“These are the children’s sleeping nooks,” announced the client, indicating the three-lobed cave offshoot with a wave of her pale hand, while her red hair trailed in the water flow.  “No strong currents but we need to maintain the water quality.”

“You have just the three?”  The interior designer made a notation on her slate, the one with a koi pattern matching her tail on its back.

“Yes,” the client gave a flick of her own red and gold tail.  “Simon’s at that age where they all think they’re going to be great warriors – he’s got a remora because its ‘cool’ and what he thinks is a war eel.”

The designer made notations for “Simon’s nook: eel cranny, weapons rack?”

“Medea hasn’t started colouring up at all yet,” said her mother, “Which reminds me, absolutely no anemones, anywhere.  We think she’s allergic, although it could be to clown fish...”

The designer flicked her black hair and its decorative red coral strands out of the way and made a “No anemones!” note at the top of the slate.

“And Jason is our baby,” the client went on with a fond smile, “His sister is looking after him at the moment.  I was thinking, some sort of night light?”

“There are several things we could do to get that,” the designer’s note on the slate read, “Soft bioluminescence.”

They moved on.

“And this is the main living area, of course,” the client gestured grandly.  “As you can see, it’s a little dark.  We were hoping you could do something to bring in more natural light while keeping predators out.  Also, Jason is already a little more active than his brother and sister were at that age...”

“Child proofing then,” said the designer, noting her slate.  “Have you thought about ornamental molluscs?”

Iantha had been the third of the students to pull a marble from the pot this time and everyone had been surprised when she opened her hand to reveal the inky purple darkness of the Dark Deeps again. Miranda and her assistant Oralia had looked shocked. The two girls older than her in the class, Cleome and Ula had looked concerned, whispering to Iantha that it was worrying that their teacher and her assistant looked worried. Iantha, gazing at the marble in her hand, could feel a sort of detached inevitability about it and somewhere in the back of her mind she could hear a sort of amused chuckle.

Iantha knew a lot more about the Dark Deeps this time, she’d had three more months to research them. She hadn’t been able to find the book Miranda had taken away from her again but by dint of looking around she had found a lot of useful information. Three chaos beasts were supposed to sleep in the Deep Trench with more on land. Kraken might be sleeping, but the giant squid that might be his get and preyed on whales weren’t. Megalodon ate both the giant squid and the hunting whales that came after them, although the whales apparently gave the megalodon as good as they got. All three would probably happily eat a mermaid, if they could get her. Iantha was glad she hadn’t known about any of those creatures the first time she’d stood her vigil down here.

She’d also managed to find a copy of the prophecy she’d seen in the missing book. Apparently the chaos beasts would reawaken during an eclipse of the sun that occurred within a double hand of days after a Sagittarian arrow crossed the face of the moon. None of the books in the library seemed to have anything about Sagittarian arrows in them. Which was very annoying. Even more annoying was that thinking about it did nothing to help her ignore the cold. Her hair was long enough to reach her waist these days but it didn’t want to hang around her and keep her warm.  She wondered briefly whether the currents were bringing an up welling of cold water from the depths but then realised that if anything her hair was trailing towards the end of the trench.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a familiar impact against her hip from behind. She looked around and down to find it was indeed Gralk looking up at her with his ‘Scratch me, please’ expression. After paying attention to the eel for a few moments she looked around for his master. There was, however, no sign of Tu. She continued to scratch the giant eel, somehow with him there the darkness didn’t seem so threatening or the cold so intense.

“Oh my, boys. What do we have here?” It was an unfamiliar masculine voice.  Iantha turned in its direction and found that she was being regarded with interest and concern by three merboys, if that was the right word. They seemed to be about her own age, but she had very little to judge by. No mermen seemed to come to the Moon Hall, that Iantha had ever seen, and no-one seemed to talk about them. Just the other day Miranda had changed the subject abruptly and firmly when Nathene had asked if there were only mermaids. “She’s a pretty little thing, isn’t she?” The speaker had a yellowy-gold tail and blond hair. Like his companions, he carried a spear.

His companion with the single yellow stripe running the length of his blue-green tail said, “Excuse me, what ever your name is? You do know that eel’s dangerous, don’t you?”

Iantha looked down at Gralk and up again at them. “Who, Gralk?” she asked, “I know he can be a bit rough when he gets carried away...”

“A bit rough?” chimed in the black haired boy with the beginning of a beard under his cheekbones and on his chin, “He took off one of Praxedes’ fingers.”

“What did Praxedes do before that?” Iantha asked shrewdly.

