Aquata Cove: Epilogue 01

"Hatched? Wouldn't an infant be too small to mark?"

"They grow quickly within the span of one year, as we understand it. And they sleep through most of their lives, and awaken only to see to immediate needs. Ghhhhh." Merrick whines as his emotion starts to push in his chest.

"S-Son..." Umiato comes to him, her eyes observing that Merrick is still struggling with his shock.

"W-Was this what was causing the commotion??" Naomi asked as she looks at the chipped corners and ground-up scrapes and at Merrick, feeling very antsy about him at this time.

"Yes. Lava Prawns were hurting it and it went on a rampage." Savarna says as she too keeps an eye on Merrick -- his stability has always been in question, to be honest.

"W-Which reminds me, Brother." Cotei brings up, trying to keep Merrick's mind on the topic at hand, "How did you know how to call to it for it to stop moving?"

"The Relic Rockfish and the uh... The Capricorns, they are both ancient creatures. I ventured a guess that using the same signal I do for the Capricorn would at least do something." Merrick suppresses himself successfully as he floats up and pushes himself forward.

"We should probably learn such a signal then." Cotei ponders.

"Doubtful. It's hard on the voice to try and communicate with the Capricorns at all; they understand only a complex and harsh signal and song, it almost ails your throat." Merrick says as he rubs his neck.

The merfolk swim through the tunnels encrusted with various coral branches growing from the rocks, leading to a cavernous area where much more merfolk are waiting for them.

"Cotei, is everyone alright?" Asks a rather spikey mermaid, covered in quills and sharp spines, "I pray the Relic Rockfish was subdued?"

"Yes, with the help of passing Coshitons." Cotei says to her as he swims quickly to her. He lowers his voice to a whisper as he goes to her, "Brother has found out about my Father -- try and keep him distracted with talk..."

"Yes, I see." She says as she glances at him -- his spirit looks very fragile, like a figure of ash just a few breaths away from falling apart.

Merrick tilts his head as he looks at this thorn-riddled mermaid. "I... do not believe we have met."

"Oh, yes. Brother, this is my mate, Kalliope." He introduced.

"Mate?" Merrick raised his brows, "You mean she is a Noita?"

"And you must be Cotei's banished sibling." Kalliope says quizzically as she circles him, "I have always wondered how a merfolk would look after living in the human world for as long as they tell me."

"Heheh, nothing much changes, I assure you." Merrick chuckles, "Only a few subtle adaptions that I evolve from my mate."

"Um... What?" The nearby merfolk become confused from that statement.

"It's a long story. Let's just say I benefit well from my love, as do we all."

"And..." Kalliope turns her gaze to the young Arctic Veil besides the larger one, "I take it you are Merrick's child?"

"Yes."

"You are... Different. You hold an element that I have never seen in a merfolk before..."

"My mother is a human." Naomi tells him, "Though... I have been told to keep that silent..."

"Oh! That gives me more sense then." Kalliope concludes, unable to think up anyway to keep up the conversation while glancing nervously at Merrick.

"Let us move on." Aalton says to them, "We should not occupy this area more than we must."

Following his blunt instructions, everyone swims further in the tunnel. Naomi looks all around the wondrously grown coral reaching around and within from the cavern, becoming more abundant the further they go. Merrick's insides pounds as he sees the exit, already seeing glimpses of the ancient ruins of their true home.

The merfolk reach the end of the tunnel, and look out into the vast scape before them. Like the coral growing in the cave, ancient city has been constructed and grown into castle-like structures, occupying all manner of fish and various sea animals and Piscien merfolk swimming in and around in the Lost Kingdom.

"By the Sea Mother..." Merrick hushes.

"It is even more grand than I imagined..." Savarna says as she gazes upon it all.

"Gaze well, my children." Umiato says as she holds her arms up, "For we have made it to the sacred Kingdom of Atlantis. I never imagined I would live so long as to make it here..." She smiles over the wondrous spires and buildings made entirely of the precious gem and corals everywhere, "If only Kaiken was here to see this with me..."

"We have also lost several others who should be here to witness our realm." Noita Nerissa says.

"Your Mother would be proud to see you have made it here." Says Mindal, another old member of the Kenovani.

"Come. We are blocking the way once more." Aalton commands.

"Ease your austerity, my love." Savarna tells him, "We have just arrived! Let us gaze upon our Kingdom."

"There will be much time to gaze upon it. Let us go." Aalton says as he swims forth.

