Black storm clouds followed Shiver as she left her taxi and crossed the bridge to the Balt Ralok estate, feeling like she had just handed their little group a major loss.

She'd thought she could handle Maiya, if she were careful, but she'd made numerous critical errors, errors so obvious and egregious she was disgusted with her past self every time she reviewed their discussion.

Shiver was used to playing the usual game of pretense, cryptic euphemisms, and every other mechanic of polite conversation used to draw threads of information from someone. But Maiya had refused to play the game; she'd been brutally straightforward and uncompromising. She'd also made it obvious that she cared nothing for Shiver's status or that of Deep Cut's other members. She'd treated her no differently than if she'd been the same as Tahlm or Neo.

She had compromised a little in the end, but she'd also made it clear she didn't have to. The most infuriating thing about their whole conversation was that she had let them hold onto the keys as a guarantee out of pity, PITY! As if she were giving them a consolation prize for failing to sell the keys, for failing to acquire anything for all their trouble.

And it's all my fault. I failed them and I made myself look like a fool in front of everyone.

Shiver had left shortly after Maiya, unable to stand the humiliation, especially after the girl had given Big Man and Frye those Squid Sister's key chains, not only flaunting her victory but making her seem magnanimous and generous. She was trying to undermine Shiver's position in the group. It was fiendishly clever. Shiver had underestimated her as nothing more than a predator, capable of violence but less adept to subtle social manipulation, and she had paid for it.

Shiver stomped up the stairs to the second floor. Tatya and Shasha were there, lounging on the couches, reading magazines. That seemed to be all they did these days.

Tatya looked up from her magazine and her eyes locked on Shiver. They flashed in a poor imitation of a predator showing their teeth.

"Finally home, Shiver? How have you been wasting time with your friends this morning? Trying to come up with more silly lyrics for radio jingles?"

Shiver was not in the mood to deal with her sisters right now, and had they only insulted her, she could have ignored that remark, but she had also insulted her friends, and after she had failed them today, she couldn't just let that slide.

She stopped, looked Tatya directly in the eye and said, "the jingles Big Man wrote in high school were more poetic and clever than any words that have ever come out of your mouth, Tatya. And while you've been sitting on that couch all day, waiting for me to arrive so you could treat me that remarkable wit you so aptly demonstrated, I've actually been out being productive and getting things done. As to what those are, I'll leave it to the shrimp wheel between your otoliths to figure out."

Shiver promptly left the room and headed into the hall, leaving her bewildered sister behind. She had no time for her.

Shiver went into her room, let down her bag and lay on her cushions, pressing her face into one of them and groaning into it.

She hated this. She was the one who was supposed to be in control, the one who helped their group get ahead. Deep Cut was doing a lot more than making radio jingles these days, but unless they became world famous, she doubted anyone in her family would pay attention.

"Why do I do this to myself? Why do I even care about what they think at this point?" Even if they were forced to respect her publicly, they would forever hate her guts. Her successes only drew more ire.

And after all that effort and risk tracking down the treasure only to hand it off to someone else for nothing. She'd dropped the ball completely.

No, I still have a chance to fix that. Maiya would have to get back to them to retrieve the key at some point, and while she probably wouldn't be able to renegotiate the deal, she might be able to work out something if she could learn more about Maiya.

"It's not over, not even close. I just need to find something I can use." She needed to profit from this somehow, for her friend's sake especially.

Not wanting to stay in her room anymore she got changed and prepared to head down to the shark pool. She left her room and headed back down the hall, finding Mother Tanta waiting for her, arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"Shiver, there you are. What excuse do you have for your behaviour?"

Shiver flicked a glance at Tatya, who wore a self-satisfied expression, though she wasn't smiling.

Shiver knew this game all too well. She was a nail, sticking out in a fit of defiance and non-conformity. Tatya had hurt herself trying to pound her down so she'd brought a bigger hammer.

But Shiver was done playing games. Her failure with Maiya had gotten her burned all because she had tried to play the usual game but when Maiya refused to play, she'd stumbled and fallen flat on her face. It was time for her to stop playing by rules that had failed to get her any results. Why should she care for their rules when they didn't even care about her or held themselves to the same rules.

Shiver maintained eye contact with Tanta, refusing to lower her head. "It was a response to her behaviour."

"Don't take that tone with me, you insulted her. Perhaps we need to have another discussion about yet another failure of Talyana's to instill proper behaviour into you."

"You're deflecting. Instead, consider accepting the problem and actually dealing with it, or has she simply been mimicking you?"