“Nothing he deserved to lose a finger for,” said the blonde one. “Who are you and what are you doing here on your own?” He came closer, halving the distance between them.

“I’m Iantha from the Moon Hall of the Third Aspect and I’m standing my vigil here,” she indicated the token box. “Who are you?”

“I’m Ormin,” said the blonde, “And you know what, Iantha? I don’t think you’re old enough to be standing a vigil.” He started coming closer but stopped when Gralk made a hissing sound. “I think you’re just playing a game or having a dare with your friends.” His companions came almost as close as he was, spreading out so they were in a half circle. Gralk hissed again then disappeared backwards towards the Trench. “I think we deserve a kiss each from you for taking up our time checking on you.”

“We did scare away the war eel,” offered the black haired boy with a red, black and white patched tail.  “I’m Guillarn, by the way.”

“You owe us a kiss each for that too,” said Ormin, “I’ll take mine first.”

Iantha backed away a little. “I didn’t want Gralk chased away,” she said firmly, “And I don’t understand why you want a kiss from me.”

The boy with the yellow stripe and the blue-green hair looked worriedly at the other two and said, “You mean you don’t know?”

Iantha folded her arms across her chest, feeling oddly safer because she was wearing the most secure, covering and warmest of her tops. “My teacher hasn’t actually admitted that boys exist, so she’s not going to have explained anything that involves them, is she? So what’s the big deal with a kiss?”

The pause as each of the three tried to find the right words and the right place to start grew awkward.

“So, what’s all this about then?” It was Tu, come from the direction of the direction of the Trench. Iantha thought he looked tired. Gralk was with him, trailing an end section of tentacle about as long as Iantha and as thick as her arm in his mouth.

“They want me to kiss them, but they won’t tell me why,” she explained. “I suppose you know?”

“Of course,” he agreed. He looked at the three boys and looked at Iantha. “Do you want to kiss any of them?”

“Not without knowing why they want me to,” she replied. “Is this something Miranda should have told me?”

“In your circumstances, yes,” he confirmed. “The easiest way to for me to explain it is to show you I suppose.” Out of the corner of her eye Iantha caught the boys exchanging looks with a complicated mixture of surprise and admiration on their faces. “Do you trust me?”

“Why do you ask that?” She looked at him, puzzled.

“Because parts of your life will never be the same again, afterwards,” he said simply. “If we’re going to do this, give me your right hand,” he held out his left hand and after a moment’s hesitation she took it. “Now, it might be easiest for you if you close your eyes.” She looked at him hard and for a moment he thought she was going to refuse, then her expression softened that fraction back to normal and she closed her eyes.

His lips touched hers and it was like lightning hitting the ocean in a storm. The water around her felt like she was in a storm of tiny bubbles that burst all over her skin and it was she who reached out with her left hand to pull him closer. Her hand wound up in the middle of his back and she could feel the haft of his trident across hers. Information welled up and flooded through her mind. She didn’t care how long it lasted but it was Tu who broke the contact.

Iantha was the one who spoke first. She’d opened her eyes, still feeling that complete and utter sense of rightness, to find Tu gazing down at her fondly and with a touch of concern. “It’s about promising to have a baby? That was what none of you could tell me?” She almost laughed.

“Well, it usually leads into an explanation about where babies come from and how they’re made,” pointed out Tu. “I think it’s fair to say that was our stumbling block.”

“Ah,” she could see his point. Interestingly, that information was now floating around in her mind too. She turned her head to look at the three boys, “And you three wanted a kiss each?”

“You could still kiss them, if you’ve a mind to,” said Tu, his chest moving against hers as he spoke, “But to be honest, I would prefer that you didn’t. They might like to consider,” he directed his comment towards their audience, “That there are twelve other girls out there standing vigil as we speak, any one of whom might want to kiss any one of them.” Ormin and his friends must have taken the hint because they left, heading upwards.

Iantha was happy to hang there in Tu’s embrace, her tail attempting to entwine itself around his but he sighed and said, “I think we should let go now or we will move on to actual baby making. Much as I would enjoy that, I think we should wait.” She looked up at him questioningly. “If you were a mermaid born,” he explained, “You’d be about seventeen and you could be a mother, although I think that’s too young. What you are is a mermaid made, and your transformation won’t be complete until a year and a day has passed. I think it would be bad for you both if you got pregnant before your transformation is complete.”

She reluctantly let him go, straightening her tail, taking the opportunity to run her hand along his rib cage and pausing when she found the depression of an old scar that extended into the bone.

“I fight,” he said simply, “It’s one of the things I do. Sometimes I get hurt.  Today, I’m just tired,” he sighed, “Otherwise I might have thought of a better way out of that.”

