King Tides Curse

by C J Timms

  Yet he didn’t need to take a breath. The weight was there, but his lungs didn’t burn. He flooded his lungs with water, and the pressure eased a fraction. He glimpsed a faint green light in the distance and struggled against the pressure to turn towards it. Gaining control of his panic, he released Pancakes into the water around him.

  Pancakes struggled too, his naturally clear body turned a dark blue. Resting a hand on Pancakes to steady him, Gale pushed off in the direction of the light, a green phosphorescence. It was like swimming through treacle.

  The green light flashed then started getting closer, very fast. Oh frak, Gale knew that light. He tried to swim in the other direction, but the green glow kept coming towards him. He turned and summoned his harpoon.

  A glowing green phyton swarm surged towards him. His movements clunky, the water slowing him.

  Gale thought.

  The seahound darted around him, forming a shell of swirling water. The Phyton tendrils glanced off it, scattering into individual tiny creatures that were sucked back into the swarm. The swarm lashed at him again and again, each time slipping off the shell of current. More and more green creatures came, the swarm building. The current around him started to slow. The tendrils were pressing in closer with each strike.

  Pancakes said.

  Gale reached down into himself and pushed out more Script. Feeding it into Pancakes and stabilised the shell. The green swarm broke away. The Phytons scattering. What the frak?

  He looked down.

  A dark mass rose from the depths. Seven heads on serpentine necks with teeth the size of dump trucks. Pancakes panted, his energy used up. Gale readied his harpoon. It looked like a toothpick that this monster would use to clean him from between its fangs.

  What kind of exam was this?

  The creatures snapping heads rose to swallow him. Something green and black flashed in the side of his vision. Gale was hauled out of the way, pulled at a such a g-force that he felt ready to blackout. The last thing he saw as blackness claimed him was a number carved into the belly of the creature.

  Gale woke on a clear glass floor. Air filled the room, but the ocean was visible through inches of glass. Looking down below, he could see a massive gate.

  The gate was a living creature. A massive maw, the size of a small city, had anchored into a mountain of the Trench. The maw’s fangs were interlaced blocking it off. Did all maw’s continue to grow as they aged?

  Pancakes lay on his side, sleeping. Was Pancakes bigger, more…turbulent? He felt his Script and noted his reserves diminished. Could he level up Pancakes using his own Script? What would it mean to feed his Deep side?

  Gale pushed himself off the floor. The whole room seemed made of clear glass. The chairs, couch…nearly everything was made of glass. Two things were not. The first was a man in a scaly green cloak, and the second was the Nintendo Switch he was playing. The Switch flickered and sputtered as Script wreaked havoc with it.

  The man sighed. ‘Can you please control your Tempest.’

  Gale looked around in the Vibe to see his Script flickering out wildly. He squashed it down and held out a hand.

  ‘Sorry, names Gale.’

  The man in the green-scaled cloak put down his controller and shook his hand. ‘You can call me Ao. Don’t suppose you brought a cushion?’

  Gale looked around, and just about everything apart from the Nintendo Switch was made of glass. The place looked bloody uncomfortable.

  ‘What was that thing. Where am I?’ Gale asked.

  Ao chuckled, ‘Ah, number three…nothing you need to worry about for now. Now as to where you are? You are deep in the shit boy. The Trench has nine layers. Welcome to layer three, the cradle of life, where the first Deep creature spawned. Where Corrosyv made her brood.’

  ‘What are you?’

  Ao chuckled. ‘I am Ao, third of the Dragon Kings. The Dragon Kings stand guard, our palaces giving us a perfect view of the deep. We are meant to stand watch, bah. The four of us cannot hold back the Deep. The Dragon Kings in their crystal palaces, hmph, We are little more than painted figures in an inverse snow-globe. Watched by the Deep for shits and giggles. We were not the ones who built these crystal palaces, nor did we make the ruins below, but someone did.

  Someone built the Floodgates for a purpose.’

  Gale felt something twinge in the back of his memory. ‘You were one of Zasterix’s generals weren’t you.’

  Ao snorted. ‘I trained with Zasterix and yes with Addison. I saw them grow, and I was there when they finally came to blows. I watched Zasterix cut down Addison, and I saw my friend turn to Salt.’

