§
The mermaid’s pelvis differs from that of either a human or any aquatic mammal. In dolphins, evolution has eliminated the pelvis entirely. Merrow, like dolphins, have tails that are grand extensions of their spines, but unlike dolphins, only parts of the pelvis have disappeared. The ilium bones and sockets remain, to connect thigh muscles and ‘bones’ (actually cartilage) that support the lower legs and feet bones (also cartilage) that form their pelvic fins. Those emerge from their tail about ten inches below their hips, with the fin roots running from what would be the middle of a biped’s thighs to their knees.
Retaining the hips and thighs leaves that portion of the merrow body less flexible than that of a fish or dolphin, but enables them to perch sitting up on rocks and other above-water features.
Merrow fins vary wildly from individual to individual. Women of coral reef tribes have dorsal and ventral fins that blossom into wild and dramatic decorations as colorful and elaborate as lionfish. In open water tribes, merrow are much more streamlined, in most cases as simple and straightforward as those of typical dolphins.
The Elder aquatic form is the latter. Better adapted for open water swimming, also useful in shallow water or rivers or such. So I thankfully did not have to worry about maneuvering outrageous appendages as convoluted as a carnival samba dancer’s costume over the rocks as Grandmother forced me to flop my way over the weir that separates her hot-spring-fed pool from the small lake that constitutes the rest of her home. They wouldn’t allow me to transform back to my normal biped form, or do anything else requiring magic, so she had to coach me through the method as a mermaid.
I cannot comprehend how a woman from a coral reef tribe would have managed. Even with my body, it was a real trick, keeping stuff out of the way as I pulled my clumsy hips and pelvic fins up and over the weir, because even dolphin-like ones were extremely inconvenient in that specific context. Fortunately, Grandmother’s aquatic form is also an open-water mermaid type, resembling that of a bottle-nose dolphin, so she could coach me. Many naiads adopt a more fish-like form, even going to the extremes of coral tribe merrow.
At last, I slid off the (thankfully nice and smooth) rocks into the deep water on the other side, and soon, Grandmother and I were doing my rehab… no, we were playing. Grandmother wanted me to push myself more, so tagging me and telling me that I was ‘it’ was her approach.
After I floated there, astonished and open-mouthed for a moment, I recovered and began my pursuit, struggling mightily to keep up with a woman who, I suspect, was slowing down to not lose me.
I didn’t last long and that astonished me more. Within minutes of trying to chase her, I was floating in the middle of the lake, exhausted. I hadn’t been in such an extreme state of exhaustion as this since I was wounded in Atianus, yet I had not swum even a mile!
Okay, for a human, a mile is a long distance to swim. But in mermaid form, it’s nothing.
<You can slip down to the bottom and take a nap if you desire, Innanmi,> Grandmother told me. <I’ll keep watch over you while you sleep.>
§
A full day passed for me. Another minute and twenty six seconds crawled by on Huade.
After I napped, I exercised again, listened to a lecture from Immortal Mother on body refinement, had dinner with Kanon in a little gazebo that I’m very certain does not exist next to the main world version of Grandmother’s fountain pool, and slept on a grassy bank with my tail in the water, with Little Jia, poshie version, curled up against my belly while the pixies lounged on me or her. I woke to find Kiki returned to cat form, having curled up and wedged herself between Little Jia and me in authentic cat style.
I had the sense, while drowsing in the early morning that Ceria might have drawn Fire, but it wasn’t at high enough intensity to be sure. It lasted hours for me, but at barely a trickle.
I woke and exercised more, and worked the body refinement exercise Immortal Mother taught me, had lunch, and finally begged again for what they wouldn’t do.
They still wouldn’t let Little Jia decrease the compression.
“Why?” I demanded, growing frustrated with these exasperating seniors.
Immortal Mother sat sipping some unknown iced beverage through a straw while lounging with her back against a stone conveniently arranged behind the submerged rock where she sat. A boulder beside her formed a well-positioned side-table to hold the snacks Little Jia brought her. The bright sunlight on her porcelain skin ought to have been giving her a horrible full-body sunburn, but of course, she’s an Immortal, not a human. Also, Sky Ocean has no sun. Which made it weird that the only articles of clothing she wore were sunglasses and a straw sunhat.
I guess my Tiana/Robert discomfort with naked ladies must be evaporating. It didn’t bother me at all that Immortal Mother’s clothing vanished when she joined Grandmother and I in the water after we came to the shore for a break. She is as exquisite a beauty with her clothes off as with them on, and I’m sure that her relaxed display of her perfectly sculpted body would have gobsmacked Robert and distressed Tiana, but I was just resting with my flukes in the water, perched on a flat stone on the opposite side of the boulder ‘side-table’, equally nude and therefore unable to criticize. Of course, it probably helps that Immortal Mother isn’t a mortal. Tiana might still have issues if she were a human of her apparent age.
Little Jia was properly clothed and back to her usual twelve-year-old appearance as she waited on us. The pixies were nearby, dashing around like dragonflies above the water (appropriate, since Kiki and one Nana have dragonfly wings.) Grandmother was currently dodging my complaints by switching to bipedal form and heading off somewhere, so Immortal Mother was the only one present who could answer my frustration.
“It’s for the same reason that I am blocking your access to your blood core and your spiritual vessel, Child, and the same reason I am inhibiting your other personas. All these things would interfere with your rehabilitation.”
