Brellitine Grever and The Sea of Gelled

by Ruhi Jain

  He leaned back too, slowly, although his arm was still around her. “On the way to Corfer.” After a moment, he sighed. “You know, it really sucks that you guys are telepathically connected.”

  “Why?”

  “Because …” he seemed to have trouble giving a coherent answer.

  “We only talk about stuff in the sea and castle, Lukas.” She ran her finger along his jaw, along his stubble, wriggling inside at the way it felt. “I’m new here and it helps to have someone guide me around.”

  “Yeah but it still sucks.”

  “You’re so cute when you’re all jealous. And you should know that I only consider Callum as a brother, nothing else.”

  He opened his mouth as if he was going to protest but then stopped. “I’m not jealous,” he said finally, but it didn’t sound very confident.

  “Of course not. How silly of me to think so.” She giggled. Why was her heart racing? She glanced at the clock in the passageway. “Wow. Time flies fast!”

  “He does, doesn’t he? Never gets tired, it seems.”

  She giggled. “Personifying time? What, are we twelve?”

  “No!” He almost laughed. “I forgot for a minute there that you are not from here.” His arm hadn’t left her shoulder and she didn’t want it to. It felt nice. “Earlier, time was told by clocks that worked on machines. This one merman named Ravolo Pentamini really displeased Zeldae. So, she cursed him and he is forced to swim between two huge rocks, one which contains a bell. The time he takes to get back to the bell rock is exactly one hour. That is when you hear the bell ring. She granted him the magic to make him move at the required pace so the time will never be off. However, he isn’t let off the hook. He’s always swimming. Now, the clocks don’t run on machines, if you’ve noticed. They are as thin as a sheet of paper because now time moves according to Time, which was what everyone calls him. Using magic, the bell ringing and the time in every watch is synchronised.”

  She remembered what Callum said at Lily’s home. Time flew so fast! That made sense now. “Interesting.”

  She paused, suddenly realizing how effectively he had diverted her attention. The heart shattering pain that had wrecked through her had abated to a small extent. She felt grateful and guilty at the same time; grateful because for those few moments she hadn’t felt pain, guilty because she felt she should have. “What now?”

  He realised that she understood what he had done. “The next time you will see your brother will be on CreDay. The rebel group will tell us the plan in a day or two.”

  Timmy. He was scared and confused. Locked up in a room. Fed dark fluid. Brainwashed. And she was sitting here, enjoying herself. She felt sick.

  “I need to go,” she gasped, breaking free from his arms. He looked up, confused. “I’m sorry,” she muttered and swam out of the room with mixed emotions.

  She moved like a robot for the rest of the day, barely aware of what she was doing, her hands automatically doing all the chores. Her thoughts were confused but clear, chaotic but straightforward and through all the mess of her emotions whirling inside of her, one thing stood out clearly — she had to find a way to get back his memory. She didn’t know the how, but she was going to make him remember again. She would make sure his memories come back.

  “Susan!” Hazel shook her shoulder. “Come on… dinner’s being served. You missed lunch, aren’t you hungry?”

  Brell blinked, suddenly realizing how empty her stomach was. “Yeah, I am.”

  At the hall, they took seats at the end of the rows and silently sipped their soup. Neither Aanya nor Erene had come yet.

  “They got crushed during construction.” Hazel said suddenly.

  “What?” Brell whipped towards her alarmed, thinking she was talking about Aanya and Erene.

  “My parents. My dad was a construction worker. My mom would always stand outside the construction site, every single day, waiting for his lunch break, the lunch she cooked for him in her hands. She could cook such delicious things!”

  Hazel stopped, and stared down at her soup. Brell didn’t say “I’m sorry” because she knew how frustrating it was when people keep on saying that when you lose someone. They say it, but they never feel it.

  “One day, my dad and the other mermen were working to make a tall tower at the very end of the castle, the tower which is now the prison tower. My mom was waiting and… she didn’t see a huge boulder coming loose from the tower. It felt right towards her. My dad… he saw it falling and he tried to push his wife away but the moment he reached her, the boulder reached them.” Hazel quickly wiped away the tears from her eyes.

