154
The Aftermath
The People of Mar-el
Nautilus
MAR-EL
It was solemn when true night fell, the heralds rode, the call of victory proclaimed, and the citizens of Nautilus who had survived the Battle of the Beasts came out of hiding and made their way to the Great Beach.
Over time, it would become known great sacrifices had been made of the rulers of Triton to save them from the fall of the dark times.
But many felt it was Queen Ha-Lah who had to do the worst.
For even after the demons were dispatched, their venom continued to infect the ones it had touched, and they wandered, imprisoned by their own minds, mindlessly harming themselves…and others.
All the kings and all the kings’ men rounded them up and gathered them on the beach.
And the fire of the dragons kept them there.
And the people understood why the decision was made that their ash would not mingle with the sand of shore.
They understood why it was decided they’d nurture the beasts of the sea.
And thus, the people of Nautilus watched as their queen, their Ha-Lah stood beside her husband and the other rulers atop a cliff to the south, and she raised her arms.
To a great gasp from her onlookers, she then caused the tidal that swept the poor, lost souls to peace in the depths of the sea.
But Ha-Lah did not feel peace in the doing.
She turned and collapsed in her king’s arms.
It was after they were all gone, when slowly, the peoples made their way, under the blanket of night sky and stars, to the sand.
Those who lived deeper into the rocks, hearing as word swept swiftly across the land, journeyed to Nautilus and walked the empty streets, gravitating toward the gathering, joining their brethren and sistren on the beach.
Wood was brought to build fires.
And the people of Mar-el sat about them on their shore, their eyes to the sea.
No one knew who first started the hum of mourning.
But all joined in, gazing into the waters, contemplating what was lost, what was gained, their fortune that they were still living, and their vows to continue to do it and do that well.
The hum rose up the cliffs to the rulers, who stayed amongst them, watching.
It rose up farther, to the heavens.
There wasn’t a great amount of surprise when, well out to sea, the mighty beasts broke the waves.
One, two, five, three dozen, the whales rising up and crashing back into the sea, sharing the lament, the dolphins joining them, bursting from the waves and arcing back in, in a watery dance of grief.
But even with the spectacle, the humming did not stop.
As the people of the sea and the sea beasts shared their sorrow.
Even in victory, their king proclaimed that day forever to be the Day of Great Mourning for all who were taken from Airen, Wodell, the Nadirii, and on their own shores. For the gnomes, the pixies, the sprites, the Zees and the Mystics who were lost in the fight.
And for a man named Tedrey.
It was not only Aramus, but Cassius, Elena, True and Mars who proclaimed in their lands that day would be a day never forgotten.
There would never be a time, for centuries, millennia, when the day Triton rose again and was reunited with his Medusa, that day where so much was lost to cement what had been gained, when mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, teachers and storytellers did not share the tale behind why there was a Day of Great Mourning.
Why, on that day, no one in any land of Triton toiled.
Why, on that day, all remembered the ones who were lost.
Or their own lost mothers.
Or fathers.
Aunts.
And uncles.
Brothers.
Or sisters.
Friends.
And lovers.
And onward from that horrible, victorious day, the people of Mar-el were glad to welcome the people of Airen. Of Firenze. Of Wodell. The Nadirii. The Zees. The charmed folk. Even the Go’Doan.
All of them, welcome to their shores.
For they all had fought as one.
They all had died as one.
And now they all lived as one.
Different countries.
Different borders.
Different gods.
Different cultures.
But brothers and sisters.
All.
155
The Epilogue
Faunus
The Cod’s Eye Chippy, Nautilus
MAR-EL
The tables outside the place that smelt heavy were rickety, the chairs as well.
Thus, when Faunus sat in one with his hand curled around his curious meal, he did not think the thing could bear his weight.
He didn’t care.
The food was wrapped in naught but parchment, which was odd.
He didn’t care about that either.
The outside of the fish was crunchy, the inside flaky, and the chipped, fried potatoes that were seasoned with salt and vinegar that came with it were interesting.
He didn’t taste a thing.
When they were all done, as one, they stood and wandered to a bench by the sea.
Faunus sat.
Saturn sat close to him.
And Moira climbed in Faunus’s lap, lifted her legs to Saturn’s, and rested her head on Faunus’s shoulder.
The breeze blew her hair against his nose and lips.
It was very soft and smelled of roses and the sea.
“How lucky are we?” she whispered.
Faunus did not understand, nor appreciate, the question.
“To be loved like that. To be loved…” her breath hitched, and she had to force out a husky, “like that?” to finish.
He wrapped his arms around her and bent his head, shoving his face in her neck.
His shoulders heaved.
He felt Saturn’s hand wrap around the back of his neck.
And his Moira…
His stellina…
She did what she was very good at doing.
She held on tight.
