Chapter 28
HAZEL
Ididn’t know what it was about the Talassi and their incessant need to interrupt my sleep, but Cordelia showed up at my door early the next day. Or so I assumed it was early, considering how groggy I was when her loud banging woke me up.
The knock was a courtesy, I suppose, as by the time I rubbed the sleep from my eyes she was already inside my room, sitting at the table next to the door and tapping her foot impatiently.
“Congratulations,” Cordelia said dryly, her eyes tracking me as I rose from the bed.
“For what?” I asked.
“You’ve come quite far, Hazel,” she said. “If I’m being honest, I was not sure you’d ever be able to spend long periods of time under the surface, but you’ve proved me wrong. According to Draya and Maki, you used your gills for the duration of your trip.”
“Thank you,” I said, still a bit confused. While I hadn’t needed their help to breathe, I hadn’t swam on my own, and Cordelia had to be aware of that.
“I think it’s time for us to work on your tail,” she said, answering my question before I could ask. “Or, at the very least, uncovering some fins”
“I’d like that,” I said, and for the first time in what felt like ages, I felt the corners of my mouth tip upwards into a grin.
We moved into the pool in my washroom, and I saw Cordelia shift into her Talassi form for the first time. Unsurprisingly, she was incredibly gorgeous, with midnight blue skin so deep that almost looked purple, and violet eyes that matched the small spikes protruding from her shoulders.
“What are these?” I asked, reaching to touch them. She allowed my fingers to graze the tips, grinning as I pricked the pad of my thumb.
“They’re for defense,” she said. “You should know that Talassi women are far more dangerous than Talassi men, my dear.”
That piqued my interest, and I lost myself in working with Cordelia for the next few days.
She helped me produce fins on my hips, elbows, and ankles, which she said would allow for faster swimming and easier floating.
With some extra coaxing, and a little bit of her pulling on my magic – which hurt terribly, I might add – we also revealed a small spike on each of my shoulders.
Cordelia said with more practice, I’d likely be able to form some down my spine as well, but that we needed to focus on my tail first.
In truth, I thought the tail was a lost cause, but I didn’t mind it. Shifting was difficult for me, and it used up a lot of energy. The mere thought of having to put all that effort into a tail was exhausting. And if I’m being honest, a bit scary.
I hadn’t even known Talassi existed for the first twenty-five years of my life, and the idea of fully shifting into one was a bit too much for my brain and my body to handle.
Being human wasn’t something I particularly liked or hated, but it was comfortable.
My life had changed so drastically in such a short period of time, and I was fine with waiting for the tail to reveal itself when it was ready – if it even showed up at all.
When Cordelia left, I decided I’d rather die than spend another minute staring at the ceiling, so I slipped out of bed and padded into the long hallway, making my way to the wall of blue at the end.
The Talassian Capital lay before me, shadows dancing over the volcanic structures.
I’d never explored the city on my own before, and while I wasn’t exactly ready for a full expedition, I figured there couldn’t be any harm in a bit of floating around.
I launched myself into the water, pushing through the soreness to shift as much as I could. Perhaps this wasn’t the best idea, considering how tired I was from working with Cordelia all day, but I didn’t care.
The water swept me in with far more force than I was expecting, but my newly discovered fins helped me steady myself quickly.
I drifted down to the bottom of the wall, landing on my feet as I reached the seafloor.
Sunlight poked through from the surface, signaling that it was daytime, and the imposing city before me bustled with activity.
How peculiar, I thought, this entire world has existed for centuries, and humans have no idea. I silently vowed to keep it that way. If someone like my father had access to a society full of these beautiful creatures, he’d pillage and colonize it until there was nothing left.
I knew the Talassi used spells and water magic to keep the city hidden, and I had to hope my father was none the wiser.
I prayed he believed they were lawless predators, floating around in packs and lashing out as they pleased.
If he knew how intelligent and civilized they were, he’d see them as competition or merely another conquest in his endless search for some modicum of dominance.
Maneuvering through the open water was difficult, but I pressed on. I only made it a few feet before my sore muscles decided to give out, so I decided instead to allow the current to carry me where she pleased.
There must have been some sentience in the water, because she did exactly as I hoped. Once I stopped trying to push against her, she lifted me off the seafloor and I found myself drifting in the exact direction I wanted to go.
This must be part of being a Talassi, I thought. Maki had explained that Talassi have the ability to move and bend water, and I imagined they could speak with the currents, too. Odd that Cordelia had never mentioned it.
At any rate, I spent the next hour or so floating around the outskirts of the city, tangling my toes in kelp and trying to commit the images of coral and fish to memory.
I’d never experienced anything so beautiful as what lived in the chamber of this underwater volcano, and for the first time in my twenty-five years, I felt like I’d found a home.
Despite their predatorial nature and strange ways of communicating, the Talassi had never hurt me in the ways my father and the staff at the asylum did.
While they had hurt me, it was never out of cruelty, merely the search for better outcome at the end of the challenges they put in front of me.
They never implied there was something wrong with my head, never accused me of hysteria just to get me out of their way.
Instead, they took me in. Despite their suspicions, they helped me until I could prove that I was one of them.
A strange emotion caught in my throat, and I was sure that if I wasn’t underwater, I’d feel tears streaming down my face. For once, I felt truly free, and it was a wonderful feeling indeed. I couldn’t believe it was real.
Although I could feel the water and seaweed in my hands, could see the Talassi and their city through my own eyes, the nagging feeling that it was all a figment of my imagination threatened to send me into a dark place.
I pushed it away, instead leaning into the comforting embrace of the ocean current.
When I’d finished my exploration of the waters, I eyed the side of the cliff that held my chambers, wondering how in the world I was supposed to swim back up there. The spirit of the current seemed to hear me, and before I knew it, the current was gently carrying me up to the entrance.
She dropped me into the dry hallway where I landed in a heap, and I whispered a thank you as I pushed myself off the ground.
The muscle soreness hit me all at once, and I decided I could wait some time before shifting back to my human form completely.
It would require far more energy than I was willing to expend at the moment, and my lungs still worked even when my gills were out.
I pushed open the door to my room, surprised to find Draya inside. He perched at the table by the door with a tray of food and a pouch of fresh water, his expression unreadable as his foot quietly tapped against the floor.