Chapter Text
Camila wasn't sure what to think. Maybe it was luck. Maybe it was stupidity. But there was no fucking way it was real, of all things, no way no how. Maybe it was coincidence, even, or a seal. This far south, in waters this warm, unlikely, but not so near impossible as it was to see a fucking mermaid. Even if they were real, of which Camila had always been skeptical, the chances of them coming so close to humans was... well, unlikely. But the shadow was unmistakable, and now Camila had been up all night, wondering. Oh sure, there were the old stories of mermaid hunters who claimed to kill the queen, and even older stories of those who used to play with mermaids when they came to the surface. But Camila's never been one to believe in fairy tales.
It's hard not to when the fairy tale is in front of you. Specifically, caught in a net, demanding your attention. The mermaid's scales are beautiful, void-blacks, trailing deep reds and blues, and speckles (freckles?) of white all across her scales, from the tip of her tail to the scales cresting her chest. They look as if the sea itself has decided the mermaid should never be without the sun dappled across her skin. The only place they aren't, in fact the only place the mermaid's scales are only one color (void-black, and here seems darker than the rest of them did) is a patch above her waist (do mermaids have waists?) in a mostly circular shape, though these scales are unattached to the ones running up her sides to reach her chest. It... looks almost like a scar, if Camila is to make a comparison. She wonders if that's exactly what it is.
The mermaid yells again, and Camila snaps out of her staring. It is still early enough that some might consider it late, and even the mermaid has been quiet enough. Nothing good will come of this if she wakes the rest of the crew. (Especially if they find Camila too. That certainly won't end well.) She approaches quickly, and the mermaid almost flinches back. Camila doesn't have much experience with mermaids (read: none at all) but hopes this one recognises her hands up, palms out for what it is. The mermaid watches her, flinty eyes narrowing as Camila starts to cut away the netting. While Camila wasn't technically supposed to be on the ship (she'd hidden away in the crow's nest and was beginning to regret it, the cold was really really getting to her this far out at sea) she saw the net wriggling away, saw the mermaid's thrashing in the water. She'd pulled it up, thinking maybe it had been a shark gotten stuck that would bite its way out eventually, and pulled several muscles in her back while doing so. God, mermaids were heavy. It didn't help that she'd almost dropped the net in her shock. When Camila finally hauled her onto the deck, she immediately froze and backed away, certainly not believing what she was seeing. There was no reason to! Mermaids were old stories! Why the fuck was one on the deck of this ship?!
Gods help her.
Camila finally cut away enough of the net to pull it off the mermaid entirely, and the mermaid lifts her hands, crosses her arms in front of her, now sitting up against the edge of the railing. They're both just sitting there in silence, and Camila... can't stand that, really. She can hear her mother now, scolding her for staring, but fuck's sake it's a bloody mermaid! What else is she supposed to?
"Hi. I'm Camila." She reaches, holds her hand out dumbly to shake. The mermaid's eyes are still narrowed, darting between her face, outstretched hand, and the knife Camila is still holding. Camila sees this, tracks her darting eyes, and chucks the knife to the other side of the deck as if it had burned her. She lowers her hand, as well, stays on her knees in front of the mermaid whose name she does not know. What is she supposed to do now?
"I'll not be giving my name to a human," the mermaid spits, and... yeah, that's probably fair. Camila looks, thinks, and realizes the mermaid is very uncomfortable. Still breathing clearly, but leaning against the deck railing, the posts too close together for her to slip between them and drop back into the water.
The sun will rise in under an hour. If the crew finds Camila, she'll be thrown overboard. If they find the mermaid, they'll never let her go if they don't just kill her in the first place. Camila decides, fuck it. Blunt it is.
"You need to get back to the water, and I need to get back to the crow's nest before they find either of us. If you let me help you, we can both get away from this and nothing bad will happen."
The mermaid scoffs, clearly disbelieving. "And what would that look like? For me to accept your help? As I recall, you couldn't even lift me from the water on your own, how do you expect to get me back into it?" Camila didn't think about that, but neither of them have much a choice here but to try. "Besides, I would sooner die than be willingly touched by a human," she finishes, and Camila's eyes are the ones narrowing now.
"You will. You will die if you don't let a human help you now. Are you really choosing that?" The mermaid's eyes go wide for less than a second, but Camila still sees it. Sees the look of worry, of uncertainty that flashes across her face. She turns her head away again.
The mermaid stays silent, but doesn't protest when Camila moves into her space. They work together now, the mermaid grips at the railing edges and pulls herself up, and Camila reaches under her tail and lifts, trying very hard to ignore the unexpected smoothness under her palms. She didn't expect the scales to be so clearly interlaced.