  Ao turned off his Nintendo Switch and walked to the edge of the glass room, staring out into the Trench.

  ‘I have had nothing but time to think, down here in this wretched bubble. I knew them both, and I knew that no one was more loyal to Zasterix then Addison. I saw Addison risk his life to save his brother’s many times. Addison was ambitious but never cruel or greedy. Addison believed in the betterment of man.

  So I have to ask.

  What truth was so terrible it turned Addison against Zasterix?

  What didn’t I know about Zasterix?’

  Gale had been taught about Zasterix and Addison in class. Addison had been the last Deep user that had trained at the university, at least openly. He’d started a revolution and Zasterix had fought him tooth and nail until the final battle on Mount Axis.

  Gale felt the man’s mood weigh on the room. A different kind of pressure built in him, and he had a horrid thought. Gale looked around what was essentially a living room, and further rooms were visible through the clear glass, something like a kitchen, a bedroom and more going on and on in a massive structure.

  ‘Is the bathroom...you know...see through?’

  Ao let out a booming laugh, then he frowned. ‘Yes.’

  Gale looked both ways inside the bathroom, hands fiddling with his belt. The bathroom was see-through like everything else in this sphere. Ao had returned to playing his Nintendo Switch, a melancholy settling on him.

  Gale took a long hard look around. Up, down, left and right. No sign of anyone. His bladder threatening to rebel, Gale shifted his belt awkwardly and went to drop his dacks.

  Knock, knock, knock.

  Gale looked up and saw Ashley outside the glass bubble. She furiously waved at him to halt and let her in. With a beet-red face, Gale went to find Ao.

  Still blushing, Gale sat with Ash and the Dragon King in the main room.

  ‘I’ll take him from here, Ao. I can train him at the Fount.’ Ash said.

  Ao nodded. ‘Very good, I have more important things to do.’ Ao picked up the controller for the Nintendo Switch. Ash went to leave, and Gale roused Pancakes. Ao dropped a controller, and it fell next to Gale. Gale handed it back, and the Dragon King grabbed his arm.

  Ao whispered, ‘Keep your guard up kid, once a siren latches on there’s no escape. Then there’s her betrothed…’

  ‘Betrothed?’

  ‘Aye a real hard bastard, good luck kid.’

  The Fount was an abandoned city built into an underwater volcano. The city had a hive-like structure, a bleached white latticework of ruins and honeycombed rooms extended throughout the volcano. The ocean met the magma in a crackling line within the volcano. The water was hot but bearable where the cold deep met superheated rock.

  Gale was back to breathing underwater again. Gale found with an effort that he could talk underwater to Ash. Ash wasn’t much interested in talking though.

  Ash’s fist collided with his cheek, and he flew backwards into a rock wall. Again. He kicked off the wall and spun his harpoon, striking out at her. She dodged it and kicked him in the gut.

  Gale tumbled through the water. Lava flows gleamed red below him. He spun and used Pancakes to stabilise himself. This was a crock, he was a Deep horror, he was a story that mothers told their children at night, he was…a fist socked him in the belly and he hunche
d over.

  ‘Time out.’ He said.

  Ash rolled her eyes. ‘I can teach you how to fight, but it’s going to be long and painful.’

  ‘Ahhh like that time you dragged me to watch a test match.’ Gale said, still holding his gut.

  ‘Cricket is the gentleman's game, and you should learn to love it.’

  ‘It takes too long.’

  Ash leaned on the wall. ‘Sometimes things take a long time. To learn Deep combat, you need to be able to fight in the water or on land. You must master the currents. Summoning waves, fountains or grabbing tendrils to snare your enemies.’ Ash raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you listening to me?’

  ‘Well, it's just that, you know, how come you’re a mermaid but you don’t have a tail?’ Gail asked.

  ‘I can’t grow a tail until I go through the change. Read a book, Gale.’ Ash clicked her tongue. ‘Now focus noob, history lesson coming at you.

