Hey guys, I'm back! I'm sorry for disappearing. I ended up getting a somewhat strong case of Covid-19 that admitted me into the hospital for a week. I'm doing much better now, but the recovery is a bit slow. I still have a few lingering side-effects, but I'm sure I'll get through them. I've decided to start uploading again because I felt bad for leaving you all hanging, and because I need the mental exercise (Covid sometimes leaves you fog-minded). Hopefully, the posting schedule will be regular from this point on. Wish me luck!
Laboratory
"He's a child?" I blurted, shocked.
The child, Erasmus, looked at Kai and his purple eyes lit up with what looked to be recognition.
"Kaerus!"
Erasmus threw himself onto Kai and wrapped his little arms around Kai's torso -or at least tried.
Kai froze, unsure what to do.
He'd called him Kaerus, his father's name. Did he really look that much like this father?
"Umm..." He looked to Ryodan for help, but found him looking strangely at him. Ryodan too saw the resemblance, it seemed.
Ryodan's face abruptly hardened. In a hard voice, "Erasmus, he's not Kaerus. Kaerus is dead."
Kai felt Erasmus stiffen right before he released him and stepped away from him, his bangs falling to conceal his face from view. Wordlessly, he turned and entered his house, leaving the door open.
"Come." Ryodan beckoned as he followed Erasmus inside.
Kai stood at the threshold for a moment as he contemplated what just happened. It seemed that Erasmus was indeed well-acquainted with his father. But how could he not know that his father was long dead? Exactly how long had he been living in this cave? Long enough for the news to have not reached him?
"Kai." Ryodan called.
"Coming." He stepped into the house to find that it was no mesely cave hut, but a giant mansion, and he was standing right in the solar room. Kai was caught off guard, feeling slightly disoriented. "Did I just walk through another portal?" he asked Ryodan.
"No, this is an illusion."
"Another spell?" Kai asked as he stared up at the high ceiling. He carefully took in his surroundings. A blue fire crackled in a giant hearth, casting a bluish hue across the spacious room.
"Yes."
He wondered just how merfolk came to possess magic, and how powerful a merman had to be to create portals and conjure these illusions and magical detectors. Was it an innate ability they were all born with? Or was it something they learned and harnessed over time?
He remembered that Marius had also used magic to teleport him to Nostrazia, opening the portal in the tunnel. Something told him that someone as powerful and capable as Marius had more tricks up his sleeve -or gold arm braces as it were.
Secretly, he wondered if he too could perform these spells. Already he was the vessel to a god-like entity, and he was half-merman, whether he liked it or not. So, could he do magic?
Ryodan took Kai's hand, startling Kai out of his musings, and said, "We need to hurry; we don't want to risk being discovered."
Though Kai didn't particularly like the skin-to-skin contact, he forced himself to stay quiet for the time being. They really were running out of time. By his estimation, they had a few hours left before the maids came to light the jellyfish and rouse him. He didn't even want to imagine what would happen if they found his bed empty.
The General led him out of the solar room, down a stone corridor and into what Kai immediately realized to be a laboratory -a mage's laboratory for that matter. All manner of apparatus and peculiar equipment covered entire wooden tables. Various liquids bubbled in the flasks over slow-burning blue fires, and in the center of the laboratory sat a circular table with a giant crystal pearl that resembled a witch's crystal ball on top of it.
Kai eyed the iron maiden at a corner of the laboratory with morbid interest. The maiden's body was adorned with a monstrous screaming metal face that looked nothing human. In the far left, some kind of chimera creature was swimming in a giant glass tube.
It was like he'd stepped into a laboratory shared by Dr. Frankenstein and the Wicked Witch of the West.
Erasmus was hunched over a desk that was filled to overflowing with stacks of books and paper notes.
Without turning, he said, "I apologize for the confusion. I know Kaerus is dead, it's just that... you caught me off guard for a moment." Erasmus turned to look at him with the most painstaking expression on his child-like face. "You look so much like your father, Kai."
Kai opted for silence simply because he didn't know what to say to that.
It was clear that Erasmus knew his father pretty well, and that he was still grieving years later.
"We don't have much time, Erasmus."
"Yes," Erasmus nodded, appearing to understand their predicament, and then reached out a hand for Kai to take.
Seriously, what is it with these mermen and hand-holding?
He let go of Ryodan's hand only to put in Erasmus' significantly smaller one. Kai wasn't as disturbed to hold hands with a child.
Erasmus turned Kai's hand over, baring his palm. With a finger, he traced the lines of his palms. Deep in concentration, his soon-to-be mentor mumbled to himself, "Royalty, yes, yes... Hmm, long life, yes. What's this? You practice swordsmanship?"
"Yes." Kai nodded. Did he get that from the now-fading calluses in his hand?
Erasmus released his hand and pulled out the stool from under the desk. "Sit," he instructed.
Kai did as he was told, bringing him eye-level with Erasmus.
"How old are you really?"
Erasmus chuckled. "Appearances can be deceiving, my Prince."
It so seemed. According to Ryodan, Erasmus was ancient. He was at least old enough to be his father's mentor, at least.
"Is this form an illusion too?" he asked. It seemed like the most 'logical' explanation, judging from what he'd seen and what he knew Erasmus to be capable of.
Erasmus nodded. "How very perceptive of you."
Kai didn't know if he was being sarcastic.
Why would an ancient wizard-mermaid assume such a young disguise?
"Ryodan tells me you're having a hard time controlling the Spirit of the Sea."
"I have no control over it whatsoever," he admitted bitterly.
"So did your father when he first inherited it."
"Right. Can you teach me how to control?"
Erasmus eyed him "Perhaps."
Kai looked at Ryodan skeptically. "P-Perhaps?"
He'd come here with the hopes of finding a solution to his problems. A part of him had even started to believe Ryodan's claims that this Erasmus was the best mentor for him. He didn't want his hopes to be shattered. He wanted one thing in his life to go right.
"It depends on you."
Kai blinked. "On me?"
"How compatible you are with the Spirit, how harmoniously you co-exist."
Kai pursed his lips and looked away.
Erasmus caught that and asked with a mild frown, "What?"
Ryodan sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face. "We have a problem."
"What is it?"
"Our Prince here punched the Spirit in the face right before telling him to fuck off."
Erasmus sputtered and his eyes looked like they were going to pop right out of their sockets.
"Actually, I think I told him to fuck off first and then I punched him..."
Erasmus sighed. "Oh, it's worse than I thought."
"Can you help him or not?" Ryodan demanded, a fearsome scowl on his face.
Erasmus contemplated his answer for a moment, and then declared, "I'll have to run a few tests on him."
"T-Tests? What kind of tests?" Kai's eyes flew to the chimera in the tube. Would they put him inside a tube to run these tests?
"I need to determine just how uncooperative the Spirit is, and how cooperative you are."
"Okay, but how?"
Erasmus ignored him and said to Ryodan, "I'll have to run some physical tests. How much time do you have?"
Ryodan sighed. "Not much."
"Can you buy us time?"
"No."
"Can you bring him here again?"
"No."
"Dammit." Erasmus turned to him with a determined expression. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to perform these tests without sedation; I don't have time to brew the sedative."
Kai's stomach plummeted. "How much pain are we talking about here?"
Erasmus stared him dead in the eyes and said, "A lot."
There are over 10 chapters available on my Patreon. If you'd like to read ahead and also support me, it'll only be for a dollar! ;D My Patreon also has NSFW, exclusive Abyssal and other story chapters and artwork that you'll only find there if you're interested! :D