Tanta's eyes went wide and her lips parted, Shocked not only by the retort but the disrespect in it. The rules of the game demanded she wait for Tanta to recover and rebuke her for her offence but Shiver wasn't about to do that now.

She walked around Tanta to the stairs. Her foot was touching the first step by the time the stunned takenam managed to recover from her shock.

"Shiver Balt Ralok, don't you dare walk out on me! You will not treat your mother with such disrespect."

Shiver turned around and looked into Tanta's furious eyes. "A mother would have at least remembered her child's middle name," Shiver sneered. "If you can't even manage that after more than twenty years, I don't think you qualify, Nam Balt Ralok."

Shiver brought the end of her folded fan up under her jaw then flicked it out from under her chin, before descending the steps and ignoring the takenam's furious demands for her immediate return. She left the house feeling amazing.

There would be consequences for what she'd just done, serious ones. She honestly expected a thorough beating from Dentia, then maybe isolation for a while, but in that moment, she didn't care. She felt as if a weight had been taken off her shoulders, as if she were suddenly experiencing a whole new world.

I can see why Maiya does it this way. But it wouldn't work for every situation. It was a brutal, blunt force method and lacked much in the way of subtlety, but at least it was another tactic Shiver could use. When used properly it was devastatingly effective, as she knew to her cost, but the consequences could be just as brutal.

"I'll have to come up with a counter," she thought. "Dentia won't listen to reason, I'm just an eyesore to her, which means extortion or bringing my own bigger hammer."

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. No, there was no need to bring the hammer, the hammer was going to come to her.

Shiver was in the shark pen. She'd just finished feeding Master Mega and her reef sharks. She took the time to show them some much needed affection, rubbing their bellies and playing with them by dragging a chew toy along the surface with a long line.

She'd been there about two hours when she heard footsteps. They were slow and gentle, so they weren't guards. It was one of her grandmothers.

Marga Balt Ralok reached the bottom of the steps and took a moment to look around before she approached.

Shiver sensed no hostility from her or even anger. Of course, Babi Marga wouldn't be so transparent with her emotions, she was the wife of the lord, a leader in the community, someone raised and trained prior to the Empire's fall, even if she only married after arriving in Splatsville. She hoped her father's wives were not indicative of a generational problem.

Her grandmother quietly sat next to her, unbothered by Master Mega's presence, despite him showing his dorsal fin above the surface as he passed by.

"I wasn't sure exactly who they would send," Shiver said. Her voice sounded more calm than she felt.

"You've caused quite a stir in the house, Shiv'iky. Did something happen to you?"

Shiver winced, feeling a clenching around her hearts. Calling her Little Shiver, her pet name, was something her grandmothers and mother did only in private and it was not the sort of address usually given to one in a whole lot of trouble. She was trying to get Shiver to lower her guard.

She sighed. "I'm just tired of it, Babi. They treat me like a punching bag, something to flex their egos on. They don't even pretend to treat me like family so why should I bother pretending anymore in return now that I'm an adult. I just refused to play their game and now they're throwing a tantrum."

"Shiver," her grandmother's tone adopted a maternal firmness she was all too familiar with. "You cannot go disrespecting your mothers like that. It reflects poorly on the whole family. Now I know you, you wouldn't do this purely on a whim. Something drove you to go this far. Was it really just them?"

Shiver uttered a soft groan, her grandmother knew her too well. "No, I suppose they did catch me on a rather bad day. I've been feeling a lot of stress with everything going on, but this has been building up for a while. Besides, I disagree that I was disrespecting my mothers. I only have one."

She sensed her grandmother tense up at her last words. Her eyes narrowed but her tentacles remained in position, though they were now only semi-relaxed.

"Shiver, that is a very serious thing you say."

"I know. The mothers are expected to treat all as their children and the children all as their mothers." Those were words she had learned at a very young age but never had she experienced them, so they felt hollow to her. "That isn't how it is in our family. My siblings might see Mama as a mother but the mothers do not see me as their child. I'm just an eyesore, a parasite or a virus in their eyes. I've just decided to stop pretending it's anything else."

For several minutes, her grandmother said nothing. She simply watched the sharks swim by. Was she trying to read them to understand Shiver's mood?

Finally, she said, "you know, you have a lot of your mother in you. When she was young she was fierce, fiery, spirited. She and Dentia were rivals, competing for the top spot among the kaaslan. Dentia was a better fighter but Talyana was a better house manager. They became very close, even before they married your father."