  The first trenchwalker learnt while shipwrecked on a barren rock. The man had fought and lost a great battle. A siren came to him every day, and every day he refused to listen as she told him to drink from the ocean. Every day she told him they were kin, and every day he called her monster. Finally, about to pass out from heat exhaustion and dehydration, he cupped a handful of seawater and drank it down.

  To the man, it was the purest spring water.

  Next, his belly rumbled, and he saw fish darting beneath him in the crystal blue water. The siren came to him and told him to reach out and take them. Every day she told him to feed, and every day he called her monster. Days went by, and man can abide many things, but a terrible hunger eats away at you. When he was about to pass out from starvation, unable to grasp the fish, without a spear or lure, he reached out to the water itself. With great spouts of water, he flung the fish into the air and feasted.

  He gathered his strength, fed and watered, he sought a way to escape. The siren came to him every day and told him to reach out and gather the wood to make a raft. That a man must build a home if he has none. The man sat and prayed and knew that if he did not return, that the war would be lost, and that his home would fall. The man manipulated the tides and gathered to him driftwood from the shipwreck. He lashed it together with weed and kelp and frayed rope to make a driftwood raft.

  He launched the raft from the rock, and the siren came to him one final time. He realised he didn’t know which way to go, ocean on every side, no compass or sextant. The man pushed off and ignored her calls and directions. He pushed the raft with the tides until he started finding dead bodies. Sharks and fathomless, beasts of the deep floating in a wide ring around his rock.

  The siren came to him, a harpoon in hand. He realised that she had protected him while he slept on the rock. In the dark, the siren had been his shield. His light to keep away the monsters.

  He asked the siren why she had helped him when he called her monster. The siren told him that doing good needed no reason. That only you decide if you are a monster. The man fell to his knees and grasped her hand, and she led him to safety.

  That was how Canute became the first Trenchwalker, the only Deep user in history revered as a saint, the man who stood in front of a tidal wave and turned it back. The man reborn on Siren’s Rock.’

  Ash lapsed into silence. Gale leaned back against the wall and patted Pancakes. Gale thought of everything that had happened over the last six months. Was he a good person? Did he have pure motivations for doing what he did? He’d wanted to get into med school to help people, at least he told himself that. Part of him had craved the prestige and money though. Even now, what he was doing felt more like surviving than doing good. Was surviving by its nature evil, good or something else? What did he want to be? Did he want to be the monster, the hero or the survivor?

  What if he was all three?

  ‘Let's try teaching Pancakes simple commands.’ Ash said, pushing off her knees to standing.

  ‘What like a sheepdog?’ Gale asked. Gale was already thinking of the possibilities. Pancakes responded to ‘walkies’, could he start using others? Getaway on back, heel, stay, rollover. He looked over at Pancakes and sent a mental command.

 

  Pancakes rolled through the water tongue lolling out. This was going to take some work.

  Gale stood on a rock in the middle of a dark cavern. The rock rose into in an air pocket in the ruined city, water below it. Ash had told him very clearly not to summon his hydrolens. He sensed the currents of water around him and tried to see.

  A creeping tendril of water came out of the surface heading slowly for his chest. Gale could feel it approach, and he held out a hand and pushed back. The tendril slowed its advance, creeping to a halt about half a metre in front of him.

  Something pinched his bum.

  His concentration broken, the tendril in front of him shot forward knocking him off the rock.

  Ash giggled. ‘Your enemies won’t always attack head-on. You need a sense of the water around you. You need unrelenting focus. Try again’.

  Gale trained against Ash for days, fighting in the dark. Fighting currents and shadow boxing. Finally, he started to make headway.

  Gale and Ash hit each other with a blow and both shot into the cavern walls, equally matched. Gale slid down the walls onto the cave floor, exhausted and profusely sweating. He stunk to high heaven.

  ‘Good’ Ash said, tossing Pancakes a treat. ‘You can consistently connect with Pancakes and use basic techniques. I might make something of you yet. Come on. I want to show you the hot spring.’

  Gale’s pulse quickened. A hot spring? With Ash? While he felt this gross?

  The hot spring was an underwater pocket of trapped air where plants had grown, sunlight reflecting into the cavern. Gale settled into the hot spring. Ash joined him, dressed in an emerald green bikini. She sank into the water and sighed.

