Chapter 78: Chapter 72 – Under the Sea

"Life with the Merfolk? It's a nice, tranquil life to be honest, though not recommended if you hate raw fish." - Scaemille Avudnia, Elven Water-affinity Archmagus and long-time dweller in Gtou'rergh.

 

After the wedding, Cal and her group stayed in the imperial palace for two more days before they split up. Vark, Krystal, and Ilena decided to accept Samira's hospitality for a week since it would be difficult to care for Ilena where Cal planned to go. Leila along with Cal's three students on the other hand, followed her and Aideen as they went with Silas and his mother Scaemille.

 

The group went towards the shore, where Scaemille distributed vials of a crystalline blue potion to Cal, Aideen, and the four students. The potion was some supreme quality water breathing potions, that also allowed its user to effectively ignore water pressure in the relatively shallow waters most merfolk inhabit. The potion would last them eight days, which was a day extra from their planned week-long visit.

 

All her students had worn only light clothing since much like the Al-Shan people themselves, most merfolk had next to no nudity taboo. Cal had just worn her chest wraps and shorts without the vest, while Aideen had something similar, though her shorts hugged her figure closer. Ognar just wore a loincloth, while Giselle and Leila had tight-fitting knee-length shorts and vests on them. Willa didn't bother with any, but to be fair, she had fur.

 

Silas and his mother similarly stripped to just shorts, and as a group they walked into the water. The students showed some trepidation when the water reached their chest in height, which doubled as some waves came by and fully submerged them temporarily. They calmed down after some reflexive gasps from the experience, as they felt the effect of the potion they had imbibed. For Cal and Aideen, it was not their first visit to a merfolk settlement, so neither had such issues.

 

Soon the water was deep enough that they no longer walked, but swam instead. Normally a trip to the settlement where Silas originated from - Merfolk attached the name of their origin to their names much like how other races do family names - would have taken half a day's worth of swimming for a merfolk. But the group had a water affinity archmagus with them.

 

Cal and Aideen watched with some amusement as the students poked around at coral reefs, and how Ognar eyed a starfish with some wonder in his eyes. They actually laughed when Willa poked at a tiny shrimp the size of her fist, only to get punched by the shrimp to the point that a bruise formed on her hand.

 

Adaptation to the underwater world also took time, one reason Cal let the students play around in the shallows for a couple hours first as they acclimated. When underwater, voice distorts quite easily even with the potion's effect , and they needed to be far closer than on land to communicate at all, unless Scaemille used magic to aid them. Merfolk themselves communicate with noises that were beyond human range of hearing, but still somewhat audible to Cal, Willa, and Leila. None of them could replicate said noises, however.

 

Because of that, they mostly communicated with gestures, while Scaemille did most of the talking as she acted as their guide to the underwater realm. After the students had acclimated, Scaemille used her magic and made constructs of water in the shape of dolphins, one for each member of the group, and told them to hold on. The constructs then brought them towards their destination with far higher speed than what they would have managed had they swam on their own. It was far faster than any merfolk, for that matter.

 

Gtou'rergh settlement was a vastly different sight to settlements on land. Unlike most cities on land, which were usually built in a rough circular or square form, the merfolk settlement formed a very wide but narrow line. Cal noticed that the settlement was built perpendicular to the flow of the undersea current.

 

"Downstream" of the current was a vast area where seaweed were cultivated in massive quantities, not unlike farms on land. She also noticed netted areas where fishes and other aquatic creatures were ranched to the sides of the settlement itself, whereas the "upstream" area contained what looked sort of like a residential and business district.

 

When Leila asked about the curious construction of the city, Scaemille was the one to explain the reason, her voice carried smoothly by her magic. The main reason the merfolk built their settlement that way was for a very pragmatic reason, namely a desire to not wallow in one another's filth.

 

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For that reason, buildings that basically served as public lavatories lined the downstream end of the settlement, where the current would then naturally carry the filth away from the city. The farms were located further downstream since there was no reason to not make use of a natural fertilizer after all.

 

The students looked a bit odd until Scaemille ensured them than the farmed seaweeds were thoroughly cleaned prior to consumption.

 

Cal still reminded her students to hit the lavatories regularly during their stay unless they wished to embarass themselves though.

Scaemille invited the group to her house as Silas bid them farewell for the time being, as he had matters to handle. The merfolk houses were built with a variety of material, mostly corals or stones. Her house on the other hand, was built with thick panes of glass, ones strong enough to make a two story building with, at a depth of sixteen meters beneath the surface.

 

Cal noticed that the colors of greens and blues were most prominent within the city, since at this depth reds and yellows were barely visible. The merfolk even slathered the colors in garish patterns and shades reminiscent of those found on poisonous creatures in nature, a precaution taken against the larger predatory creatures that inhabited the sea.

 

In fact, one of the main reasons the merfolk thrived in the sea was that most creatures that preyed on them soon came to regret it, as their flesh was quite toxic and unpalatable. For that very reason, the gigantic ocean predators avoided them, while smaller ones, they hunted down instead.

 

Scaemille welcomed the group to her house, a rather lavish house, which befitted her position as one of the best enchanters in the city. Besides her skill as a water archmagus, the middle aged elven woman was a skilled enchanter, and a known artist who made prized carvings out of pearls.

 

She offered plates of preserved undersea fruits and seaweeds to her guests as refreshments. Beverages were served in bubbles of edible membrane that just needed to be popped in one's mouth.

 

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