Chapter 57 – New Friend In The Water

The ghost flickered. 

[Inspect]

Darya expected to see the letters in her eyes describing exactly what kind of RLP eldritch creature she was staring at. 

That didn’t happen. A narrow rectangle appeared, remained pensively blank for a second, and then letters appeared inside it. 

→ [It is true. You’ve returned.]

“Whoa!” Darya exclaimed, her brow twisting in confusion. This was no screen. The text reverberated inside her head. It was narrated by the same thought voice that she used to issue commands to Verse. 

[Hello?]

Darya instinctively tested her thought voice with her own words. She couldn’t tell if it did anything. The ghost didn’t react.

→ [Until we meet again, Strum.]

Her hands reached for the ghost almost on their own when she read the last word. 

[Wait! I’m not done!]

The ghost flickered again. 

→ […] 

Then it vanished abruptly.

What the hell was that! Was that someone I’m supposed to know?

“Princess?” 

A soft voice from behind startled her. Turning around, she saw Seris looking at her, concerned. 

“Are you alright?” she asked, touching her gently. 

Fominel was behind her, looking worried. The Desert Rose had safely made it through the ring of belugas and anchored near the shore. Darya hadn’t seen or heard any of it. 

It seemed Fominel and Seris had seen her in trouble and had flown here. The others were still on the boats. 

Darya blinked rapidly, closed her eyes, and shook her head. She took a deep breath. 

“I just saw a ghost,” she said truthfully. There was no point in hiding something that even she barely understood. 

“You were frozen. Didn’t talk to me when I returned. I thought it was some sort of mana-trap!” Fominel said, his eyes wide. 

“A ghost?” Seris muttered, looking around suspiciously. With the way her grip tightened around Darya’s hand, she already knew Seris would be the first to freak out if she saw anything. Darya had just pre-spooked her for whatever awaited them. 

“Is that normal here?” Darya asked Fominel. 

“All sorts of things are normal here,” Fominel said, letting go of his hilts with a sigh. “Just how arcane magics work, I suppose.” 

Seris quickly checked Darya’s forehead for temperature, and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “You just need some rest. Come, let’s go back to the ship.”

“I’ll set up our camp here. Master Lam and the crew are already on the way. Come back when you feel better, princess. We might have some meals ready.” Fominel said with a reassuring smile. 

Darya nodded. “Let me know if any of you see ghosts as well.”

[Flying Celestian]

Darya wrapped her arm around Seris’s waist and hopped off into the ocean wind. 

[Smooth Slither]

They flew past the boats heading to the beach and landed on the Desert Rose’s weather deck. It was emptier now that half the crew had set off for the beach. Only one mage and one old merfolk spotter remained. 

The mage politely cleared his throat as they passed. He was one of the young ones in charge of hull shielding.  

“The merfolk boy, he left this with me,” he said, showing them the golden enclosure. Enta was fast asleep, curled up on his velvet cushion.

Oh, the baby spent all his SP running around with Lurim. 

“Thank you,” Darya said, taking the cage from the mage. She was rather impressed with the wisp baby’s first real day at work. 

She followed Seris for a few more steps before she paused. “Wait, where’s Lurim?” Darya asked Seris. 

“Maybe in the washroom?”

“Where’s Nerima?” 

“Maybe same—” Seris narrowed her eyes. “Wait a minute.” 

Darya looked around. She couldn’t see them anywhere. She already knew where they would be: In the water. 

“He jumped off the ship, didn't he?” Darya asked the mage who was getting ready to lie down. 

“Yes, headed that way. The mermaid said it was fine. Spotter’s watching them,” the mage said, stifling a yawn. 

Seris hurried to the railing, leaning over the edge to watch the waves. “These damn kids. I bet Lurim jumped the second master Lam wasn’t around to tell him no.”

Darya handed Enta to her with a sigh. “He was excited about the belugas. I’ll go deal with this.” 

She wasn’t going to find them just flying around aimlessly. She had to talk with the spotter who was high up on the bird’s nest. Looking around, she saw the man’s hand through a mess of ropes. 

[Vainfall: Terminate]

[Frame Selected Entity]

Phasing through everything in between, she appeared a few feet away from the frozen spotter in the monochrome world. She noted the direction he was watching. 

Better talk with him before rushing in. 

[Wind Step] 

She phased through him and landed in the bird’s nest next to him. As the world caught up with the prediction dots, the wind she carried almost knocked the old man over. 

“EEH!” He yelped in a raspy voice before getting into a coughing fit. 

“Apologies. I just want to know where the merfolk children went,” Darya said, straightening the man’s hat. 

There wasn’t much space on the bird’s nest for two people. 

“Over yonder, lady mage,” the spotter said, pointing a trembling finger at her right. “Them’s swimmin’ with them ghost whales.”

“Say what?” Darya leaned in. ‘Ghost’ was the last word she expected to hear from his mouth. 

“Um, over yonder, see,” the spotter quickly moved aside, letting her use one of the mounted brass telescopes. 

She was going to do that anyway. This was a good opportunity to test if she could use Frame Selected Entity with a telescope.

“No, no, ghost whale? What’s that?” Darya asked. “Is that something dangerous?” 

“Oh, it’s them Cartogar, lady mage. Old word for them, heh heh.” 

