Mira
Chapter twenty-nine
Of Scale she is protecting, hurting, searching for peace.
“Mira,” a voice echoes inside my head, soft like a hymn sung from the edge of heaven. I look around, startled, breaking eye contact with the creature. “Mira. The Soul.” It is her. The beast.
She is speaking directly into my mind. Magic? No, this is something else.
“Not magic, dear Mira,” her voice comes again, gentle as a wave. “We are connected. I know you feel it.” And I do. I just haven’t understood it until now.
I swim closer, slowly, the water parting around me like it knows where I need to go. She is still some distance away, but I need to see her up close, to look into her eyes and truly understand.
“Name?” I ask with my thoughts, reaching out through the bond, something new for me. “Keta,” she answers. Fierce and beautiful.
I reach her at last. She doesn’t move to strike or bare her teeth. She simply watches me, massive eyes tracking my every movement, glowing like twin suns in the dark. “I didn’t know it was you,” she says, and there’s something almost regretful in her tone. “If I did, I would never attack.”
“I’m sorry for my ship,” I tell her quietly, swimming up toward her face. “But they didn’t know. They don’t understand.” She dips her massive head slightly, acknowledging the apology. I hover there, close enough now to feel the slow pull of her current, the sheer force of her presence.
“Can you spare them?” I ask. My voice is steady in my mind, though my heart pounds inside my chest. I know the one thing Kai is holding on to above water is the beat of my heart.
She stares, and I wait, hoping the bond between us is strong enough to shift the tide.
“Spare them? I’m not going to kill. I just want them gone.
These are ancient waters for my kind. No man shall cross.
Most Tarlocks would attack, but I sensed you the moment your body touched the sea.
” She is breathtaking, radiant in the way she glides through the open water.
Ancient and terrifying in the sheer mass of her being, every single inch of her is razor-sharp.
“Thank you,” I dip my head slowly, in a small bow. “We’ll be on our way.”
She lowers her massive head until her glowing eyes are in direct contact with mine. “You are a beautiful soul. Stay safe. The ocean needs you, Mira—female ruler of the sea. If ever you need me, call my name. You know it now.”
I blink slowly, then swim the last few feet between us, placing my hand gently against her snout. She closes her eyes, leaning into the touch. Her scales, to my surprise, are warm.
“I’ll see you soon, Keta,” I say down the bond. “May your waters stay guarded, and your days be peaceful.” I lift my hand off of her snout.
Before I can swim away, I hear her voice again. “There is great unrest churning in the sea,” Keta says, her tone calm but endless, like the tide just before a storm. “You must guard yourself well. The Pirate Lord is bound to you. Trust in him.”
Her ancient eyes met mine, unblinking and unreadable.
Then her voice sinks lower. “An army rises beneath the waves, one far greater than me. Greater than you. It is being forged by the Soul, and she does not wish to sleep. But she has turned dark. Cruel. She must be stopped. That burden now falls to you.”
Anger surges through me. I knew the Soul had gone bad, but that goes against all that it is there for.
The Soul was meant to preserve balance, not poison it or raise monsters to destroy what little light we had left in this sick world.
“Let her build her army,” I say, my voice like flint, my eyes narrowing.
“Let her rise from the deepest trench she can find. I was born of this sea, and its fury runs through me. And I don’t bow to anyone that’s forgotten what it means to belong to it. ”
Keta gives a slight nod, the glow in her eyes deepening. “You, child, are the light. The Soul is dark,” she says, her voice echoing like a distant tide. “You know my name. Call it when the sea turns against you, and I will come. I will save you.” Her words settle, anchoring my soul.
Before I can move, Keta shifts, graceful and deliberate.
She rises beneath me, scooping me up with a gentleness that doesn’t match her size.
She carries me through the waves, back to the ship.
Then, with an eerie ease, she lifts me from the water.
The water parts between her sharp talons and she sets me down on the main deck, right next to Kai where I belong.
She holds his gaze, unflinching. He doesn’t look away. “If he is the one your soul is tied to,” she says, “then he, too, is under my protection. May your journey to the fountain go smoothly. Don’t waste your wish.”
She looks at me once more, eyes softer. “Remember, you know my name.” Then she turns, slipping silently beneath the waves and vanishing into the depths from which she came.
Kai’s hands are on me in an instant, gripping my arms and scanning every inch of me, wild with worry. “What the hell happened?” His voice is controlled, but his gaze is a storm. Panic, fear, disbelief.
Water drips from my hair as I lift my chin, the entire crew frozen around us, waiting. “I bonded with a tarlock,” I say, steady and sure. “Her name is Keta.” Shock ripples through him like a wave.
“You did what?” he breathed. “How is that even possible?”
I try to rise, but my legs give way beneath me. Kai catches me before I can fall, hand firm against my back. I meet his eyes. “She wasn’t trying to kill us, she was just protecting her home. But there’s something worse coming. Something darker. We need to go.”
His jaw tightens, but he nods. “We’ll take the long route,” he says.
“We’ll find Taika. But not through cursed waters.
” Kai’s grip tightens on my arm as he helps me to my feet.
“Mira, what do you mean you bonded with her?” He steadies me until I can stand on my own, but my legs feel like they’ll only work underwater.
“It means if I ever need her, she’ll come,” I say simply. “The crew is safe. The ship is safe. We can move on now, shall we?”
Kai lets out a slow breath, his eyes shining with something softer than awe. “Every time I think I’ve seen all there is to you, you surprise me. You’re unparalleled, Mira.”
I lean in slightly, voice low, just for him.
“And if you ever need her”—I tap his chest—“call her name, Keta. She’s bound to you now, too.
” His smile fades, jaw tightening, eyes softening with something close to pride, like he’s trying not to show just how much it moves him.
Because now, we have the most powerful being in these seas on our side.