  “I was only five,” she whispered.

  Brell placed her hand on Hazel’s shoulder. “I’m here,” she just said, knowing that those two words were enough.

  “What’s your story?”

  “Mine?” She was taken aback for a moment. “My father —”

  A loud thud suddenly cut her off and the seat she was sitting on vibrated. The mermaids screamed, all of them getting up. At the same time Figgie barged in.

  “What’s happening?” She glared at all of them. “What’s with the screaming?”

  Yun spoke up, her silvery-white short spiky hair standing out eerily. “The ground vibrated, ma’am.”

  “I didn’t feel it!” She touched her tail to the ground, but the vibrations had stopped by then.

  “That’s because you weren’t sitting on a chair, Fern.” A head popped out of the door, with a lime green bandana around black hair. Brell recognized her easily. She was the mermaid from the Central Heating Room, except now she was devoid of grease.

  “What’s this, Betty?”

  Betty eased out her bandana and her black hair fell around her high cheekbones. “One of the machines shut down, that caused the ‘thud’. To bring it back on I had to restart it completely — that was the vibration… I’ll have to get it fixed, hon. Could you call Sir Red for me?”

  Figgie pursed her lips — the entire hall was watching them — and said gruffly, “Call him yourself.”

  Brell watched them closely. Was Betty Figgie’s senior? Figgie seemed a bit less bossy in front of her somehow.

  “Well hon, I can’t do that. That machine needs me immediately. Call him will you?”

  Betty wrapped the bandana around her head, and headed back. Just before going, she tilted her head back and gave Figgie a sweet smile. “Please?” and then disappeared.

  Figgie blinked furiously, but didn’t say a word. Whispers travelled around the hall and Brell saw some mermaids grinning.

  “Quiet!” Figgie slammed her fist against the table next to her, and the plates on the tables rattled against each other with a tinkling sound. She stormed off, and the whole hall began laughing. Someone had ordered Figgie around!

  Brell went back to her room, where she crashed onto the bed. Wrapping the rough blanket as tightly as it would go around her, she burrowed her face into the pillow. Before she knew it, tears were pouring out of her eyes again, embarrassing her. She thought she was stronger than this.

  She didn’t want to feel the agony, but it just came rushing in. The pain of losing Timmy to Zeldae. She had tried so hard to get to him and now she didn’t even exist in his memory. But Lukas had said that there was a way to get it back, that it was only trapped and they could release it. She would do anything to make that happen.

  The Sacri… well, at least she had them by her side. She took a deep breath. What did their symbol stand for, again? The lines were for courage and bravery, which is what she had to imbibe. One of the three dots stood for the control of the mind over the body. She had to mentally prepare herself for what was to come, harden her mind and make herself strong from within.

  She heard a knock on the door and wrapped the blanket tighter around herself, burrowing her face deeper into the pillow. She didn’t want Aanya, June or even Hazel to see her crying.

  After another knock, the door creaked open and she heard a familiar, sort of embarrassed
cough that certainly didn’t belong to any female. Twisting around, she saw Lukas.

  “Lukas! What are you doing here?”

  He was wearing his leather jacket again and he looked so embarrassed that his cheeks were turning pink.

  “I know that this is a girls’ dormitory and I shouldn’t be disturbing you at this time of the night, but,” he took a deep gulp of water. She had never seen him this way before. “I want to show you something, a place in the castle.”

  “How did you get in here?” she asked, slightly disoriented.

  “Were you crying?” He noticed the redness of her face and the tear streaks down her cheeks. “What happened?” His concern touched her.

  “It’s nothing,” she lied swiftly, wiping her cheeks as quickly as she could with her fingers, embarrassed. “How did you get in here?”

  He sighed. “I created a distraction and snuck into Figgie’s office to get the keys.”

  “Distraction? You sent Betty?”