Shiver grimaced. "Please, Babi, I don't need to be told again how my existence ruined the otherwise perfect balance of the family. I'm reminded almost every day."

Slowly, her grandmother turned her head to look at her. It was a searching gaze, as if she were looking for something in her eyes.

"Shiver, did your parents never talk to you about that? About how it all happened? About how you happened?"

Shiver frowned. "What do you mean? Mother thought she was a kaaslan, she had a test that proved she was, but I ended up happening anyway. That's why everyone considers me a curse."

In a flash her grandmother's eyes turned to steel, the sudden change making Shiver flinch.

"No, Shiver, you are not a curse, you –"

"I know, you all keep telling me that, Babi, but that's how everyone else in the family sees me and treats me, except for Papa and Mama. I've never even met Mama's parents because they're ashamed of my existence and –."

Her grandmother raised a finger centimetres from Shiver's nose. "Don't interrupt."

Shiver bowed her head in apology, suddenly feeling a knot forming in her stomach. Something was wrong and she was afraid to find out what.

"Now, listen very carefully, Shiver, you are not a curse, you were planned."

Shiver frowned. "Huh? That doesn't make any sense."

"Because you have been given the wrong information. Your mother may have been a kaaslan but she was not among the blessed barren. She lied."

Shiver swallowed a lump in her throat. A cackling imp hammered a spear of ice deep into her guts. Of course, she had heard such rumours, they were abundant, but she'd never believed them. That went against everything she knew about her mother, a person who was the picture of integrity, who bore all manner of indignities for the sake of her family, for her daughter especially.

"That's impossible. The tests."

Her grandmother shuffled closer and wrapped an arm around Shiver's shoulders. "Your mother took the tests, yes, but the early ones were inconclusive. Later ones, apparently, showed she was capable of laying eggs. The odds of doing so successfully were low but they weren't zero."

Shiver bit her lip. She didn't like where this was going. "But, even so, perhaps she thought she was alright. If the odds were low then if she was careful she could easily avoid problems."

Her grandmother smiled ruefully. "Shiver, your mother does not need you to make excuses for her. Though that was what she tried to do. It worked for years and nobody knew she was faking it the whole time."

"Until she made a mistake?"

Her grandmother shook her head. "No mistake, she had you on purpose."

Shiver gaped. "What? No, that doesn't make any sense. I ruined her life, I destroyed the balance of the family, I caused her to be demoted from kaaslan to effectively a concubine. It brought shame and suspicion to her family. Why would she want that?"

"A very good question," her grandmother agreed. There was a distinct hardness to her voice. "But that is a question you must ask her yourself."

Shiver's head spun, memories rewriting themselves in her head, giving her new perspectives on countless past events, trying to sort them out.

"But… but in that instance, I shouldn't be a part of the clan. Mother should have been removed and turned into a servant."

Her grandmother began lightly stroking her head. Her eyes had a far off look. Shiver suspected she was reliving old memories.

"That is what usually happens, but your mother begged and pleaded us to reconsider. Even got your father to do so on her behalf, probably leveraging his love for you. I know society would frown on him giving you too much attention, but he does love you."

"But I was still incubating then," Shiver protested. "And there's no way mother begging would have convinced you."

"It most certainly did not. We all wanted to feed her to the sharks. You were the only thing that made us reconsider that. No, it was your father who convinced us, even offered to remove himself and let your uncle succeed your grandfather as head of the clan."

Shiver gaped. "What? Really? For me? Wait, but that's not how the succession works."

"Of course, and he was aware of that too, but he was desperate. He loved you and he wanted you to have all the opportunities and benefits of being a full member of the clan. Seeing your own son plead so hard with you for the life of his child, that kind of thing moves you, Shiv'iki."

Shiver looked down at her hands and suddenly realized how tightly clenched they were. She forced them open and flexed aching digits while her grandmother continued.

"In the end, we allowed your mother to stay in the clan and in the family, but she would be demoted to the bottom, though we made sure she would be cared for until you hatched.

"Your father had to spend a lot of time looking after her himself. Even the servants looked down on her. Dentia, now the only kaaslan in a family meant to need two, had to manage things on her own, and remember, your mother was the main house manager."

Shiver found herself shaking. Was it fear? Adrenaline?

"But Babi this still doesn't make any sense. What your saying is that my mother willingly put the whole family in turmoil, risked her own position and that of her own family to have me? What was so important that she would do that?"

