Lyra's distorted reflection shifted in the glossy dark marble of the council hall floor. Her nails scraped the length of her palm as she fidgeted, streaking angry red marks along her skin.
Five high-backed seats lay bare at the foot of the rock steps, upon which many of the city's most powerful observed her. Their clothing shimmered in the white lights arranged across the panelled walls, an array of bronze and gold trim glittering against the sable stone. Some, Lyra noticed, were wearing darkened coronets inlaid with opals and pearls. She almost instinctively shrunk back in their presence. Siris hadn't told her much when he'd collected her from their apartment that morning, only that the council required to meet with her at once. She hadn't expected to be a spectacle for the upper-class members of their population.
The side door creaked open. Three women and a man joined them, their forms moving elegantly towards the chairs. Their deep robes swirled around them like a tide enrapturing their bodies, the metallic patterning of the hems catching in the sheen of silvery pools. They took their places at the head of the assembly and the chamber hushed.
"Welcome all," the councilwoman bathed in violet and gold announced in a soothing, lyrical tone. Her inky gaze glided to the stranger. "Especially you. Siris tells me your name is Lyra. Is that correct?"
"Yes," Lyra replied. She couldn't have sounded more like a mouse if she'd tried.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Annis. My colleagues are Navine and Mella, and the man on the end is Hiro. I'm afraid our fifth councillor, Neres, isn't able to join us today." Annis examined the youthful woman. She could have seen twenty-six summers at the most, a tender age to have received such a power as the one now coursing through her. "Is it all right if we ask you some questions? Given the situation, I'm sure you can understand our curiosity."
Lyra nodded. The male councillor, Hiro, scribbled something on the tablet in his lap, the stylus waving along the screen. Had little Poseidon felt like this when she'd leaned down at his aquarium? Had he watched her scrawling her observations on his behaviour, wondering what she was writing?
"You work on the ships above the planet. Is that right?" Navine questioned, poising herself to write on the tablet she'd balanced on the arm of her chair. She shoved her bony shoulders back and tilted her head, elongating her already long neck.
"Yes," Lyra answered. "I mean, I did. I don't think I'd be welcome there now."
"What was your role there?" Mella asked.
"I was a junior researcher."
"Elaborate." Hiro's words were sharp, like a command more than a curious venture. Even her superiors on the Juno station had never spoken to her in such a ruthless manner.
Lyra swallowed and inhaled steadily to appease the fervent thud of her heart. Breathe. Her fingertips tingled as though she'd stuffed them in a bucket of static, and her palms stung where she'd clawed at them earlier. Breathe. Each instinct she had howled at her to run. Breathe. But it wasn't her voice she heard encouraging her to settle. It was pacifying. Lulled. The Sea Emperor Leviathan Siris had called their queen. "I served in the laboratory where I processed the samples coming in and studied them," she responded. "It was my responsibility to record how the creatures in our care acted and to test the plantlife for unique attributes. We wanted to know how life here worked." And what was valuable, she left unspoken.
"By taking what wasn't yours," Mella commented. A few of the elite representatives of their society hummed in agreement behind her.
"While I didn't take those samples myself, I will accept some responsibility for their removal," Lyra admitted. "I don't agree with what they're doing, but I did nothing to stop them."
Annis's eyebrows pinched together. "Why did you remain with them? If you didn't agree with their methods, surely you could have withdrawn from your position?"
Tell them, the Sea Emperor sovereign whispered into her consciousness. "That big ship in your ocean?" Lyra said, gesturing behind her as though she knew which way the wreckage of the Aurora lay. "My father was on board when it crashed. He was the only survivor, and after many trials here, he found the Sea Emperor Leviathan in an Architect aquarium. He helped her hatch her eggs and set the little ones free. Unfortunately, when he returned to Alterra, they slapped him with a rather heavy debt for the resources he'd used to survive. I only stayed with the company to help him pay off those debts quicker."
"Our oracles heard a name," Hiro told her, scrutinising her closely and sitting up in his seat. "They claim the freed Sea Emperor children whispered it to them before they scattered across the planet."