  Gale shifted his eyes, trying to look but not look. Be casual but not too casual. He settled for leaning back in a reclined position, sucking in his gut and trying to pump his biceps. There, that looked cool for sure, he thought.

  ‘Trying to flex huh?’ Ash called out.

  Gale kept his breathing very calm, don’t go red, don’t drop your flex he thought. He was Gale Knott, and he was a right looker he was. Keep the gut sucked in.

  ‘Nah, this is just me.’ He got out.

  Ash rolled her eyes. ‘So you haven’t asked me to the formal yet dickhead. You going to do that or not?’ She examined her nails.

  Gale’s chest tightened. ‘Ermm…wont they…you know, think you’re weird?’

  Ash took a very long hard look at him. Frak, focus Gale he thought. He slid bank in the water and closer to Ash, rolling back his shoulders.

  ‘I mean, won’t they know you are well…’

  ‘Gorgeous, charming, way out of your league?’ Ash said

  ‘A mermaid!’

  Ash chuckled and leaned in, ‘I can hide when I need to. They’ll probably just chalk it up to your Script rubbing off on me. They’ll just assume we’ve been spending a lot of quality time together.’

  Deep breaths Gale, you are not going to blush damnit. Don’t look down, keep eye contact.

  ‘Besides, if you bring me to the ball, I can help you track the Blood Knight.’

  Gale paused, thoughts flashing to Ironchurch, to the victims of the blood coma. No cure had been found. Each still stagnated, covered in red curse marks.

  ‘I didn’t know you were a tracker?’

  ‘I was trained to keep track of you.’ She winked at him.

  ‘Who sent you to do that

  ‘I…I can’t tell you.’ Ash said, her grin fading, she leaned back away from him and looked to the side. Gale’s tattoo on his shoulder started itching like mad, and he scratched at it. That tattoo had all been Ash’s idea. He’d just had to impress a girl, hadn’t he? She hadn’t ended up getting one in the end, though.

  Gale let out a deep breath. ‘Was it your betrothed?’

  Ash’s eyes n
arrowed. ‘Who told you about that.’

  ‘Does it matter, who are you working for Ash?’

  ‘It's my business, so frakking stop asking.’ She said.

  ‘Tell me,’ Gale said.

  ‘NO!’ Ash said, and her voice changed. Gale’s muscles locked up and his jaw clamped shut. Something hard had hidden in her soft voice. Something that bound his jaw closed like a lock

  Ash put a hand to her face and went red, Gale’s muscles freed up again his jaw wrench open. How had she done that? With her voice?

  Ash looked away. ‘I’ve taught you what I can. It’s time for you to head back.’

  A flickering portal appeared in the room, the Splinterpoint Gate. Gale rubbed his jaw and stood up. He walked to the flickering gateway then looked back at Ash. Ash had her back turned. Pancakes gave him a slobbery lick on the cheek, and he scratched the seahound under the chin.

 

  Pancakes darted into Gale’s pocket. At least someone listened to him. He crossed the threshold through the gate.

  Reef’s word, he was not good at flirting.

  Gale crossed back through the Splinterpoint Gate as the sun was setting. His feet touched solid ground, and he felt unsteady. Pancakes hid in his pocket.

  Gale rolled out his shoulders, would he ever find steady ground? Who were his allies here? If he couldn’t trust Ash, who could he trust? Sometimes it felt like everyone was an angler fish, presenting him a pretty bright light before they tore him to shreds. Everyone was a frakking wolf in sheep's clothing, just showing him their pretty face.

  The portal started up again behind him. Swan emerged with her wrist in a cast. He nodded at it, and she gave him the finger.

  ‘What of it dickhead?’ Swan said.

  Gale grabbed her into a bear hug. Bless you, Swan, he thought.

  More figures breached out of the portal. Sterling sauntered out with a new set of blades and duds. He didn’t say a word. Yip pounced into the clearing, eyes darting left and right. Yip stood, brushed off his clothes and started writing in his journal. Titus commando rolled out. He stretched out his back and pulled out a packet of lentil chips. Wait, lentil chips? Then he pulled a chocolate milk from his other pocket to wash it down, and the universe was right once more.