Her grandmother exhaled deeply, staring at the surface of the water, watching it undulate. "As I said, you will have to get your mother to tell you the details, but the truth is she was just selfish. She wanted the status of a kaaslan but then tried to have her cake and eat it too. I wonder if she really expected things to turn out as badly for her as they did."

Shiver shuddered, and she was having to force back tears and sniffles. "Babi, that doesn't sound like Mother at all, she's the nicest most wonderful person I know."

Her grandmother chuckled bitterly. "Of course, to you. She's your mother and you are her daughter, but she betrayed us, Shiver, our trust in her. And then she manipulated her family's love and compassion to save herself from the consequences she deserved.

"There was nothing we could do for her family but we did try our best to see you as clan in more than just name."

She smirked and lightly pinched one of Shiver's tentacles between her fingers. "You didn't always make it easy, but in the end, I don't regret having you as part of the clan. You have made mistakes, but you are doing well now and I am very proud."

Shiver was torn between the pain of betrayal and heartfelt gratitude. A huge aspect of her world view had just been proven a lie, now everything looked sideways.

She didn't doubt her grandmother's words, she wasn't lying. Why would she lie now after more than twenty years? But she still struggled to accept that her mother would lie to her all this time, though it would explain a lot of how and why the others treated her mother the way they did.

"The others don't feel proud," Shiver said. "Other than Papa and Mama, they all hate me. Maybe it would have been better if we had gone the traditional route and not made me clan." She shook her head. "Then again, that might have just had them treating me even worse."

"We have often thought about it. Your mother seemed happier than she otherwise would have been but we were forced to watch you getting constantly mistreated.

"You see, we needed Dentia to agree in order to keep your mother and you in the clan. She did but in return we were expected to stay out of your family's affairs and let her run it as necessary to keep it together."

Her grandmother scowled, pain flashing through her eyes. "Probably the most regrettable thing we agreed to, honestly. We weren't wearing our best heads through that whole mess."

"That would explain a lot." Shiver said. "Especially since you all treated me so well. It never made any sense why you seemed to ignore what was happening to me."

"It's very messy business," Her grandmother agreed. "But that's what can happen when your become too focused on yourself. It creates messes like this with consequences for more than just you. It can even have repercussions well beyond what you can see."

That cackling imp levered the spear he'd driven into her body, the effect of the guilt now plaguing her about the whole mess with the vault. How could she, after all she'd just heard, after analyzing for herself what the consequences were, horde that information?

A resigned groan escaped her lips and she looked at her grandmother with a pained expression.

"Babi, I have something I need to tell you."

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what might that be?"

Shiver's head lowered in shame, unable to look her in the eye. "When I tell you, you might find yourself regretting having me in the clan after all."

"This is a disaster."

Rak held his head in his hands, staring at the grass weave mat beneath him. "How could this have happened? Why didn't she tell us sooner?"

Marga looked at him with sad eyes. Regret was written all over her face, as if she felt responsible for this.

"She was looking for recognition from her family. She wanted to try and get to the vault herself – well, with her friends. She thought if she did that she might have gotten some respect because it might have given us the leverage we needed against our enemies. Of course, she knows better now."

"She's only made it more difficult to respect her," Joolea commented. She looked saddened. "It's just like with her mother."

Marga looked at her sternly. "Shiver did what she did because she has been treated like dirt by people who should be her family, by takenam who are supposed to be her mothers. Yes, what she did was self-serving and foolish, putting the whole clan at risk in hopes of it benefiting her, but Talyana was nurtured. We treated her like family. Shiver was not, she was treated like a blight, and its our fault."

She fixed Rak and her fellow wives with a hard stare. "All she wanted was a little respect and acknowledgement of her achievements. And while we may have given her all the love we can, we have also allowed her to continue living in a toxic environment. The fact that she has grown up as well as she has is a miracle."

Octanna made a hissing noise. "We should have never made that compromise. Since she is a shark taming prodigy, keeping her in the clan was the right move, in retrospect, but we compromised too much with Dentia."

"My loves," Rak interrupted. "I know this is a discussion that will have to be had, but not now.

"If the Scrap Corporations get their hands on whatever's in that vault it could be over for us. The Ascendancy won't be able to get troops here overnight, and if they find something particularly valuable, the corporations could use that as justification to bring troops in from their home countries, under the excuse of securing valuable and potentially dangerous artifacts."

He looked among them, making sure his words were clear, then he asked Marga, "where is Shiver now?"

