The Glimmering Sea

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A gray void, where there should have been the blues and greens of her home, enveloped Armida.

She opened her mindpath. ≈Delfina? Isabetta?≈ A word skimmed across the empty space and was gone. ≈Rinaldo? Are you here?≈

Words flooded and tumbled over each other. With concentration, she identified the loudest.

≈Delfina! Where are you?≈

≈Here, I'm here! I can't see you!≈

Armida's heart beat with a remembered rhythm. The blood flow through chambers reverted to a Marean pattern. Her eyes adjusted to the sea and the diminished light. Her lower body had the familiar aquamarine scales and fishtail.

Three vague shapes resolved into her friends as her eyes regained focus. They had returned to mer form.

Am I the only one the Antichi haven't acknowledged?

Delfina darted to Armida's side. ≈Are you okay?≈ She stared into the Grotto. ≈Is everyone okay?≈

Armida swam toward a stone pillar, then circled back to Delfina. She shivered with the normalcy of how she felt. Seawater flowed through her gills as if she had never breathed air. She flicked her tail, rose to test her strength, then reversed and shot down to Delfina. ≈Have the Antichi disclosed your fate?≈

Delfina glowed with ecstasy. ≈I stay in Marea! I saw visions of myself foraging food and caring for merpups. Though the sea itself was not known to me.≈

Isabetta nodded. ≈Marea. The Provided and the Delivered opened their words to me.≈

Rinaldo's gaze pierced Armida. ≈Terra. I held books. In Torquato's library and in another place strange to me.≈ He raised his eyebrows. ≈And you?≈

Armida shook her head. ≈I remain ignorant of my path. Torquato said the answer would be obvious. But it is not. I had many turbulent visions—of oceans, familiar and strange, and of Terra.≈

Frowning, Delfina shot her words at Armida. ≈It's because you doubted. Because you still doubt. You have obscured your fate.≈

≈I have done nothing wrong. I have done everything asked of me. And I am left without answers.≈

Isabetta swam to Armida and took her hand. ≈Take a moment. Perhaps the Antichi wait.≈

Armida focused on her three companions in turn. ≈Was there direct communication? How did you know it was the Antichi? I had no confirmation.≈

Delfina flushed purple with displeasure. ≈Maybe she's lying. Maybe her future is Terra and she doesn't want the truth known.≈

Isabetta trembled and drew her lips into a tight line. ≈Delfina! How dare you suggest that? Armida may provoke, but she is not a liar.≈

Rinaldo faced Delfina and placed both hands on her shoulders. ≈Perhaps Armida's path is her unique choice.≈

≈Your compassion has always been a strength, Rinaldo. I thank you for your words. They give me ease when my mind has twisted like a winter storm.≈ Armida lamented what she must say next. ≈My mind clears. It's Marea.≈

She had known Rinaldo's eyes brilliant with happiness, flashing with anger, and sparkling with laughter, but until her comment, Armida had never endured his eyes filled with such sorrow. For a moment, it felt as if her Marean heart had stopped pumping. What had long budded between them withered.

As much as she wished to make him happy, she could not. Not if it meant the loss of her happiness and purpose. She would never accept a life among Terrans, not even for a chance of a life with Rinaldo. Not even if it offered a solution that would save Marea.