“I see. The old word for belugas is ghost whale?” Darya asked curiously. 

“That is so, because sailors see things when them’s around.” The man was almost whispering as if the fish half a kilometer away could hear him. 

“Like ghosts?” Darya asked. 

“Yes, apparitions, they see.” 

What a weird mechanic for a fish to have. Ghost summoning? Ghost attracting? How does that even work? 

She thought the ghost she saw had something to do with the behemoth ship island. Now it seemed it had more to do with the fish around it instead. 

The best people to ask about it were currently swimming in the cold black waves with the supposedly haunted fish. 

“Good to know, thank you very much,” Darya told the spotter with a reassuring smile. “Yell if you see any ghosts.”

The old man scoffed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. 

Darya found the spot with his help and trained the telescope on it. She had never had the chance to use one, but the magnification was insane for a tube the size of a forearm. 

“Them’s dove under there. Keeps comin’ back. See the whales, them’s circling.” 

“Ah, I wonder how far under they are,” Darya mumbled, feeling a knot in her stomach. She didn’t want to go an inch below these intimidating black waves.

These kids are playing in the fucking bottomless trench water. Hell no. 

As she was reeling from the mere thought of going underwater, she saw the belugas who were busy making a large circle glow all at once like flickering light bulbs. 

Nerima surfaced with a huge splash at the center, and Lurim’s small head emerged next to her. Darya didn’t want them to move before she got there. Nerima was her only way to stay afloat. 

“I’ll be going now.” She muttered.  

“Blessings, lady mag—” 

[Vainfall: Terminate]

She targeted Nerima through the telescope. 

This better fucking work. 

[Frame Selected Entity]

It worked. 

She zoomed across the ocean hundreds of feet per second until she came to a stop directly above Nerima, about five feet from her head. 

Unfortunately, she arrived early and had about one and a half seconds left of the Terminate. 

She splashed into the water surface prediction dots. 

Panicking, she targeted Nerima again before she went out of her view. 

[Frame Selected Entity]

Zooming in a split second, she regained about ten feet, approaching Nerima from a different angle from the right side. 

The monochrome world faded shortly afterwards, and the waves caught up with the prediction dots. 

First, the splash of her briefly falling into the waves spooked both Nerima and Lurim. 

Next, Nerima looked up as if she could sense her. 

“Prin—” She opened her mouth. “Aeee!” she squealed as Darya fell onto her head, driving them both underwater. 

About five seconds into holding her breath by squeezing her nostrils shut with her fingers, Nerima emerged from below and carried her to the surface. 

Darya wiped her face, coughing. 

“Holy shit!” She wrapped her arms around Nerima. She wanted to make sure she couldn’t sink again. She buried her face in Nerima’s neck, locking her in a floaty hug. 

“Wh—What are you doing here?” Nerima asked, patting her back. 

“I was coming to ask the same,” Darya said, blowing air. 

Lurim circled to her, smiling ear to ear. He reached up and touched Darya’s cheek. 

“Well, Lurim’s looking for a fish that talked to him. He wouldn’t stay when I said no. It’s better to let him do what he wants when he gets like this, or he’s going to sneak out by himself.” Nerima said, hoisting Darya higher. 

“This talking with fish, how’s that work?” Darya asked, looking at Lurim’s glowing turquoise eyes. 

“I’m not too sure, Princess. I can’t do it. Only he can. He said he knew where to go, we got there, and there was nothing.”

“How deep?” Darya asked, making sure she was hugging Nerima tight enough. 

“Uh?” Nerima counted her fingers. “Maybe six hundred feet?” 

“Fuck no.”

Nerima laughed, patting her back reassuringly. “Now that you’re here, we should go back. He can’t go down again.” 

She did several quick signs at Lurim. He nodded, giving her one sign and quietly let himself sink. 

“I-is he going back alone?!” Darya panicked, ready to cast her flying spells to let Nerima go. 

“No, no, he wants to show you something,” Nerima said, turning in place. 

The water bulged next to them. It was a gentle mound that quickly burst like a stream from a pressure washer. A shape breached the surface, a blubbery white face with a glowing circle on its forehead. Two luminous blue eyes stared at Darya. 

“It’s someone, actually.” Nerima corrected, gesturing at the whale. 

“What is this? You two already made a new friend?”

“Wasn’t hard. Lurim says this guy’s been alone for a while.”

This whale was only a fraction of the size Darya thought a whale should be. It was about four Nerimas in volume. 

[Inspect]

Creature: Juvenile Cartogar Beluga

Kind: Magical

Level: 11

HP: 883/883

MP: 1,104/1,121

SP: 511/621

“It’s a young one.”

“Yeah, a boy. I think maybe five years old. Could be more, or less. You see why they got along so fast.” Nerima said as she loosened Darya’s hands to rotate in place. She let Darya hug her back from behind. 

Lurim appeared behind the whale and leapt onto its back like a frog. The creature didn’t even seem to notice his weight.

He threw a couple of signs at Nerima. 

Nerima laughed. 

“What’d he say?” Darya asked. 

“He thinks he can win,” Nerima threw out her tongue at him. “In his dreams. Hold on, princess!”

“Wait—!” 

Darya clung to her dear life as Nerima wiggled her tail. The whale dove with Lurim on its back. They began racing towards the Desert Rose.