by Jae Vogel
“Wasn’t there another girl in the pool with you?” Doug managed to say.
“Her name is Appias,” Dirce snapped back at him. “And she’s not the least bit interested in you!”
“Which is a good thing for him,” Dion said. He didn’t want to disturb the tow. They were close together in each other’s arms, even with the water dripping off Dirce. The appearance of the nymph had an effect on Sean and Emily too. They were on the end of the same bench, but hugging.
“Dirce,” Dion said to the water elemental, “do you have any idea what you’ve done to Dennis? You’ve put a glamor on him and he’ll never be happy until you release him. You have to let him go because it’s not good for either of you.”
“What do you know, Master Dion?” she snarled at him. “You think your ability to manipulate elements entitles you to know what goes on in our world? You think your quest to free your parents overrides everything else?” She returned to Dennis who was now calmed down and in control of himself.
The effect she had on Dennis was uncanny. He was calmed and held onto the wet form next to him. The young man was at peace with himself and the hurried look of someone not sure about their future was gone from his face. Dion faced two couples affected by the power of the elementals. But this time half of one couple was an elemental. He only needed to wait until Salacia Delphi showed up, then he could make Dirce leave Dennis alone.
A very easy solution, but what about Dennis? Would he ever recover from this encounter? And Dirce would hate Dion forever. The rest of her water elemental clan would hate him as well. It would make using them for anything difficult, as they would have to be bound to do any task. They would despise him and jeopardize anything he needed done when the opportunity arose.
“You can’t be together for long, Dirce,” Dion tried to explain. “He’s mortal, you aren’t. It’s as simple as that. You don’t do very well out of the water. You’ll need to go back into the pool soon unless you want to feel sick. He can’t stay in the water very long. He can’t stay underwater at all unless he has breathing equipment.”
And then something else struck him. “Dirce,” Dion asked. “Have you ever been attracted to a human before?”
“No,” she said. The elemental began to sob too, her tears flowing over her face. “This is the first time for me.”
It was hard to tell when water elementals cried because they were wet most of the time.
So this was it. Both Dennis and Dirce had fallen in love for the first time and to each other. Dion ran his hand through his hair and tried to figure out what to do about this. Now he was close to the boundaries of his code if he kept Dirce away from Dennis. It would be much worse than the usual binding to keep a nymph away from a human. He wasn’t sure either of them would survive the separation. Dirce wasn’t mortal, but she could still be hurt.
He tried to think if this had happened in the past. It might have and perhaps the Water Grandmaster would know what to do, but how would it look to her if he couldn’t straighten this out? Why should she grant him full powers if he dumped these love seals in her lap? Probably not right away and it might take years for her to make her mind up again. Indeed, his uncle had set all of them up by sending the nymphs into this part of the mall. Small wonder the security guards were absent. They didn’t need to be around when Dion had this on his hands.
‘It’s not like he can take Dirce home and introduce her to mom,” Doug grumbled to the side. “She would have a fit if all that water was on the floor in the house.”
“Just be quiet,” Dion said before Dirce snapped at him again. “There has to be a way to resolve this. Let me think.”
Lilly stood next to Dion. She was in awe of his Solomonic wisdom on display. She didn’t even speculate on what he would do.
“You can stay with us, Dirce,” Dion said to her after he thought for a few minutes. “But you have to get some clothes on. As much as the male half of the shoppers might like it, you can’t go around wet and in a bikini.”
“I’m glad you approve of me,” Dirce said to him coldly. Dion noticed that Sean and Emily were also inseparable. Great, now he had two couples to contend with in order to finish his quest.
“I’ll have to talk to the Water Elemental Grandmaster when she arrives,” Dion said. “It might cost me ability, but I can’t risk the damage it would do to Dennis right now if I send you away.”
He took his wallet out and handed Lilly a credit card. “This is in my aunt and Uncle Rich’s name. If any of the stores give you a hard time about using it, come and get me. Go back and get her something to drink too.”
“Aren’t your sisters going to want to know where you are?” he asked Dirce.
“They already do,” Dirce said and nodded to the front.
Dion turned to the front of the store and saw a crowd of elemental nymphs gathered at the front. All of them still were wet and in their swimming suits. The nymph who’d been in the same pool walked up to them with Dirce’s tracksuit in her hands. Now there would be a lot of water on the floor.
“She’ll need this,” the nymph said to Dion as she handed him the tracksuit. She went over to Dirce and gave her a hug, then rejoined the others who watched from the entrance to the pool shop.
“What will the rest of you be up to?” Dion asked the one who walked back to the door.
“Waiting,” she said. “The owner is on her way back here and she told the clerks to let us continue to use the pools. They don’t seem to mind because they’ve already sold two pools since we’ve been inside them.” She padded back to the others who soon left the entrance of the store and returned to the outside.
None of it changed the problems Dennis and Dirce would face if their relationship went forward. She needed a constant body of water around her and if Dennis planned to get into a major college, he had better major in marine biology. And there was the problem of him aging, but not she. However, he still had to admit, they made a nice couple curled up on the bench with Sean and Emily next to them. Anyone else would think them another high school boy and girlfriend out for a date.
