Armor
Chapter 32: Sunk Cost

By what I believed to be the following afternoon, I had developed a bit of a system. I’d leap, using the water I shot out to propel myself as far as I could, then I’d land, walk as I refilled, then leap again. It likely wasn’t as fast as being on a boat with the wind in its sails, but certainly better than simply walking, particularly as it allowed me to jump over several incredibly deep canyons that dotted the underwater landscape.

I finished another leap and found myself standing above what looked almost like an underwater forest, with large plants in neat rows along the forest floor that went on for miles. The plants themselves were blue with thick leaves that had small clusters of pods randomly distributed along them.

I leapt down for a closer look, landing as far into the forest as I could manage. I got what I was looking for, but I was surprised to also see a woman standing just a few steps away from me. She had light green skin, her hair short and green, reminding me of grass. She stood there for a few moments, her mouth agape and showing several sharp teeth. The most surprising thing about her appearance was her tail. It was long and ended in two fins. The scales of it were mostly silver with hints of blue and purple occasionally peeking out.

I’d heard of mer-folk and knew objectively that they lived in the ocean, but seeing them was rare. They didn’t speak any language people on the surface could understand, and they also didn’t seem keen on interacting with us to begin with. I was incredibly lucky to have encountered one, though it was also an encounter I was well-suited for.

We both stood there for a few moments, staring at one another. I raised my gauntlet and waved in what I hoped was a universal signal for hello. She returned the awkward gesture, and I realized that she was holding a small woven net, which held clusters of the tree-pods. I looked closer at one near me and realized there was something swimming inside it, something with numerous appendages and big black eyes. They were eggs. I must’ve been in the middle of some type of farm.

The mer-woman began to approach me slowly. I elected not to make any sudden moves. She poked me a few times, and I could tell even from that that she was immensely strong. Her arms were heavily muscled, likely from working on such a massive farm.

I waved again and began walking eastward, but she grabbed me. I fought the instinct to pull away and instead looked at her. She let me go and gestured for me to follow her. I felt an urgency to continue my journey, but I was concerned that refusing her might lead to more problems than simply going along with her would.

We walked through rows and rows of plants at the slow pace I could manage walking. Eventually, I made a little leap to show her I could move faster, and she smiled a shark-toothed smile before we began making much quicker progress.

A particularly large leap landed me outside of the farm, and I found myself suddenly on the edge of an underwater city. The entire place seemed to be built of the same rock plants I’d seen on the Caedun coast. Most of the buildings were dome-like structures, but a few larger towers stretched to such a height that I couldn’t see the tops of them.

The mer-woman shook me from my reverie and gestured for me to keep following. I decided not to make any more jumps as the area was so populous and busy, concerned I’d land on someone. There were mer-women, men, and children, as well as numerous other undersea creatures that all seemed to be living in harmony. The city itself was lit by numerous small jellyfish with bright orbs of light inside of them. I even saw several mer-folk riding what looked to be a giant version of the crab-like creatures I’d seen a day earlier, though they weren’t launching themselves as I’d seen the smaller ones do.

As I was noticing them, they were noticing me. Heads turned, and people started to follow us as we made our way to a structure in the center of the city. By the time we’d reached our destination, we were leading a procession of something like a hundred mer-folk.

On entering, I got the immediate impression that I was in something equivalent to a palace or estate on land. Decorative carvings in all of the walls, precious gems lining almost everything, and I started to see pieces of wood used as decoration that could only have come from sunken ships. That made sense upon reflection. Wood would be rarer than gold underwater, particularly wood that had been worked.

I entered a large atrium and realized that the procession that had followed us had stopped doing so at the entrance. The atrium was full of the kind of treasure that would make Stone salivate. Chests full of gold and silver, beautifully cut gems that sparkled in the jellyfish light that illuminated the room, and weapons and armor in their own corner.

In the center of the room was a large mer-woman flanked by two smaller mer-men. My first thought was that they were guards, but judging by the way they lounged against the woman’s tail and chest respectively, I amended my impression to courtesans.

The mer-woman who led me there bowed and gestured to me, and I responded by waving. That led to a kind of trill of delight to come from the large woman, who I decided must be their queen or whatever equivalent they had.

The queen floated over to me and began to poke and prod me in the same way the original merwoman had, and they engaged in a conversation of low and high trills as she did so. By the end of it, the woman who had led me there bowed, waved to me, and left the room. After that, she began to make a series of gestures to me. I got the impression she wanted me to jump, so I made the largest one I could in the confines of the room and heard a trill of delight.

She pointed to me and then pointed out an opening in the building toward some of the crab creatures and then did what I assumed was a laugh. I laughed, too. I could definitely see why they’d think I was similar to that creature. I’d learned my method of underwater locomotion from it, after all, and we both had nice, sturdy shells.