“How? Why can’t you at least let time run normally long enough for me to learn the final results of the battle? It would really ease my mind, Mother.”
“I understand that, child,” she answered with infinite patience and a smile. “But the difference in time flow curbs the mana draws of your Servants and the inter-realm stress upon your spiritual vessel. In addition, we mustn’t let you transform back to bipedal or grow your wings or work any other magic. We had to ban all actions that could trigger your blood hunger, because Sky Ocean lacks a mortal population to feed you. Furthermore, allowing you to tap your blood core would prevent you from strengthening yourself.”
“Why?”
“Your efforts would pass through the blood core and strengthen your spiritual vessel instead.”
“So I haven’t fed in seventy three days?” I asked, confused.
She shook her head. “I was able to tap your blood core while I was inhabiting your body, so you are not blood-starved yet. But, having handed control back to you, I can no longer do so. As long as you perform no magic and do not transform, your need will come on more gradually, but it shall arrive eventually.”
I sort of understood. Immortal Mother had been turning her access to my blood core on and off in order to tap blood from it while she possessed my body. I didn’t have the skill to do that.
“But why does time compression change that?”
Something about inter-realm stress? I didn’t get it.
“As Spirit Realm time flows slower than this time compression, the forces behind Heaven’s Law work more slowly. The pressure on your body to release your soul decreases. And your connection to your Servants hastens your hunger so the time coupling between here and Huade matters in the same manner. Don’t worry, child. We are taking steps now to provide you with sustenance.”
“But you’re creating another really big problem,” I griped.
See, the thing is, eighteen weeks, my supposed current state of pregnancy, would put Tiana still traveling with the Hero’s Party. It predates my arrival on Huade, turning this theoretical liaison into my great-granddaughter’s indiscretion rather than mine.
She saw what was in my mind and dimpled. With a playful smirk, she said, “Nobody knows that you didn’t see him during that time. You might have flown back for a little assignation with your beloved any time you wanted to.”
I already worked it out. We were in Thuriben at the time. Immortal Mother was right that Tiana could theoretically have snuck off for a rendezvous with Rod. As if she would!
I wondered where Rod was at the time in question. Was he at school, or off on one of his frequent royal errands? Why am I wondering?!
I put my forehead in my palm and sighed.
“If you deduct the two extra months to reduce it to a human term counting back from your due date, it’s only ten weeks,” she offered. “For your social issues, it only matters that the Mortals misunderstand, right?”
After calculating, I mused, “Rod would have been with the students from Copen heading north to join the war after the school closed. I would have been in the Fairy King’s Castle.”
Why am I playing along with this?
“If we stretch you backward ten more days, you’ll be in Atius at the same time as he,” she teased. “And you’re already affianced by then. Now we have a goal for when to end the time compression.”
“Are you enjoying this?” I demanded.
She giggled. A half-billion-year-old ancient entity actually giggled. Her true self really ought to be something as incomprehensible as a Great Old One, and she giggled.
With a sigh, Immortal Mother shook her head. “Rather than such an extreme thing, your mother before you is but one small piece of myself, with a realm less grand than the beings you call ‘gods’ here.”
I twisted my mouth. I knew that, but it’s still weird to hear.
“I can’t say I’ve ever truly understood that. Intellectually I do, but…”
“Don’t mistake me for a substitute or a surrogate, child. What interacts with you is a part of myself in simplified form. An Immortal cannot force her way into a realm which cannot safely entertain her presence. Heaven’s Law would respond to such a transgression by ejecting her. I originally designed this proxy in order to carry you down to the Fundamental Realm and raise you. If you really think carefully about it, although my main body is your birth mother, this proxy is the mother who raised you.”
I remained thoughtfully quiet for a bit, until I noticed I had been cleverly led away from my complaint.
“You said something about ‘steps to provide for my sustenance’.”
Immortal Mother dimpled again. “My daughter does have rather special dietary needs, doesn’t she? But we sent for a supply the moment you arrived, child.”
Although that would have been seventy three days ago in this place, it was only an hour and forty five minutes ago in the outside world. I wondered how many more days I would be waiting. Would I fall into distress before this ‘supply’ arrived?
“Oh, never fear. It arrived a short time ago. Your grandmother left to bring it here.”
Her teasing tone set alarm bells off in my mind.
This place was no training simulation. We were in the physical reality of Sky Ocean. To accurately reproduce Grandmother’s lake and hot spring, Little Jia erected a barrier surrounding it to produce the authentic background view and environment. The view past the trees was artificial, and the outside was much closer than it appeared.
Suddenly, I became aware of our nudity and the obvious fact that the ‘supply’ would likely walk in on two feet. Rather than wonder about exactly who would arrive and how, I was filled with the urge to dive back into the water.
“Don’t be silly, child,” Immortal Mother chided. “Your body is a lovely sight that no one would dislike seeing. But if you must, just grow that rudimentary raiment you managed when you were here before.”
I hastily gave it my best shot, because my sharp hearing was suddenly picking up voices in the woods surrounding the fountain pool.
It appeared, to my relief, but just like my first try, last time, it was nothing more than a thin gauzy haze of Water mana with a degree of visibility for everything underneath which just might be more erotic than nudity! Helplessly, I crossed my arms and watched Grandmother, a woman whose raiment when she bothers wearing one is usually see-thru, now betraying my trust with a nicely opaque yukata while leading an unlikely group up to the shore.
