Open Chronicles The Gem of the Sea

[Ti'Jan]

"I thought that was something... everyone like us... could do..."

"Not like that, we can't." He caught Hali's eye and his smile dropped from devious to polite. She tended to get... feisty... when he heaped too much attention on newbies. Maybe they could adventure through the kelp forests after this. After he'd dealt with today's consequences.

He turned back. "I am... truly sorry that you got mixed up in all this. I've... well I didn't really want the whole city gawking at me today. Worked out about as well as could be expected." He had his more 'princely' voice on now as reality worked its way back into his mind. Despite his best efforts, Ti'Jan was not a monster, and the guilt of causing Ana and Hali harm made his stomach turn sour.

Then, on a dime, his face resumed its mask of levity. "Still, more exciting than a parade, right?" he tossed the question at Hali.

Arva's sob story quickly put a damper on any attempts to raise the mood.

Petra had briefly looked upon Ana with a ravenous hunger when she felt the pulse of her siren's call, but since then had turned her attention entirely to Arva. The sea witch was not Kivren, and like all those beneath the waves she coveted their sacred gift.

"I see..." Her voice floated on the undercurrents like dark velvet. A single sucker-covered arm wafted upwards and stroked the side of Arva's face with terrifying gentleness. "You wish for me to restore your gift, is that it?" There was a weight behind her words, behind her eyes. The weight of a thousand traded secrets.

She brought her face close to the ray's, so close that Arva could see every fold in her oblong pupils. She whispered in between the ripples of the cave. "Such a thing would demand a substantial price."

 

[Arva]

Arva was curious about the others present, but their banter was quickly ignored as she became the focus of the seawitch. She shivered as Petra's tentacle brushed against her face, but she made herself stay still and not pull away.

"You wish for me to restore your gift, is that it?" There was a weight behind her words, behind her eyes. The weight of a thousand traded secrets.

"I... don't know," she answered truthfully. "Mostly... I wanted to know if it was even possible for it to be restored. For whatever it is that has been affecting my family for so long to be brought to an end."

Her fists clenched at her side, gills fluttering, as Petra moved closer to her. So close their faces nearly touched.

She whispered in between the ripples of the cave. "Such a thing would demand a substantial price."

"If it's possible," Arva answered, "then I will consider if the price is worth it."

 

[Hali]

Hali flashed her jagged little teeth in a grin at the Prince's question and she gave a single nod. "Fuck yeah.. Though, I'll no doubt be put on barnacle duty for a month." she snorted a few bubbles and drifted closer to her friend, an elbow leaning on his shoulder as she too found her attention drawn to Arva and Petra.

"Might get a lil' bit more interestin' yet.." she murmured behind her hand, her head tilting as she watched.

 

[Andromeda]

Ana drifted over to a swing that hung from the ceiling, letting her colourful fins push her back and forth in a lazy motion.

"It was certainly more... excitement than I expected," she mused. Danger wasn't normally something that worried her; she had grown up a pirate captain's daughter after all. Every time she changed near the surface there was a chance somebody would see and try to kill her for what she was, so in a way she understood the desire not to stick out from the crowd.

"So what is exactly happening that you're trying to hide from?" her eyebrow arched, trying to give the other customer her privacy.

 

[Ti'Jan]

Ti'Jan rubbed his neck sheepishly. "It's, uh... my birthday." It sounded so stupid saying it out loud. "But, more than that!" he tried to recover. "It's a big one. Where they parade me about like an idiot and stick a stupid crown on me..." This wasn't working, he just sounded more and more spoiled and ungrateful.

He sighed, smoothing back white filamentous hair. "I hate the pageantry. Anyway..." His two-toned eyes couldn't keep away from the eerily floating tentacles next to them. The cave wasn't exactly large and he wasn't keen to feel the suckers on him again.

"If it's possible," Arva answered, "then I will consider if the price is worth it."

"Yes, it is possible," yet Petra's tone was not reassuring. "but it will be dangerous to bring me what I need." Her tentacles continued to follow the gentle undercurrents, but no more reached to touch Arva. "As for price, you do not hold secrets valuable enough for such a thing. It will need to be something more... substantial."

She smiled, and Ti'Jan's stomach turned at the sight of her shining white teeth. "Blood will do." Then she floated around behind Arva, taking the girl's shoulders with long, bony fingers, and turned her to face Ana. "Her blood."