The queen then gestured for me to come near a pile of armor and weapons she had in the corner. Not sure of what she wanted, I followed, and she grabbed me and placed me toward the center of the pile. I started to walk out of it, but she wagged a finger back and forth at me. I stepped back toward the center, and she gave a positive noise in my direction, then she returned to her courtesans.

I realized then that I was meant to be a part of the collection she had here. That was not good. It was flattering, to a certain extent, but considering how much rust and old wood was also being collected, I didn’t feel like my new keeper’s tastes were very refined.

* * *

I decided to wait and think. I didn’t have much other choice. I had a feeling I could fight my way out of the immediate room, but the city in general was very populous, and if enough of them tried, they could definitely stop me from leaving. My best chance was to wait for them to sleep, but I had no idea when that would happen or even if they all slept at the same time. Still, it was the best option I could see available to myself.

I waited and watched, doing my best not to watch when I got a firsthand demonstration of how mer-folk copulated from the queen and her consorts, but unfortunately, I couldn’t close my eyes since I didn’t have any. Eventually, they finished and settled into a post-coital rest. Their eyes were still open, but unfocused, and even while sleeping, they maintained a kind of slow, steady movement around the room.

I moved carefully, slowly extricating myself from the corner I’d been placed in. I had to step around piles of rusty old iron in order to avoid making unnecessary noise. Aside from trying to be quiet, I also wanted to make sure I didn't move too quickly, as I assumed they'd have some way of feeling movement in the water, even at a distance.

One glint of shiny metal in the pile of rust around me stood out. A sword, with a long, curved blade and an ornate black hilt. Despite being under a mound of rusted equipment, it was clean and undamaged. I decided to risk grabbing it and slid it slowly from the pile it lay in. After a slight crashing noise, I went completely still as the queen momentarily stirred, but she quickly drifted back into the sleep-like state she’d been in before.

I stored the sword through my faceplate and kept going, working my way toward the opening in the side of the building that led to the giant crab creature. Once I was there, I started speeding up, but not risking any leaps. I figured the amount of water it stirred up might wake my captors.

I made it outside and looked around. There weren’t any mer-folk nearby, though the city was still active with other less sapient creatures. I took in water and started making leaps, bounding through the streets as fast as I could. Once I made my way out of it, I turned east, hoping to put as much distance between myself and the city of the mer-folk as I possibly could.

Unfortunately, they could swim much faster than I could jump. Three reached me just as I was coming over a crevasse. They slammed into my back, and I had to scramble to keep from falling straight into it.

Instead, I managed to land against the edge of the other side and pull myself back up. A merman was there to meet me. He jabbed at me with a spear, and I wasn’t fast enough under the water to stop him. It almost knocked me back over the cliffside, but I managed to regain my balance. I sucked in more water and launched myself directly at him. My speed surprised him, and I could feel something break as I crashed into him.

I returned to my feet and saw the other two approaching me more warily. They began to swim quickly around me, prodding me with their spears and never staying still long enough for me to grab one or launch myself at them. Realizing that they didn’t know anything about me or what I was, I simply decided to collapse and play dead.

They moved closer, and as soon as I felt one of them put his hand on me, I grabbed it and pulled him into an embrace. He struggled, actually shifting me several times, but I squeezed until I felt something snap, and he was out. The final one didn’t give me a chance to stand and immediately began stabbing at me with his spear. I shot myself upward with a burst of water, catching his spear as I did so. I then yanked him toward me and punched him with force amplified by shooting water out of the seam behind my elbow plate. He was launched several yards before his body settled onto the ground.

I approached the one that I'd killed. I'd have preferred not to have needed to kill any of them, but I was in their territory, and I couldn't hold back the same way I was able to with my land-based opponents. The dead one also represented a rare opportunity. No one had ever been granted the chance to learn more about the mer-men in the way I had, and it felt right to take this chance to learn more. I hesitated for a moment before giving in, then opened myself to consume him.

This time felt different. I felt a brief rush of incredibly alien thoughts and emotions, but rather than feeling overwhelmed as I had previously, I was in control. I felt all of the partial essence I'd eaten crash against me, but it quickly fell in line like a wave crashing against a rocky beach. I was able to go through and analyze what I'd absorbed rather than integrating directly into myself.

I gained an immediate understanding of the mer-folk language and culture. It was matriarchal and caste-based, with a focus on pleasing those who ruled. The one I'd eaten was born and raised to be a warrior from a young age, blindly following the queen without ever having many thoughts of his own beyond how he might serve her. The city I'd seen was one of many scattered along the ocean floor, each with its own rulers and cultures, many of whom the young mer I'd eaten had fought against.

I wanted to keep sorting through the essence, but not wanting to wait for more pursuers, I began continuing my trek east. I made a mental note to avoid this part of the ocean on my way back. Even if I could speak the language, I doubted I'd have any serious chance at diplomacy at this point.

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