I peppered Aunt Coral with questions.
"Language isn't passed down, how come I can understand landfolk language?"
"Vocals work differently with Sirens."
"Were you and my mother really best friends?"
"Yes, I miss her every day."
"Do you think you'll see her again?"
"If the stars favor me."
I tried to scratch ticks into the wall, but nothing could mark the stone. Plus, I couldn't tell the passing of day and night.
One day all the torches were burning low and I was trying to sleep. I hadn't been given good food or any water for maybe a few days now, and I felt exhausted all the time.
I heard a click and the sound of the cage opening.
Good try, Grave, I thought tiredly. But I'm not going to fold and betray my friends just yet.
"Wake up!" hissed a woman's voice.
I sat bolt upright. Not Grave.
It was hard to see, but a pirate woman with her hair tied under a rag was crouching in front of me. A plate was in front of her, and a cup of water. The shadow of a person waited outside.
"Hurry and eat," she whispered, pushing the plate towards me.
Poison. I'm not that dumb. I turned my head away.
The woman put her hands on the side of my face. They felt soft and familiar. "August," she murmured. "Please."
I started. I hadn't said my name to anyone on land beside my friends who were all at the cottage.
I heard Aunt Coral wake up and gasp. "August!" she cried. "Stay away from him!"
The woman spun. "There's someone else in here?" She walked to Aunt Coral's cell and held the torch to her face.
"August, run," Aunt Coral said.
"No," the woman contradicted, looking at me. "August, don't."
"That was merfolk speak," I whispered."She understood merfolk speak."
"That's right. Now, miss, who are...you... oh my stars."
Aunt Coral's breath caught. "No..."
"Coral?!" the woman breathed, fumbling with her keys and unlocking the cell.
"SPRING?!" Aunt Coral cried. She pushed out of the cell and pulled the woman into a tight embrace.
"Spring?" I whimpered. "Then that means you're my..."
She came over to me next and pulled me into a soft hug. "You're all grown up, August. I'm so proud."
"Mom," I said. "You're my mom."
The shadow I saw before spoke. "Spring, please, this is beautiful but we have to go."
Spring had Aunt Coral and I share the food and water. My mind reeled. My mom was one of the bad guys?
"Come on, August," Spring whispered, pulling me up. "We're getting you back into the ocean."
I didn't question it- I was still too dumbfounded. We walked down the winding dungeon hallways, and I asked the other person- a man named Darius, why he was helping us.
"My girlfriend is merfolk," he answered simply. "You must know of her."
"I need a name," I answered.
"Right, right. Claudia Barracuda, do you know her?"
"I know a Claude Barracuda. He's my teacher."
"Oh?" Darius lit up. "She- er, he always told me he would rather have been a boy."
"So..." I processed this. "Mr. Barracuda has a girl's body but he's still a boy."
"Yeah, pretty much."
Well, was it my place to offer my opinion? I had more pressing matters.
I turned to my mom. "M- mom?"
"Mhm?"
"Why did you become a pirate? Why did you leave us? To save your own skin?" I won't deny that I heard anger crawling into my voice. I was happy to see her but also betrayed that she left us to join the pirates. The pirates.
She stopped. "No," she whispered. "Quite the opposite. I became associated with merfolk. You were born during the Merfolk Massacre. With your purple eyes and hair and scales along your arms."
I listened.
"They tried to kill you. I gave you to your father, and he took you to Aunt Coral, just so she could hold on to you for a moment. He was planning to come back, but he made Coral promise to protect you while he was gone. He came back up to speak to me about our futures but-" She took a shuddering breath. "I was the woman with the merfolk child. I was being followed. They killed him and never stopped tailing me. If I had returned to you, you all would have died. So I stayed away."
"But why did you become a pirate?" I asked.
She finally turned around to look at me. "August, pirates are the only landfolk who go near the sea. It was the only way I could be close to you. I've seen glimpses of you through the years, peeking through the water with Sapphire. You two were always so curious. Is...is Sapphire okay? Did she grow up good?"
I swallowed hard, now feeling bad. She'd missed her whole life, her chance to raise a family and see me and her community grow- to give us all a chance to live. "Yes, she did. She did."
Mom smiled. "Good. Now shush, here's the hardest part. We have to sneak through the throne room without being seen."
She went first, stepping delicately and silent. She ducked behind a guard and stopped, holding out a hand. I followed her slowly and took her hand. The rough, calloused skin of her palm comforted me.
Aunt Coral took my other hand, and hers was familiar too. The woman who birthed me and the woman who raised me. Both who loved me enough to die for me. I was not going to let them die.
We finally snuck past out into the night. Mom ran me to a carriage waiting in front of the castle.
"It will take you to the shore closest to the community. Go swim home."
And that's when I remembered Aether. Finn. Fire. Everybody. "I can't."
"What?"
"I- I can't. Fire- uh, Sapphire and Finn are up here. The prince and a princess and bodyguards and handmaidens and serving boys, mom, they're up here. I have to help them."
Aunt Coral reached for my face. "Is Finn...okay?"
"He's better than okay," I replied, imagining him letting his guard down for the first time in years to Alaric. "He's...happy."
Mom slowly took my hands. "I can't let you get hurt, August. I've been away for so long and you finally know me...I can't let you die."
I squeezed her fingers. "And I finally have a group of people that I like, who were kind to me and helped even though I was merfolk. I may finally have someone that I...love." Aunt Coral smiled at me over my mom's shoulder. "I can't them die. I have to help somehow. I have to see them again."
Mom raised an eyebrow in a protective way. "Who's this someone that you love?"
Oh stars, this was about to be awkward. "So...you know that prince you're trying to kill?"
"No."
I winced. "...Yeah."
"This whole time we've been trying to hunt down your boyfriend?"
"H- he's not my-"
"Of course he is," Mom said dismissively. "I'm your mother. If he isn't already he will be. It doesn't matter. What will you do?"
I glanced over the carriage to the ocean, and then down at the ground under the feet that I wasn't supposed to have. "I'm going to go back to Aether."
"So you do know where he is," said a voice, and suddenly the world was blurring as I hit the ground hard.
I pushed myself up with my arms to see Captain grave holding Mom's arm in a death grip. Pushing her and Darius to another pirate, he barked, "Take them to the dungeon."
He turned to stand over me. "And you," he said, kneeling. "Are coming with me."