34.) Medicine for the Shoal

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Inside the building there were many different types of Sirenaidea. Ones like Roka with long colorful tails with bits of metallic embedded in them. Others were more like sharks, mantarays, octopus. When he said the Shoal gathered all kinds he wasn't telling tall tales.

But the most dazzling was the queen.
She was much larger than all the other Sirenaide. Light seemed to radiate around her.

AOMI. Roka sang through the bond.

Her name sounded like Ow-ME. Which was definitely what she could make me feel if she wanted to. She was a massive creature, bigger than the high lord Kavern. She layed in her little alcove surrounded by corals as if she were a bird in a nest. Beneath her was a mass of crystals. Opal like in color but clear, just like the one I had eaten earlier. This is where the light came from.

Many of the gazes around us were transfixed on the queen, they were moths to her flame they couldn't look away.

Her white eyes focused on Roka and I. They were glassed over with the same opal color as the Crystals beneath her. Pale blue hair grew from her head along with pink horns that looked ridged like the corals that decorated the reef.

She looked ageless and ethereal. She must be very old to have a gaze like that. With a wave of her hand all the corals in the room filled with light. Illuminating every one in its bright light.

"You may speak." Queen Aomi sang but her mouth didn't move and she wasn't touching us.

"Queen. I have returned with our pearl's newest child." Roka sang.

"The pearl scent is very strong." She agreed, inhaling deeply.

"She bled in the open sea before entering the reef." He explained.

"She must have called many." Queen Aomi laughed but her face remained motionless, unchanged, and unmoving. There was an unsettling quality about it.

"Nothing that the guard couldn't handle." Roka assuaged.

"How are you singing out loud like this?" I sang in a whisper. What was meant to be a quiet question came out like a shout.

The queen laughed again. The queen stretched out her hand and then we were pulled like a riptide forward to her.
"It is good that this one has returned everything returns to the sea in due time." She said looking above me to the face that watched. "A piece of our pearl has returned today. Let's celebrate this triumph."

The Shoal swam in circles like vortex.  A feeling of excitment teamed in the water. My hair whipped around whith the water. Today i was falling into another new world with a different culture, but the vibration I felt in my lungs and through my tattoos felt soothing.
                             .....
  It wasn't a celebration like home or even in the mountain. Sirenaide sang and sonorous melodies above while others took turns swooping over the queen. Their tattoos glowed brightly as they swam above her.

There was no wine to be had,  no food served in piles. It didn't feel like a party.

"Pearl come here I will tame your whiskers." He said lovingly.

I turned my face away from him and touched my face worrying that somehow a mustache had magically sprouted. At this point nothing was safe. He combed my hair with his long fingers. Smoothing them and removing the knots. Others were doing the same. Grooming and decorating themselves. Shells and strings of pearl decorated men and women.

They didn't wear clothes like those that walked on land. No coverings but without breasts and having genitalia that was kept inside their body there really wasn't a need for it. Some wore rings and jewelry that were seen on land but most decorated their bodies with the seas bounty.

I, who still wore my dress felt a weird sense of self consciousness. The only one dressed in a room of naked people made me feel as if I was the wrong one. The heavy garment clung and floated with the waters movement.

After Roka combed and tidied my hair into a bun with long piece of bone. He quickly braided his own hair and tied it with a long thin green plant.

"I've never seen you with your hair like that." I said watching him tie his hair.

"In the open sea its safer to have these whiskers free." He gestured to his long blue hair. "I can sense the vibrations of others far off but the reef here is safe, theres no need to be cautious."

I nooded my understanding.

"Come along the fun part will begin soon." He sang pulling me along.

We swam up and up. To the top of the Sea palace and out of its colorful coral coated walls. We werent alone. Many of the Sirenaid swam up and out with us. There was a strong humming feeling in my bones. Roka held me close as we swam in a circle with the others above the palace. We were a swarm of light.

The tattoos on their bodies glowed brightly and I found that mine also glowed. I was one of the many even without the fish tail. We were a collective without beginnning or end. A sence of belonging washed over me.
The light from inside the palace began to pulse like a drum beat.

The blue white light lit of the rest of the reef. Coral forests that were once dead and ghostly white regained their color. Bare areas grew green with sea weed and fern like plants. The reef became new again but if there was this ability why wasn't it always like this?

In the thrall we rubbed elbows and bumped lightly against those that swam nearby, but no one turned to yell at the rude behavior. If anything they seemed joyful at the contact. Brief whispers of welcome accompanied the contact.

"We've been waiting." One said.

"Its good to have you back." Another sang.

Although I had never set foot in this place before they greeted me as if I was a relative that had been away for a long trip. I knew it had to do with Rokas introduction but it made me feel like I was an imposter.

The pulsing feeling began to ramp up and those that swam in an infinite loop began to feel more excited. I felt Rokas pulse thumping in his chest. Then I realized that it wasn't the only pulse I felt. I didn't have the ability to look down, we were to pressed together but after many nights with Roka, that moving wriggling piece of him was completly familiar.

Part 2 out soon.

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