Black Hearted

Part 68

Sean awoke to the sound of soft distant singing. It was beautiful without using any words. Slowly sitting up, Sean inhaled in awe. He was in a room made of blue crystal and lit up by large round moonstones on the arched ceiling. The only window turned out to be a massive tank with illuminous fish. The walls were decorated in fishnets that hung shiny shells and shiny scales from all kinds of fish. Looking down, he realized he was laying on a large shell bed that was filled with pink sand. Sean leaned out of the shell to see that the floor was covered in gold and jewels. It was also then that he noticed his wrists. He was wearing shackles with a long chain. Flicking his tail with worry, he raised an eyebrow. He was under water? Where was he? Swimming out to a smooth rock formation that could pass as a desk, he tested how long the chain was. He was able to reach it perfectly and laid himself over it to take in the rest of the room. The door was made of chiseled white stone that had a man with a trident on it.

Sean let that sink in for a moment, before uttering aloud. "Is this...?" From the wall by the shell bed, he heard Nate answer grimly. "Atlantis? Ya... What's left of it anyway." Sean swam around to the side of the shell, excitedly starting in. "Nate?! Are you ok? Why didn't you-" Sean halted at the sight of him. Unlike himself, Nate was shackled against the wall. Nate shivered, his teeth chattering as he told him. "I've been trying to wake you for hours. You need to get out of here." Sean tugged on his chain, following it up to a wall mount above the shell. That wasn't all. Just on the other side of the shell was another set of shackles... with the skeletal remains of a sailor. A pirate from the looks. Sean tried prying off the shackles, asking Nate heatedly. "How did we get here?! The last thing I remember..." Sean drifted off as the memory came back. Sinking to sit on the top of the shell, he wispily mumbled out. "Mark..." Nate's teeth chattered, upon telling him seriously. "Sean, l-l-listen to m-me... Mark's not dead."

Sean looked over Nate closely. He was fully clothed, but he appeared to be shivering. Swimming back to Nate, he put his hands on his face. Nate was freezing. Moving up against him, Sean hugged him tightly. Nate shivered, resting his head on his shoulder to nuzzle him as he said. "Sean, don't worry about me. You can move around. Try to get yourself free." Kissing Nate's cheek, he replied stubbornly. "No. Tell me what's wrong... What did he do to you?" Nate shook his head, chattering out. "Kai didn't do this... Atlantis is..." Sean lifted his head to press his forehead to his, questioning curiously. "I don't understand...?" Nate clenched his jaw a second to compose himself, then answered more clearly. "Atlantis is incased in ice... I'm not..." Before he could finish, the Siren Queen answered from the doorway. "He's got tropical blood. He's used to warmer waters. Not the Artic." Sean turned around, pressing his back to Nate. Behind him, Nate growled out. "Leave him alone, Kai."

Kai closed the door casually and for the first time, Sean got a really good look at him in the bright light. Kai's bright sea green eyes stood out against his pale skin. Skin that was covered in tiny scales that only looked like freckles from a distance. As he moved through the water, the tiny scales glimmered in shades of blue and silver. Kai's soft pink and teal hair drifted around his large fin ears. Between the teal colored spines of his ear fins was silver webbing that refracted the light in shades of silver and soft sea greens. Kai was wearing a tattered white silk toga that revealed his arms and one shoulder. The long skirt of the toga had slits up the sides that allowed the fabric to billow in the water. Adorned on his biceps were silver armbands with a crest on them. They looked similar to the gauntlets that the Mersharks wore, but he couldn't make out the crest on Kai's. That isn't what unsettled Sean though. Kai's lower half was strange. Kai had a long tail that thinned out to a point with smaller fins along the sides of it.  However, he also had two other larger tails that appeared to be a set of legs with ends that spread out into large gorgeous spine fins in a similar fashion to his ears.