 

[Arva]

Arva caught snippets of the conversation between the other two females and the... apparent prince, now confirmed by his own words. She bit back a frustrated sigh. She'd hoped to slip into Ti'Cuada, meet with the sea witch quietly, decide what to do, and then slip back away into the open ocean, with no one the wiser. Not because she had something to hide, just because... she tended to be private. Now even the prince knew that there was something wrong with her siren voice.

She paid close attention to Petra, though. Felt a chill sweep through her as the sea-witch said that any secrets Arva might have would not be enough to pay the price.

She'd suspected as much.

But when Petra grinned, Arva fought the urge to just... leave. To go pull that door open and just... vanish back into the ocean. And if it was only her voice that was affected, perhaps she would have done so. But her mother would soon lose her voice. Her grandmother already had. And any of her own daughters... they would as well. And that was something she couldn't condemn them to.

"Blood will do." Then she floated around behind Arva, taking the girl's shoulders with long, bony fingers, and turned her to face Ana. "Her blood."

But still, she shivered as the sea-witch came up behind her, startled a little as bony fingers settled on her shoulders and turned her to face the orange-scaled Kivren.

Blood.

Perhaps Arva was naïve, but she at least chose to believe that Petra wouldn't request her to kill the Prince's friend right in front of the prince, so she yanked herself away from the sea-witch's hold, grabbed an empty stoppered vial she saw, and swam over to stand in front of Ana.

Then she hesitated for a moment, gnawing at her lip nervously as she watched the other Kivren.

"This is rude," she said eventually. "But can I have some of your blood?"

 

[Hali]

Hali didn't bother trying to hide her amusement as Ti tried to explain why he was hiding from his own birthday celebrations. Her chin rested on her fist as she looked between him and Ana, biting on her lip as she stifled the brewing laughter..

"Poor Princey doesn't like a fuss. Just likes to have the entire royal guard out looking for him and his mother frantic with worry..No big deal." she shrugged with a chuckle to herself. "It's fine, I'll get the blame for it somehow anyway.." she droned, twisting herself through the water to hang upside down above the two, her attention returning to Petra and Arva..

Oh now that was exciting!

"See!" she chirped and clasped her hands together in delight. "Told you it was about to get more exciting.." she grinned, her jagged little teeth gleaming. "You want me to hold her down, doll?" she asked the ray, her brows arched enthusiastically.

 

[Andromeda]

Andromeda slowly arched a slender brow.

Any comradeship she had thought she had felt to Ti'Jan faded into the aether. Hiding for her life was a far cry from hiding from a birthday celebration. There was probably going to be cake and who on Arethil ran away from cake even if you did have to wear some pompous clothing? She gave a soft snort and weaved her tail through the waves to rock herself back and forth once more on the swing.

"Can we at least go steal some ca--" the words died on her lips when she caught the witch's words. Peach coloured eyes flickered to the other woman and raised both brows incredulously at her question before shooting Hali a dark look.

"Touch me, and I'll make you do worse things than go on a pointless search through the city," she flashed her sharp teeth in response then pushed herself off the swing. "Nobody is havin' my blood, thanks. I've met enough mages to know blood isn't a good thing to go givin' out."

 

[Arva]

Arva's heart sank. Of course she said no, and the Prince's... consort? (Arva really had no idea how any of these three were related to each other) wasn't really helping the situation.

But she wasn't ready to give up yet... though she didn't want to force the issue if she didn't have to.

"Please?" she said, pleading. "If it was just me, just my siren song, I wouldn't ask. But it's been since my grandmother's grandmother, and it will be my daughters and their daughters too, until perhaps the ability is gone altogether. I'm sure it doesn't have to be much."

Arva tried to... not look threatening, but she wasn't sure how well she accomplished it, given the size of her ray-wings.

She did not want to force Andromeda. But if she had to... she could.

 

[Ti'Jan]

Ti'Jan didn't like where this was going at all. Actually, "going" was generous. They had arrived. Arrived at a terrible and rather volatile destination for such a small cave. He was beginning to think enduring a single day of embarrassment and boring title ceremonies would have been a better use of his time... almost.

He shot a squinting look at Hali, she really didn't like this golden fish, did she? Not like he'd be able to tell her to stop but he could probably keep her from actually harming Ana.

"Oh, I don't need much," Petra continued, "Just a vial. Is that so much you would condemn her to silence?"

"Surely there must be another price. You know what I can steal, Petra. Do you want an ancient coral crown? More exotic slugs?"

