Chapter 16 Malec
Malec
Two days of endless currents blur together, though it feels like two hours as I ride the waves beneath us, guiding the water with Mom’s power. My tail slices through the depths, twisting and coiling, shaping the currents like they were only created to follow me.
Finally, the gates of Sur-El’s city appear, towering and gleaming even in the dim underwater light. Relief presses against my chest, a welcome weight after the unending push of the sea.
It’s the first time I’ve ever seen it, and it looks nothing like I imagined.
The city is sealed behind towering icy walls, their surface a sheet of frost so pale it looks almost silver.
But then—piercing through the ice at regular angles—are massive golden stars, embedded deep into the structure, supporting it like sacred bones.
They don’t shine with gems or glamour like the other cities. Like Mal-El.
And yet, the gate itself…
A single star-shaped colossus, carved in gold, stands at the center of the wall—radiating light.
Not reflected, but born from within. It pulses faintly, like something ancient and alive is breathing beneath it.
The golden glow spills into the dark sea like it’s pushing back the cold, defying the silence.
This place feels like it was carved out of time. I can’t stop staring at it.
Most merfolk spend their lives swimming only between neighboring cities—hours, maybe a day, between one pod and the next.
But not here. In the Arctic Ocean, there’s only this.
No cities nearby. No outposts. No warm currents carrying gossip or trade.
Just silence, ice, and dark things, the rest of the world has no reason—and no courage—to understand.
Only Sur-El remains.
Marked by the stars. Descendants of the fifth son—the youngest of the first royal bloodlines.
They’re quiet, powerful, and distant in ways that even stories can’t reach. And yet, this is the place they chose. Isolation, cold, and endless night.
I used to wonder why.
My mother told me tales, carefully chosen ones, always filtered through whatever Myko permitted. Apparently, she grew up believing a lie about how the royal bloodlines were formed. A lie most of our world still believes.
I don’t know if I should thank her for bringing a black-blooded child into this mess, someone born outside that madness, or blame her for making me the one who’s meant to carry all of it now that the Coral is me.
“Malec, are you coming?”
Bay’s voice breaks the weight around me. She’s already a few strokes ahead, frowning slightly in that way she does when she’s trying to read my thoughts and getting frustrated by the silence. “What are you staring at for so long? It’s only a city.”
But it’s not. That’s not a normal merfolk city. I can feel that something strong lies in there, and I’m not about to stir anything I’m not personally familiar with yet.
She’s caught in the golden light, and the way it flickers across the green scales on her forehead makes it look like something divine is holding her, brushing its fingers along her skin.
But I know better.
Bay’s soul doesn’t glow gold.
It’s deep purple. Alive. Heavy.
And stained with black holes—dark voids like the rest of us black-blooded.
The colors might shift, like my mother’s, which are turquoise—bright and layered. But the holes? They’re permanent, like our immortal life.
I’m just glad I’ve started to control my powers now, to soften the visions that claw through my senses.
Otherwise, standing this close to the gate—surrounded by shapes and whispers and color that doesn’t belong here—might’ve broken me open completely.
“It’s my first time here, and I’m not sure why, but something feels different.” I glance at Bay and lower my voice. “Let’s be cautious.”
But before she can respond, gentle hands wrap around my arm from behind. A bloodred tail glides into view beside me. Onyx presses her face into my back like I’m some kind of unbreakable shield.
And then it hits me—
She’s scared.
My gills flare open and shut as I steady my breath. “Onyx,” I murmur, “what do you know about this place?”
She’s not from our ocean’s hunters’ pod.
She might know something we don’t—especially if she’s clinging to me like this.
I still don’t know why I agreed to keep her close until we solve her… terrifying problem. But the way my aunt looked at me, like I had to help her, like she needed me to—made it hard to refuse.
Bay knows better than anyone what it feels like to be haunted. She lived through Myko.
She knows that weight.
But even Myko hates this creature so much, it somehow made him feel sorry for her.
Onyx doesn’t answer. She keeps her face against my back, but her fingers dig tighter into my skin.
She belongs to Kolox—the warriors pod. The one marked by the arrow.
So why is she this scared?
I reach down and gently pull her hand away, turning to face her.
“What don’t I know, Onyx?” My voice comes out more as a threat than a question.
She lifts her head slowly, and her onyx gem eyes meet mine—wide, dark, shaken like she’s seen her worst nightmare. Second worst nightmare if we count the beast of the depth.
“I—I don’t know much,” she mumbles, gills vibrating with nerves.
“Just that Queen Marcella… she can blind you. With one look. She turned my third brother—Prince Tylen—completely blind. Just for coming here with my father’s message. He entered the city without announcement.”
What?
So that’s their Queen’s power…
“Don’t look at her. Don’t meet her eyes. No matter what,” Onyx adds, her voice tighter now, the fear in her eyes even clearer through those black gem irises.
I turn toward Bay, who’s swimming back to us now, curiosity etched into the lines of her face.
Her chest pulses with soft purple, but Myko is quiet in my mind.
“Is it true?” I ask him.
He doesn’t respond.
And that silence says everything.