“Do you regret kissing me?” It was a quiet question asked at a moment when his tone and expression made her feel very young. Then, “Did you always mean to kiss me?” The look that had been on her face just before she’d closed her eyes was back.

“No and no.” He smiled. “I hadn’t thought about kissing you at all until I saw those boys making such a fuss over it, and then I wanted it to be me. Not any of them. Up until now, I’d only met you as a little girl. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind before today.”

“So what happens now?” Her dark hair was floating around her in a cloud. Her tail was already navy, sea green and purple – she was going to be even darker than Queen Melia. Her expression, by her expression she still trusted him.

“You go back to the Moon Hall for at least the next three months. Finish your studies. If you want to serve the Moon as a maiden for a time, I can wait.”

“In three months I’ll be inducted,” Iantha said, “I didn’t know you could leave the Moon Hall after that.”

Tu went still. “We’ll see,” he said, “But I will see you in three months. You’ll be old enough to wear pearls then.” He let go of her hand and traced her collar bone with one finger, “Black ones with your colouring, I think.” He glanced over towards where Gralk was happily chewing on his piece of tentacle. “You realise that the light on that blasted box has gone green don’t you?”

“Oh, at least a couple of minutes ago,” she agreed, “But this seemed much more important.”

It was her second vigil and Iantha had drawn the Dark Deeps for the second time. She had hoped for coral reefs, brightly coloured fish and sunlight. Apparently that was not meant to be, again. It was no less dark this time and no less cold. She was three months older now and Miranda had explained that it would take a year from the time she was made for her to be fully grown up. The colours were beginning to develop on her tail, pale streaks and spots of blue, green and mauve. Her chest was developing too, after this vigil she would no longer be considered a little girl and they were making tops for her now. At this point Iantha would have preferred to already be wearing one. Her hair was down to her chest these days but it didn’t cover anything and it certainly didn’t help with warm.

She had been studying the Dark Deeps and the Great Trench that lay just beyond it because this was where she had stood her last vigil. She knew more now about the deep ocean than she had before and had a greater appreciation of its hazards. It had probably been a good thing that Tu and Gralk had turned up last time, she knew now that there were things down here that would have considered her a tasty little morsel. There still were. Staying beside the token box might not have been sufficient protection. She knew the others in her class had been studying the locations they had stood vigil in and wondered briefly what hazards were to be found in those warm, sunlit seas.

It would still have been nice to have gone to one of those locations instead of repeating this one. Miranda had looked worried when she’d drawn this marble from the pot for the second time. Last time it had been the only one left and there was the possibility that those before her might have peeked before taking their marble.  This time she was in the middle of the group so it seemed less likely that cheating was the reason she had gotten this draw. She’d pressed the marker on the token box as soon as she’d arrived, of course and now she had to wait for it to unlock so she could take her token and go. It seemed to her that she was feeling the cold faster this time and tried hugging herself – she didn’t think it helped much.

She heard a quick swish through the water just before she was hit from behind in the centre of her back and sent tumbling through the water. “Gralk!” The stern voice was calling the culprit to heel, “What are you doing?” Iantha was only able to straighten up when the momentum ran out and when she did so Tu and Gralk were hovering over her. “I’m so sorry, he normally doesn’t do that unless he-, Iantha?”

“Yes?” She straightened herself so that up was up and she was facing them.

“I’m sorry,” Tu repeated apologetically, “He does tend to greet his friends rather enthusiastically and most of his friends are bigger and heavier than you. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“I don’t think so,” Iantha replied, cautiously stretching to test everything, “Everything feels all right. Could you check my dorsal fin for me please?” She turned her back to him and extended the supporting spines to spread the fin for his inspection.

Her dorsal fin appeared completely normal and undamaged, but of course not yet fully developed. It was of the more usual type being of neither of the lionfish or sail variants and he thought that it was beginning to develop a sheen of colouring. “It looks fine,” he said encouragingly, “No damage done. Perhaps we should move back to that token box?  Our position here might be a little exposed.” Tu looked down and Iantha’s eyes followed his gaze downwards to the inky blackness below them. The glow of his trident showed the top of the cliff that supported the token box and beyond that she could make out small luminosities, but beyond that...

“I hadn’t realised that the vigil station was right on the edge of the Great Trench,” she said quietly.

“I thought perhaps you hadn’t,” he smiled, “Now, moving?” They swam back together, being circled by Gralk, to the glow surrounding the token box. Her flukes, he noted, were going to be of the filmy type that could develop so much power in deep water as opposed to the plainer, commoner style that allowed for quick direction changes instead. “So why are you here again?” he asked as they reached the token box.

