38.Alin
Alin
“Will you be okay?” Luca asks, his voice no longer radiating confidence as I open the car door and step onto the sidewalk.
I know he understands, just as I do, that there’s a chance I won’t come back to the surface. The sting in my heart is painful, but breaking down now won’t help either of us. I have to believe we’ll succeed.
Who would have thought that one day I would join a crime organization on land and decide to kill merfolk so easily? I must have delved into their world deeper than I thought, but it’s too late now. The depths are calling me home again... this time with a plan.
“I’ll be fine. Just make sure everything is organized at the apartment. You have two days,” I say quickly, trying to hide the uncertainty in my voice as I pass him the new phone he got for me.
“If I don’t make it back, don’t wait for me,” I add without looking at him. This is our only chance to get rid of the problem that has been looming over me like a dark cloud for months.
I lean back into the passenger seat, stretching my body to reach Luca’s face, and give him a quick kiss on the lips, hoping it won’t be the last.
“It will work,” he declares, placing his hands on my neck and turning my gaze up to him. It seems like he’s trying to convince himself more than me.
I nod in agreement and step out of the car, slamming the door quickly, and run toward the beach where Abert took me the last time.
I recognize the rocks where I left my clothes, and I throw off what I’m wearing now at the same spot, leaving only a small shoulder bag hanging on my body as I run into the water.
My legs quickly transform into my tail as I adjust to the water. The appearance of gills on my neck tickles me slightly, maybe from the excitement of returning home after so long, or the panic of what it means.
I have to succeed; it’s the only way for me to bridge the two worlds I love so much.
I swim at top speed to the familiar depths.
The deeper I swim, the more the longing for home hits me with every reef, rock, or coral I recognize from the times I swam here with Miguel.
The familiar path slowly starts to bring back memories.
It’s been almost a year since I swam this close to home.
As the water gets darker, my body is glowing brighter, lighting the way in the abyss.
Before long, I spot my city’s gate from afar, just as magnificent as I remembered.
Two giant, pearl-glowing shells open like a fan, welcoming those who come and go.
The path leading to the gate is lined with colorful, glowing corals and gems that dispel the darkness outside, stirring excitement in my heart. Everything appears exactly as I recall.
A vibrant coral reef encircles the city like a massive wall, and the familiar schools of fish still roam nearby. Spotting a gate guard swimming in my direction, I quickly hide behind a nearby reef. The urge to swim back into the city is strong, but I must remain patient a little longer.
Once inside, all eyes will be on me. First, I need to obtain the venom.
When the coast is clear, I dart away from the city gate and swiftly head toward a nearby underwater cave—the usual haunt of the hunters’ pod.
I halt at the mouth of the cave, shivering as its eerie atmosphere envelops me. The entrance resembles a giant shark’s open jaw, jagged rocks forming menacing teeth. Darkness cloaks the interior, and only the glow of my body illuminates my path.
Once again, I realize how insane this idea is.
The hunters’ pod comprises of mermaids who betrayed their pods and live in perpetual survival mode, forever banished from returning home alive.
The pod was created under a curse to hunt sailors, requiring the merfolk within the pod to hunt monthly or risk losing their tails and drowning as humans to replace the sailors they failed to capture.
The hunters’ pod instills fear across merfolk in all oceans, and here I am, tempting fate.
Just the thought of the bodies hidden here sends a shiver through my scales.
Would my parents really send me here for my betrayal? A small spark of fear ignites in my chest.
There’s no time to dwell on that now; I must act swiftly. I have two days to return to the surface with the venom.
The hunters capture everything and trade it for their own price. I’m confident I can acquire the venom from them. I can offer food supplies, gold, even the golden scales from the castle’s luck fish. I just hope the trade won’t demand too much from me this time.
“Alin? What are you doing here?” A familiar voice from the cave entrance pulls me from my thoughts, and I tense up. Here they come.
I lift my gaze to the hunter approaching me, my body freezing as I recognize the familiar face that swims toward me.
“Bay?” I ask, surprised to see my cousin, whom I haven’t seen since the day I escaped. Why is she in this cave?
