The Most Beautiful Spot

In the days leading up to the first placement, Colm returned to the route charts he'd already prepared, refining the planned rest points against the seabed's actual depth and terrain rather than calculating the route from scratch.

"...The distances are already where we want them," he explained, laying out his updated chart for the assembled crew. "Now I'm checking the terrain within each section. Moving a rest point a few hundred meters either way won't meaningfully change a full day's swim, but it could make a significant difference in where we actually put the structures."

"Reasonable," Arista said, reviewing the six daily stretches marked along the route. "So the first placement goes here—" she tapped the map, roughly a day's swim out from the ring's boiling boundary "—about where the first natural resting point on the original pilgrimage would've been."

"As close as I can calculate it, yes," Colm confirmed. "I can't know precisely where the old route actually stopped, but this puts the first rest point at a distance that matches Selen's description of a comfortable day's travel. The same principle applies to the rest. No single leg should demand far more effort than the others. If one stretch is twice as long as the next, then we haven't divided the journey into six reasonable days. We've made five manageable ones and one brutal one."

With the target area settled, the two ships set out with their towed cargo, the community house and one sleeping quarter trailing behind Nettle's original vessel while the remaining four quarters followed the second ship. The ring itself normally took roughly four days to reach by boat, and although their destination lay somewhat closer, towing six large structures across open water slowed both vessels considerably.

The journey stretched across several days, both crews keeping the ships in parallel and adjusting their pace whenever the floating platforms began pulling unevenly against the tow lines. By the time Colm's target area finally came into range, the first rest point felt far less theoretical than it had on his charts.

Once they reached the target area, Squishy surfaced beside the first structure and wrapped his tentacles securely around its frame, taking enough of the load that the temporary platform beneath it no longer had to support the house by itself.

"...Ready?" Arista called.

Squishy's rings flashed brightly in response.

With the house secure in his grip, the crew released the transport lashings holding it to the temporary buoyancy platform and began preparing to flood the chambers beneath it, expecting the structure to settle gradually into Squishy's grasp as the platform lost its lift. Before they could get that far, however, Squishy tightened his grip around the frame and simply lifted the entire community house clear of the water, leaving the platform floating uselessly beneath him.

Arista stared for a moment as the crew paused halfway through their preparations.

"...Wait. You can lift the entire thing into the air?"

Squishy's rings pulsed once.

Arista stared at him for another beat.

"...Of course you can. Giant kraken."

The crew pulled the empty platform clear and secured it alongside the ship while Squishy lowered the house back toward the water.

A moment later, he disappeared beneath the surface with the entire building.

They expected him back fairly quickly.

When a few minutes passed without any sign of him, Bram leaned against the railing and stared down at the dark water. "...How long does it take to put down one house?"

"If he found suitable ground immediately, not this long," Colm said, checking their position against his chart again. "The terrain in this area shouldn't be difficult."

Selen lingered beside the ship, watching the water for another moment. "...I will see what he is doing."

She slipped beneath the surface after him, leaving the rest of them with nothing to do but wait. It took a little longer before she finally resurfaced beside the ship, looking far less concerned than Arista had expected.

"...Problem?" Arista asked.

"No. He is looking for the best spot."

Bram frowned. "...Wasn't that Colm's job?"

"The best area," Colm corrected.

Selen nodded. "Dryva agrees with the location. He simply does not wish to place the houses on the first suitable patch of seabed he finds."

"...What's he looking for, then?" Arista asked.

Selen's expression softened. "A beautiful place."

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That answer made Colm look up from his chart.

"He wants somewhere sheltered from the stronger currents," Selen continued. "Peaceful. Somewhere my people would actually enjoy resting after a full day's travel. He has waited centuries for them to return. To him, this is not merely a question of where a building can stand."

Arista looked down at the water again, unable to see anything of the search happening far beneath them. Nobody had asked Squishy to be selective beyond finding somewhere stable. They had given him a location, six structures, and a practical problem to solve, and apparently he'd decided that practical wasn't good enough.

"...How long does he think this is going to take?" Bram asked.

Selen considered whatever answer she'd been given before the faintest smile appeared. "He does not know."

Bram sighed. "...Of course he doesn't."

It took nearly another half hour before Squishy finally surfaced again, empty-handed this time, his rings glowing with enough enthusiasm that Arista didn't need Selen to translate the result.

"...Found one?"

Selen smiled. "He has."

From there, the work settled into a steady rhythm. Squishy returned for each remaining structure, took hold of its frame while the crew released the transport lashings, then lifted it clear of the floating platform before disappearing into the depths. Selen accompanied him below for the placements, returning whenever the next structure was ready to transfer.

