the sea. [kalen] [silver crown SL]

The Sea
The flight from Denver to Maui is a long one. There's a stop at LAX where Kalen and Kiara change planes before heading out across the ocean. It's late by the time they leave LA. Ian was there about a week ago (not the airport, but the city) and Grace is either there now or some time close to now, which would be an interesting coincidence if everyone involved was aware of these convergences. Sometimes the threads of people's lives intersect in unexpected ways.

The plane leaves LA and takes them overnight across the dark expanse of the Pacific. By the time they arrive in Kahului it's morning and the weather is lush and bright and beautiful. The atmosphere in Maui is welcoming and pleasant. Kiara and Kalen are hardly the only tourists, but they are likely the only ones there with their particular destination in mind. They take a car to Kapalua and maybe they stop and enjoy some of the sights on the way. Or maybe they don't. Either way, a ferry takes them across the channel to the island of Moloka'i, where they end up renting a 2 bedroom beach house in Maunaloa, on the West coast of the island.

Depending on how much of a hurry they're in, they might rest after that. Explore the island. Relax on the beach. Moloka'i isn't as populous as the larger islands and a good portion of it is owned by a large cattle ranch that also leases some of its land to pineapple farmers. The lower West side of the island is dry and in generally poor condition due to overgrazing and mismanagement, but the island's nature preserves, many of them at higher elevation, are some of the most beautiful in the world. Once there was a leper colony here. That part of the island is now devoted to the Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

So perhaps it's the following day when they leave to set out on their planned excursion. Kalen rents some scuba gear, despite their likely plans not to actually use it (lest they have to explain themselves to Sleepers,) and the two of them acquire a boat (a small cruiser) before heading out North into the sea.

They have the spot that Sasha marked out on the map - the navigational coordinates of the place they plan to make their dive. The journey takes them out past the shallow reefs and into deeper water. It's afternoon by the time they finally arrive.

Thankfully, the weather is calm. It's sunny with no sign of storms and no warnings on the forecast. When they cut the boat's engine and drop anchor, the waves lap gently against the hull, rocking the cruiser softly.

There's no one else here. Not now, anyway. Moloka'i's coast is still faintly visible on the horizon. Otherwise, it's just them and the ocean.

No way of knowing what's beneath them though. Not until they breach the surface and begin their descent.

KalenKalen has learned to swim since his Seeking.  Has taken scuba diving lessons to spite years of terror.  But, until now, he has never seen the ocean.  Pools.  Ponds.  But never the ocean.  And so, enchanted, he spends that first night out on the lanai, watching moonlight and starlight and eventually wakes up to sunlight on the water.

They pack the boat.  Diving gear they don't really need and a first aid kit they don't really need and a camera that Kalen plans to use more on another trip.  A little cooler with food and ridiculous things like likikoi juice because of course you have to get fresh fruit juice in Hawai'i. There are wetsuits, but in all honesty Kalen isn't sure what he expects Kiara will want to wear into the water.

He's met Kiara.  If she dives naked into the sea he wouldn't bat an eyelash.

And so, eventually, they reach the place that they plan to enter the water and Kalen glances at the now distant coastline and then the water underneath them.  He dove into water with secrets once before.

That wasn't real water.

That water was more real than this.

Kalen perches at the edge of the boat a second, glances at Kiara, raises one eyebrow just slightly, and then drops over the side of the boat into the water.

KiaraShe takes to the climate almost immediately, Kiara. Switches out her slightly heavier traveling clothes for lighter, breezier wraps and kaftans. Buys a straw beach hat with wide brims from a local and spends a few hours in the crystal clear waters.

Drapes herself across a reclining chair in a tropical print bikini with an over-sized pair of sunglasses and simply - drinks in the atmosphere. The warmth of the sun, the gently lapping water. She hadn't been lying when she'd said she could use the change in scenery - for all that they're here for a purpose - the brunette seems to willingly allow the location to seep into her skin; to lull her into a relaxed state. More than once while they make their preparations Kalen will catch her standing on the balcony, staring out into the horizon or holding her phone up to capture moments.

Every so often she taps something out, sends off messages. There's more than a few candids of him, too. Glimpses of Kalen with the backdrop of gorgeous skylines and oceanic views. The day they venture out on the boat, the brunette's skin is already glowing for her time in the tropical sun; her dark hair loose and half damp, drying into wild disarray around her shoulders. She's wearing a different bikini to the one she'd languished on the beach in, this one a very pale sky blue.

(There's a silver chain around the female's neck with a pendant hung from it she seems determined never to remove).

Kalen is first into the water, all said. Kiara's standing with a hand over her eyes, shielding them and watching the horizon - she cuts him this brief bright smile, all white teeth and typical Kiara charm as he drops into the water and water splashes up in his wake. She's a time on the boat - removing her hat and glasses; pulling her dark hair over a shoulder and moving to stand on the edge most point of the boat.

She looks down into the water and then raises her chin, eyes closing, face tipped back up to the heavens.

Stands there for several moments, her necklace glinting in the sunshine before her eyes open and she blinks slowly, lowers her attention to the water and plunges into the depths in a neat little arc.

