Dark Zone
"I said I'm not going anywhere with you!" Kai growled, pinning Marius with a deadly look. It wasn't like Kai had expected the King to heed his wants, but he was still annoyed and taken aback by the abruptness of his transportation. Was Marius so unbelievably powerful that he could portal them out of the Palace without so much as lifting a gold-ringed finger? He shuddered just to think about it.
"We're still in my chambers."
"Then..." Kai turned around in a full circle, taking in the sudden change of scenery. "This is... an illusion?" he asked, unsure what else to call it.
"In a way, yes. It's like looking into one of your human inventions, that box that shows you images... What's it called?"
"Ah... a TV." It was very strange hearing Marius show any knowledge about human inventions, especially for someone who allegedly despised all things human.
As he turned in a full circle, Kai had a hard time comprehending and accepting his surroundings. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Is this... a Dark Zone?" he asked, stunned by the sight.
It was a barren land, except underwater. As they floated above the seabed, he was surrounded on all sides by an emptiness that was unlike anything he'd ever seen in the sea. There was no sign of any marine life whatsoever; not even a single seaweed bush. This patch of sea was dead. Even the water was darker, murkier, like it was water from a dirty puddle rather than the vast, blue sea. And the water was unnaturally cold, almost icy, and it didn't look like they were in the Arctic Ocean.
He looked up to try to spot the light coming from the sun, but they had to be somewhere very deep, because there was barely any light filtering in.
"What happened here?" he wondered out loud.
The sea -any sea, even the Dead Sea- thrived on its own. There was none of that going on here. Something told him that not even bacteria thrived here.
"You guessed correctly. This is a Dark Zone not too far from Nostraza."
"Why is it like this?"
"The life has been robbed from this spot of the sea."
"Robbed?" Kai exclaimed, incredulous. "Why would someone rob the sea of life? Better yet, who the hell even has the ability to do this? How do you just... rob the sea of life?!" Did nothing in this world make sense?
Had humanity done this? Kai thought back to all the images of human-caused sea pollution, but none of them had looked like this. Looking around, there was not a single plastic bottle or straw floating in the water, the telltale signs of human-induced pollution. He very much doubted that this was the work of humans.
No, it felt... sinister. Like the work of... magic?
He honestly wasn't sure how to translate the dark, almost malevolent vibe of this place, but he was certain it had something to do with magic.
"The Spirit of the Sea did this."
Kai's head whipped to Marius.
The King was dead serious.
"Why?" he asked.
Kai tried to call upon every scrap of knowledge he had about the Spirit of the Sea. So far, the only record he'd found in his constant 'travels' was the massive book in Marius' library that only mentioned the Spirit in one paragraph. The book had called it the most important power in the sea, granting abundance and riches.
It hadn't said anything about taking life away.
"Like any world, there is a balance to our own that must constantly be maintained. No magic wielded by merfolk can control it. The Spirit of the Sea is the only entity capable of wielding that balance at will, as it is the very embodiment of the sea. Unfortunately, it has been known to be a fickle deity with its own unfathomable agenda. For the last few millennia, it has favored a certain area of the ocean above all others, bestowing upon it with countless bounties and opulence tenfold. As a result, everywhere else has fallen into neglect."
"Astria." Kai guessed.
"Yes, the Kingdom of Astria has been basking in the Spirit's good graces for millennia."
"But why would that destroy this area here?"
"Remember what I said. There is a balance to be upheld at all times. In order to give more to Astria, the Spirit would drain other parts of the oceans. The more he took, the more Dark Zones appeared across all oceans, all seas. And the sea is not just salt water; it is alive in its corals, in its fish, in its most minuscule creatures. And as of late, the Dark Zones have been getting bigger."
Kai was still reeling from what Marius had said, but he somehow managed to ask, "How big is this one?"
"This one? Not too big, just a few of your human miles. But there are bigger ones. Much bigger."
Miles?! These things were miles long?! How long before every body of water turned into a lifeless Dark Zone, except for Astria?
"It's doing this knowingly?" It was hard for Kai to comprehend how the Spirit of the Sea, the embodiment of the sea itself, would basically kill itself part by part like this.
"Yes."
Their eyes met and Kai glimpsed something he'd never glimpse in Marius before: frustration.
Suddenly, Kai realized how troubling this could be for the ruler of a country other than Astria.
"Are we still in Nostraza?" Kai asked.
"Yes. This used to be a village."
Kai exhaled a puff of air in shock.
"The merpeople in the village..." he trailed off.
"They started getting sick. That's the first of the signs. Then, the soil turned infertile and the corals began to die. We've seen it too many times not to know what was happening. There is no recourse once it happens. The only option is to evacuate the area."
For a millisecond, Marius' formidable mask slipped. Kai often hoped this would happen, that he'd glimpse into Marius' soul and the inner workings of his mind, but he found himself deeply regretting ever hoping so. What he saw was beyond alarming.
He saw savage conviction stemming out of the desperation and need to protect his people. At all costs.
It made him want to turn around and swim in the other direction.
"And Astria knows about this?" Surely they didn't!
"Oh, they count on it." Marius bared his teeth in a furious sneer that betrayed exactly what he felt about it.
Suddenly, they were back in Marius' chambers.
He suddenly felt overwhelmed by all of this. Just as he'd known, this was so much bigger and older than him.
Kai went to the chair Marius had sat in and dropped into it like a log.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
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