Petra did not dignify his bargaining with a response, she just continued to gaze hungrily at Andromeda.

 

[Hali]

Hali's expression paused and she blinked, her fiery gaze wide in surprise at the siren's threat. She had some bite in her, but also some scary as shit gifts, and Hali decided right then that she would tread a little more carefully.

She floated back to Ti'jan's side, brushing herself against him with a quiet chuckle as she stared between the three other women. "Looks like things could get ugly.." she 'whispered' loudly..

 

[Andromeda]

Andromeda might have hesitated. She might have helped - a vial of blood wasn't a lot after all.

But not with Petra looking at her like that.

"No," she was steadily making her way for the door so that when she spoke she could seize a hole of the door handle. "I'm sorry, I am, it sucks what you're going through and all but I ain't giving my blood to anyone," who looks at me like she wants to eat me. It had been a mistake using her powers.

"It was nice meeting you all, really, wonderful, but I'll be off now," and with that she yanked open the door and attempted to flee.

 

[Arva]

Arva fought back a surge of anger. She saw the fearful glances that Andromeda gave to Petra, and she couldn't blame her. So when Andromeda made to dart out the door, after turning her down yet again, Arva didn't stop her.

Instead, she clutched the empty vial tightly in her hand, and followed Andromeda out the door. She hadn't full seen what Andromeda had done to the guards searching for the prince, she just knew that the other kivren had coerced them to leave. For all she knew, Andromeda might be able to turn that same ability back on her, but she had to try something.

"Please," she called out. "Let's... at least talk without Petra staring you down. I had no idea she'd ask for something like that."

Arva swam up beside the other kivren, careful to keep her ray-wings and tail from brushing against her. She didn't want her to think that she was trying to capture her.

"My name is Arva," she said. "I'd like to know yours. This is... my first time in Ti'Ciuda. I had no idea that Petra would... ask for something like this."

 

[Ti'Jan]

Ti'Jan didn't even try to stop Andromeda from fleeing. She didn't deserve to get pulled into all of this, anyway. Maybe that was why he clung so close to Hali's friendship. She was already involved and had proven she didn't care about the consequences of being the companion of a misbehaved royal. He'd need to remember to thank her, but not be sappy about it because then she might bite him or something.

He felt for Arva, he really did. What would it be like to have such a gift stripped away? His family's own siren abilities were mild at best. Ti'Ciuda had been forged by luck in finding a habitable caldera and by wits in knowing what it could be. He found himself wondering if there were others with abilities as strong as Ana's, and the damage they could cause.

Petra watched after the pair with an inscrutable smirk on her face. Ti'Jan dared to waft closer. "Petra, really. There must be another price to help her out." He hoped that years of... well it couldn't really be called friendship, but he had known the sea witch for quite a while and hoped that meant something.

"Oh, of course there is," she replied too sweetly. She didn't say anything more, but Ti'Jan knew the rest of the sentence would be "but why back down so easily?"

"You like old stuff. Hali, isn't there some old death mask or something of one of my great whatever grandfathers? That's creepy and probably magic."

Petra gave him a look that was somewhere in between insulted and curious. "If the siren continues to be difficult we will discuss alternative payment."

Ti'Jan swam back to Hali, knowing the conversation was over, and held out a hand to silently ask for one of the slugs he assumed she'd secreted away from the pub.

 

[Hali]

Hali pouted as she watched Ana leave, followed by the pretty ray and her shoulders slumped the moment they were out of sight. "Just as I was beginning to like her.." her arms folded. Her gaze followed Ti'Jan as he continued to probe Petra for some alternative agreement, her head tilting at the question the prince shot her way.

"Oh! Yes, that thing is creepy as hell.. Would suit you perfectly, Petra dear!".. She had meant it as a compliment, but she'd never been too good at those, and so when Petra looked at her she winced and let out an awkward laugh.

Orange eyes fell to the Prince's palm and she feigned ignorance, lifting his palm to her lips to kiss it with an exaggerated 'mmmwah!' before bowing theatrically to him. "An honour to kiss your hand my Prince!" she squeaked, lifting the back of her hand to her forehead with a loud sigh as she 'fainted' dramatically.

She couldn't hold in her snort as she chuckled at her own act, and she handed him a slug as she curled herself around him.

 

[Andromeda]

Ana kept swimming but it was hard to lose someone in the shadows when your scales were the colours of warmer coral shores. Instead she settled for trying to ignore the ray altogether which was increasingly hard as she caught her up and prattled on.