I don’t know how to feel about this new revelation.
I shouldn’t be worried—not with Bay and Myko beside me.
But the fear is still crawling its way around the edges of my mind like it’s been waiting for a crack.
Then I notice my hand’s still gripping Onyx’s. I release it quickly, shoving her touch away.
It’s not my fear.
It’s hers.
Her gaze drops toward the tip of her tail, clearly ashamed now that she realizes how she must’ve looked.
I reach into my powers—just for a moment—to take a glimpse.
Her soul is pitch black, hugging her body like a wave.
All of her ancestors’ marks float inside it, shifting with its vibrations—strong ones. Fear.
Her bloodline isn’t one of the first five royal lines.
It was formed from a tangle of mixed royal alliances, stretched across ancient history—
and if I look deep enough, I can see all of them.
Every trace.
Like a map telling a story that never lies.
It makes sense.
“Marcella can harness the light of the stars.”
Myko finally breaks the silence, unfazed by what Onyx said.
Now that I’m no longer touching her, the fear drains away like smoke in the current.
I don’t feel threatened anymore.
But something heavier still lingers here. Something deeper than the queen.
Myko doesn’t let me ask the next question, he answers.
“This is the only ocean capable of containing the power of the sky’s fiercest light—not the moon’s quiet gleam, like in Mal-El, but the fire of stars and the blaze of sun. Even if a star were to strike the sea here, the Sur-El bloodline would survive it.
But the others? Any merfolk not marked by that lineage would burn.”
Bay nods quietly—looks like he’s talking to both of us now.
And for once, I’m glad we’re all hearing the same thing.
We’ll need it, whatever waits inside.
“Do not cling to me again if you want your life intact.”
I turn to Onyx, my voice cold as ice. It’s better if she fears me. Better than having her latch onto me the moment we enter—flooding me with her emotions when I need every ounce of focus to hold it together for all of our sakes.
I’m here to help the city.
But I can’t look like I’m losing control in front of them.
Her eyes go wide just before she mutters something that sounds like an apology and swims quickly to my aunt—now a safer target than me.
That’s better.
Bay doesn’t say a word. She probably understood why I scared her.
She just grabs Onyx’s arm and starts guiding her toward the golden star gate ahead.
“Don’t worry,” Bay says softly. “I won’t let anything happen to you. Don’t show them you’re scared.”
I don’t have time for this.
I swim ahead—fast—only to be stopped as long, sharp golden spears cross my path just before the entrance.
A mermaid guard blocks the way—broad-shouldered, muscled, her long braid streaked with golden stars woven into her soft pink hair. The Sur-El star mark’s on her chest.
She glares at me, furious. “Where do you think you’re going? This is Sur-El territor—”
Her cold warning cuts off the moment her eyes land on me. On the marks carved across my body.
She freezes. Then drops her spear.
“My apologies!” she blurts, quickly bowing.
She raises one hand and signals the five other guards behind her. They respond in sync, sliding their spears back behind their shoulders. The shafts shorten automatically, locking into slots beneath their gold-plated armor.
“You’re… the Great Depthborne.”
Her voice trembles. She straightens slowly. “My Queen has been expecting your arrival.”
She gestures toward the star gate, which now begins to rise—its points folding up and back like petals, clearing the entry path.
“Follow me. I’ll take you there.”
I nod once, turning to make sure Bay is close behind before I move forward.
Another one calling me the Great Depthborne.
The name the pods gave me when they realized what I am.
Rumors spread like wildfire. In less than a week after I was born, every corner of the oceans knew about the black-blooded boy—the one chosen to replace the Coral of Life. Depthborne.
I glance at the guard beside me. Her tail glows violet, but her body radiates gold—just like the gates.
It’s not just armor. It’s something else.
“You’re right.” Myko’s voice floats through me again.
“It’s their Queen’s protection. The Sur-El marked always glow gold. Brighter than any being in the oceans. That’s one of the reasons they stay isolated—drawing that much light attracts the wrong eyes.”
He sounds proud of me.
Like noticing it—before he needs to mention it—makes me worth more in his eyes.
I smirk despite myself.
That old dragon.
“I heard it,” He huffs.
“Good. I never meant to hide it.”
I swallow a quiet laugh to keep my composure as the pink-haired guard glances back at me. She turns down a glowing golden sandy road between two towering star shaped… homes? Their light bends the water in slow curves as we follow her deeper in.
Until my eyes land on the final destination.
Even Bay is stunned—I can hear her gasp just behind me.
The guard chuckles softly. “That’s the Queen’s throne.”
A giant dome rises ahead of us. It looks like a transparent glass bubble, filled with glowing stars scattered across every curve—
and somehow, the darkness of the ocean beyond it twists into a galaxy-like void inside.
Black. Infinite. Moving.
At its center, floating high above the ocean’s floor, is a golden throne shaped like a sun—
radiant, burning, impossible to look at directly.
The Queen’s throne.
It’s breathtaking.
It feels like we didn’t just swim deeper underwater…
But crossed into space.
The guard lets out another small laugh behind me as we stay stunned.
“Marvelous, isn’t it?”