Dämmerlicht und Herzeleid

11. The Sunken Palace

Without needing to, Seonghwa held his breath when the grotto gave way to the open sea. As if his body may remember belatedly that he couldn't breathe underwater, he expected its masses to choke him up and crush his lungs, but nothing happened. Their group assembled peacefully outside of the narrow stone cave. Yunho shivered since it was colder here, and Mingi floated insecurely, unable to swim, so the others just pulled him along.

One more thing he could learn together with Morana once the group returned home.

Oh, how Seonghwa missed his sweet babies.

Through the murky waters of the swampy shoreline, the ocean unveiled its depth. Along the steep cliff behind them, grew similar peculiar plants as above. Ghostly grasses swayed with the movement of the water and fishes of all colours dipped between matching corals. The ocean ground was far below, but its sandy spread was faintly visible.

The sea was nothing like the clear, refreshing lakes of the Crystal Sphere. No faeries enchanted the rocks to make them shine in dazzling colours. Though some mesmerising creatures lazily circled around the group to monitor their arrival, they seemed rather solitary in the grandeur of the ocean.

Wynn elegantly spun in front of them. Her movements knew to read the water, flowed like ribbons in the air. Upon her beckon, Seonghwa could make out a group of animals nearby. They approached the troupe with lazy gliding on their long fins that resembled wings. Luminous tentacles drifted behind them, and their intelligent feelers used the echo of the group's unpractised movements to locate them.

"The rays will bring us to the palace," Wynn explained. They heard her voice without issues, though it was muffled through the mass of the water.

Wooyoung breathed a sigh of relief. His body kept being propelled away because of his wings, and he clung to San's shoulder so he wouldn't drift off. The seraph muttered to him to tuck his wings as narrowly against his back as possible.

Once the rays arrived, Seonghwa figured things had colour down here, it was just diluted by the water. These beings were a mysterious blue hue, not unlike the moon on rare days. Their skin was bedazzled with a faint sparkle and their underbellies were a pearly white.

Awed with their grace as they drifted through the water on soundless wings, Seonghwa offered his hand out to one. Though they weren't as familiar with him as the animals of his forest, they recognised he was something otherworldly. They were opposites, yet their awe and curiosity were the same.

When Seonghwa caressed the animal's head that bore two horns not unlike Mingi's, its skin was smooth and slippery under his touch.

A sound like a purr sounded. It was deeper, singing, like a wail. Though it haunted Seonghwa's ears, it was beautiful, and he didn't hold back his smile.

"They are marvellous," he told Wynn, and she agreed before she showed them how to sit on them. Their legs didn't wrap around like they did for horses or other mounts above the earth. Instead, the nymph directed the envoy to flatten out and hold on to the ray's flapping wings, left and right of its head. Soft tentacles brushed Seonghwa's leg with the grace of a feather. Wooyoung struggled to make his wings smaller, wanted to copy the rays intuitively to travel by himself, but his feathers expelled the water rather than cutting through it.

Once Mingi was safely settled and Buddy flattened out against Yunho's chest, Seonghwa turned his head to Wynn.

"We are all set."

Upon her command, the rays departed together. They transported their precious cargo through the water in peace, and Seonghwa relished the coolness of their bodies, their effortless elegance. As their fins moved with a slow beat to glide them along, the plunging wall disappeared behind them.