“I pulled this marble out of the pot again,” she shrugged then asked, “Are there really chaos beasts asleep at the bottom of the Trench? One of the books I found in the library at the Moon Hall said there were, but when I went to ask Miranda about them she took the book away and I haven’t been able to find it again.”

“I was always told there were,” he agreed, “One of my favourite stories when I was a child was how Chronus and Oceanus forced them to the bottom of the Trenches and Tethys put them to sleep.”

Gralk head-butted Iantha’s hip and she started scratching behind his jaw, “Miranda told me not to ask about them any more, that they were no concern of a moon maiden, but there was a prophecy in the book about the Moon and the chaos beasts awakening.”

“I know the one you mean,” he said gravely and she looked at him in pleased surprise, “And I would have said that it was of no concern to a child,” he caught the beginning of her objection and held out an admonitory hand, “Because I don’t think you should have to worry about such things yet.”

“Do you worry about it?” she asked curiously.

“Yes, sometimes,” he admitted, “But it’s part of my job to worry about things I hope aren’t going to happen for a long time yet.”

“What is-” she began then her attention was caught by the light on the box going green, “Oh, my token!” She grabbed it out of the box as if she were afraid she would miss her opportunity and put the cord around her neck so that the token hung beside its identical predecessor in the small valley between her breasts.

“Why don’t we swim you up to the sunlight again?” Tu asked. He liked this child. He didn’t agree with the decision to give her the draught of Lethe but as she had been given it, at her age she shouldn’t have to worry about more than her first set of clothes, playing with her friends and learning her lessons. It was beginning to sound as if not only was the Moon Hall under Mistress Katharine preparing candidates for induction far too young, they might be skimping on the normal lessons too. He might need to ask some more questions on their way to the light.

“You’re a natural hazard aren’t you?” She giggled then laughed at his expression. “Could I stop you swimming anywhere you wanted?”

Queen Melia was displeased. It was a long time since she had needed to have this sort of conversation with anyone.

“Last time you were here I told you the changes you needed to make to your administration of the Moon Hall and its students,” she said to Katharine, Mistress of the Moon Hall of the Third Aspect, “And it appears that you have ignored my instructions.  I have no choice but to remove you from control of the Moon Hall of the Third Aspect. You have the summer to get your affairs and records in order. The new Mistress will take over on the autumn equinox. You will cease the preparation of child candidates immediately. Do you understand?”

“I understand that you are jealous of my influence over my students and priestesses,” snapped back Katharine, “They will never allow your candidate to supplant me.”

“You are rather missing the point,” Melia was beginning to wonder why they had ever allowed this woman, changed to a mermaid on point of drowning, to become a priestess let alone take over a Moon Hall.  There seemed to be so much she didn’t understand.

“The point is that you don’t want any threats to your throne,” sneered Katharine, “Afraid I’ll become more powerful than you?”

“That is enough,” Melia was not going to lose her temper, no she wasn’t, “You have your orders. Leave me now and obey them. Don’t make me demonstrate the cost of disobedience.”

It was the first of her three vigils and she’d drawn the Dark Deeps, the loneliest of the thirteen locations that were used for this. No sunlight penetrated here from the surface and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness she was beginning to see the luminescence inherent to much life at this level. She’d pressed the marker on the token box and now all she had to do was wait for it to open, then she could take her proof and return to the training hall.

There was no point in trying to mark the time, the box would do that. Her instructress, Miranda, had been quite clear about it. Mind you, Miranda had also been concerned that she hadn’t had a little more preparation before her first vigil. But the others had all been ready for their vigils, Sula and Tizane were doing their third, and they’d needed her to make up the numbers. So here she was. The dark between the luminescence wasn’t getting any less dark, well that made sense, and she didn’t dare go look more closely at any of the pretty looking displays because one of Miranda’s warnings had been, “Remember, those lights can be traps, lures for prey to come close to much bigger jaws. Stay beside the checkpoint and you’ll be safe.”

It was getting cold now, no, she was beginning to feel the cold. It was always cold down here where the sun could not reach. She tried not to envy her classmates standing their watches at lesser depths, lit from above and warm. One of them would be here next time and she would be up there in the warmth and the light. She hovered in the water beside the token box waiting for it to open.

“What have we here?” She whirled in fright, having thought herself completely alone, and almost started tumbling through the water except that he put out a steadying hand to help her. Miranda and the others had told her that being a mermaid was special, but they’d said nothing about men and her new companion was definitely a merman. A stray thought kicked through her mind – if she’d never seen one before and they hadn’t been talked about, how did she know what a man was? This one was about twice her length and bigger than her all over, had long hair and a beard that went with his massive aqua and teal tail except for the two parallel dark blue stripes in his beard below his mouth and carried a massive trident that was now glowing softly. Around his hip peeked a massive greenish-gray eel that looked like an overgrown moray and extremely bad tempered to boot.