[Starting some casting, woo. Life 3, Vulgar af. Base Diff 7, -1 (Taking Time), -1 (Focus), -1 (Dropping a Quint like it's a hot beat), probably extending and Let's add WP.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 7, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

KalenOnce in the water, Kalen reaches out and steadies himself against the side of boat, closes his eyes, and stays perfectly silent for a moment.  And then, eyes still closed, he starts murmuring in the language of Creation.  This is not the whisper he uses when there are people to overhear, just an awed kind of quiet.

Given another decade, he will not be over the wonder of Enochian.  Given another century, he will not be over the wonder of Enochian.

Or, almost certainly, the ocean.

[Life 3: Gills! | D=5 (Base 7-1 instrument-1 time) | WP]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (4, 4, 7) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Kalen[Extend - D=6 for extends| WP]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 7) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

The Sea[Kiara and Kalen each take 1 paradox and save it for a rainy day]

KiaraShe surfaces a few feet from Kalen and treads water, the brunette.

Water spiking her eyelashes and running in rivulets over her skin. The water is almost clear enough here that if they were closer to the shore they'd be able to glimpse down and see the sandy bottom - even out further from the shore, it's amazingly blue and the Verbena spends a not inconsiderable amount of time once she's in it peering downward while Kalen begins to prepare himself for the descent.

She can feel her own magick working, the strange tingling sensation of her body shifting; of airways opening up and tiny changes manifesting inside her skin and it's when breathing begins to change - pulling air into her lungs becomes a challenge that she dives beneath the surface; dragging in a lungful of water and holding her position there just beneath the surface.

When Kalen is ready, he finds the Verbena waiting for him - her hair fluttering out around her face beneath the surface like a dark, rippling flag. She smiles at him in a cascade of bubbles and offers a thumbs up gesture, followed by rather emphatic pointing downward.

Let's do it.

She kicks out and begins to swim.

The SeaThey work their effects differently, each of them focusing through their own particular belief and ritual. It takes a few minutes, but as the waves continue to rock gently against the boat and Kalen continues to speak in that divine language, the shape of their patterns begin to change. It itches at first - when the gills first open up on their necks. Then their lungs stop working the way they usually do and Kalen, whose head is still above the waterline, will have to plunge beneath the surface in order to breathe.

Movement - that's how gills work. They'll find that out quickly if they don't already know. Kiara is already waiting by the time Kalen finishes his effect. She gives him a signal and they begin their dive.

The water is clear and very blue on the surface. So far their visibility is good. There's a school of little silver fish not far away, moving in synchronized patterns through the water. When the sun hits them, their scales glint brightly. The temperature of the water is warm enough still that Kiara won't feel cold in her bikini. The two of them descend into the depths, kicking with measured strokes of their feet as the ocean moves through their newly-fashioned gills. Are they wearing masks? Flippers? If no, the going will be both slower and murkier.

But they do make their way down. And gradually the bright, warm waters become a little darker and a little colder.

Kalen has felt this sensation before - this deep-diving, though he's never been swimming in a real ocean before now. The thing they're looking for - it's down there somewhere. Do they search for it? Cast out their senses for its mythic resonance?

They're about two thirds of the way to the ocean floor when it starts to look like there might be something dark and cavernous waiting beneath them. Hard to tell from this distance, but they can see fish and rocks and sand and then they can see this patch of blackness where the floor drops off into what might be a trench.

Kiara[Per + Alertness, Diff 7]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (4, 5, 5, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )

Kiara[Per + Awareness, Diff 6]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Kalen[Per+Alert]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (3, 3, 5, 7, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 4 ) [Doubling Tens]

Kalen[Per+Aware]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 6, 8) ( success x 2 ) [Doubling Tens]

The SeaThere - in the distance. Not down but out. Above and to her right. Kiara can make out the movement of some large ocean creature drifting through the water. Its body is long and agile and about the size and shape of a shark. At one point, the light strikes its side and she can just make out faint tiger-stripes on its skin.

She can feel something, too. More than one something, actually. The probable-shark doesn't register to her senses the way a normal animal should. There's something... more, there. Stronger, more potent. Primal the way that Ian is primal but... definitely not feline. It feels dangerous. It kicks at her instincts in a way that sends cold shivers down her spine.

There are more of them out there. Not visible but... she can feel them.

And then: below. She can't sense the stone yet but she can definitely sense something else. It feels fluid, abyssal, primeval.

Like some monster from the deep.

KalenThe waters are colder and darker as they head further below the surface.  No guides this time.

Movement catches Kalen's attention and he can sense the sharks once he sees them.  He swims closer to Kiara, touches her to get her attention, and then points out to her each of the sharks.  Two above them, one below them.

And then he watches Kiara.  They cannot, not really, speak.  But then, perhaps, they do not need to.

He seems to keep watch at the edges of his vision for the sharks, but Kalen doesn't react to danger in ways that reassure most people.  Assesses risks as perfectly acceptable that other people would rather he not take.  Even now, after he remembers what the certainty that will die feels like, he assesses much the same way.

