"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
The darkness that surrounds me is deeper than the rest of my dreams, waking me. Yet even when my four silver eyes open wide, there is nothing but blackness. The pearlescent walls of the giant conch in which I’d rested moments ago are gone, though I feel them still with the longest of my slick black tentacles. With others, I reach for the mouth of the shell, intending to emerge into the open sea.
That is when the world begins to shiver, and rather than drift easily, I anchor my self with countless black limbs. The sea churns, the pressure intensifies and then…
All is still.
I close my eyes and reopen them, and this time the midday sun beams through the shallow water and illuminates familiar Baltia around me. There is the kelp grove, and the hot water vents, and swimming nearby - a subject. Where is Rezza, I wonder. Has Helice returned yet from the duties that had called her north or has this strange quake delayed her?
Though the older of my dark heads continues to search, the secondary face soon pins the approaching Baltian with a sharp silver gaze and calls out in a way that has been obeyed for over one hundred years: ”Come here.”
She is rarely all that far from Tsilutsuli, even if the Queen doesn't know it. Once upon a time she had drifted much farther, chafing under the responsibility of the title she wore, a bit of a rebellious youth back then. Time is always the best refiner though, and Rezza has grown more accustomed to the weight of responsibility over the century she has spent beneath her Queen. Time has taught her that it is best to be nearby, rather than needing to rush back or be unavailable in the event of something catastrophic. In some other lifetime, perhaps, there wasn't an endless slew of catastrophic events that pummeled them, but her entire life has been spent in the shadow of the Great War. The beginning was so long ago that she didn't quite know it's origin story anymore, and she could not imagine a future without it. Needless to say, she has grown accustomed to chaos, and has learned to be perpetually ready for the worst.
Today is no different. She knows Tsilutsuli's habits well, and as the Queen rests in her conch, Rezza drifts along with some jellyfish. Though she can take many forms, her ability to shift into a jellyfish is the only one that is widely known. Her other talents are kept secret, for she is of far more use that way. But she has always had a penchant for jellyfish, and besides, it would be suspicious should she demonstrate no magical powers at all.
It is sometime in the midst of drifting along peacefully that the world begins to shake, and Rezza is pulled out of her drowzy state. Today is absolutely different.
There is something wrong, something different about this shake than the ones she has come to associate with war. She is tempted to take off swimming, to try and understand what is happening, but she knows that she is better off meeting her Queen first. She shifts back to horse form as she swims, a skill made easy from so many years of practice. She's barely come into view when one of the Queen's heads spots her. Not that she was trying to be sneaky, of course, but it really was impossible to go unnoticed around the Queen's two heads.
"Don't I always?" Rezza says to the commanding voice. It is the sort of voice that can leave the Baltian's flat on their face in fear, though Rezza has never had such a reaction. She has known Tsilutsuli for too long and shared far too much loss with her to fear whatever words may issue from her mouth. That does not mean she does not respect her Queen though, and Rezza bows her head as she approaches. "I do not believe that was an ordinary quake, your Highness. Though I am curious what you think." Rezza knows how to respond to war, but this wasn't war. This was something...new. Had something truly new ever happened in Baltia?
The water that surrounds me is familiar, but it is changing. What has become of the warm eastern currents that should cross over Baltia? Has it just slowed for the afternoon - rare, but not unheard of - or is there something more amiss than the rippling earth?
Nothing seems permanently damaged around us, and the fish that dart nearby aren’t even spooked. I nab one with a long tentacle, intending to eat it later when there is time.
“I’m not an earthshaker like my father was,” I reply, “But I know enough to suspect something is amiss. We will need to send out scouts, check to see if anything has happened elsewhere.” Baltia comes first, ahead even of my other children in the aftermath of a natural disaster, and I cannot waste myself worrying over the unalterable. Still, my older head turns to look in the direction I know they’re most likely to be, nearer the center of our underwater realm. Only for a moment though, and then the wide-blazed face turns back toward Rezza.
Once the scouts return with news, then we’ll have a better grasp of what had caused the earthquake and the...thing just before it. Until then… I glance up at the surface, not far away here in the shallows. “Come on. Let’s go to the surface. I want to look at the sky.”