"Ryley Robinson," Lyra said on impulse. The councillors stared at her, awestruck, and faint murmurs arose behind them.
Shame overtook her. She could almost see him, worried, frantic, and alone. Pacing their apartment, or quarrelling with the governors. What had she done to him? What would he do now that the planet had potentially claimed his wife and his only child?
The bangles on Annis's wrists jangled as she rose from her seat, the sweet twinkling following her footsteps. Her fair features softened as she neared the outsider in their midst. "The blood you share with the man who freed the juveniles may explain recent events," she mused. "Did the Sea Emperor speak to you at all?"
"She talked of greedy hands reaching for things that weren't theirs and that the planet needed protecting." Lyra hesitated. Should she tell them about the woman? Trust them. This time the whisper held a chill, and she shuddered. "She also mentioned someone in the cold who may need help."
"Has she communicated anything to you recently?" Mella inquired. "For example, over the past few days?"
"Yes."
"What did she say?"
"Just a few seconds ago, she told me to trust you."
"And do you?"
Lyra glimpsed Siris out of the corner of her eyes before fixating on the line of councillors. She could sense the emotions thrumming within them, feel Annis's curiosity and kindness and Navine's growing boredom as though the sentiments were her own. But something snapped at the back of her mind. An awareness of disgust. Of hatred. She pinpointed it to the two central seats, Mella and Hiro perched between the curved arms. The revulsion simmered around them like a mist, noxious and reaching its slimy fingers towards her.
"Answer us," Mella demanded.
"You have not given me a reason to doubt you," Lyra replied, careful of her words. "I suppose in this situation, it is more a case of whether you trust me." She cocked an eyebrow and attempted to home in on the awakening senses, but just as swiftly as they'd materialised, they evaporated again.
"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Annis asked, pacing the floor between the streams of water trickling through the thin channels in the midnight stone.
Lyra shook her head.
"Nothing at all?"
"Nothing."
Mella let out a noise of outrage and shot up, chest heaving with each breath she drew. Fury fluttered across the dark abyss in her eyes. "Do you not understand the severity of the situation?" she hissed. "Our queen has given you her powers instead of one of us. If you refuse to hand over the information we seek, we have ways of extracting it and we will-"
"You shall do no such thing, councillor."
Heads turned to the compelling voice. An elderly woman in sage green and rose gold robes strode into the hall, ashen hair piled atop her head and held in place by a row of peacock pearls. Her glassy eyes set steadfastly on the councillors. They shrank in her presence and sank onto their knees. Siris dropped to his knee too, and the others in attendance bowed low.
"I apologise, oracle," Mella quivered. "I never meant-"
"Oh, be quiet," the imperial woman ordered, taking scope of the room and ensuring everybody remembered their place before approaching their esteemed visitor. "Don't you dare think of bowing. The power you possess does not bow to me."
Lyra tried to form a sound, but each time she faltered. She cleared her throat and compelled herself to respond. "You're like me," she breathed, almost delirious as she gestured to the identical orbs pulsating on the side of the woman's temples.
"In a way I am," the seer responded. "I wager you are feeling many things right now." She beckoned away any attempt Lyra made at replying. "No need to waste your breath. I know, I can sense it all racing through you like a hunting Reaper." She chuckled to herself and dipped her head. "I am Deema. I am the prime oracle of the city and I have waited for this day for longer than I care to admit." She cupped Lyra's face tenderly and beamed like a grandmother reuniting with her beloved grandchild. Her bright demeanour shifted as she surveyed the rest of the room again. The hospitable smile slipped into an unimpressed frown and her eyebrows lowered until a sharp crease pushed at the faint wrinkles on her forehead. "What are you all still doing here? Leave. If you're searching for a spectacle, go to the amphitheatre."
The room cleared within seconds, the four councillors blundering through the back door by the thrones and the others filtering out through the side exits. Some scampered, picking up their pace as they arrived at the bottom of the stone seats and making themselves scarce.
"Not you," Deema said, snatching hold of Siris's leather armour as he tried to shuffle by her. "Did I not tell you that in situations like this you were to come and get me first?"