"There is no discussion. Go and ask her for another price, I'm not giving a witch my blood," she repeated with a little more venom than she needed to but being a bitch was what usually made people leave her alone.

"Sirens songs ain't all they're cut out to be, you're better off without it anyway," hers had now got her into trouble on shore, on the sea and now under it. Well done Ana, she thought darkly to herself.

 

[Arva]

"Maybe they're not," Arva said quietly to Andromeda, setting aside the matter of the needed blood for now. "But the siren song is the only means of defense that my family has ever had. To lose it... might mean the extinction of us. So it's hard to argue that we might be better of without it."

She easily kept pace with the other Kivren, but was easily becoming uncertain of where in the city they might be. Where they were headed.

"Do you... know the way back to Petra's place?" she asked a few moments later. "I've never been to Ti'Ciuda before."

 

[Ti'Jan]

Ti'Jan had rolled his eyes and thrown the slug into his mouth when Hali teased him, and crossed his arms while he floated within her swirl of colors. Yet as time wore on he grew more and more anxious. Ana, it seemed, was indeed being difficult.

"So how about that 'alternate' payment?"

"The payment will be blood." Petra retorted, turning her eyes from the doorway to the entangled pair. "If the golden one will not provide, you will have to."

Ti'Jan went rigid in surprise, pushing back against Hali. His mouth opened a closed a few times before he regained his voice.

"I don't know..."

"Have I not helped you whenever you have come to me, Prince? Have I ever betrayed your trust?"

"Yeah but..." he looked to Hali. Ana had made some good points about giving blood to mages and witches, points he probably wouldn't have even thought of on his own.

"Do you have any idea what this girl has asked for? Do you know what it will take to restore the Song? Do you know the danger I am putting myself, and her, in? This is my final offer."

Ti'Jan swallowed. He didn't know the answer to any of those questions. He didn't know what Petra would need or what she would do to give Arva back her song. All he knew was that when her eyes hardened like that the discussion was over.

He should refuse. He felt bad for Arva but he didn't know her. He didn't owe her anything, and typically that was enough for him to turn the other way and never look back. But today was... different. Maybe it was his entry into true adulthood, maybe some of his mother's grooming had worked its way through... or maybe it was the look of disdain that Ana had given him. He felt, dare he say it, obligated to help as a... leader.

Weird.

"Fine." His face had lost all levity from before, and he set his bicolored eyes directly at Petra's oblong pupils. "Hali, find Arva and bring her back. Please," he added, as he had promised never to order her around, but his voice had turned uncharacteristically princely. He never looked away from the sea witch. "I do this, and you give her her song back."

Petra's face curved gracefully and terribly into a smile of pointed teeth. "As agreed."

 

[Hali]

"Like hell!" Hali protested, her hands balled into fists at her sides and a look of absolute disapproval on her face. "His blood is worth way more than Goldie's and you know it." she jabbed a finger toward Petra. "That ain't a fair bargain!"

"And you!” She rounded on the Prince “We don't even know the flapper! We don't owe her nothin'. It's a shame and all, really it is." she rolled her eyes, her hands on her chest as she gave a dramatic look of sorrow. "But it ain't our problem. Now lets go." she reached to grab Ti'Jan's wrist to tug him toward the door.

"Your parents will have my tail on a plate if I let you be so bloody daft."

 

[Andromeda]

"No, I don't," just go swim back to that witch's cave, Ana thought bitterly to herself. Her words were half a lie. She didn't know the way back to Petra's but she could have found the way easily enough. Her song left an echo of sorts - it meant she could follow those whom she had placed under her control but it also meant in this case she could find her way back to where she had used it should she need to.

Thankfully she didn't need to.

"Look, it was lovely to meet you an' all but I can't help you," I don't want to help you. "Good luck with your... song," she cast the ray a side-long look and then added a bit more speed to her tail.

 

[Arva]

Arva made no attempt to follow the other Kivren. She sighed, biting her lip in frustration as she looked down at the empty vial in her hand. For a moment, the thought of following Andromeda and restraining her, making the Kivren give up her blood, was tempting. Arva could swim faster than almost everyone here. She was larger and stronger... but even if that was the prince back in Petra's shop, Arva doubted it was a good idea to attack another Kivren in the open streets of Ti'Ciuda.

