Shatter

Chapter 17: Vaeroth

The soft strands of thin plants brushed my hair lightly as I passed through the door covered in vines, moss, and blooming flowers. A beautiful seashell hung on a silk string on the doorknob: light purple, mixed with some rose pink, mixed with some silver, and a light hue of blue tinted in little dots across the smooth surface. 

"Shall this world be underwater?" Luna breathed in wonder. 

"Perhaps... what makes you say that?" Yilania asked. 

"A seashell makes me think of the ocean, or a beach. The waves and the sand—a seashell laid calmly on the sand—it makes me think of water." 

"We'll see," Yilania said. "Close your eyes, both of you." 

We did so. 

"Open them now," Yilania said after a few moments. 

The water greeted all of us before Luna and I could respond: cold and warm at the same time. 

Yilania was barely visible in the clear blue water, and I could see a small strand of bubbles perched on her eyelashes. "I must leave you both now. Beware of the monsters that live here," she said, and I could hear that her voice was disappearing in the waves of water. "Vaeroth awaits you."

Then, she was gone. 

Vaeroth was a dark place—the water was blue, indeed, but it gave off a... gloomy air. As if we were in a swamp instead of a realm that was underwater. 

I tried moving my hand. It ran through the water the same way it would go through air. Luna stepped forward, and seemed to found it surprisingly easy. 

Suddenly, I heard a loud scream, and I jerked my head towards it. "What was that—" I started, but was interrupted by more screaming. 

"Children." the scream was a scream no more: it was an euphonious voice, one that could lull you to sleep in a gentle manner. 

The face of a woman appeared. The features were quite beautiful: the eyes were pitch black, yet shining like a star in the midnight sky; her lips were crimson, as if she had used a lipstick made of blood; and her skin was such a pale alabaster, and looked so fragile I was afraid it would shatter. The woman had a tail, scales that glittered an indigo which gradented into teal; her hair was a grey-blue, silky, yet it seemed rough in some way; and visible, sharp fins grew out of both of her arms. In one of her hands held a skull. 

"Why, hello..." Luna mumured. She was enchantend—by what, I didn't know. But she sounded different: more drowsy, and more....

"What are your names?" said that lustrous voice. 

"Carmen," I replied instantly, without thinking. 

"Lunaire, though I prefer to be called Luna."

Lunaire?

I was jolted out, and into reality. Lunaire?

Luna didn't tell anyone her real name—a few of the Adults, and me—at most. She was charmed. 

Though I had to admit the woman was indeed gorgeous, and that I was oblivious to the fact of whether or not she was hostile, I knew that she beheld a power that I could not see. 

"What is your name?" I asked in response, to the woman. She turned to me, and her eyes glittered with either malice or kindness. I could not tell. 

"Azmist," she said. "Now, tell me, where are you from?"

"Earth."

"Oh, I see—that strange, mythical place that everyone talks about?" She held up her skull. "So you are human."