Finally, the mermaid pulls herself over the edge, and Camila watches as she slides gracefully into the water below, not leaving so much as a ripple behind in proof of her being.
Camila is picking flecks of void-colored scales from under her nails for hours.
Lilith darts home as swiftly as possible, taking several different currents in her haste. Most in the sea know to get out of her way when she looks like this, a woman on a hunt. Most is not all, and especially not Ava, the crown princess and heir apparent. And, most unfortunately, Lilith's charge. Ava had insisted on investigating the ship brazenly sailing through their waters, but the Queen would have Lilith's head if anything ever happened to her only surviving daughter. Ava was never one to be deterred by such logic and thusly refused to return until at least one of them had investigated. Naturally, this meant it was Lilith's job and Lilith's job alone, because again. Ava. Queen. Beheading.
"If I don't come back, you swim home as fast as you can. Promise me, Ava," Lilith had said. It seemed at the very least Ava had listened to that, but it was very embarrassing to know she had also likely witnessed Lilith swimming facefirst into a fishing net to be hauled to the deck of a ship.
Be that as it may. Ahem. Lilith slows as she approaches the rock arches denoting the entrance to Kingdom de Salvius, ruled by the Queen Jillian Salvius. How Ava's surname came to be Silva and not Salvius is a mystery to Lilith, and not one she's stupid enough to ask about. (Unlike Ava, who had asked immediately upon meeting her how she came to serve the royal family, how she joined the Guard, why she has a surname herself, a trait uncommon among their kind. Ava knows exactly where to prod and has never once realised it about herself.)
Lilith nods at the guards as she passes, and she can feel their stares on her tail, the netting pattern she knows is imprinted in her scales. She lowers her shoulders again, pretends it doesn't bother her. It doesn't. She's fine. She would know if she were bleeding, and she isn't, so it's fine. Camila--no, she can't acknowledge the girl by name. Lilith knows that girl will be picking her scales from under her nail beds for days to come, but that's fine too because it is certainly not as if they will ever see each other again. Lilith will not be seen by humans again.
Ava is swimming around anxiously, flipping head over tail and driving the poor OCS guard up the wall. This in particular is why Lilith was assigned as Ava's personal guard. When she catches sight of Lilith, Lilith can see her eyes go wide before she speeds over, clapping her hands on Lilith's upper arms and looking her up and down, obviously concerned. Lilith isn't hurt. She would know if she were bleeding, and she isn't, so it's fine.
"Are you okay?" she asks, and Lilith almost wants to shake her. She's fine. Lilith always is.
"I'm fine, your highness." Lilith says it like a threat, but Ava just laughs, and Lilith has the fortune to watch as the tension seeps from her shoulders, sees as the few spines on her tail relax back together. Lilith always marvels at Ava's tail, almost jealous with the amount of colour in her scales. Light, pale yellows that almost glow in the sun, reflect myriad rainbows and glisten like jewels, ruby reds and sapphire blues and emerald greens. But yellow, always that brilliant pale yellow.
Another reason Lilith was appointed as Ava's guard: when she was a smaller child, Ava couldn't swim. Couldn't move much at all, actually, after an attack from the sorcerer, Adriel. It was strange, looking at her now, swimming freely. Adriel would have killed her if he could. Had almost succeeded doing so to the Queen's younger son, Michael.
No one knew why. Some suggested jealousy. Others bitterness from being rejected years ago. A few fringe theories suggested he was the children's father. (Lilith knew this at least to be categorically untrue. Ava wasn't even Jillian's child.)
No one knew either how she came to swim again, or why her tail had changed colour after, from its initial sea-green to this beautiful pale yellow. It doesn't much matter though, does it? Not to Lilith, whose only real concern is keeping the princess safe from her own inborn stupidity.
Ava was now telling her about this neat crab she'd followed on the way back, decided to name him Carl. Jillian had kept him from the food, luckily, but he was himself... at least semi-sentient. He was a weird crab for sure, had a demented skull and weird horns. Most sea creatures could speak, but not Carl. He seemed to like Ava well enough, though, so Lilith figured he was harmless. A passing fascination for Ava, as most things are.
"Lilith."
She whirls around, and quickly bows. "Your Majesty." The Queen does not often leave Michael's side, even for Ava, and so Lilith figured something must be wrong.
"There's no need to call me that, Lilith," she says. Pauses, then, and this strikes Lilith as odd. In all her years she has never known the Queen to hesitate. "I just wanted to ask if you're alright."
Something in Lilith snaps. She's fine, why wouldn't she be completely okay?!
The queen continues, "I only ask because, well..." she gestures down, behind Lilith, "your tail is..."
