The Island With No Parallel

Murky Waters (part 2)

She was drifting in a world of limbo, fighting for consciousness, pain panging through her body. In the darkness, she couldn’t tell if her eyes were closed or opened. There was no up, no down, or anything. The water tasted of metal from the blood coming out of her arm. She tried to remember what she was doing there. Why couldn’t she just drift here? She was a Naiad, she couldn’t drown. Unconsciousness was lulling her away, offering a comforting embrace.

No, that’s not right, she struggled to think. Just then, something moving in the water caught her attention. In her confusion, Yunara had just enough concentration to try to focus on it. She felt the water moving with whatever it was, and directed her eyes towards it. Then she realized it was moving towards a warped, silver light. The moon.

Her senses started coming back to her. With the light, she could have a sense of direction now. She swam in the direction of the light, despite her aching body screaming in protest. Her head surfaced from the water, and reality came crashing down again. The ship was moving on without her, and it was chaos. Valentini’s men seemed to be awake now, and men were running around everywhere. It seemed they were no longer trying to attack him, but escape him. She couldn’t recognize any faces, but she supposed that if Krileon was still attacking, it was because he hadn’t reached Manuel, Kailu, or Valentini.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something move again. When she turned, it was gone. Something about it made her feel like it was important. She dunked under the water again to see if she could find it, but didn’t see anything in the darkness. She was certain she saw something.

Then an idea dawned on her, and she realized this could be the help she needed. “Hello? I-I know you’re there,” she said unsurely, taking her head up from the water. “You’re an Unseeable, aren’t you?”

For a moment, she started the to think she was mistaken, and was out here looking like a buffoon talking to no one. But just then a dolphin emerged out of the water in front of her and stared her intelligently in the eyes. “You saw me?” it chirped a giggle. “Impressive. It’s not every day I see a Caorfian capable of seeing an Unseeable like that.”

“Can you help me? There’s--”

“--the Dark One. Krileon. I heard all the noise and went to see what was happening. I would tell you how dangerous he is, but from the looks of it, I would say you already know.”

“What can I do? His skin is impenetrable.”

“True. You’re in quite the predicament. Normally, I would suggest poison. Krileon has steel skin, but it just as vulnerable as you or I on the inside. But you don’t have time for that, do you?”

Yunara considered the ship, screams coming from it being heard even from where she was. Evidently, no.

The dolphin read her expression. “Hm... Well, I would power an item for you with poisons, but I’m not a strong enough Unseeable to be able to do that.” the dolphin cocked it’s head to the side, coming a little closer to her. “But it looks like you already have an item powerful enough to stop him.”

Yunara frowned in confusion. What was she talking about? The dolphin nuzzled it’s nose to her chest, knocking around the necklace that was under her dress. Yunara gasped. She had completely forgotten about the necklace. Fernando said it could encapture Unseeables.

But as she thought about it, there was a reason she hadn’t thought of the necklace. It only had three uses. It needed to be preserved for emergencies, and she already had in mind to use it on Nexa and Pitrious the moment Fernando told her about it. If she used it on Krileon, there would still be two uses left, but was now the moment to do it?

“Hmm...” the dolphin hummed, as if able to read her mind. “Or, now that I think about it. How strong are you in the arts of water?”

“I’m good at it,” Yunara answered, wondering where this was going.

“Well, there is another option, but it would require a lot of control. You could force water in his mouth and transform it into something sharp once he’s swallowed it. But it would require a lot of concentration to perform such a task.”

Yunara deflated at that. It would take an enormous amount of concentration. It was possible, but focusing on the endeavour would leave her vulnerable while she did it, and Krileon was quick.

“Well, you have two options. I’ll leave it up to you which is the wiser. In any case, you’ll want to return to the ship. Shall I take you? It will take a long swim at this point, and I imagine it difficult to climb up from the bottom.”

Yunara looked at the ship and realized it was escaping from her quickly. “Can you?”

The dolphin chirped another giggle. “Of course I can.” It disappeared under the water for a few moments, then resurfaced under her, lifting her up and giving her the chance to rest a moment she didn’t know she needed. “Hold on tight,” the dolphin warned.

Yunara held onto her slippery dorsal fin, and with that, she started gliding through the water with elegant ease, leaping through the air and diving through the water. The motion pumped a little more life into Yunara, the sea water flowing around her like home. They started nearing the ship quickly.

“Brace yourself. When we get to the ship, find something to hold on to.” Without explaining what that meant, she dived under the water, this time much deeper than before. Then as she started shooting upwards towards the water, Yunara realized what she had in mind, holding on as tight as she could to her fin. They came blasting out of the water, soaring through the air with an incredible leap that was quickly becoming level with the ship. “Grap onto something!”

She was talking about the ship. Something to hold on to. There were a few ropes hanging on the side of the ship she could grab. As they came abreast to the bark, Yunara grabbed the ropes, letting the dolphin fall without her, her weight now on her already tired arms. With the cut in her arm from hitting the railing, it was even harder, but she held on.

“Good luck!” came the dolphin’s voice from below.

Yunara tried to focus. She climbed up the ropes and found herself on the other side of the railing. Taking a deep breath, she hauled herself up and maneuvered around the railing, her arm burning in protest as she boarded the ship.

She had two options. Try to kill Krileon by forcing water inside of him and changing its shape into something lethal, or use the necklace to capture him. Yunara was leaning towards the water. If she could just concentrate, she could do it. That way they could preserve the necklace for the case of an emergency and still have two uses left for Nexa and Pitrious.

But it didn’t matter. What happened in the next few moments made the decision for her.

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Sorry to leave you guys at such a cliff-hanger...

But I'm kinda not.

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