“I need to go home,” his brother said. “Dennis, call me from a pay phone if you need someone to pick you up. I’m outta here.” He stood up and walked out the corridor that connected to the main concourse.
“So as long as I am here,” Dirce said while she put her tracksuit on, “you can at least ask me some questions, because I know that’s what you want to do.”
“You can start by telling me why you and your sisters are here,” he said and sat down on a bench next to theirs to lessen the impact of his words. Dirce slipped her flip-flops on and sat back down next to Dennis.
“We were hired to keep you from the Water Grandmaster. The man who owns the mall specifically wants us to keep you away from her.”
“I suspected it. I suppose you can start from the beginning and tell me how he found you?”
“We live in a cave near the coast of Okinawa,” she said. “I know you guessed my location from the way I look. We take our form from the humans we’re around, so nobody says anything. I’ve been there with my sisters a long time. I remember when the Emperor of Japan visited us six hundred years ago. I remember when the first people showed up on the island. But this is the first time I have ever been attracted to a boy.”
“All these years and it’s the first time?” Lilly asked.
“We don’t have the same sense of time you do. We think of time on a vast scale and don’t get concerned if we’re caught in the middle of it. I know humans don’t have the same perspective.” She hugged Dennis again. “But I hope there might be a way to fix that.”
Dion didn’t have the guts to tell her he didn’t know of any way to extend the human life much beyond a hundred years, but medical science always found ways to make improvements. He let her continue to speak.
“We spend most of our days on the rocks outside the cave singing. It’s something we like to do. It passes the time and the fish seem to like it. The dol
phins come to hear us too.”
“Do you eat?” Emily asked her. She’d wondered about it ever since the ghouls captured her.
“Not us. Some water elementals, as you call us, do, but we don’t have to.”
“You sing?” Sean asked. “I’ve heard about mermaids who sing to sailors, is that who you are?”
“Distant cousins. And yes we do. Anyway, last month a boat pulled up right outside our cave and….”
“Could you sing for us?” Sean asked her. “I’d love to hear you.”
“Unless your singing could hurt,” Emily added. She was thinking of the sirens from the Odyssey.
“If you want me to and no it won’t hurt you,” Dirce explained and leaned her head back.
It was a voice which emerged from her throat, but one that used no words. Her song flowed through the corridor and caused a few shoppers to turn and listen to her. It was a song of the waves and surf pounding on the beach. Many of the people who stopped to hear had never been near the sea and were mesmerized by what they heard from Dirce. The small girl with the wet, black hair sang about the sun over the ocean and the mists that rose from the sea. She sang about the moonrise over the waves and the sound of the storms. She sang about the fish leaping through the air and the sunrise on the open sea. It was a song of loneliness and yet was all about the splendor of nature. It was a song she’d sung for thousands of years.
When Dirce finished and lowered her head, the entire corridor outside the mall was silent. And then it began. Sporadic claps that echoed throughout the hall until everyone was applauding her. The applause died out and she looked at everyone. Confused, as if she didn’t understand what they were doing. A man walked up to Dirce and thanked her for reminding him of his years in the navy. Several families expressed gratitude for her for the performance and wanted to know where they could buy her album. Soon, everyone went back to walking and continued on their way.
“That was so wonderful,” Dennis said, his eyes full of joy.
“Do you want me to continue with my story?” she asked Dion.
“Yes.” It was easy to see how men were attracted to water nymphs; they were stunning to look at and to listen.
“It was a big boat,” she continued, “bigger than we’d seen in over a hundred years. Our island doesn’t get a lot of human visitors and we like it that way. It avoids problems with mortals.”
“Anyway, the boat came right up to our rock and dropped its anchor. The captain of the boat had an elemental worker on board. He managed to coax us out of the water and back onto the rocks. It was sunset, so we didn’t mind talking with him for a while.”
“All of you were out on the rocks?” Sean asked her.
“We always to outside in the evening to sing. It’s the best way to hear yourself. We go inside if there is someone we don’t know. We didn’t know these people and almost didn’t go outside, but they were insistent. Plus, one of them was an elemental worker, so he caught our attention.”
“When we went back to the rock,” she continued, “the captain of the boat wanted us to meet with someone he had on board. We don’t like to meet with more than one or two humans at a time because they stare at us.”
“Why do people stare at you?” Lilly asked. The small woman turned her head to face the human girl.
“You see what I have on now? This is more than I have worn in two hundred years. I didn’t mind the bikini because I’ve had men come by and beg me to wear it so they can take pictures of me in it. They pay me with shiny coins, which we like because they look pretty in the cave. We have many shiny coins in there going back hundreds of years. I’ve tried to tell them my picture will never come out, but they refuse to listen. Something about the light, our forms don’t register on a camera.”
“I like the way you look,” Dennis said. She gave him a little hug and kissed him on the cheek. “Of course you would, just as I like the way you look,” she told him.