KiaraIts not the first time the brunette has been diving but it is the first time she's ventured so far down without the aid of anything but magick to keep herself breathing. She feels at once liberated and vulnerable in nothing but a swimsuit; her legs kicking out powerfully behind her as she descends further and further. She was an agile enough swimmer, Kiara, that she manages to propel herself downward, pushing through the water with relative ease.

But eventually, she can feel the faint ache settling into her muscles. Her progress slows and she's adopting a far more cautious speed at about the point she feels the movement - catches sight of what arrests her progress; her arms slowly moving through the water. This far down, nothing feels completely as it should - the world is muted; sound travels differently; colors are strangely lovely and alien much like the landscape around them.

Much like the creatures she can sense slowly circling near them.

She nods when Kalen touches her; points the creatures out. She takes a moment, the Verbena, to monitor the she could glimpse above them, the flash and gleam of light playing over the stripes down its body. Then she looks below, toward the inky black depths. There too, she feels something. Not danger per say (though perhaps in its own way) but something older. Endless and ancient.

She points toward it then takes the crystal on its chain where it hangs, suspended in the water around her neck, taps it and then downward: there's something that way. They cannot speak down here, but the Verbena splays her palm out flat and carefully walks her fingers across it. Points above and below and then raises a finger to her lips to suggest quiet.

Can we sneak past them? Seems to be the suggestion.

Kiara[That should read 'the creature she could glimpse', I apparently edited a word out.]

The SeaCan they sneak past them?

They could try. But as the two attempt to communicate through the only real means they possess, the sharks drift closer. As they move, Kiara will inevitably be able to spot at least one of the ones she missed. It's smaller than the tiger shark by about five feet, with solid, darker grey skin and a pale belly. (A Galapagos shark, specifically, though it's probable that neither Kalen nor Kiara know enough shark taxonomy to name it.) The third one keeps its distance, skating down over the ocean floor to disappear into the trench.

There's a point where the other two separate from each other - when the smaller shark cuts through the water and moves to circle around Kalen and Kiara's backs. It's unnerving how fast it moves. How quickly it traverses the fluid depths, compared to Kalen and Kiara's still-mostly-human bodies, which are so much less attuned to their current environment.

The tiger shark propels itself in this sudden charge then - cutting through the water to slice a path across their field of vision. Too close for comfort.

Clearly, they are already noticed.

KalenKalen expects that the sharks will not be so easily evaded and, as one shark circles around behind them and the tiger shark slices a path through the water in front of them, it becomes clear that that is true.  Until their display of tactics, Kalen is not sure whether the sharks were aware of what was under water here or if, perhaps, something very old and powerful had simply bred resonantly primal sharks.  But this...this is the kind of behavior of dedicated guardians and not sharks.

Would the sharks offer them riddles?  If they are here, these creatures, the stone must not be far.

Right this second, the sharks are not attacking them.  The sharks are fast.  Faster than he is.  Faster than Kiara.  But they are not bleeding.  Not from teeth and not from the sharp abrasion of shark skin.

There is only so much time, but there is time, and Kalen can only assume that the sharks gave them that.

And so he does not attempt to grow enchanted claws.  Does not prepare to direct the currents around them with his will.

Instead, for a few seconds, he lets his eyes drift half closed and drifts in the water.  He is as likely to feel as to see the sharks coming anyway.  And he looks for something that is where they are but not when they are.

Kalen[Time 2/Entropy 2/Prime 1: Find a moment | D=3 (5-2 for Oracular Ability)]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (3, 6, 8) ( success x 3 )

KiaraThey aren't being attacked - yet.

Still, it feels wiser by the moment to remain where they are; swimming in place in the depths as the sharks begin to navigate around them; closing ranks. They feel differently to regular sharks, perhaps a little savvier, wiser in their approach. They don't go in for the kill yet but there's a threatening energy to it - to the way they dart and charge.

The crown had its own guardian - these were no looming dragon with blighting ferocity and a sweeping, mighty tail capable of toppling mountains but they were guardians none the less - the brunette's sense of it grows as they close in nearer with each passing moment.

Beside her, Kalen begins to work and the Verbena twists to keep a vantage on the circling creatures as he does. She doesn't work her own magick just yet, the pagan, though her fingers do flex at her sides as if the contemplation of it were right there, on the (literal) tips of her fingers. One decent slice of sharpened claws and there would be blood in the water.

It occurs to the Verbena at some point (perhaps as her fingers twitch and her focus narrows) that blood being spilled would be the most risky endeavor they could attempt - she's seen enough documentaries to remember what a feeding frenzy looks like.

The SeaPerhaps their instincts are right - perhaps these sharks are guardians, of a sort. Close up, their black eyes seem to search Kalen and Kiara's faces with cold interest. It's difficult to read their intentions. Sharks do not display emotions the way that mammals do. But as of yet they do not draw in for an attack. Instead they circle, slowing their speed to a more patient glide, their muscular bodies flowing smoothly in the dim depths.

Only once, the tiger shark breaks formation and cuts close enough that his tail will nick the edge of Kiara's shoulder if she doesn't duck out of its way fast enough.

It seems more restless than its companion. More eager for some kind of activity.

