Creatures of the Light

Fifteenth Light

Fifteenth Light

Creatures of the Light

© All Rights Reserved

##### Fifteenth Light #####

--------------------------------

Look out the window

Evil is rising

Look out the window

Demons are flying

Look out the window

Hell on earth.

The instant we arrive at the Qiclan Underwater Castle, I hold my breath for two reasons: First, because I am back in the water. And second, because the castle is so beautiful with its golden glow and exotic design. Karina really outdid this palace.

I let my eyes feast with the sight of the castle’s exterior as I wait for the merman beside me to recover from his shock.

“You can teleport? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

I gesture for him to follow me into the castle. I walk on the road made out of gold until we are stopped by the guards in front of the gate.

“State your name and purpose,” the two guards exclaim as they clang their spears together to form an X sign in front of us, blocking the gate. But when their eyes roll down to the merman’s tail, they soften the firm look.

“My name is Uly Qiclan, and the woman beside me is Arsene Noirmelns. We need to speak with Queen Karina for an urgent matter.”

The guards retreat their spears and let us in. The merman, who I now know is named Uly, guides me into the throne room, where I assume is Karina’s location at the moment. Two guards are swimming in front of the doors again. This time, they do not question who Uly is and immediately open the flaxen double doors for us.

On the mellifluous throne sits Karina, her strawberry blonde hair waving clearly even from afar. Then I walk closer through the water and I can see her cyanine eyes gazing at me warmly. Her skin tone is still as tan as the last time I met her, and her tail is still sparkling in that same glorious magenta color. She wears a baby pink huge necklace around her neck ─ the proof of her royalty ─ with an ivory dress to match the colors.

Karina looks at me with recognition right away as I get closer. She swims away from her throne and gives me a big hug before eventually pulling away.

“Arsàne, it is so nice to finally see you for such a long time,” she greets me with her Australian accent. “What brings you here?”

I pull away from her so that I can hand sign her to give me one of her air bubbles so that I can talk to her.

“What? Oh, yeah. Right.” She blows air from her mouth and a bubble starts to grow from her open palm. Once the bubble is big enough, she lets it drift towards my head, fitting it in perfect match.

“I found one of your spies,” I answer her, my voice sounds echoing through the water that surrounds me.

“My spy?” That is when Karina looks behind me to spot Uly, who is still standing behind me, near the door. Uly gives his queen a deep bow, but still keeps his distance. Mers are known to be very respectful of their leader. So respectful that they think it is unwise to be so near to her. “Oh, Uly. I didn’t see you there....” Her cheerful tone soon gone when eyes land on his tail. “Oh my goodness! What has happened to you?! Someone bring the royal doctor right away!” Karina orders her maids, who are standing in lines on the sides of the wall, far away from the throne chair.

I walk back towards Uly as Karina and the maids are getting busy. “Before I forget about your previous question, I would like to answer it now. Yes, I can teleport. I did not use it before for various reasons. First, I couldn’t talk underwater back then. Since I could not ask you for our destination, I could not exactly teleport us to that cave. I understood that you brought me there so that you could explain the situation in a safe place, and also because you still thought that I might just going to run away after hearing it. But seriously, it was unnecessary. Karina is a friend of mine. Helping you is just the same as helping her. Second, it will be slightly harder to teleport us to that cave, even if you did had told me about it. I was never there before in my whole life, so it would be slightly harder to imagine the place, even if you did have described how it looked like me. And third─”

“It’s okay, I think I got it,” Uly mumbles, slightly in short breaths. Small bubbles appear from his mouth as he speaks, but even his tone sounds heavy. He almost collapses on the floor if I have not catch him.

Putting my palm on top of his tail, I let shadows creep towards his body. Brooding him. Covering him. Sinking wholly around him until I can not see his body anymore.

But I can still feel him inside the black fog, the darkness comes in small hands from the inside, reaching for the injuries to be cured. One by one each opened flesh is being joined together, so careful and slow that he can not even feel the pain. Torn flesh is being sewed back in tiny needles and yarns, parts of the shadows that are under my control.

The process goes still as I can feel Uly’s breathing finally returns back to normal pace.

Beside me, Karina is looking worried as she gazes on the merman. Her eyes are telling me everything. Even without my ability, I already know her story.

“I have done everything I can to help him. I will leave the rest to your doctor,” I tell her as the black fog starts to let go of him. “You should get him to rest. He has been through a long journey just to show you those scars.”