There are no hello's between them, a thing that would be a waste of breath anyway. They converse much like they have never stopped conversing, which in some sense is not entirely false. Over the years, Rezza has begun to feel more like an extension of the Queen than her own entity, which was perhaps not worst thing to have happened. Certainly not the worst thing she has seen or experienced, but she finds that it makes her life easier. Baltia comes first. It must. Rezza has barely spared a thought for her own daughter, though she would whenever her duties were taken care of. Sometimes it tugged at her just slightly, this chasm between Baltia and family that she always found herself navigating. How was it she could stand so high in the ranks of Baltia, a place that emphasized family first, and not do so herself? But then again, was not all Baltia her family?
Rezza nods at the comment of Tsilutsuli's father, having vague recollections of the stallion. It has been so long ago, and Rezza was young enough at the time that she mostly didn't care to pay attention to the details. But she did know this particular fact, at any rate. "Is Helice back?" she asks, wondering if the General had returned and would therefore be taking care of the scouts. If not, it would fall to Rezza to make sure such a thing got done. Helice was one of the few Rezza trusted to actually complete a task without oversight, even though the rest of the Baltian army was well trained and absolutely would follow through. Still, Rezza found she could not help herself, a trait that perhaps made her an actual useful advisor. Particularly because the army often did not even notice when she was checking up on them...
It is what Tsilutsuli says next that interests Rezza more though, and the words bring relief that she didn't even realize she was waiting for. She wants to go and see. Wants to be sure for herself that something isn't truly and horribly amiss. There was little down here to suggest it, but the jellyfish she'd been swimming with had been off somehow. She didn't understand why, just that they were. She does not choose to be a jellyfish now though, rather shifting only her hind legs into a tail. Jellyfish are far too slow to keep up with Tsilutsuli, after all. Another nod to the Queen, and she begins to swim.
“She should be.” I answer, thinking of the red general as my oldest head turns to look out over the vast spread of glowing coral below us. It is always light here in this part of Baltia, lit by the sun or the bioluminescent glow, and as Rezza and I swim higher into the water I feel the light falling away below us.
When we breach the surface, it is to a clear and cloudless sky, stars stark against the sky.
The air tastes warm and heavy, and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, silver pupils widening until I can see with near perfect vision. I can see the land to the north of us, stretching out to the east, nothing more than a distant darker-than-dark line on the far horizon.
There had not been land there before. I’m sure of it, and yet my younger head still turns toward Rezza, the thick tentacles along my neck flicking uncomfortably at being exposed to the air. I’d prefer to be beneath the water, but this is more important.
“I need to know what that land is.” I say aloud. “And why it’s replaced the kelp forests.”
Perhaps it has newly risen from the sea, a volcanic eruption or some other such phenomena? From this distance, even my several sharp Baltian eyes cannot make out the details of the place. They’d need to send the quickest scouts, but I consider no more details beyond that. Such worries belong to others, like the General they’d spoken of and Rezza herself.
appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.
She’s glad to hear Helice is back, preferring to leave the scouting and information gathering to the General and her minions. Not that she couldn’t leave it to Helice’s second, but she would always trust the General more than anyone else. There is no need to respond to this outside of a nod though, and so they swim.
The water grows darker as they rise, indicating the time of day above. The water is…different somehow. The temperature is not quite right, the taste of it is just slightly unusual. When they breach the surface, it is clear that something is indeed very, very wrong. There is land, where there has never been land before.
Tsilutsuli’s words come as no shock. They did indeed need to know what this land was, where it had come from. “I will find Helice if she does not find us first, she replies automatically. If Helice was indeed back, the General would have been Rezza’s next visit anyway. Helice would likely have sent scouts and may already have an answer. It is entirely possible that Rezza wouldn’t even have to find Helice, for the General was quick to bring news to the Queen.
Rezza’ mind is busy thinking of the possible implications of this though. She needed more information, certainly, and yet. “What if there is magic in these lands?” she asks, the question breathy and almost too afraid to hope. What if whatever has befallen them is a good thing? It seems like too much to dream, and yet…and yet perhaps. ”I will make sure we get more information quickly.” It is all she can really do right now.