  “I did her a favour some time ago and she owed me one. We are going off the topic. Will you come with me?” He looked at her hopefully. There was something about the girls’ dormitory that completely rattled him for all he seemed to want to do was to get out of the room.

  “Where are we going?” She disentangled herself from the blanket and quickly splashed her face with air from the basin.

  He grinned playfully. “It’s a secret.” And there was something about his smile that made her, for the first time since she had seen Timmy again, feel genuinely happy.

  She grinned. “Lead the way, my good sir.”

  Chapter 28: The Garden of Faith

  They passed the empty corridor and he handed her a long brown cloak with a hood and full sleeves.

  “Wear it,” he said, looking behind to see if they were being followed or not.

  “Why?”

  “Why do you have so many questions?”

  Brell slipped it on and covered her head with it. The cloak was so long that it flowed past her tail and the hood was large enough to fall past her nose. He lightly gripped her elbow, guiding her in a direction which she assumed was leading to the back gate.

  She heard a door being opened. He led her further away and then she heard another door groan open. They swam through what felt like a maze, and after some time she stopped trying to discern the way they were going. Finally, Lukas said, “We’re here.”

  She carefully pulled the hood back and stopped mid-action, awestruck. They were inside a garden, a garden with tall lush green trees and beautiful, glowing multi-coloured flowers. As she watched, a pink flower turned blue. Delicate creepers found their way to the top of the hardwood trees, blossoming into bright coloured leaves. A pebble path trailed deeper into the garden like a snake, bordered with miniature statues of mermaids. A pearly shimmer was infused in the water, and Brell caught the scent of vanilla.

  “Lukas, what is this place?” she whispered in awe, finding herself smelling an exotic-looking flower which smelt of… summer.

  He smiled. “This garden was specially built for Her Royal Highness Caroline Hempt, Callum’s grandma. It’s called the Garden of Faith.”

  “Garden of Faith?” she murmured, turning towards him.

  “Yeah, there’s a long story behind it.” He pulled out two small green packages from his pocket. “Princess Caroline was arranged to marry Prince Escot, and in those days it was a tradition that the groom showed his loyalty, devotion, and faith towards his bride by performing something dangerous.”

  He gestured towards the path. “Come on.”

  Brell followed him without hesitation, excitement and thrill coursing through her veins. He swam a bit and then shifted to his side, so that she could see what was placed there. A small, round, brown wooden table with a couple of china plates and two chairs were nestled between two plants.

  Lukas pulled out a chair for her and she sat down, watching him as he made his way to the other one. “Lukas …” she began, trying to form words.

  “Look behind you,” he said, tearing open the packages.

  She twisted around, and found a bunch of daisies right in front of her face. They reminded her of her mother in a bittersweet way.

  “How?” she gasped, her fingers involuntarily stroking the white petals. “These grow on land, not here.”

  “Prince Escot decided that his way to prove his faith to his bride, would be going on land and getting the exotic flower from there.” Lukas smiled. “He went through great pains to gather enough plants for this garden, always keeping the beautiful face of his bride in his mind. Hence the name, ‘Garden of Faith’.”

  She turned back towards him, unable to hide her smile now. He slid his hand into one of the bags and pulled out a yellow star-shaped thing.

  “Remember this?” he said, wriggling his eyebrows in a dorky way which made her laugh.

  “Yeah, I thought it was a starfish,” she said sheepishly, taking one into her hand, “What is it anyway?”

  “A briscuit, one of the most favoured delicacies in the sea. Try it.”

  Brell took a small nibble, but there was no taste in her mouth.

  “Wait for it,” Lukas said. Suddenly, her mouth burst into the flavour of blueberries, strong enough for her to feel like she had bitten into one, and light enough to not be overwhelming. The taste slowly trailed off, leaving the taste of lychee in her mouth. She took a huge bite this time, and experienced the flavours again.

  “You like it?” he looked at her hopefully.

  “I love it.” She gobbled it up ravenously. He really looked very pleased with himself.

  “Why are you doing this, though?” she asked inquisitively.