"Packing. She's going to spend a few days at the Onaga estate to let things cool down at home. She has a lot to sort out in her own mind." Her expression turned sour. "She didn't even know Talyana had lied about being barren. Poor girl was horrified when she realized she was making the same mistake her mother had."

"They never told her!"

"Joolea," Rak soothed. "Later.

"Marga, bring Shiver in here. We need to ask her some questions."

Marga nodded and stood, leaving the room to call a servant. Shiver arrived minutes later. Her eyes were a little veiny, a sign she'd been crying. It made Rak's soul ache seeing her like this but he couldn't go easy on her. He was her grandfather but also the head of the Balt Ralok clan. In this moment, that was what he needed to be.

"You've disappointed me, Shiver. I thought you were better than this."

Shiver knelt and hung her head. "I'm sorry, Grandfather. I have no excuse."

"No, you don't. You're all grown up now, Shiver, you are responsible for your own choices. You will have to be punished."

Shiver nodded, her tentacles curling at the tips before she brought them under control and forced them to relax again.

"But that will come at a later date. We have more pressing matters. What do you know about the vault and the activity there?"

Shiver sat up straight and finally met his gaze. She obviously didn't want to but she did so anyway. A bubble of pride swelled up in him. She was behaving just as she aught to, with dignity and grace. He saw signs of similar approval in his wives.

"The corporations are working together to dig up the vault and open it, only they don't have the key, I do. Well, our group does. They might still be able to get in without it but it will take a lot longer. I don't know what's inside."

"And how long have they been digging at this vault?"

"A few days, but they'd only gotten the roof clear when one of us checked the day before. It's down pretty far and clearing sand takes time to do properly. I also imagine the corporations are getting in each other's way a little bit. They may be working together but they don't trust each other."

"Of course. Anything else I should know?"

Shiver's eyes fell and her her expression darkened. "The… the member of my group who scouted the dig site… she got captured briefly and they… they were torturing her, they were probably going to kill her. Those are the kinds of people protecting that dig site and probably make up the security here in the city too."

Rak's jaw clenched. He knew of multiple incidents of maiming and injuring people, but torture was something else. This is what awaits us if we let them take over.

"There's one more thing," Shiver said. "A girl named Maiya rescued our scout. She tried to bargain for the keys, threatening to reveal everything we'd done to the clans if we didn't." She smiled sardonically. "I guess that doesn't matter now."

"Make sure you hold onto those keys," Rak said. "That vault is a valuable bargaining tool for our deals with the Ascendancy." He frowned. "Do you know where this Maiya girl comes from?"

"Not for certain," Shiver admitted. "But she is definitely not from the Splatlands, so I suppose the Ascendancy would make sense, but I didn't think any of them would be here."

"Nor did I, but I don't think we should be surprised. As for you, I understand if you need to step away from home for a few days but you will be expected to take responsibility for your actions and you are going to have to help solve it."

Shiver bowed her head. "I know. If you need me, just call and I will come. We won't be doing any performances in these circumstances anyway."

"Good to hear. Use this as an opportunity to prove your devotion to the clan and do all you can to make things better, just don't try to do everything on your own. Real family support each other, Shiver. That goes both ways."

Shiver winced and nodded. "I understand."

"I hope you do."

He dismissed her and she quietly left the room.

He watched her go with a terrible ache in his soul. What she'd gone through wasn't fair, and while she had made a mistake she hadn't hesitated to correct it when she realized she'd been wrong. That showed an excellent character and he felt proud as her grandfather, yet he also felt shame for his own inadequacies in this matter. As head of the clan, he shared responsibility in this too.

"When this crisis is over," he said. "We're going to address what's been happening with Shiver. We can't let it continue or it will destroy the family."

His wives all nodded and then he sighed.

He wanted to rest, give his mind time to process and plan, but there wasn't time, he needed to tell the other two clan heads what he had learned and they needed to come up with a solution or they might be doomed.

Author's Notes:

More hints of world building here and there for everyone.

Shiver's finally lost her patience and she's done pretending. Amazing how infectious Maiya can be, isn't it? ;) Maybe these two have more in common than they realize? What do you think?

It was nice to write Shiver having a nice conversation with some of her family members. She has a good relationship with her grandparents but it's difficult to write these interactions because Shiver has multiple grandmothers even just on one side of the family. It's tricky for me to think of how that would affect things. Fortunately, things in Octarian society are reasonably regimented.

What do you think is going to happen next? How do you feel about Shiver spending time away from home?