“What are you doing here?” she repeats her question, the shock in her voice unmistakable. We both stare at each other, lost.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?!” I throw her question back at her, and she looks down in embarrassment. What is going on?
I scan her body and see that she’s completely stripped of all the jewels she used to adorn her scales with, even the necklace with the royal emblem is no longer around her neck. I can’t believe she’s been exiled. She may be mischievous, but she’s definitely not a traitor.
Now that I look at her, I realize the little mermaid princess is closer to Bay’s description than mine. Her long, flowing red hair, amethyst-like sparkling purple eyes, and greenish scales illuminate the cave entrance along with my glow like a giant rainbow.
“I’ve been exiled. I’m part of the hunters’ pod now,” she says, her voice embarrassed, and my head fills with questions as she confirms what I couldn’t believe.
“What did you do, Bay?” I sigh, my tone judging in despair.
“I cut one of the castle guards’ fins...” she says almost casually, as if telling me about her breakfast, avoiding my eyes. She did what now?
“I’m sorry, I’m not following. I leave home for a few months, and you become an assassin?” I ask in shock. What the hell happened here while I was gone?
“When you swam to the surface, I tried to follow you. But when I did, I had to fight off one of the guards. Part of his tail got cut off in the process... they saw it as betrayal and sent me here,” she explains, her face now looking haunted.
She’s been stuck with the hunters’ pod for months because of me?
Guilt quickly floods over me. She ran away to join me. What have I done?
“It’s not your fault, Alin. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine here,” she says, finally meeting my eyes, probably seeing how hard it is for me to process all of this information. But I can see through her lie immediately; she’s far from fine.
“Why are you here?” she asks again before I can push for more information, reminding me why I came in the first place.
“I need venom from the sea wasp,” I admit honestly. This time, I’m the one embarrassed to ask my cousin instead of the monster I expected to meet. Her eyes widen in shock. It’s a day full of surprises.
“I don’t even want to ask why,” she says, raising her finger to stop me from speaking further and swims back into the cave, emerging after a minute with a small vial in her hand.
“Thank you, Bay,” I exhale in relief as I reach out to take the vial from her, but she pulls it away before I can touch it.
“I’m sorry, Alin. There’s a price. It’s not up to me; it’s the pod’s...” she announces, and the hope of getting this for free swims away.
“What’s the price?” I ask impatiently now. It seems nothing can be easy.
“Your necklace,” she declares, and I immediately clutch the necklace I got at the antique shop possessively. I’ve grown used to its presence on my neck.
“Please no, it’s so important to me. Bay, please. Take something else.” I plead desperately, knowing that when the hunters’ pod demands payment, you can’t refuse.
But she shakes her head.
“The emblem is your mother’s royal symbol.
The necklace can pardon me and give me my freedom from the pod,” she informs me, and I immediately understand what it means to her.
For me, it’s a warm memory and a precious gift; for her, it’s life.
Royal property given by a royal to a traitor grants them pardon from any punishment. She’s right.
I reach up to my neck, take off the necklace, and hand it over to Bay, as she places the vial in my hands.
My neck suddenly feels bare, but I know I made the right choice. I quickly hide the vial in my small bag, and she swims toward me, hugging me tightly as the sounds of her sobbing fill my ears.
She endured months under the hunters’ curse, and I shudder to think of the horrors she witnessed.
The souls of sailors taken by the hunters feed the Great Coral of Life, sustaining our royal bloodlines, while their bodies are discarded to the sharks.
In times of desperate hunger, the hunters even resort to consuming the sailors’ flesh.
Bay’s parents were always distant, but how could they abandon their own daughter to such a fate?
I stroke her long hair as she continues to unload all the pain she’s suffered into my embrace, realizing that we are going back to the city together.
I need to figure out how to explain that my mother pardoned her without actually knowing it. Two traitors heading to the city of Mal-El’s royal lineage. We might have to share the necklace, I sigh as new worries flood my chest.
Once we reach the current, we’ll swim through it together.