KalenThere is, there, the sense of water moving.  But water moves.  Currents drift and eddy.  Sand drifts.  Kelp.  Schools of fish.  The memories of blood.

And Kalen drifts with those things, lets himself glance off of moments and drift and catch again somewhere else.

Absent some pressing reason to redirect his attention, Kalen does not.  He lets all of his attachments to the present slide.  Untethers from now and Kiara and sharks and danger to see some other time.

[Continued effect | Now D=4 | WP]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (3, 4, 7) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

KiaraOne of the sharks nearly grazes her shoulder and the Verbena's response is, perhaps, achingly human. She flinches, swimming frantically downward a few inches while Kalen drifts peacefully, miles (and perhaps years) away. A mouthful of bubbles escape the brunette's lips and she swims back up a little and adopts a pose that must, in a very primal, animal sense - read as defensiveness to the circling creatures.

Protection of the other with her, as Kiara's senses stretch out; it's not as easy as it might have been, what the Verbena attempts to do - to seek out the twists and turns of fate; to etch out a way forward. To find and negotiate a path beyond the sharks and their gliding presence. She pushes at the very base patterns around them, the witch.

Seeking out the sensation she'd felt earlier, that ancient stirring down beneath them.

[Just a little Entropy 2/Prime 1, tickling the fates and probabilities and trying to pinpoint that resonance from below. No Focus on her so I'm guessing +3?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 5) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

The SeaKiara attempts to seek out the stirring of fate's threads, but without her necessary instruments (and with the distraction of the circling sharks) the task is difficult. There's a brief flicker - this faint pull coming from inside the trench. But it fades a second later.

The SeaRight around the time that Kalen resurfaces from his vision, the third shark reappears. Its odd, T-shaped head breaches the shadowy veil over the surface of the trench and begins to ascend up to meet them.

Hammerheads typically keep to the ocean's floor. They don't often mix ranks with tiger sharks and galapagos sharks, but then, none of these sharks have been behaving the way that ordinary animals would behave.

(Because they are not ordinary animals.)

The tiger shark notices Kiara's instinctive response to its feint, but it doesn't press the attack. If it wanted to, it could hurt her. Could possibly even kill her if it was fast enough. But it doesn't. Neither does its companion.

When the hammerhead reaches them, it slides past the other two as though in some kind of silent communication. Then it turns and begins to descend once more. The other two stops for a moment, turn and glide past Kalen and Kiara's shoulders in this calm, deliberate fashion. They begin to follow the hammerhead into the trench, but if the mages neglect to follow them, they will stop, turn back, circle them once more and continue again toward the trench.

As though to say: follow.

They are being invited in.

KalenKalen's eyes open.  Refocus on the sharks.  Search out Kiara.

Kiara is Working.  But the sharks, the sharks are communicating with him now in the basic way that Kiara not more than a moment or two ago.  Follow, they say with their bodies.  With their circling.

And what else has Kalen ever done but follow that kind of call?  Though vast mindscape waters and into entanglements with vampires and soon enough other entanglements with the Technocracy perhaps.  Into searches for mythic artifacts he has no desire to even touch.  And yet....

There is a part of him that cannot help but dive.  Seek out lost artifacts and lost hopes and forgotten dreams and other pathways.  There are things that should be found and brought, shimmering and gleaming, up into the light.

There are monsters, too.  But they will have to risk those along the way.  He doubts, at the moment, that these sharks must be monsters.  Hopes that what they will find as they dive deeper and deeper will be the kind of thing to bring back to the world.

Kalen starts, but then, if Kiara continues Working, waits.  Waits until her attention comes back to the immediate moment and watches the sharks and wills them to wait.  He cannot tell them to wait.  So he just looks into their alien eyes and hopes that they will wait.  If they come close to Kiara he will raise his hand in the water as though to bar their way.  Not that he could bar their way.  Kalen does not, though, attempt to actually touch the sharks.

They are immense and they are magic and they are dangerous; but, in this moment, he is is not such terrified as mesmerised.  Here are great creatures touched by magic.  Here they are, beneath the sea.

It is almost as breathtaking as the end of the world.  (He disregards, in his wonder, the ways in which his breath might be taken.)

KiaraIt's next to impossible for the female to do what she wishes.

Frustratingly slow and challenging, beneath the water, with her heart beating a wild staccato rhythm as the sharks swim around them and Kalen's attention captured elsewhere - for a second, there's a flicker, a sense of that same sharper presence but she cannot hold it - it sparks like a flame stirred by a lighter but doesn't quite hold - there's no kindling for it - or at least, not enough.

Not in Kiara, not right now.

She could persist, press harder at her Will, scour the strands of fate for clarity but Kalen is beginning to move and so are the sharks; gliding past them, not, as instinct had first dictated to her, with the intention of harm but rather one of guidance. She meets Kalen's eyes and there's this tiny nod before she kicks off, begins to swim after the creatures.

Gliding through the water downward toward the trench; toward the sense of something darker; ancient and endless and eternal.