"HALT!" Commands a mermaid. They look and see a pod approach them, "I see you are Coshitons. You do not belong here."

"We do not belong to our former pods," Yunmaj replies, also an elder member of the Kenovani pod, a one-armed angelfish, "We are still children of the Sea Mother."

"Your marks dictate you have no place among our kind!" A Triton says out loud, "Particularly abominations such as YOU." He says as he points his trident at Noita Nerissa.

"You speak of our marks as if you reserve the right to justify your words alone as solid commands. Would you care for some marks of your own?" She threatened as her body shimmers with a sinister yellow gleam.

"Your birth should not have happened -- you are of Piscien and Holsien both! You belong nowhere!"

"I sincerely hope you are prepared to reinforce your words with your might." Merrick says as he draws his harpoon.

"YOUR words mean nothing. As does the Arctic Veil beside you." The hostile Noita says. Naomi leers back at her with hurt eyes, "She is no true mermaid. She is merely an imposter -- a pretender!"

A shark merman swims forward, taking his weapon into his hands, "You rogues are not welcome here." He says as he looks at Naomi, drawing a knife from his own belt, "And I will not let you sully our holy kingdom with your filth!"

He grips his blade, just as the others prepare for a skirmish. Suddenly, a rather strong hand seizes the merman's wrist just as he charged towards Naomi, "And you will not blaspheme these waters with your needless violence." Aalton says darkly as he grasps the other's wrist, "This young mermaid has done nothing to inspire your personal retribution. I ask that you quell yourself."

"Agh! Aalton! What do you-"

"I am TRITON Aalton now, Cetus." The larger shark corrected him, "You will address me properly." He holds the other steadily. Merrick watches with a bit of shock at Savarna's husband -- given his attitude, protecting Naomi is certain unexpected...

"You stand with them?!" Cetus says, trying to yank his arm away, "That mermaid behind you is not worthy of even our sight! She carries the scourge of humanity in her blood! She is a monstrosity!"

"She is also none of your concern." Aalton says as he leers down, "What you are trying to do is completely trivial, not to mention brutishly pathetic, and outlandishly sacrilegious. And besides, if this mermaid is as evil as you say, would the Ningyo not slay her on sight?"

"You are letting a monster in our midst!" He growls, "She has power that does not belong to her! Better to let a Latolcus loose upon us all!" Aalton's eyes widen from that, "You have forgotten the past of what such creatures will do! Do you truly wish to repeat-"

Suddenly, Aalton's hand jerks up and cracks that wrist, and yanks it to him. He grits his sharp teeth as he grips onto the other

"Speak NOT of my Father, Cetus..." Aalton seethes with a sudden bout of silent and vicious rage, "Or I will give you the same wrath that I gave to him; to be sent to the next realm without the jaws he used to plunder the life of our Noita." Aalton's hand tightens steadily onto Cetus's hand, seriously closing in on breaking it completely.

"Triton Aalton, ease your anger." Umiato tells him, "The Disciples come." Aalton leers down on Cetus before he throws his arm from him. Then turn to see three merfolk to them, all of them having a silvery sheen on their bodies. They approach the large group of merfolk with a peaceful approach.

"Children of Atlantis..." Says the one in the middle with a dreary voice, "We bid you welcome to your home of origin. Naomi looks closely into these merfolk's eyes. Instead of images or memories, all she can see is mist and clouds and white light. Their eyes are dulled and white, much like the moon.

"Father..." Naomi touches Merrick's hand, "Who are these merfolk? These are the Disciples?"

"Yes."

"But... Their eyes..." Several other Disciples come to welcome the other merfolk, "Are they blind?"

"Yes they are." Merrick nodded, "Mother? Can you explain this? I forget the entire story."

"When a merfolk is born without sight, one of the Ningyo comes to them. Blindness is a touch of the Sea Mother, and so they must be delivered here to the Lost Kingdoms."

"But... Why?"

"Without sight, they can see no lies or vanity of the world. They see only life and its truths. Instead of living among our kind, the Disciples must grow in the mystic sanctum of our Kingdom, and witness the moon each and every night to see Her divinity."

"I have also heard that the Disciples share abilities that would otherwise be exclusive to genders," Cotei added, "Such as the females are able to signal animals, and males are able to sing -- able to singularly do both -- through years of beholding the moonlight."

"They preserve the enlightenment of our kind. They ensure our survival through their virtues."