She felt like a child under his hand. That went with her appearance: her length only that of a short human adult, she’d likely be half that again at full growth; barely existent breasts and no discernable nip to the waist yet; short, brown hair – short hair was odd for a merchild of either sex; fins and flukes nowhere near fully developed; and her tail was still a light, clear, unmottled silver. “Where’s your mother?” he asked kindly, “You’re surely not down here on your own.”

She put her hand over her mouth and giggled, she knew the answer to that. “Mermaids don’t have mothers,” she said, wondering why he didn’t know something so obvious, “We’re made, not born! I’m here because I’m doing my first vigil.” She added confidingly, “It is very dark down here, isn’t it? I hope next time I get a station in the sunlight.”

“That would be pleasant,” he nodded in agreement, “So you’re in one of the Moon Halls are you? Who’s the mistress?”

“Lady Katharine and Miranda is my teacher.” She paused then asked, “If I’m doing my vigil are you supposed to be here?”

“Well, no-one arranged for me to be here, so I think you’ll have to consider me to be a natural hazard,” he allowed, “How much longer have you got to go?”

“I’m not sure,” she admitted, it seemed so silly actually telling someone that, “I have to wait till the token box,” she pointed at it, “Opens so I can take my token and go.”

“Ah, so what were you before you were a mermaid?” He was resting his trident on the rock now and leaning on it. He even looked comfortable.

“I don’t think I was anything before I was a mermaid,” she looked confused, “I can’t remember being at anything but a mermaid.” She was distracted by the eel head-butting her in the hip and looked at it uncertainly.

“Rub him behind the jaw,” advised the merman, “That’s all he wants. So what’s the first thing you remember?”

“Lady Katharine taking a cup away from my mouth and Euclea and Callidora letting go of my arms.” She beamed at him, please both to answer the question and at the eel’s response to her rubbing. “He does like this, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, Gralk can be a real softy.” Then, as if it wasn’t important, “So about how long ago did you become a mermaid?”

She tilted her head to consider and Gralk bumped her again because she’d stopped scratching. “About three quarters of a moon. If I hadn’t done it now I’d have had to wait another three months before I could start my vigils.”

“That would have been a shame,” he agreed gravely, “Is that green light on the box important?”

“Oh,” she turned around again but retained her balance this time, “I can get my token!” She flipped the lid open and grabbed the item on its cord inside. The lid closed automatically as she withdrew her hand but the cord didn’t snag. She carefully put the cord around her neck so that the little coral amulet on the end hung in the middle of her chest. She turned back to him, “I’m sorry, but I have to go home now. It was nice meeting you.”

“And it was nice meeting you too,” he smiled. “We didn’t introduce ourselves. I’m Tu.”

“I’m Iantha. We probably should have said sooner, shouldn’t we?” She giggled.

“We should have.” He smiled and then offered, “Why don’t Gralk and I swim up with you as far as the sunlight?”

“Is that allowed?” She was doubtful, Miranda hadn’t said anything about other people...

“I’m a natural hazard, remember?” he smiled. “You can’t stop me swimming anywhere I like. Besides, it’s not as if Gralk or I are carrying you.”

She giggled again.

Some time later Queen Melia was having a royal word with the Mistress of one of the Moon Halls of her people.

“You have taken the gift of the gods and turned it into a production line,” Melia’s dark, filmy flukes tapped angrily against the front of her throne. “What are you thinking of, Katharine?”

“We are ethereal creatures of magical essence and origin and you encourage us to act like base animals,” snapped back the erect Katharine, hovering in the gentle currents of the throne room.

“We are creatures of the world: we love; we mate; we have children; and we raise them to the best of our ability. You are grabbing women off the shoreline, putting them through the bestowal of the gift and then, to make matters worse, you are forcing the draught of Lethe down their throats. Stripping them of their pasts and their loved ones.”

“We find that they adjust better to their new lives if they take the draught,” said Katharine, hair not so dark as the queen’s and tail marked in silver and gold.

“I’m sure that they cause you fewer problems that way,” Melia commented drily, “But all phases of the practice will cease immediately, including putting children through the vigil process.”

“I am Mistress of the Hall,” objected Katharine, “I decide such things!”

“I am Queen,” shot back Melia, “Mastery of the hallow Halls lies within my gift.”