Mortance: A Miscarriage of Hope

Jade Ⅰ

Lightning forked across the sky, and thunder followed moments later. Huge waves thundered across the harbor of northern Kark. The rain fell so hard, I could barely tell when my head was above water or below. The salty ocean water filled my lungs as I attempted to breathe. I haven't come all this way just to drown, I reminded myself. Finally, a gulp of air filled my lungs, and I dove beneath the waves once again. 

The sharp currents tugged against me as I swam towards the faint outlines of ships in the distance. I'd been swimming for the entire day after sleeping on a tiny rock in the middle of the ocean, and the effects of that weighed me down even more than the whaleskin skirt dragging against my tail. My top weighed me down as well, but I didn't dare take it off and risk losing it. You're vulnerable enough without a weapon, my uncle had told me. I won't have you wandering Kark with no clothes on, there are people there... I knew the risks.

Ouran had arranged passage to the mainland with someone called Captain Ahryn, on board her ship, the Woman Scorned. "She's a pirate," he had told me, "but I trust her to keep her word. She's kept quiet enough about this place." My uncle spoke no more of how he knew her. I'll bet there's a good story there.

The currents would've been enough to hold back any human, or pull an elf to their death, or drown most vir, but I was none of those things. Supposedly, we shared an ancestor with the vir long ago, but that was before they tried to destroy us. My father's fear is not unfounded, but it's been so long. We could not hide from the world forever, and I would not let us. The merfolk would return to Ert once again, so long as I succeeded.

Thunder roared even louder than the wind when I broke the surface once again. I climbed from the water onto the wooden walkways of Kark. Land was still miles away, but Kark had long since transcended the island it was built from. Merchants and pirates alike had contributed wood to the construction of the biggest trading port known to Ert, and some had even gone so far as to give up their ships. It was said that even capital cities like Esson or Aeliri were small compared to Kark, though I planned to learn the truth in that myself.

"Finally," I said aloud as I laid myself out on the wet, rotting planks of Kark. The wind carried my relieved word away from me. Dark, wet hair plastered my face as I slowed my breathing and let my heart return to a normal pace. My muscles ached all over from the journey, and I dreaded to move again. If I could sleep here... I sighed blissfully at the thought.

Groaning, I shifted my lower half so I could walk. Scales changed to smooth skin, and one limb became two. Rainwater slid off the whaleskin skirt that fell past my knees as I stood weekly. My arms were bare, and my top waved loosely in the wind, but none of my torso was exposed. My feet were numb from the cold, otherwise I would feel the scratches and splinters left by the rotting wood of Kark. I'll feel them later, I knew, but later I would be on a ship, sailing for the mainland, I hoped.

It was late in the afternoon, but the streets of Kark were as empty as if it were the dead of night, and the sky was dark enough that I almost believed it was. Torches and candles flickered behind the closed windows of inns, taverns, brothels, and more. "Where can I find Captain Ahryn?" I asked the first man I saw wandering the streets. He ignored me, or didn't hear me through the rain, either way, I got no answer. I saw a little boy next, but he didn't even spare me a glance. I didn't dare try to ask the girl who rushed past me, tears in her eyes.

"Saw her ship make port a few days ago," the fourth man said when I asked him. "I reckon they'll be back at sea once this storm passes."

"Do you know-?"

"Nay, I'm sorry miss," he left me standing in the rain.

"Could've at least told me where she would be, Ouran," I grumbled under my breath. The cold rain stung, relentlessly pelting me, and I shivered in the wind. So cold. My whole body shook. It was warm in the ocean, I remembered longingly. It was warm in Merian too, but I can't turn back now.