The Sea[Doo-be-doo, magick things. Diff 6 -1 (instrument) -1 (slow-like)]

Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (7, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 7 ) [WP]

The SeaThey follow the sharks into the trench. At first there's a drifting chill - it hits them right when they're about to swim into the blackness and Kiara, in her bikini, will feel it down into her marrow. Then they pass through the inky shroud and... it feels like piercing a veil.

Because they are. And what's beneath it is not, as it seemed, pitch darkness. Nor is it frigid cold. Instead the mages find themselves staring down at the wreckage of some old sailing vessel, the trench around it lit by hundreds of points of bioluminescence. The rock walls are lined with sea life: waving kelp and corals and glowing sponges, arranged in lovely patterns like some kind of undersea garden. The wreckage itself is equally alive, coated in algae and barnacles. All around them, tiny glowing jellyfish float and undulate. Schools of brightly colored tropical fish dart and play around the corals.

There's a burst of warmth coming from a crack at the bottom of the trench. It keeps the water here survivable for the delicate life that make up the trench's ecosystem.

Once inside the trench, the sharks swim out to the wreckage to meet their third companion - the hammerhead. All three of them circle lazily as they watch Kalen and Kiara, waiting.

That's when it hits them: the voice. It ripples out through the sea in a powerful psychic wave, touching Kalen and Kiara's minds. They feel it even as they hear it - the resonance of it is deep and ancient. The same resonance that Kiara felt earlier. The same one that Kalen sensed in his vision, only now it is much stronger, and there's an older, more primeval note to it.

The sound of it is low and female.

Who are you, and why have you come here?

KalenWho is he?

Two years ago, one year ago, perhaps even six months ago he would have given his proper Hermetic introduction.  But now....?

For a few seconds, Kalen hesitates.  Who is he?  Why is he here?  Which version of himself did he come here as?  He has been many people and he may still be all of them, but what does that mean?

Silence.  For the space that would be a breath.  For a few more heartbeats.  And he has something approaching an answer.  It is not a formal Hermetic introduction.  It is not about power that he will take and judge and wield.  Whatever it is, he would see it protected.  Whatever it is there are other people he trusts to know better what to do with it and he trusts them to do it.  Maybe to let him be part of it.

And then it occurs to him that even if he had found a name, he has no idea how to speak underwater.

And then that there is already a voice inside his head, so that probably doesn't matter.  It may, in fact, make his answer make more sense, rather than less sense.  Probably whatever Mage or being or force of nature or embodied concept that is speaking knows what he just thought.

For the moment, he waits to see if that is true.  His eyes wander the fantastic underwater landscape and then linger, briefly, on Kiara.

KiaraThe chill almost stops the Verbena in her tracks.

Almost.

She feels it, right down to the depths of her soul, that cold. It's all-encompassing, she'd be letting out a low hiss of discomfort but for the fact she's underwater so all that happens is a tiny stream of bubbles rush out of her gills.

The sharks begin their slow, lazy circuit anew and then there's a voice, inside their minds, brushing against their thoughts and the Verbena's descent slows and then, at least for the moment, halts. Kiara's long hair winding around her throat like a slow, undulating serpent.

Kalen hesitates and looks to her and the Verbena, after a momentary pause which may have been consideration allows her thoughts to surface, allows this ancient presence to feel them as they flit across her mind: we're travelers, we've come seeking something that was lost a long time ago.

The SeaThere's a brief hum that registers across both of their minds. Considering, and lightly amused.

If you're looking for something that was lost, there are many things here for you to choose from.

The woman's (creature's?) presence shifts in their minds, flowing through their thoughts as easily as the sharks traverse the sea.

If you do not know who you are, Malihini, then you have bigger problems than lost history. Unless the two are connected.

Somewhere in the wreckage, something moves. There's a flicker of something dark and something glowing-green showing through the cracks in the old, rotted vessel before she finally makes her appearance. And she is... both human and inhuman. Some kind of mermaid, perhaps, for in place of her legs there is instead a long, fish-like tail. But there are no scales and her skin is black and webbed, her hands ending in hooked claws. Twin stripes of glowing green mark her sides from her shoulders to the tip of her tail. Her face... looks as though it had been human once. Now her eyes are as black as the sharks' and her nose is flattened and gills line the sides of her neck. Black hair cascades around her as she moves, knotted here and there with bits of shells and stones and flotsam.

There is a stone hung about her neck on a strip of leather - a deep blue gem that glows faintly in the bioluminescence of the trench. It vibrates with a familiar mythic energy.

The woman gives a powerful sweep of her long tail and begins to rise toward them. As she moves, the sharks follow.

Is it not customary to give names where you're from?

They're hiding something. This second voice is new - not of the woman but, seemingly, one of the sharks. The sensation of it is deep and rough and masculine.

(They are all linked together, you see.)

Maybe they are. Maybe they're just scared. A third voice - gentle and feminine.

Kalen'Some of us,' he thinks, and tries to focus on that thought clearly.  'Have had a lot of Names.  None of which we expect you to know.  But, if you would like a name, use Elliott.'  And that is, to him, Elliott Chandler, rather than another, earlier Elliot, which in any case is spelled differently.  This new Elliott is not afraid of water and knows that in all the limitless potential for the world there is hope.  He likes that Elliott more than any of the other people he has been, who have seen death and disaster but have never really been able to see more than brief glimpses of hope.