Siris grinned sheepishly and scuffled his feet. "I'm sorry, auntie."
"You must have an excuse for it," the oracle pressed, signalling for him to air it.
"Lyra and her friends were spotted entering the city with us. I tried to travel discreetly, but someone saw. I alerted the council before they had the chance to so I could monitor the situation myself."
Deema let out a short hum, not completely satisfied but willing to drop the matter in favour of something much more important. She glared a moment longer at her nephew before she returned to Lyra. "Do not worry, child, you will come to no harm here. The councillors shall not hurt you, not unless they want to anger the fates. I am giving Siris the responsibility of taking good care of you and your friends." She patted her arms and headed for the double doors.
"Is that it?" Lyra asked, swivelling around to follow the elderly woman's path.
"What do you mean?" the seer replied.
"Can you not help me with these powers? Or guide me in the right direction?"
Deema laughed and doubled back, taking hold of Lyra's hands. "My dear, this is not something you can learn from a book or from wisdom like mine. You grow into it. It is something you experience and gain a personal understanding of. The power is yours now, to shape as you will. Our queen has already told you what you need to do, hasn't she?"
"I suppose," Lyra pondered, "not that any of it makes sense."
"Trust her, and trust yourself," Deema instructed. "You'll get there in time."
* * *
"I apologise for the council's behaviour," Siris said, cutting through the silence that had accompanied their journey down from the assembly chamber. "They're desperate for answers."
"So desperate that the moment someone tells them they don't have any information, they resort to threats of torture," Lyra voiced. "Are they prone to such severe intimidation, or am I a rare case?"
Siris swallowed and edged towards speaking his mind before he exhaled. "It is not only you they have treated so poorly," he spoke, his usual soft tone solemn. "My guards and I work for the oracles, not the council. We aren't privy to their secrets, but there has always been talk of them turning to questionable means before exhausting all their options." He scratched at the back of his neck and slowed his pace so she could keep up with his strides. "They should not have threatened you like that, but please believe that I would never let them harm you or your friends."
"I know," Lyra assured him. "Since we arrived, I've been able to sense the Sea Emperor's energy more. There's an aura of trust about you. Same with Deema. When she walked into the hall, it was as though a kindred spirit had entered the room."
"That is reassuring." Siris ruminated on a thought before airing it. "You said she spoke to you about the councillors. The Sea Emperor, I mean."
Lyra peered down at the pattered stone beneath her feet. Shades of yellow, and pink, and purple formed flowers in bloom, twined together by the green vines winding down the central path of the courtyard. Running alongside the walkway, real flora sprouted from verdant grass. "All she told me was to trust them and tell them what she'd said to me. But she sounded cautious. More like I should act as though I trust them but be wary." Mella's threats prickled in her ears, and had Deema not intervened, she dreaded to think of what could have happened to her. Siris may have tried to protect her, but he was only one man. Everybody has their limits. The last thing she wanted to was to widen an already tumultuous gap in their society. "I'm sorry I couldn't give them more information. I understand it must frustrate them to know the Sea Emperor's power has gone to me. Especially after everything my kind has done."
"The fault does not lie with you. The council thinks they rule all, but it is more complicated than that. Most listen to the oracles over the councillors, and the divided loyalty annoys them. But what can they expect? The oracles are compassionate and understanding. Naturally people would choose them over rulers who reign with a heavy hand and a bitter heart." Siris realised he was rambling and let out a self-conscious breath. "I'm talking more than I should."
"Talk as much as you like," Lyra encouraged. "I don't mind."
His eyebrows rose, and his mouth parted. "I... uh... I'm usually told to shut up," he said, the corner of his lips lifting and his pointed ears rotating slightly upwards. "It gladdens my hearts to have someone who genuinely wants to listen."
Lyra took in the elation and made to invite him to speak more before his words caught up with her. "Wait, did you say hearts? As in plural?"
"My people possess two hearts," Siris answered. He halted just beyond the courtyard gates and held his hands out to her. "Here." He guided her fingers to his rib cage and pressed on them so she could feel the whispers of his soul for herself.
