The Golden Chalice

✰✦✰ Chapter 24 ✰✦✰

✰✦✰ Chapter 24 ✰✦✰
" Atlantis's Pearl "

I HELD MY breath a while longer and finally opened my eyes to the warmth of the freshwater. We found ourselves in some kind of long, and slightly narrow cave that led all the way down by what I couldn't entirely make out, but guessed was probably twenty metres. Feeling like an excited toddler, I glimpsed over at Luna but almost swallowed the water around us when I saw her mermaid tail. The midnight blue tail shimmered like nothing I had ever seen before. Luna looked unreal with the way the light hit it—it was like magic. The colour was so vibrant that I was sure if I were a mile away, I would've been able to see it. The shimmering scales bewitched me along with the loose, lace-like strings at the end of her fin.

Luna opened her eyes and I couldn't believe my own. Hers glistened in their stunning shade of pale blue, a lighter tone than her tail. Her eyes locked with mine. She waved her hands again, in a similar motion as she had when opening the doorway to the Holy Gardens.

She lowered her hands and an odd bubble began forming around me. Once it had encircled my whole body and left some space for swimming, I felt a press to my lungs—like the water was urging me to breathe. Just as I went to, panic ensued in every cell of my body when the bubble began to vanish. I squeezed Luna's hand, clinging to it, and her voice echoed when she said, "It's still there, don't worry. Itmerely keeps you invisible to my people."

I took a deep breath, inhaling the sweetness of the underwater world. Suddenly, I laughed. Luna joined me and I wondered if magic would ever become a common occurrence in my life or if I'd forever be subject to being utterly entranced by it, no matter how often I came across it.

Luna fiddled with her pearl necklace before she took my hand and led us down, deep into the pale blue bed of the sea. I could hardly believe my eyes when we reached it. It opened up into a large, wide space, full of underwater caves and multicoloured corals and exotic fish. Carved into every wall, numerous inches apart from one another, were palm-sized pearls of white luminescence. A statue of Eche dominated the space before us—nearly ten metres tall. Her curls draped over shoulders while wearing a pearl necklace, much like Luna's, and a mermaid tail. A tear appeared to be slipping down her slim cheek and it made me ponder why.

"This way," I heard Luna purr.

She led me after her and I swam as quickly as I could. I remembered her telling me how she was the fastest mermaid her age and I definitely wasn't having a hard time believing that now. As we swam through the caves and under different vivid corals, I noticed that not a single mermaid or merman paid attention to me—nor did the fish whizzing past us. Luna truly had made me invisible.

Finally, after ages of admiring the architecture in this underwater temple and the several mermaids giggling with glorious fins, we reached a dark pit below us, surrounded by what looked to be seaweed railing.

Luna chewed on her lip. "This is where they allow people in to see the pearl."

"Isn't there any security?" I asked her.

"Security is unimportant in our world. Trust is stronger."

"The same trust we're about to break?"

Luna paled and I noted the way her fin tucked in. "I mean, an Olympian did sort of demand it. Right?"

I peered into the pit. The slimy substance shimmered with light, reflecting off the cave. "I don't know if we should do this."

"We have to!" Luna whimpered quietly.

"I know. . ." I cringed. "We can't give up. It's just. . ." I shook my head, lost forever in the maze of my thoughts. "Never mind. Let's go."