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Lapis was a little too curious for her own good. Not as though she could help it, when such an alluring voice called out to her in song while she was in the midst of washing her travel clothes. They were halfway between Brodia Castle and Castle Elusia, escorting Prince Alcryst on a diplomatic venture.
“Stay close,” Alcryst insisted when she gathered up her clothes and washing bar. “Anything could happen.”
He hadn’t meant attacks by Elusians, however. The weather in this area of Elyos was unpredictable; sometimes it rained, sometimes it snowed, sometimes it was a mix of both into an ice storm. For now, fresh powder lay across the grass, dirt, bushes and trees as the sky was clear and starry above her.
Trying not to dislodge snow from the plants she crouched in, Lapis moved branches and twigs and clumps of leaves gingerly until she could see through them. (By gingerly she truly tried to be gentle about it but several of the bushes were not going to grow the same ever again.)
Through her self-made peephole, Lapis spied the origin of the song. Delicately perched on a flat rock in the middle of foggy, steaming waters, was a figure. Alighted by the moon from sky and snow-reflection both, she had an ethereal sheen to her creamy skin. Pearls and shells decorated brown hair as she worked it into a loose braid. Her eyes were closed, lips parting naturally around the words she sang — something simple, about the Divine Dragon who fell into her long sleep some thousand years ago.
What drew Lapis’ eyes, however, was the rest of the woman. She felt her own cheeks warm despite the cooler area she was in, far from the spring. Glittering scales of gold and white cascaded in patches and spots across flawless skin, coalescing into a gracefully floating tail that dipped into the water. The fanlike end of it gracefully rose and dipped back into the water as the woman lay back on the rock.
This was also how Lapis came to realize the woman was naked from the waist up, as her breasts fell flat against her chest and glittered with their own scales and water droplets under the moon. With a choked gasp, Lapis clapped her hand over her mouth. With all the speed and energy she could muster, noise be damned, Lapis fled the scene, ran upstream, returning to her washed clothes left out to dry.
Alcryst and Citrinne wouldn’t believe her. A mermaid, this far north of their home in the sunken ruins of Gradlon? No, it was likely the cold was causing her to hallucinate, like that old legend from the Village of the Fair Folk spoke of. In the dark cold nights of Elusia, do not answer to the call of your name no matter how familiar; that is how one is led to death.
Merfolk had a similar sinister storytelling behind them, singing like sirens and drowning ships unlucky to cross into Gradlon waters. Travel to Lythos by sea was strictly through airship because of these hazards.
The next day as they passed by the hot springs on the main path, Lapis carefully did her best not to acknowledge the secret thing she had witnessed. She made no comment beyond a stuttering “Y-yeah, that could have been a… uh, a bear!” about the poor bushes. In fact, she wished a bear would show up, waking from hibernation and starving. It would be a good distraction.
“Lady Citrinne, you’re with me!” Princess Hortensia’s retainer, Rosado, threaded his arm through Citrinne’s. His smile was bright, infectious, strangely out of place in a country so cold and unforgiving. “Let me take you on a guided tour of the Port! I heard you like shopping and getting gifts for people, so I’m sure you’ll find things for your family….” His voice trailed off as he led Citrinne to his wyvern. Dumbfounded, curious, she followed.
“C’mon Prince Alcryst!” Princess Hortensia grabbed the Brodian Prince’s hand with both of her own. “You owe me a rematch — I have the game all set up in the parlor. The cooks are making some snacks for us too — don’t look at me like that!” She puffed out a cheek at the mortified, shocked expression on Alcryst’s face. “Ivy can wait! She said so!”
That left Lapis alone with the other of Hortensia’s retainers, Goldmary. She patiently filed her nails as she waited for the tumult of the arrival to die down. Yet the tumult of nervousness that bubbled and simmered nauseatingly in Lapis’ stomach had only just begun.
She recognized Goldmary at a glance, unwillingly remembering her moonlit skin and beautiful voice. Goldmary glanced up once Hortensia’s voice had finally faded, and sent Lapis a smile.
“Shall we, Lapis?”
“Uh- UH-?” Lapis startled, blinking furiously as her cheeks grew hot and red as her armor. “Sh-shall we what, Goldmary?”
Goldmary very intentionally stuck her nail file into the side of her bodice, drawing Lapis’ gaze to her cleavage. Immediately, Lapis tore her eyes away, ducking her head and hiding her expression in a curtain of pink. This respite didn’t last long, as Goldmary wrapped her arms around one of Lapis’ own, leaning close and pressing much weight of her body against the stocky Brodian’s.
“Go relieve some of your travel tension,” Goldmary chimed, her voice soft. A purr. “We don’t have bears here on demand, but we do have hot springs. You’d like a dip in the hot springs, wouldn’t you?”
“Uh- uhm, I-“
“It’s the least you can do. I don’t sing for free, my dear. You owe me a show of your own.”