“Anyway,” Dirce continued, “we made him promise not to bring any more men out on deck. He agreed and went to get the man who wanted to talk to use. When he came out, he introduced himself as Seth Bach.”
“My uncle.” Dion sat up straight.
“He told us that he wanted us to do a job for him and it involved travel. He said we would be far from the sea, but there would be places we could go to refresh once we were there. We wanted to know why he needed us and not some other group of water elementals. He didn’t say, but claimed we were the best he could afford. When we asked him why we should listen to his offer, he claimed there was going to be an oil exploration vessel in the vicinity of our rock in a few days.
Oil and exploration are two of the worst words you can say to a water elemental who lives in the ocean. I’ve had too many relatives forced to relocate because someone wanted to pump the black stuff out of where they lived. We can’t stand it when the men and their big machines start to work. We have to go because of the noise and smells. He promised to send the machines away if we would come and do a job for him. And he promised to bring us jewels, which we like to put in our caves too. It looks nice next to the shiny coins.
He told us he needed us to keep someone away from one of the water elemental grandmasters. He promised us whatever we would need to stay out of water for a long period of time. He even gave us some pretty stones to help us decide.
So we voted. In the end, we decided to take him up on his offer and go along for the job. He had some kind of tank on the ship to transport us, so it worked out without much trouble.”
There was only one thing which bothered us: he was some kind of elemental worker himself, we couldn’t tell which kind. Usually it’s easy to do that, we can feel it. He couldn’t bind us or force us if we didn’t want him to do it, but there was something odd about the way he felt. As if he’d earned something he wasn’t supposed to have.”
“That would describe my uncle,” Dion said. The six of them were sitting on the bench, with Lilly leaning on him. What Dirce had was contagious.
“He put us into some other kind of water tank when the boat docked on the shore,” she continued. “It was nice enough, just a bit restraining. He flew us into some special place where he told us what our cover was supposed to be and issued us the swimsuits and tracksuits. We didn’t like wearing them, but understood it was part of the job he wanted us to do. Today a bus brought us to this place and we’ve followed the script to the letter.
All up to where I noticed Dennis. Now I don’t know what will happen next because we were supposed to keep you away from the Grandmaster and now you know about everything. I don’t want to go back, because I would leave him behind.” She looked with her sea green eyes into that of Dennis. “Is there any way he could come with us if we go back?’
“Dirce,” Dion spoke softly. “This is difficult to say, but Dennis has to eat, you don’t. It would be easier to keep you here. I don’t know how it can be done, but if there is a method to do it, I’ll find the way.”
“I really don’t want to leave my sisters behind,” Dirce said as she looked at the door to the pool store. “I wish there was some way we could all stay here. I could convince them to stay if there was as quiet lake or pond somewhere.”
Dion sighed. With all the development in the area, one of those would be hard to find. And Dennis would have to see her every day or he would have problems. It was one of the reasons elementals and humans didn’t mix very well.
Dirce stood up, still holding onto Dennis’s hand. “I’m going back there and talk with them. I’ll make them understand everything is changed and I want to stay here.”
“Why don’t you let me do that?” Dion told her. “Look, I’m an elemental worker with all four abilities. I only have full power in earth and air, but I hope to have the third when the storeowner shows up today. Give me the chance to talk to them and I’m sure it can all be resolved.“ He hadn’t liked the sneer on the elemental who’d walked back through the door. At least the water on the floor was gone, mopped
up by a grumbling ghoul cleaner.
“I’ll do it!” Dennis said as she stood next to Dirce. “Let me go back there and tell them to let her be here and not cause any problems.”
“Calm down,” Dion told him. “You’re new to all this and excited. I’ve seen this happen before. You’ll be the jarhead who runs across a field of grenades just to impress someone. Let me handle this, I’ve had the experience.”
“I’ll go.” It was Sean, also standing up. “You’re right. He’s new and I’ve already been zapped by elementals. They won’t have the same effect on me they would on him.”
Dion rubbed the back of his head. What had he walked into? Right now, he had an uncle who wanted to eliminate him, a Water Elemental Grandmaster he needed to meet, two lovesick guys, three lovesick girls if you counted Lilly and multiple swimming pools full of water elementals. And he still had to find a way to free his parents from the clock tower. Now he had two different guys who didn’t have a clue about how to negotiate with elementals who wanted to play heroes.
“You can both go back there with me,” Dion told them. “But we’ll do this my way. You don’t talk to any of them unless I say so. Is that understood?”
Both of them nodded their heads.
“How long do you think this will take?” Lilly asked him.
“Longer that it would if I could go back there alone. But they want to go along for the ride, so I’m not going to stop them. Just stay put and keep the rest of the girls calm until I get back. Try to find out more about Dirce, this is new to me, an elemental who wants to be with a human out of their environment.”
Dion turned back to Sean and Dennis. “Okay, let’s go, and remember, let me do the talking.”
They vanished through the door of the pool store.
Dirce sat back down on the bench and folded her legs under her. She watched the flow of traffic for a while down the hall. Eventually she turned to Lilly who sat next to her.