that I could manage that with how I had reacted earlier.
"I think we have time to see one more stall before we head back into the resort. We have a very full day planned for tomorrow. What do you want to show Christian the most Ruvyn Rophyra?"
"Well… I was going to go and see what kind of nugen Nakiasha Perran has at their stall. They always make sure to keep the very best and most interesting looking ones to sell during Celebration."
"What's a nugen?"
The mer looked contemplative for a moment before responding to Harry. "It's a small animal that lots of kids have as pets. But I don't know if upper worlders have them at all."
"A pet shop? That sounds like fun, what do you think Christian? Do you want to go with Ruvyn Rophyra to look at pets?"
Harry smiled and nodded. We waved at Faraine Balharice and thanked them again on our way out.
The noise of different songs increased as we got closer to the main, touristy part of the Agorin. Aware of what had caused my brain to put me into an anxious high alert, I was able to keep myself calmer and began to enjoy the little adventure more than I had earlier. Harry and the kid swam a little ahead, talking of this and that, with Harry looking over his shoulder for me on occasion. His blond hair made quite the difference in appearance, no matter what my paranoia was trying to tell me. The tourists around us could have been British tourists and they wouldn't recognize The Boy Who Lived with wild blond hair whisping around him as he turned his head this way and that, taking in all the sights of the Celebration.
"Ruvyn Rophyra!" boomed a loud voice from beneath a colorful awning.
As the three of us got closer I could tell that the mer had a rough braid of colors wrapped around their abdomen that matched the colors of their stall. According to our books on the Merpeople of the Adriatic, this braid was the traditional wrap for a master. I was fascinated at getting to meet a master, regardless of what they were master of, and tried to keep myself from asking a dozen questions before even being introduced.
"Loo Nakiasha Perran! These are my new friends Ingrid Weber and her grandson Christian Fischer. We just came from Neremyn Beigeiros. They had our food for the very first time ever!"
"Loo, Morro Dedra!" Nakiasha Perran sung, laughing at Ruvyn Rophyra's obvious exuberance. "Welcome to our stall, Ingrid Weber and Christian Fischer. We have plenty of colorful nugen for the discerning tastes of every being."
Harry and I swam closer and took a careful look at these small pets. They were no bigger than Harry's hand and there was a wide variety of colors. They floated in small clear boxes that had bits of coral and vegetation in them. Their jelly like bodies rippled and many had what appeared to be eyestalks or thick antennae.
"What exactly is a nugen, Tahmen?"
"They are a special magical breed of sea slug, though the proper term for this specific group is nudibranch. We specially bread the mundane slugs with magical slugs to acquire fascinating colors. This one for instance, it is a cross with a dorid nudibranch called Hexabranchus sanguineus which literally means blood-colored six-gills. But often it is known as the Spanish Dancer for how this flat round red slug can dance in its movements across the waters. It's one of our larger pets."
The boys were very seriously discussing the benefits of one colored sea slug over the other. From what I could overhear, Ruvyn Rophyra had been given permission to buy his first pet and was having difficulty deciding on which one to get.
"If you don't mind me asking, Tahmen," I started carefully, "I read that this braiding means you are a master of a subject. Is it specific to what you do for your business?"
"Aye, ya ya. My mastery is in the breeding and care of nugen. One of my partners has a mastery in trade, which perhaps is different for upper worlders. It is the exchanging of goods. One must know a very many things about very many things to have such a mastery. She helps to make sure that the business part of the business continues on properly."
"That's so interesting. I'm involved in creatures myself and have found that the business part can be difficult to maintain when your focus is so much on the creatures. You said one of your partners, does your other partner have a different mastery?"
"Ah, politicians. Not so interesting as nugen," they said with a hearty laugh. "He is a guild mer through and through. I know this is different from what upper worlders often consider the norm."
"The norm for politicians? Well, I suppose you could call the different parties guilds and it wouldn't really change much."
"That's not exactly what I meant–"
"Gran can I get a nugen? Look at this purple one it looks like it's glowing!"
"Wow, that's amazing Christian. But I don't think we would be able to take such good care of a sea creature back home. Especially, with our other pets. I'd think they would also be sad to be so far from the sea. If you really want a pet, ask again in a year or so and we can talk about it then."
"Ruvyn did your maahm and daah decide you could get a pet finally?"
"I'm five revs already, Nakiasha Perran and responsible enough to finish my lesson ones all on my own. I even get to go to Celebration by myself. They are very impressed with how capable I am."
The older mer gave the young kid a thoroughly unimpressed look before shaking his head.
"That's wonderful Ruvyn, but your maahm Amrynn Qijeon and your daah Faelyn Yelgeiros would have my tail if I let their only breached kid get a nugen without their explicit permission."