Perhaps that hope will be what gets this Elliott killed.  Better that than a simples misstep on the battlefield.  A miscalculation of skill or terrain.  Can she see that understanding?  Can they?  If he tells her what they want, will she give them a riddle?  A quest?  A trial?

He doubts she will just offer it to them.  What could they have to trade?  Down here he expects currency is relative.  Would she like the memory of sunlight?  The taste of lilikoi?  Something more vital?

Again, he tries to focus on specific words.  'You came here with something.  I would assume to guard it.  We are here to find it.'  To find it, he says.  And that is exactly what he means.  Perhaps they will want to take it.  Perhaps it will be better left here with her.  Them.  He is not interested in the crown's power and he is only interested in making the crown whole because he suspects whole it could be, in the right hands, safer than it is sundered.

KiaraIt would perhaps take an Awakened with a far higher degree of belief in their own skill not to have at least a glimmer of fear down here, in the depths.

Perhaps the Verbena's pride did not extend so far for she certainly displays if not an abundance of it at least a respectable degree of hesitation. Of wariness, when that figure slips out of the wreckage and appears. There's caution but also - clearly, the way Kiara's dark eyes widen and she cranes forward just so - curiosity; wonderment.

There were Goddesses of the pagan's beliefs that must have appeared so - otherworldly and ethereal, some mixture of myth and majesty.  Is it not customary, she begins and Kiara's focus flits over the necklace around the creature's neck; the gem humming quietly with energy. My name is Kiara, what do they call you? Her fingers slip to the fine chain around her own neck, down here the silver glints and the crystal seems almost translucent; a finely crafted (perhaps alien, to these creatures) token of her own.

Her eyes slip over the circling sharks: We are searching for something specific, though.

The brunette has no idea how deeply this creature can plumb her thoughts, if her attention on the gem was noted, if her own consideration of her own charm was likewise filed away. There is the sense, in the Verbana's thoughts, flicking through like the pages of a book stirred by the wind of words, of thoughts.

Protection. Crown. Gemstone. Guardian.

The SeaAli'ikai Ka'ana'ana. Or, if you prefer, the Keeper of the Wreck.

The sea witch (let us call her what she is) goes still as she comes to a stop near the pair, floating above the wreckage with a sea of tiny jellyfish undulating in the water around them. There is something otherworldly about this place (the ocean often seems otherworldly to those who dwell on land.) About the black-skinned, black-eyed mer-woman and her shark allies.

I have not seen any human visitors for a very long time. There's a note of longing in her voice that she can't quite keep contained (or perhaps she simply doesn't try.)

They're searching for something specific. A stone. Something the witch brought with her when she came here. Likely she does pick up something of their more subjective thoughts, because she swims back a little, putting a hand up to clutch the stone around her neck. Her head gives a curious tilt, hair billowing around her face.

When she does this, the tiger shark makes a tight circle around Kalen and Kiara, watching them with its dark eyes. They're like all the other dirtwalkers. They just want to steal what isn't theirs. Send them away.

Enough, Dawn Strike. I can fight my own battles. The witch puts out a hand and pushes the shark out of her field of vision. He gives this rumble of dissent across the mental link, but otherwise does as requested. Then Ali'ikai, as she said her name was, looks between Kiara and Kalen with a long, measured gaze.

My mother gave me this stone. She was Kopa Loei before me. She never told me where she got it, but it's useful and it's the only thing I have left of her. You seem to think it holds some importance. Tell me why.

KalenAmong the things that Kalen understands is loneliness.  He has met so many remarkable people and among the most remarkable of them are generally the most lonely.  And then there is, of course, his loneliness.  Although that is lessened now.  So many of the best friends he has ever had he has because he will, when it suits him, reach out to people.

Under other circumstance he will pull away and lash out at anyone who gets close, but those circumstances are not here.  They are not now.

He swims toward the sea witch slowly, cautiously.  She, Kalen is relatively sure, means him no harm.  Not, at least, in this moment.  With some of the distance between them closed he stops and extends one hand out toward her.  'Would you like to see?'

If she says yes, whether she comes to take his hand or not, he shows her.  At least the part he knows.

Focuses on finding the map in the puzzle spheres, moment by moment.  Not just the first moment but the hiking and the sunlight and the trees and sheer wonder of a talking fox and then the puzzle.  Of asking Henry what the map unlocked.  The taste of blood and exhaustion and the knowledge of what Henry would do with the crown.  The memory of the crown at the chantry, mythic and ancient and humming with power.  The way it had quickened against his skin like a pulse when he reached out toward it.  The missing spaces for the stones.

And he lets her feel what he has not discussed thus far with anyone in any detail, his apprehension about what the crown could do for the world weighing against what it might cost.  And, ultimately, the knowledge that nothing could remain buried forever.  That, some day, someone would take the circlet and the stones and wield them.  All that he, or they, can shape is who might do so.

And then he watches the sea witch. Focused.  Intent.  Not on any of his memories but on how she responds.