Dual pulses glided across her palms, one and then the other, rolling the life-giving beats between each organ. Each thrum felt like a caress, pushing Siris's chest gently into her hands. "I have a lot to learn about your people," she confessed.
"I will help you, and I'm sure my aunt will too."
Lyra let her arms slide away from him, unsure of whether the pulse in her palm was her own or the remnants of Siris's hearts singing across her skin. "What's the plan now?" she asked, moving again towards the core of the metropolis. "Do I need to speak to the oracles?"
"Only if you want to. You're free to do as you wish, although I would recommend staying for the Festival of the Sea Emperor. It's a spectacular time of the year with feasts and a ball."
"Sounds like fun," Lyra admitted, "but I must talk it over with my friends. Whatever decisions we make, we make them together."
"I understand."
There was something pensive in Siris's tone, something her new senses picked up on rather than her old ones. She glimpsed his aura for a brief second, green and purple wisps floating around him and pulsating about his form. A stray tendril drifted towards her, curling slowly and timidly until the entire vision faded. Learn to see with my eyes too, the Sea Emperor whispered into the depths of her mind. They will tell you all you need to know.
* * *
Lyra kept to the less populated areas as she drifted the outskirts. Steep declines tracked where the water trickled in from the cave ceiling, and ponds opened up at various points to catch the falling droplets. Some of them formed rivers, driving the current back out into the ocean. Across them, leaping walkways linked each break in the land. On her way there, Siris had told her about the technology that barred the sea from flooding the city, and she'd listened, intrigued, to his explanations of the pulses and shields that allied together to keep them safe and dry. According to her guide, they might glimpse the shimmer of the protective screens at night, rippling upwards and along the rocky trails above.
He had left her after being summoned back to the temple, and she'd taken to wandering the quieter regions of the abundant place. Away from the stares and the prying eyes, she found some peace in her solitude. On the outer edges, the vegetation bloomed. Flowers she'd never seen sprouted from the fractures in the cavern wall, slanting their pastel shades and blazing as she neared them. The tentative flicker turned into glittering rays of neon colours. Apologies crossed her mind. She'd watched their friends cut up and stored in cold boxes, even chopped them and packed them herself without a thought. With this in mind, she had a hunch as to what the Sea Emperor meant by protecting the planet, but she wasn't sure how she was going to accomplish it.
Lyra reached out to the lilac fronds waving at her and halted when they retreated, slinking into their dark sanctuaries in the stone. "It's okay," she murmured to them. The illumination cast by her new set of eyes waved across the wisps of undulating purple and they seeped back out of the fissure, inch by tentative inch.
She left them and settled down by the short waterfall gushing water down into the flooded ravine. The fish here were miniscule, no bigger than her little finger, trailing their multicolour glow as they zipped through the water. As she watched them, almost envious of their stress-free lives, her thoughts strayed to her friends. When she'd left them that morning, Siris had brought in a tailor to make them new diving suits. She could imagine them surrounded by fabric, encouraging each other to pick out the best patterns and styles. She closed her eyes and pictured Hunter strutting around the shared living space of their apartment in a new suit, pouting and eliciting more than a few laughs from Cassidy and Samuel. The image changed, darkness settled, and she saw them facing a menacing beast with no way of escape, the jaws of some titanic monster sealing around them until she couldn't see them anymore.
She exhaled slowly, refusing to let her insecurities win, and retrieved her PDA from her pocket. With everything that had taken place, she needed a fail-safe. There was no path back for her now, but that didn't mean that if they found themselves in a critical situation, her friends wouldn't have a way to safety. The hours passed in contemplative silence as she jotted down ideas on the blank document. Some she scribbled out with a huff, mulling over her options. After taking any potential obstacles into consideration, she keyed in their ship's code and hoped that the new owner was still with it, wherever she may be. She waited for the pinwheel to turn into a tick. It span in a dizzying circle before a red banner appeared below the message. After a few seconds, the digital wheel rotated again as the device refused to give up after just one try. She left it to spin. Whatever happened, she had to keep Samuel, Cassidy, and Hunter safe, even if that meant securing their freedom without their knowledge and sending them unknowingly towards it when the time came.