The crew on the surface saw almost none of the settlement taking shape. Their only real indication of the progress below came each time Squishy resurfaced for another house, his movements increasingly eager as the small collection of buildings on the surface steadily disappeared into the water.

"...He's enjoying this way too much," Arista said as he surfaced for another sleeping quarter.

"He's placing houses for mermaids," Bram replied. "Apparently that's his thing now."

"Good thing we've got four more rest stops after this."

Bram looked at her. "...You realize he's going to insist on choosing every single one."

Arista grinned. "Obviously."

When the final sleeping quarter vanished beneath the surface, the wait stretched longer than it had for the previous placements. Selen eventually resurfaced first, with Squishy appearing beside her a few moments later, his rings pulsing slowly and contentedly.

Arista moved toward the railing. "...Well?"

"He chose a natural basin," Selen said, smiling. "It is sheltered on three sides by a gentle rise in the seabed, with very little current passing through it. There is also a cluster of luminous coral nearby, enough to provide soft light around the structures."

Colm's attention sharpened immediately. "Stable ground?"

"Very."

"And the buildings?"

"The community house sits in the center. He placed the five sleeping quarters around it in a loose arc, close enough that people can move easily between them, but far enough apart for each to remain private."

Arista pictured it as Selen spoke, the little settlement sitting in its protected hollow somewhere hundreds of meters beneath them, surrounded by darkness broken only by the glow of coral.

"...It's beautiful," she said, despite having only Selen's description to work from. "He didn't just place them. He made the place feel like a home."

"He always thinks that way," Selen said, looking toward Squishy. "He simply had very few people to do it for, until now."

Squishy's rings brightened at that, and Selen listened for another moment before turning back toward Arista.

"...He says it is ready. He would like the first school to come see it soon."

Arista smiled. "Then let's tell them. Their first rest stop is waiting."

The plan seemed simple enough at first: sail back toward the ring, continue across it until Selen could guide them to a point roughly above her people's settlement, then use Water Breathing and descend directly from there.

Claire looked over the route. "...How deep is the actual settlement?"

Arista looked up.

"We've never asked," Claire continued. "We know where we first met them, but that wasn't where they lived."

Arista sat with that realization for a moment before turning toward Selen. "...How far down do your people actually live?"

"Much deeper than where we first met," Selen admitted. "The area near the ring's inner edge was simply where my people were tending nets when your ship arrived. Our settlement lies much further below."

"How much further?" Claire asked.

Selen considered the question, translating depth into terms she assumed would matter more to them. "Deep enough that sunlight never reaches it at all. We rely entirely on bioluminescence, and our own comfort with darkness."

Claire and Arista exchanged a look, the problem becoming obvious to both of them at the same time.

"...That's going to be well past three hundred meters," Claire said. "Possibly far beyond it. That kind of pressure would still be a problem."

Arista frowned. "...So we stay on the ship, and Selen brings her people up to us."

"Why?" Selen asked. "I could cast Water Breathing on you again, just as before."

Claire looked toward her. "Breathing doesn't fix water pressure."

Selen looked faintly puzzled by the objection. "The spell is not merely about oxygen. It attunes the body to the conditions my people live in. Pressure resistance is part of that, as is the ability to see where sunlight no longer reaches."

Arista glanced toward Nettle. "Well, the vision part's less exciting for us."

Nettle shrugged. "Still useful for everyone else."

Claire let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "...We've been treating this like an oxygen spell the entire time."

Selen looked between them, apparently finding their surprise more confusing than the revelation itself. "What use would breathing underwater be if the body could not survive where my people live, or function in the dark?"

Bram considered that for a second. "...That's actually a fair question."

"We never tested it at real depth," Claire said. "Every time we've used it before, we were shallow enough that pressure wasn't a concern."

"We never had a reason to go deeper," Bram added.

Arista looked out across the water, then down toward the unseen settlement Squishy had just spent the better part of the day arranging far beneath them. An entire category of logistical problems had apparently been sitting there solved from the beginning, waiting for somebody to ask the right question.

"...So if you cast it again, we could actually go all the way down. See the real settlement ourselves instead of waiting on the surface for everyone to come up to us."

"That is entirely possible," Selen confirmed. "Provided you trust the spell to hold as it always has."

"I trust it," Arista said without hesitation, excitement already replacing the concern from a moment earlier. "I want to see where your people actually live. We've spent all this time meeting them halfway."

Bram grinned. "...So we're not staying on the ship after all."

"No," Arista said, turning back toward Selen. "We're going all the way down this time."

Selen smiled.

"...Whenever you're ready," Arista said. "Let's go see your home."