Asceia, a powerful mermaid, was sent to land to investigate what happened to her kind and to bring them home.
••°°••
After the telepathic connection between the mermaids in the sea and on the land was severed, the Order found this to be very alarmin...
ASCEIA SAT ON one of the chairs and let Fatima put the helmet on her head. She adjusted the strap of the helmet, it wasn’t too loose and it wasn’t too tight. But it was also reminding her of the torture she had while under the umbrella of Herozoan. On the other hand, the silence of the room made her thought of her dream-like experience over and over again, the memory of her kind being attacked and dying somewhere troubled her.
A whirring sound woke her back to reality when Fatima activated the device through the tablet she was holding. It lit up and she can feel its warmth wrapping around her head. She was feeling dizzy and her heart was beating fast.
“Now try to contact them again.”
The moment she closed her eyes and used her ability. She gasped in shock at the overwhelming sensations swirling in her body. The next thing she knew was her mind, jumping from one sercean mind to another; feeling every bit of emotions, seeing flashes of their visions, and hearing their thoughts. She was able to invade the minds of her kind in the water. She felt how they were all under the influence of Yrevia; every mind has this powerful effect that was drowning her, so she kept jumping out, in the hope of finding what she was looking for.
And she did. “I found it.”
“What do you see?” Fatima asked as she opened a geolocation application on her tablet.
Asceia noticed herself lying face down on a cold floor that was made of metal and she can feel it was moving. She was possessing the body of the sercean who called for her. She moved her eyes around. She was surrounded by armed men that were laughing and talking; and other dead or unconscious serceans who were also lying on the floor. On the left side, through the window behind the men, she can see and read every establishment’s name or anything written. She immediately focused on it and checked the landmarks.
“I’m reading Sta. Maria, Davao Occidental under the names of the store or establishments,” she telepathically answered.
“Tell me more. I want to know the movement.” Fatima focused on her tablet as she searched for the address.
“I saw a church on the left side.”
“More...”
“Sto. Rosario and Kisulad...”
“Got it,” Fatima said. “Asceia, I’m going to disconnect you now.”
The moment the helmet stopped making whirring noises, she woke up and found herself back in the laboratory again. She felt an itch on her nose, she touched it only to feel a liquid. She looked at her finger and she realized her nose was bleeding.
“Here.” Fatima handed a tissue.
She took it and wiped the blood off. “So...where is the sercean?”
“They’re heading to the municipality of Malita, Davao Occidental.”
“That’s where I started...Where are we and how far is Malita from here?”
“We’re in Davao City. Don’t worry, I will send a team to retrieve that sercean. It will not take that much time since we have all the resources we need.”
“I want to come.”
Fatima shook her head. “No, you can’t. I can’t risk the only sercean on our side. What if this is a trap?”
“But it is my kind that needs help.”
“Asceia, the moment you die or you fall in the wrong hands, it is over. You’re the only hope we’ve got. I know this sounds so selfish but if Yrevia is about to launch attacks throughout the world, you are the only one capable of stopping her.”
Thinking about what she said, Asceia quickly realized the stakes in this situation. She couldn’t help herself but agreed with her. She nodded, which gave Fatima the signal to call his men and deploy them to intercept the transport of sercean. At that moment she realized she was controlled now by humans. None of her decisions were made by her solely, every step she took was weighed per humanity’s side. She was not used to this, being controlled and influenced. But Fatima, her new ally, was right. The key to stopping Yrevia is to get stronger and keep herself safe, and possibly have her powers back again.
She was about to stand when Fatima stopped her. “Asceia, since we are already here, I want to tell you that last time, we did a full scan of your body. I sent the results to other doctors and scientists who studied sercean voice and they found out that the reason why you can’t sing or speak.” From her tablet, she showed a digital illustration. “This is a sercean throat, that white fluid right there is like a fuel, your kind need it to speak or sing.”
Just by looking at the image, she touched and massaged her throat as she relived the moment her Mother Senthuria slit her open, spilling the liquid out. “How can I possibly get that fluid back in my body?”
“My people will run some tests. They have thought of transferring it from a donor sercean if they can’t find a way how to make you synthesize your vocal fluid.”
“I can’t make my vocal fluid?”
“We don’t know that yet, but it’s almost a week since you lost your voice, until now, we didn’t see any fluid in your scans.”
“The voices of serceans are sacred, we can’t just ask it from others.”
“Actually, there were serceans who donated their vocal fluids before in the hope of understanding the sercean biology.”
“Why would they do that? That’s against our law.”
“The Foundation is about protecting your kind. Prominent doctors and scientists around the world worked together and funded the projects to help your kind. The Foundation believes that your kind is the key to humanity and this planet’s survival. Every work we have here was based solely on the knowledge your kind is comfortable to share,” Fatima explained while staring right through her eyes. “If these studies and projects will give you your ability back, and stop Yrevia, then it’s worth it.”
••°°••
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