So she just glanced up, catching the last sight of Andromeda's bright tail as it disappeared around an outcropping of stone and coral, and then looked around, trying to figure out which direction she'd come from.

"Up," she whispered. "I'll go up and see if I can spot Petra's place from over the city instead of within the streets."

With a swish and swoop of her ray-wings, Arva twisted up through the ocean water, and when she was just over the height of the tallest buildings and outcroppings on the street, she looked around. She caught one more sight of Ana disappearing into the crowds, and then looked away, back toward the direction she'd come from... she thought.

"Green flames," she whispered to herself again. "Where were they?"

 

[Ti'Jan]

Petra's face flashed to Hali, and for half an instant her lingering smile looked completely feral. Ti'Jan didn't know what manner of being the sea witch was, but he was certain she wasn't Kivren. If there were others like her he had never seen them, nor heard of them... and he didn't truly want to.

"My prices are exactly as they should be," her voice hadn't changed, but Ti'Jan felt a ripple through the cave as she spoke. He much preferred Hali's loud rage to Petra's quiet fury.

"It's alright, Hal," he said, faking a smile, but his voice was steady. He wouldn't say he wanted to do this, but wasn't it something he should do? "Besides, Mom always wanted me to help our citizens." Arva, likely, wasn't a citizen but he pushed that thought aside. Guilt over their eel encounter was still pushing him to do something good.

He yelped and started at a sudden prick at his outstretched arm. Petra, it seemed, had decided the conversation was over. Ti'Jan watched his blood waft up in the gentle currents of the cave, green in such deep water, while Petra scooped it into a small, clear vial. Almost at once, she pressed a soft bit of cloth to his skin to quell the bleed. If any of it escaped the cave the guards' shark-like senses would surely pick up his location.

"When you next see the girl tell her to find me. And, if you are still feeling generous, I have a feeling she will need your assistance."

Ti'Jan gave a look that was half apology, half "don't worry" to Hali. She'd chew him out on this for weeks. Still, he felt good about his choice. At least for now. "Come on, let's get her back here. I'll owe you one."

 

[Hali]

Hali did well to hide the writhing terror she felt under her skin as the sea witch looked at her the way she did. Her expression remained one of sheer defiant debate, but the glare made her swallow any more insult.

"Not with your blood!" she protested to Ti'Jan as he spoke up. The gods only knew what this crazy witch would do with such a thing. She had been about to drag him out of there when Petra took it upon herself to take what she wanted.

"Hey!" the kivren gaped, her hand on the handle of her little dagger but she only just managed to refrain from drawing it. She'd be in enough trouble without stabbing the female, but she bared her jagged teeth all the same, and dragged the prince out of the door the moment she could.

"Just how thick is that skull o' yours? Hah?.." Hali blared, her tail thrashing with rage. She drew the blade now as she let him go. "I should go back in there an' poke her full o' holes, see how she likes it!" she yelled passed him toward the door, jabbing her blade at it for dramatic effect. "Crazy ol' bint!" she sneered.

"An' you." she pointed the blade at Ti's face and paused for a long moment. "Don' you talk tah me right now." she frowned, and turned her back to strut as much as a kivren could strut, in search of Arva and Ana.

 

[Arva]

Give her an open sea, and Arva could navigate just fine. But a city situated in a dead volcano and she was more blind than a cavefish.

Arva swam back and forth, peering up alleys and soaring up over the streets, over and over again. Her tail swished anxiously when she wasn't swimming, and the empty vial was clutched so fiercely in her grasp that it almost gave under the strain.

"We didn't go that far," she muttered to herself. "How could I could have lost track so quickly?"

"Lost, pretty ray?" a voice spoke up from the next alley she poked her head into for what she thought was the first time, but was apparently the tenth.

"Ah..." she mumbled, eyes settling on a kivren lounging against a wall as he picked at a shell. He was a Kivren like the Prince and the others, with a fish tail, but he was... sterner. His eyes were harsh and predatory, and scars criss-crossed over his chest and arms. "Just a little turned around," she laughed quietly, beginning to turn around, only to find two other kivren behind her.

"If you could just... point me back in the direction of Petra's place, I'll get out of your way," she said, voice faltering a little.

"Oh, believe me," the first kivren spoke again. "Whatever that sea witch is offering, we've got something far better."

Arva swore, her eyes shifting between the three. She was much larger, but she wasn't a fighter, really. Three of them and one of her...

Her wings shivered.