"Disciple." Calls a Cage-Heart Crab Noita as one nears them, "These Coshitons do not exist! Tell them they do not deserve to tread upon our waters."

"Yes... I can see their symbols trailing from their flesh..." A female Disciple says, seeing the marks radiate like curtains of smoke, "Their sins are true, yet their souls remain as they are. They must stay."

"But they have violated the Sacred Laws!" Protests another merman, "How can you allow these rogues to be allowed within our Kingdom?!"

"We are all children of the Sea Mother..." The Disciple explained, "Her love does not end for so much as a single merfolk... Though banished from their pods, their penance holds no weight within Atlantis."

"You cannot be serious!"

"And THIS one!" The crab Noita points to Naomi, turning the attention of the silver merman, "This mermaid is of human blood! Please confirm at once that she must leave!"

"Human blood, you say..." The blind merman says as his lunar-like eyes wonder towards Naomi. Naomi frets as she sees him comes near her with his deep eyes, like orbs of fiber-optic glass, "Traces of alien essence I see in her..." He observes, "She holds the power of the ice from the cold merfolk."

"Yes, she has stained her very lineage with her birth, and has stolen power from our kind." The crab Noita says, "She does not belong here!"

"I am unable to see a corruption that will cause the imbalance of Atlantis. She is a mermaid among us... She must stay..." Naomi's eyes brightened as the tranquil merman turns from her.

"But Disciple! She is of the HUMANS! If they may not come here, why must she-"

"She must stay." He persisted. The Disciple's eyes see a very strange presence as well next to the Arctic Veil. Merrick looks as those lunar eyes turn to him, "You... You are... Different..."

"Yes, yes, I am one of the Coshitons." Merrick tells him, "Exiled for Forbidden Love, mated to a human male."

"No... Your sin is clear as the others, but there is... More..." The Disciple comes closer as he looks Merrick's over. His hands touch and explore Merrick's shoulder and side, "... You have been touched by the Land Father..."

"I have lived upon the land for many years, among the humans." Merrick tells him, "I suppose their auras have rubbed upon mine."

"No. I sense no humanity in your nature..." The Disciple states as his eyes peer into the strange energy channeling in Merrick's body. His aura is slightly different than the others; it's hosting a stream of blackened yellow light, circulating particularly around his heart and his mind. Focusing on the foreign energy, the Disciple tries to remember where he has 'seen' this sort of trace before.

"... Strange..." The Disciple says, "I see... The sun, and I do not see the sun... What are you?"

"... Yes. Yes! I have it..." A female Disciple concludes, "You carry the darkness of the sun's shadow. You bathed in the slumber of the Land Father."

"What? When did I... Oh yes, that..." Merrick nodded, remembering that time two and a half decades ago, "Me and a close friend of mind were stranded on the shell of a Sazae Graveyard above the surface, and we could not escape. I protected him, but I could not avoid the shadow... I thought I was spared."

"The Black Sun has changed you... Yet... Your body shows me no difference." The Disciple says with fascination, "It has touched your soul and changed you in a small way, yet you are unharmed."

"I became a shield of ice -- I froze over, but I was dug out. I survived."

"You are... Unique." The Disciple mermaid says, "You must stay..."

"And a Triton... You are a Triton..." The other one says as he feels along Merrick's harpoon, "This is not... This is not a trident..."

"I am a Coshiton. I have no right to carry a trident."

"But you are a Triton by right... You need a trident..." The Disciple claims as his fingers stroked the shaft of the spear. Merrick's gills twitch as he looks around, feeling a weird sensation around him. He looks about, and notices what seems to be dust particles drifting and slithering in the water towards him; or rather, towards his harpoon.

More particles cling and gather to the metal hook of the harpoon, but even the metal seems to be dissolving. Merrick's eyes widen as the sharp point melts with the gathering sand to reach halfway on the rod. Merrick's hand feels the wood shift and click within, as well as watching the top of the spear reach up in a curved form and manifested into a symmetrical pair of ornate blades with a third kunai-shaped blade emerging in the middle. The metal/sand dust gathers at the bottom of the harpoon as well, forming a spear-like blade on the bottom.

"By the Sea Mother..." Brishen says with awe. A merman performing Reformation without the aid of a Noita... What other rumors about these Disciples are true?

"NO! I cannot accept this!" One of the prejudice merfolk shouted.

"They must stay..." Another Disciple says.