KiaraWe don't want to steal anything.

The Verbena sounded, as much as was possible given their current whereabouts and the fact it was an objection of mind rather than speech, rather indignant on this particular front. Her eyes following the tiger shark for a lingering beat as it circled around them. That's not why we've come. We're not here to take anything without consent.

There is a moment where Kiara's expression seems to register some flicker of unease when Kalen swims forward and offers out his hand but ultimately, she cannot control his thoughts, no matter how desperately she might have wished to encourage a degree of caution on what he revealed, on how much and how he shared with this sea witch all the reasoning why they'd come so far in search of something so small.

She cannot know what exactly he shows her, but after a moment, the pagan's voice reaches out again.

Her thoughts sliding into place carefully, turning and locking into formation like an artifact set into motion. The stone that your mother gave you once belonged to a circlet, a crown that was forged a long time ago by some of our kind. It had great power but it was also the cause of great suffering. 

For many years it was lost. Taken and put somewhere far out of reach. We sought the crown, took it from this place to keep it safe but the crown was incomplete. The stones had been removed and scattered, we believe, in different locations. There's a key difference here, a deviation in the way Kalen and Kiara's feelings and beliefs strayed toward the crown and its legacy. Kiara's allows a sense of deep regret and empathy for an unknown face; a female that swims to the surface of her thoughts and memories.

We believe perhaps somebody gave it to your mother to keep safe.

Glints there and then fades, replaced with a certainty that none could ever be trusted to wield such a thing. That totality of power led only to the corruption of a soul. There's a sense in the brunette's mind that to find the crown, to take the stone, is to the eventual removal of it from all hands.

The tools of Gods were never forged for the hands of men.
 
The SeaKalen swims forward and extends his hand. There's a moment where it looks as though the tiger shark (Dawn Strike, the sea witch called him) might go for him. The other two sharks circle in closer. Their thoughts in that moment are not words so much as a clear, distinct impression: protective, wary. They may not be overtly aggressive but if Kalen attempts harm, they will attack. Sharks are not known for their willingness to hesitate.

Ali'ikai watches him with dark, fathomless eyes. After a moment, she does reach out her hand to take his. If Kalen isn't careful, he may graze himself on her claws, but she is delicate when she touches him, skirting her leathery fingers over his skin. Touching her is like touching a sea mammal - a dolphin or an orca.

She doesn't need to take his hand to see what he offers her, but she does - because this is part of his ritual. Kiara, too, offers up bits of their story. The crown. Leah. Tells the woman her intentions.

(If the sharks are offended at her rebuttal of Dawn Strike's claims, they make no particular show of it. Their concerns are more instinctive.)

Slowly, Ali'ikai releases Kalen's hand. She makes a gesture with her long tail, the dark fins spreading out and rippling like silk in the water. It propels her forward, past Kalen toward Kiara, who she regards with calm scrutiny.

This is why you came here? To piece together an artifact that by your own admission has been the cause of great suffering. And you think that you have the right to make that choice? To be the custodians of this crown? Her voice rises in a resonant laugh, evidence of her dark amusement sketched onto her alien features. The curl of a lip that reveals a little flash of needle-sharp teeth. The hubris of children.

Whatever it is you think you're doing, it's going to end badly. A new voice cuts in, cold and soft and faintly masculine. Possibly the hammerhead, for at that moment it swims close to Kalen and eyes him with one of it's wide, odd eyes.

Mm, perhaps, the witch offers, turning her head to glance back at Kalen. I have long-ago stopped caring for the goings-on of land-dwellers. This is my home. This is the world that matters to me. Start a war if you wish. Get yourselves killed. Perhaps the world will be better for it. But this... she touches the stone around her neck and it gives this faint little pulse of recognition. This matters to me. I will not hand it over on the faith of some noble ideal.

For a moment it seems as though that might be all she has to say. This... slightly callous dismissal. But then she says, almost hesitantly, I would trade it though. If you can give me something in return.

I have a son. I have not seen him in... a long time. He is getting old, I think. I should like to see him one more time, at least. To say goodbye. If you bring him here, I will give you the stone.

The Sea[Edit: This matters to me. I will not hand it over on the faith of some noble ideal. (should be in italics)]

KalenKalen is careful of those claws, but there is no sense of hesitancy about the contact.  Marvels at the sense of her skin and the closeness of something that he did not know could exist only moments before.

If there is any part of him that is wounded by what she says, there is no sign of that.  Instead, despite the fact that she is dismissing them to their wars, he smiles faintly.

And he listens.  There is a sudden spark of interest in his eyes as she talks about the crown.  He and she and the sharks, they know this ends badly.  And Kiara.  Unless.....

There is a second where he looks toward Kiara and his eyes are wide and they are full of wonder but they are, also, full of a sudden new kind of intensity.  Whatever it is that he is thinking, whatever has captured his attention, he cannot, not in this moment tell her.

His attention returns to settle on Ali'kai. 'Itself,' he focuses on asking her.  'Itself, what does it do?'  There is something behind that sudden spark of interest in the stone, the realisation that perhaps the stones will have power enough they might unmake the crown.  He would, for all its possible wonder, prefer it gone from the world.