Lorenz Chronis
Manor of the Captain of the Trusted, Fire City
FIRENZE
After he told her, Nyx burst out the back door.
And he followed.
She dashed to the side of their home.
“Mia gazella,” he called.
She stopped, practically immersed in the honeysuckle that grew so plentifully there, her back to him, and his chest burned, his heart squeezed, for her loss.
And for his.
“It is my fault,” he said thickly. “I should not have let him spy. I should have kept him safe. I should not have listened to him. You were right. I was wrong. I should have kept our friend in our home. Under our roof. Safe under my protection.”
She whirled, one hand going to her slightly rounded belly.
“It is not your fault,” she hissed.
He moved direct to her.
She lifted both hands to his face.
And he smelled honeysuckle against her skin.
Her cheeks were wet, her eyes swimming.
“He would do what he would do. You know our Teddy,” she reminded him.
He did.
“Mio amore,” he said hoarsely.
“I just wish…wish…” She swallowed visibly painfully and finished on a whisper, “The last time he saw me…” She shook her head. “I just wish I could have said goodbye.”
Lorenz pulled his wife into his arms.
She sobbed into his chest.
And he put his cheek to the top of her head as he felt the wet fall from his eyes.
A breeze blew through the bright pink and yellow and cream blooms behind her, their scent enveloping the couple in its embrace.
And their Teddy said goodbye.
Queen Elena
Port of Nautilus, Nautilus
MAR-EL
I looked to the ship, then back to my sister.
“All right, well, I just want to be on record stating I don’t want you to go. And that’s not a jealousy thing, seeing as, if you two best this situation and Chu wrests control from his evil cousin who killed his brother to take his throne and now rules with tyranny, then he marries you, you’ll be a queen like me. But because you go to fight his evil, tyrannical cousin.”
My sister quirked a grin at me.
Always up for a fight, my Serena.
“Serena—” I began.
“The Dragon’s Breath are going to train me in the Arts,” she stated.
I glanced at the four remaining Mystics, their faction known as the Dragon’s Breath, all of them standing at the railing of the ship, gazing transcendentally down at us, and this did not make me feel any better.
I looked back at my sister. “You know it takes great amounts of spiritualism to advance in the Arts.”
“I’m spiritual,” she completely lied.
“When was the last time you meditated?”
She searched the sky with her eyeballs.
I burst out laughing.
I stopped of a sudden when she tugged me violently in her arms.
“I will return,” she said fiercely in my ear. “I will want my sons and daughters to meet their cousins.”
And then she let me go, turned so quickly, her cloak whipped my body, and she made her way up the gangplank.
Chu came to stand in front of me.
“I’ll be assassinating a king if anything happens to her,” I decreed.
He shot me an audacious grin, bent in, touched my cheek with his lips then looked beyond me and jerked up his chin.
And then he was off up the gangplank.
Two arms circled me about my chest from behind.
“Are we going to stand here until we can’t see them in the horizon?” Cassius asked over my head.
“Yes,” I answered.
He chuckled.
The captain called out to push away.
He was a man I’d met whose name was Magnus, and who I knew was a lunatic, for he’d taken on this endeavor of delivering my sister and the man she loved to a place that, according to the Dragon’s Breath, wasn’t altogether stable.
As men rushed about the deck and the sails unfurled, Serena and Chu came to the railing.
And Gal and Brix walked down the pier as the galleon caught wind and started to make its way to the sea.
“You’ll wish you had taken us with you!” Brix shouted irately.
“Go home! Find women! Make many daughters!” Serena shouted back. “And name them all Serena!”
I shook my head, smiling, and closing my eyes.
I swiftly opened them so I would not lose sight of her too soon.
“Be smart!” Gal yelled. “Send word if you need us!”
“Yes!” Cassius boomed from behind me. “Send word if you need us!”
The ship had cleared the pier and was sailing away, but I did not think that was why my sister made no reply other than to lift her arm and wave at us.
I watched and watched, and she did not leave that railing.
And Chu did not leave her side.
Gal and Brix left the end of the pier to come and stand with Cass and me.
“She is a powerful witch and a mighty warrior,” Cass reminded me when the great galleon was naught but a dot on the horizon.
“She’s a pain in the arse,” Brix groused.
I burst out laughing.
I did it because that was funny (and true).
I also did it so I would not start crying.
King Mars
THE DEEP
It wasn’t the swimming.
Mars was Firenz.
Water was revered in Firenze.
If they could, and they were not nomad, everyone in Firenze had at least a small pool in which to frolic and bathe.
And even the nomads sought water, and not just to drink.
It was also not that they were in The Deep.
Silence had tight hold on his hand, and he would admit, it seemed odd his lungs still worked the longer they were under and the deeper they went.
It was not even the amount of merfolk who swam after them.