"They are Coshitons! Abominations! Their very presence is slander against the Sea Mother!"

"They must stay..." This time, a Disciple's eyes flash a yellow light.

"See reason, Disciples!" A Triton tells them as he draws his own trident, "These traitors are nothing more than-"

SHNG!

The Triton stops dead in his spot. A golden blade is held on either side of his neck, as well as a joust pointing to his stomach and his back. As if they had teleported out of nowhere, a pair of Ningyos are positioned on either side of him, their arms assumed the shape of weapons and just a hair away from disemboweling him. The Ningyo appear like that of solid gold merfolk, both of them having the exact same fish tail, and both of them having a gracefully curved tear-shaped helmet-like head with only a pair of shining white eyes to indicate having any sort of facial features.

"Do not let our blindness fool you." Another Disciple says, "The Ningyo are the law keepers of the Lost Kingdoms, but they will obey no one else but our word."

"We do not wish you to sully Atlantis with your hatred." Another one says, "Not all of us Disciples are as soft-tempered and reasonable as we who are here." With another yellow flash of their eyes, the Ningyo's arms melt and reform into bodily form, and swim away, with the Disciple glaring his silver eyes right at the offending Triton.

"They must stay."

The Disciples start to guide pods of merfolk from the spot after the ranting has been silenced. Naomi looks to the large shark merman who defended her...

"Aalt- Ah, Triton Aalton?" She spoke up.

"Yes? What is it?" He asked.

"Did you... Really mean what you said?"

"What are you asking?" He asked firmly.

"Um... My Mother is a human, and those merfolk believe I do not belong here. Do you think I have a right to be here?"

"They claim they see something that does not deserve to pose as our kind when they look at you. If you are asking what I think of you, I see nothing more than a mermaid of that I have seen from the icy waters of the world's summit. And as far as you are concerned, you have not presented cause for discipline and punishment. I assume that is all you need me to see, yes?"

"I... Yes, yes sir."

"Then we will move on." He dismisses before he swims with Savarna.

"He is very blunt, but fair-minded." Merrick says, "Extremely straight-forward, which can get bothersome, but he's easy enough to handle if you can take his very serious attitude."

"What did they mean? He was suddenly angry when his Father mentioned." Naomi asked.

"Ahhh yes... His Father..." Merrick rolls his head back a bit, "His Father was a Latolcus."

"A Blood Thief? Like Aunt Belinda?"

"Not even close. Belinda at least sought to redeem herself, and her case was more accidental than anything, and she never swallowed more blood than she ever did. Aalton's Father on the other hand... He felt that he deserved the power more than their Noita did, and, well... You can guess what transpired, right?

"That's terrible..."

"Anyway, without an Adra Noita to mark him for the crime, the Triton scarred him, and then he vanished. After 3 years of drinking the blood of others, Aalton himself fought his father, and he broke his jaws apart."

"Oh my God!" Naomi covers her mouth, "That cannot be easy to even think about, let alone speak!"

"He doesn't have to speak of it. I was there."

"Hhh!"

"And that Latolcus... He was nearly unstoppable... He was literally drunk with power and blood. Many pods had flocked to stop him... Aalton was the only one who could fight him successfully, and broke his head in half."

"I cah, I don't even want to think about it." Naomi moans as she holds her head, trying to get the graphic images out of her mind.

"And after that, the Ghost Whale swallowed him alive; Aalton himself threw him into that ethereal mouth." Merrick concluded, "I will never forget the madness of that night..."

"Oh my God, Father..."

"He also used to be a Theros, before he fell in love with Sister."

"A Theros? Of What?"

"As Brishen is a Theros of hunting, and Arnaav is a Theros of invention, Aalton was a Theros of philosophy. To this day, he still claims the title was pointless, as he did not need or want it, yet everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. Merfolk have sought for his own ways, his views, and wanted to know the might of the resolve he retained to slay is own Father and then throw him to a phantom's stomach."

"Wow... Well at least, I am glad he is here."

"Heh, he makes me unsettled, to be honest." Merrick chuckled.

"Yes but... I will never meet Grandfather, but he sounds a lot like how you described Grandfather."

"He does?" Merrick's insides shift in a glimpse of a moment. He grips his trident as he forces his mind to stay on a single track, "... I notice a subtle resemblance myself, but I think Triton Aalton is a lot more... Forward and understanding than my Father was; I am not certain my Father would be as casual about letting Coshitons into the Kingdoms as Aalton is..."