I shouldn’t have left Emon there, especially with Kira. Her hatred of males was a known fact and with him tied to me, that hatred was likely very powerful.
“I need to go back.”
The shadows unfolded from me when I turned and then stilled.
“Sweet goddess.” I gasped out loud at the death of the ocean lands where murky gray waters mixed with a thick oozing sludge rising from the it's floor. A graveyard of bones and dead plant life stretched with no end in sight.
I reached out tentatively to the murky water and felt nothing but the frigid coldness of death.
Instinctively, I switched to my aura sight, immediately seeing the deep burgundy tendrils rising up through the gloomy depths, hungrily vying for anything with life to feed upon just like it did at the festival grounds.
Bay had practically gushed about Kira’s ability to keep them all safe but this death was not contained…it was growing.
“My mother says it’s because the goddess has abandoned us.”
A small child-like voice jolted me from my horrified stupor and I spun towards the sound, willing my shadows to hide below me.
There was a soft giggle, a small tinkling that made my heart skip a beat. “I’m over here.”
I spun one more time and then I stiffened with shock. Awe consumed me at the petite creature paddling her feet energetically, sitting perfectly perched upon a large bed of rock.
I gasped. “You are—are you.” My voice wavered. “You’re a child.”
A tiny giggle escaped her again…a child’s giggle. “You’re funny, but mother calls me a fry.”
I stared.
The last time I had seen any child was my brother and that was shortly after the blood wars and yet here she sat, no more than eight summers, with black scales, and muddy pink hair. Her eyes swirled with a contrast of color, never settling on one in particular.
When my aura sight kicked in, it was immediately repelled by a very powerful shielding around the girl. Someone did not want her true nature to be discovered.
“What—” My voice came out in a whisper, tears filling my eyes at the miracle before me. “What is your name?” I asked, swimming towards her enthralled by her presence.
The child stiffened and her muti-hued eyes darted towards the city where the festival could still be heard.
I stopped. “Please don’t go. You needn’t be afraid of me.” I held my webbed hands out apologetically. “My name is Remnant, Remnant Ezra Solaire Dark.”
The child's eyes widened. “You gave me your full name! I don’t even know mother’s full name.” She nodded to herself thoughtfully and then looked back towards me. “I will not abuse it and I will stay for a little while. I am called Mariella but I like Riella better.”
My heart thumped hard in my chest. Impossible! I knew that name…Mariella was Kira’s middle name, it came from a long family line dating back to the creation of Atlantis itself.
“I like Riella too.” I said softly and with sincerity. “It is beautiful and you have made your name your own. That is important.”
The faeling beamed at me and it was like having sunlight shoot into every dark crevice of my tainted soul. She pointed her webbed hand behind me curiously. “What are those?”
I glanced at my shadows who had peeked over my shoulder to investigate this astonishing creature. I smiled at their silliness and the faeling’s bold curiosity.
“I am shadow fae. These are my shadows.” I tilted my head with thought. “Would you like to meet them?”
Riella nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yes! May I?”
The shadows did not wait for my answer and morphed instantly into a playful pod of black dolphins. They jumped over and around the faeling in a spirited manner that drew giggles of laughter in their wake.
She clapped with encouragement and then beamed at me. “What else can they do?”
I swam a little bit closer, still keeping a safe trusting distance between us, and settled my body to the murky ocean floor. I rested my hands on my scaled knees, crossing my feet in front of me, and smiled back.
“They are their own beings. Ask them yourself, little chickadee.” The endearment escaped my lips without thought, echoing from a buried past.