He was glad to know they were a people of plenty, for his wife, as well as for all lands to know their goodness when they had a mind to journey to them.
And it wasn’t the schools of fish and pods of dolphins that accompanied them as they swam behind Jorie, who held Elena by one hand, Cassius by the other. True and Farah were attached to another mermale. Aramus had his Ha-lah.
No, it was when the stingrays joined their party and waved about them. And the bloody enormous whales arrived and undulated at their sides, filling the depths with their ethereal song.
Not to mention the damned sharks.
Though, as they approached the glowing-blue cave, Silence had warned him about the angmostros, thank the gods.
Jorie, Cassius and Elena entered first.
Silence took him in next.
Aramus and Ha-Lah followed and True and Farah were escorted in after.
And he found his wife was right.
The water in that tunnel glowed blue as well, and with it came a heartening feeling of goodness and light.
Not too far into it, the tunnel led them up and they broke the surface to breathe air.
The Mer who were escorting True and Farah retreated.
Mars’s feet found sand and he held his wife close as her fin turned to legs.
The wet dripping from him, his eyes took in everything.
The cavern about them was shaped as a shell, the pearlescent surface glowing blue, green and pink.
Many globes all about laced with twine hung suspended by nothing in midair and they shone with the same colors.
The sand that led up to the island in the middle of the space was an immaculate white, and so fine, it was almost dust and soft as velvet under his feet.
And sitting two spectacular thrones on that island were Triton and Medusa.
Her throne was made of shell and pearls and tufted at the feet with floating anemone.
His was made of branches and rivulets and shelves of coral.
Mars studied the gods.
They had not worn their crowns when he had last seen them.
They wore them now.
At the front of Medusa’s head, through her red hair, sprang a tiara made of spiraled shells and starfish, lengths of pearls and sprays of diamonds, a star of those last coasting onto her forehead, and ropes of both falling down the sides of her face.
Triton’s crown of gold and shells surrounded his head, out of the inside of which sprung meandering spikes of coral.
And this time, instead of fins, they both had legs.
The lot of them walked up the sand and stood before the two gods as Triton studied them expressionlessly and Medusa smiled in welcome.
“It is good that you came,” she stated.
“And thank you for the welcome,” Jorie replied, dropping to a knee and bending his head to her.
Silence gave his hand a tug, and Mars was not feeling much like bending a knee to two gods he did not worship and who put him, his wife, his friends, and countless others through hell.
But he did it all the same.
As the others did beside him.
“Rise, my kings and queens,” Medusa invited.
He stood as did Silence at his side as well as the others.
Medusa’s face grew grave. “We wish you to know, we do understand how much was lost.”
No one said anything.
Though, Mars doubted they did.
“And we know there is nothing that can salve the hurt or take away the pain,” she went on.
Again, no one spoke.
But Mars knew that was the sad, bloody truth.
“But we shall try,” she whispered, turned her head and prompted, “Beloved?”
Triton grunted.
&
nbsp; Then he flicked a disinterested hand.
And before each of them gleamed a golden trident with three intricately forged spikes at the ends.
“Take hold, my kings and queens,” Medusa instructed. “These are yours, for I sense you have grown close, and would like, with a toss of your trident, to be in the realm of another to commune and make merry.”
Mars glanced down at his wife, who was reaching out to her trident, and as her fingers wrapped around, she looked up at him in happy wonder.
Gods, his Silence.
He grinned down at her and took hold of his own trident.
“This will also,” Medusa went on, “if you have hold of it, allow you to visit Jorie. And perhaps,” she lifted both hands, palms cupped and facing up in front of her before spreading them out, “us.”
Triton grunted again.
Medusa leaned forward and said conspiratorially, “He is used to his own company. We will have to work on his hospitality.”
“You have our gratitude,” True spoke for them all.
She tipped her head to the side and asked, “For all you did, all you lost, all you gave, do you think this is all we will give you to show our gratitude?”
A golden magical trident that made travel between realms happen in seconds and gave him the opportunity to visit his brother-in-law when Silence went to see him, Mars was content.
What further form a god might consider to show gratitude made Mars brace.
The goddess did not make them wait.
Medusa threw her arm out before her, cast it left, toward Aramus and Ha-Lah at the end, and brought it right, where Mars and Silence were at the other end.
From her fingers, shimmering glitter flew.
Gathered.
Multiplied.
Separated.
Formed.
And in front of Aramus formed his man Cat.
And in front of Farah formed Sofia.
In front of True formed Mercy.
In front of Elena formed Jasmine.
In front of Cassius formed a woman that Mars had never seen, but he knew was Cass’s mother.
But he did not study her.
For in front of him formed…
His father.
Ares.
Blue-white glimmers shimmered around him, and he heard the others murmuring but he paid no mind to that.
The Rising Page 43