“What? Why would he need to do that?” she asks in confusion as he reaches in to help him swim.

When Karina tries to bring him out from the throne room, he stops her.

“No, I still can not rest yet. I’m sorry, Your Majesty. Someone attacked me when I was about to stake out south Atlantic. Sharks were coming at me in numbers greater than a single merman could handle. I did my best and manage to survive most of their bites, but someone made it harder with these scars.”

His hand reaches up to his chest, which is now clean from any cut. He blinks his eyes, and then again, before realizing that I have healed him completely. Then, he looks up at me with widened eyes.

“It’s alright, Uly. You can rest now. And that is an order,” Karina says the last part sternly so that he will not try to refuse my suggestion anymore. She calls a maid to bring him to his room, before turning her attention back to me.

“Do you have any idea who did this?”

“No, I don’t. But I am sure that we will find out about that soon. Something tells me that evil is brewing in the south area. I must say, it is after all, the darkest part of the sea of all dimensions.”

Uly and I make a stop before we enter the south territory. The water pressure is getting stronger, warning me that what I am about to get myself into is no ordinary place that some creature can get in and get out anytime they want to.

“You will not survive the pressure in there. The current is too strong for those you have two legs. I do not think this investigation will be easy, but I think it is best if you stay here while I do the digging,” Uly says from my side. He has become better now, without all of those cicatrices and bite marks.

I do not answer him. Instead, I close my eyes with a sigh, before starting to imagine myself in different shape. I feel the vibrating change before I can feel another flesh. The shadows are coming at me, circling themselves in whirlpool around my body.

The whirlpool of shadows then starts to spin so fast, until it suddenly jerks to a stop and sinks inside my skin. The drastic hazard happens so quick that I do not even have the chance to scream in irk. Finally, I open my eyes with different perspective.

The sea looks clearer now, and much more beautiful than before, or even ever in my entire life. I do not even need the bubble anymore, so my pop it with my finger. Then I stare at Uly, who I find is gawking at me as if I just had turned myself into the ugliest monster ever, for the truth is, I transformed myself into a mermaid.

“H.... How did you do that?” he asks, unbelievably staring at me in broadening eyes.

“Karina taught me,” I retort simply.

“This evening?”

“Why not? It is not like I am a hard learner. Now let's get this mission on.”

“But this is my mission. I will complete the visit to the south area alone. I just need to make sure that everything is alright there, remembering the attack.”

“You made the mission mine as well the moment you contacted me. Besides, I think Karina will appreciate it if I can catch the culprit alive.”

“Why is that?” he asks acutely, obvious having no idea why.

But I ignore the question and just start swimming into the vigorous current.

We rise to the surface with hunting eyes, trying to capture whatever we can from the evidence. I can smell old blood as sharp as a shark, spread and blended around the land and sea. And as quick as a predator, I jump from the water and land on the ice hard, my black tail is as dark as my long hair and phantasm eyes. Then I sink my new black claws into the ice, not feeling any cold at all as I sway my tail from side to side on the frostiness until I get to where I want to be.

I can hear Uly calling a few meters behind, but he sounds like miles and miles away, as I am in my own world, looking down at what seems to be an evidence left behind.

“Gotcha,” I say, more to myself as I pick the silverware with my own hand and crawls.

Uly can not catch up to me like how I just did before, so he just keeps calling me, having no idea what I just spot with my eyes until I raise it high enough for him to bespatter the dagger on blood ─ his blood.

“I guess you missed this when you get out of that warehouse,” I say to him as I slid back into the water as I nudge at the old building not far from where the shore of the shark attack.

He takes the dagger as I hand it to him, inspecting every inch of the article. I can see pain shooting across his eyes as he remembers the memory that the object contains, but it is not real presently.

He tries to push those flashes aside and focus on the matter at hand, gazing down on one single symbol at one side of the dagger ─ a white lotus.

“Do you know what it means?” I ask him because I believe that he knows more about brine affair more than I do.

“Yes. This is used by an organization of erratic sea monsters.”

“What do you know about them?”

“They are dangerous because they are criminals who got banned from the sea kingdom’s territory. They were supposed to not whirl of the Abyss of Chain, where they are all supposed to be. But the sea monster that are in the White Lotus organization are not just mere transgressors. They are murderers. They kill for blood money.”