KiaraYou think you have the right?

The Verbena is scrutinized and she looks across at the sea witch with dark, solemn eyes. Her hair is no less a wild thing for the fact she's beneath the waves, rather it spills and twists and weaves around her shoulders and face like it would were she in the Umbral Realms. An extension of the pagan's very essence, in its own manner.

No, maybe we don't. But if it isn't us who come to try and take it, it'll be others. And believe me, they won't ask. They don't respect the earth or the sea. They don't care whose home they have to invade. It will become yours to care about. Intentional, that surge of anger, that flicker-flash of dead and dying earth; dusty remains poured through her fingers.

A set of black eyes staring through her as a figure approached.

Kalen turns his attention on her with a look of keen focus and it takes Kiara a moment to drag her own away from Ali'kai to return the look but when she does, there seems to be a long pause before she turns back to face the circling sharks, the otherworldly beauty of the creature before her. The Verbena's eyes dip, briefly, to the stone and her brows constrict.

Where would we find him?

The SeaThe witch doesn't provide much visible reaction to Kiara's ominous warnings, but the sharks?

Oh, she gets their attention. In that moment, Kalen is all-but-forgotten as the three oceanic predators turn quick in the water and look at her. They answer her in unison:

If dirtwalkers harm us, we will kill every. last. one. until the sea turns red with their blood.

Dawn Strike turns with a whip-lash motion to put some space between them, swimming out further into the trench. As he does so, his body shifts and changes, growing larger and larger... until he resembles some bygone megalodon. A massive shark, larger than a great white. Large enough to easily swallow Kalen or Kiara whole.

We, he adds with a gravely growl, are not afraid of you.

Ali'ikai watches this display quietly. This time, she doesn't attempt to interrupt. She knows better. She does, however, lift her hand in some silent gesture of peace. We don't wish for war. We fight when we must. And we will, if it comes to that. The sea has outlasted many battles. She looks back at Dawn Strike warily. Don't be so quick to dismiss the Kahuna, my friend. We can be a tricky lot.

The other two sharks circle back to join their companion, their long bodies moving with graceful energy. They seem... agitated. There's a flicker-spike of it across the mental link.

Ali'ikai turns back to Kalen. The stone holds Mana. It is a vessel. I forget what the white wizards call it.

(A periapt.)

To Kiara she says: He lives on Moloka'i. At least, he did. His name is Haoa Ka'ana'ana. He worked for the parks service years ago. Perhaps he still does. He knows... what I am. But he isn't one of us. And he has not seen me as I am now. She glances back at the sharks. I think perhaps you should go.

To her credit, there is a hint of regret in her voice.

KalenKalen watches the sharks.  His eyes do widen when Dawn Strike grows to the size of some dire shark; but, understand this, in that first instant it is not fear.  It is amazement.  After a second it is amazement tempered with caution and he does keep half an eye on the sharks, but he still seems not so much wary of them as simply aware.

Kalen cannot understand why anyone should be afraid of anyone in this moment.  There may be things here worth dying for, but they are not things for which he sees any need for it to come to that.  He is, he knows, in all honesty, terrible at being a Hermetic.

'We will go,' he conveys to Ali'kai.  'And we will, at least, try to find him.'  Though he would have done that for her, stone or no stone.  He can no more ignore that request than he can artifacts.

KiaraThe brunette watches Dawn Strike with wariness throughout this transformation.

There isn't amazement or wonderment in the moment, not in Kiara. Some instinctive fear perhaps, for whatever her thoughts or opinions, there could be no denying that the shark had the capacity to snap her and Kalen in half in the blink of an eye if he so deigned. But it's not wonder - regret, perhaps. Consideration.

A flicker of unease at the certainty he possesses. She knows better, you understand, than to believe that only the invader's blood would stain the ocean red should the day ever come. There's a reason why the female doesn't put trust in demonstrations of bravado. Still - she doesn't comment on it, her eyes betray her feelings though, when they return to the sea witch. The line of consternation persists between her brows.

We'll find your son.

There doesn't seem to be room for a question of it, in the Verbena. She studies Ali'kai a moment longer and then with a small nod, turns toward Kalen and touches his wrist, gesturing upward.

Time to go.

The SeaAn agreement is reached, though perhaps a bit tenuously. And with their agreement, Ali'ikai backs away and bows her head.

When Kalen and Kiara move to swim free of the trench, the sharks do not follow them.

It takes some time to get back to the surface. First they pass through that dark veil and into the colder water, kicking steadily upwards with each measured stroke. Gradually the water becomes clearer as they ascend towards the light.

By the time they breach the surface, the sun has dipped lower in the sky. It's somewhere around late afternoon and luckily the waves are still mild. After they allow their bodies to shift back to their natural forms, they're able to climb back into the boat with little trouble.

By the time they get back to shore, it's evening. The exertion of their underwater trek has taken a toll on their bodies and both Kalen and Kiara will feel hungry upon their return. But they have a name, and at least a rough idea of where to begin their search.

The Sea[END SCENE 1]