Ruvyn Rophyra had a pout that could melt hearts in a wide radius, but it appeared to not work on the nugen seller at all. He must be immune.
"Oh, alright. They will let me though."
"Of course," Nakiasha Perran said with little conviction. As the boys went back to their fantasies about the pets they wished they could have, we gave a little knowing look to each other. "Kids these days. Though, do upper worlders call their young kids? Always confused me."
"Some do," I replied, "Though there are plenty of other words to use instead. I did a little prep work before we came to Erdra to read up on culture, so I at least knew that you called your young kids and how the money system worked. That sort of thing. Most of my prep was planning out what to do during our stay."
"There's the obvious Celebration activities, but you should also see our History Center at the Learning Annex."
"It's on my list for after Celebration Day. I thought it would be a nice easy, calm thing to do after all the excitement we have packed into that day."
"That it is and if you do– OoOp Ruvyn Rophyra I think someone is trying to get your attention!"
Coming towards us was a mer that appeared to be the same age as Nakiasha Perran. The braid around them was made of bright silver, an unusual color in such a colorful world. Their hair was in long braids past their elbows, with white and silver beads in artful arrangements.
"Thought I might find you here Ruvyn," they said in a deep song.
"Daah! Come meet my new friend!"
The kid pulled Harry out from where he was examining a bright pink and green nugen, bringing him closer to the mer that was apparently his father.
"Loo," Harry said sheepishly before looking towards me for help.
"Loo, I'm Ingrid Weber and this is my grandson Christian Fischer. It's very nice to meet you."
"Loo, Ingrid Weber and Christian Fischer. I'm the daah of Ruvyn Rophyra, if you couldn't tell. I am called Faelyn Yelgeiros."
"My daah is the best in the whole city for lusters and when I grow up enough I get to help in the shop too. But I'm not old enough yet, I can't carry the heavy vessels or make my own runes. But I will be soon."
"That's neat. What's a luster? Is it jewelry?"
"Lusters," Faelyn Yelgeiros interjected between two excited boys who probably should not have been given Spressos after all, "are memory magics. A silvery liquid held within a bubble that contains the knowledge of a skill without the actual memory of acquiring it."
"Like languages!" Harry yelped delightedly. I covered my mouth to hide the snort of laughter that escaped, he was just so excited. "Before we started our trip we learned lots of languages very fast."
"It actually does sound similar," I confirmed to the slightly confused looking adult mer. "It was a silver potion based off memories, but we only have the knowledge of the language skill and not the memories of learning it the hard and slow way."
"I didn't realize that upper worlders were using memories in the same way. It's not really a secret, we just aren't overly inclined to share it. Every Mer in the world learns with lusters."
"That's incredible. If you're all learning everything as quickly as Christian and I learned our languages your depth of knowledge must be astounding."
"It's not as simple as just eating the knowledge, not really. You have to work with it too," said Nakiasha Perran.
"Take young Ruvyn for instance. He just finished his lesson one test today. I saw your maahm before heading out. She said it went well." Ruvyn did a classic little kid shrug that could imply any number of generic things regarding school. "It's important to physically use the knowledge, so Ruvyn did a basket today with provided tools. The lusters for the lesson one test include knowledge of art, art history, cultural and social reasoning behind art, and the knowledge of how to actually physically create a piece of art. He needed to be able to incorporate that information and be creative enough to make something that was his own."
"That's the most important part to me," said Nakiasha Perran as they touched him gently on the arm. "If all you do is keep up the knowledge that you have instead of taking it and creating more, then the whole of civilization falls."
As they were nodding sagely to each other, the children had gotten bored and wandered back over to the colorful wiggling pets. It was amazing that this little mer could get through to Harry so quickly. Perhaps it had been coming; during our trip I had tried to encourage him to interact more with the children we met. It was heartening and I hoped to encourage it even further, a merboy would be far outside the influence of Albus Dumbledore and the politics of Britain.
"Daah! Can Christian Fischer come to the house?"
The look on his daah's face convinced me that it was probably faster than usual for Ruvyn to make friends too. He looked curiously over at me for an answer.
"I wouldn't want to be an imposition. We should definitely make sure the kids can stay in contact though. I think Christian would love that."
"It's no imposition. But perhaps not before Celebration, there will still be interesting things going on for the rest of the month but it calms down considerably after then."
"YES!" cheered the young mer as he clapped Harry on the back. "You can eat at our place. Daah's food is the best. And you can meet my siblings, they haven't breached yet but I go talk to them in the noricerie all the time."
As they grinned at each other, I couldn't help but think of that famous line.
"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
o—o—o