  “Because I care about you,” he said simply.

  “Do you pity me?” she said abruptly, not in a harsh way. “Being a servant and all? Is that why you got me here? Or is it only because I’m the ‘Alora’ ?”

  “Brell!” he looked shocked, unable to comprehend her rapid mood change and the nonsensical stuff she had just come up with.

  “Answer me, please.”

  “What kind of person do you think I am?” he demanded, indignant. “I wouldn’t do this because of the reasons you mentioned. I’m doing this because… because …” he seemed unable to say anything else. He looked away.

  “Because?” she raised an eyebrow

  “I told you. Because I care about you,” he said finally, looking straight at her. But it seemed like he wanted to say much more.

  “What’s that?” she said suddenly, trying to change the topic. She pointed to the huge, tallboulders that stood many yards away.

  He followed her gaze. “Oh, that. It was made centuries ago. They say that it was used to resurrect the dead at one point in time, built by merpeople who believed that they could connect with the Gods because of this.”

  They looked familiar, for some reason. The huge boulders were arranged in a circle. She swam up to them, her brow furrowed in thought. “Lukas… this,” she suddenly registered why she felt she had seen it before. “This looks like, well, the completed version of Stonehenge,” she blurted out.

  He grinned. “Merpeople built one on land too. Both are perfectly aligned to each other.”

  Brell ran her fingers along the ancient rocks. The resemblance to Stonehenge was uncanny. “What is it used for now?”

  “Well, to ‘use’ it in the traditional sense, one had to be extremely powerful so that their energy could be channelised via it. So far, we haven’t had a person like that in the Seas, except Zeldae. She hasn’t used it yet, though.”

  Brell slipped into the circle, looking around her in wonder. Land and the Seas were connected in such extraordinary ways! She came back to the table.

  “Where are the merpeople?”

  “What do you mean?” he frowned.

  “Lukas, it’s late at night and we’re in a garden created especially for Queen Caroline. I think we’re trespassing. Shouldn’t there be guards to worry about?”

  “Na
h, I knocked them out,” he said in an offhand manner

  She jumped. “You what?”

  “Don’t worry, they’re not hurt! It’s just a sleeping charm which will last for… probably four hours.” He sounded proud, as if it was a great feat that he had made people sleep at night.

  She thought about what he had just said, suddenly realizing the hidden possibility. “Could you teach me the charm? It could really be helpful for a person like me.”

  “Sure.” Lukas finished his briscuit, and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. “What have you done so far with your magic?”

  “Nothing too great.”

  “Well, making someone sleep is difficult and dangerous, because it involves the mind. If one small thing goes wrong, the person’s brain might just collapse,” he said seriously.

  Brell absorbed that in silence. “Oh,” she said.

  Lukas gazed at her for a moment, and then burst into laughter. “I was just kidding! It’s pretty simple actually. You just have to create a Drone and place it under the merperson’s nose. When the merperson smells it, he will fall asleep immediately.”

  She punched his shoulder lightly. “You scared me!”

  “A Drone,” he smiled, “Is a deadly golden flower which smells intoxicatingly wonderful. When a merperson or even a human smells it he will fall asleep. “It has to be created.” He got up. “You might want to get away from the table.”

  He curled his tail behind a little and then threw it forward in a jerk. Silver sparkles flew out, turning a lovely golden shade in the middle of the air. It began to come together and then slowly formed a flower hovering above the table. It looked like a mix between a rose and bluebell, and was golden in colour.

  She came a bit ahead to see it properly. It looked so beautiful… so enchanting. Smooth golden petals as if they were gilded with real gold. So delicate she felt it could be used to adorn dresses. She felt it call out to her, and she came even closer. It smelt of jasmine and vanilla and… was that cocoa bean? Oh, it smelt like an intoxicating drink. So delicate… so sleepy.

  There was a clapping noise behind her and the flower disappeared. She blinked, suddenly aware of what had just happened. “Oh my goodness, you’re right. I almost smelled it.”