Lilith clamps her mouth shut against the tirade welling up inside her, turns to look at her tail.
Ah. That makes... much more sense. The sensitive membrane of her tail is crossed and patterned with the netting, far more visibly than the rest of her scales, because the pattern has turned bright red where it is usually a black-ish blue. To anyone else, she must look as if something is very wrong, though not necessarily as if she's been caught by humans. (Her majesty would be far more upset if that were the case.)
Lilith sighs, tucks her tail just a bit under her. "I'm fine, your majesty. Was there anything else you needed?" She can see Ava peering over her mother's shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of Lilith's tail that she had not looked at earlier. She'd sooner die than admit it is endearing.
The ship finally, finally docks. While they can't toss her overboard now without someone (probably) helping her from drowning, Camila can't actually swim, and would like to avoid getting in that kind of trouble. Beatrice would probably appreciate it if she avoided it too, it would be very hard for Camila to actually "attend" to the Prince if she were to drown.
You'd think having the favor of the crown would mean you're not a pint-sized streetrat who stows away on fishing boats just to have something to eat regularly, but nope! Can confirm unfortunately not how that one works.
The last of the crew finally unboards the ship, and it's almost sundown, so she really only has a few hours to go at max before she can finally get back to the castle.
There's a commotion on the dock, she can hear the scuffle and stomping of boots (and hooves?) and Camila is beyond tempted to peek over the edge to look. Lucky her, she doesn't have to. She'd recognise the voice of Pirate Princess Mary anywhere, even from all the way up in a crow's nest with the wind shrieking in her ears as it does the tallest palms on the island. Princess Mary isn't really a pirate, but most people don't know that and she definitely doesn't look like she's not a pirate, between the one blind eye, the embroidered mermaid scales, and the tattoos she has down her arm, one going up and wrapping around her jaw. Camila's never actually been brave enough to get close enough to see what the tattoos actually are, but others have. Like Prince Beatrice, who's supposedly in an arranged marriage to the visiting princess. She's like, ninety percent certain the marriage is for show, and that neither of them actually like each other like that (mostly because she's seen how the Prince looks at her, and she's flattered by the attention but doesn't really know what to do with it), they just have to go along with it to please Queen Villaumbrosia. The Queen was very overprotective of the Prince, often referred to her as "the last gift the sea's ever given" since the shipwreck that killed the original princess and her father.
Camila can hear the Pirate Princess stomp her way onto the deck, and goes so still she stops breathing. She can hear the princess moving, but not what she's doing. Why would she...?
It hits her, and Camila does her utmost to stifle a gasp. The net. Camila had cut through a net last night when that mermaid got stuck and then left it on the deck for everyone to see, like a complete moron. No wonder Mary was here, she was a mermaid hunter, and Camila left out a net covered in scales that are definitely not from a normal fish and it's been cut through and--!
She can hear the princess below her, muttering to herself, but couldn't make out the words behind the wind. Finally, Mary stomps off the deck, and Camila can actually breathe again. Still gotta wait for night to sneak back to the castle. With luck, she wouldn't get caught at all.
Unfortunately, Camila's never been the lucky sort. A crewman was waiting for her to climb down, had seen her cut free the mermaid last night and decided he had nothing better to do than waste his time waiting for a barely-not-teenaged woman to try sneaking off in the dead of night. The moment Camila's feet touch the deck next to the side rail, there's an arm around her neck and a hand over her mouth. The other hand is at her wrists, holding them together.
"Shhhshshshhhh," she hears in her ear. "We wouldn't want anyone to catch on, hm?" Vincent. That no-good, two-faced--! Camila almost growls into his hand, the rat-faced bastard. She just knew Mary's attendant was up to absolutely no good, and now here he is, trying to catch her doing whatever for whatever purpose that no one really knows and he's just a fucking--!
"Now now, wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. I just need to ask you some questions, attendant." Camila freezes again, eyes now wide. He knew exactly who he was catching. What did he want? "Really, all I need to know is why you let the mermaid go. I know what their scales look like, and it certainly wasn't anyone else on the ship." He moves his hand away from her mouth, but tightens his grip on her wrists as he reaches down to her belt, holds her own knife to her throat. It's not pressed against her skin hard, she's barely able to feel it against her adam's apple, but it's there. She swallows against it.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she lies, and she hears Vincent sigh behind her. He pushes the knife harder against her, drags it just enough for the edge to catch, and Camila feels the drop of red dribble down her throat until it stops on the neck of her shirt. "I don't, I swear," she says, and she can barely hear how strained her own voice is against the thundering of her heart in her ears. Vincent sighs again, and the knife moves away from her neck. She thinks, just for a moment, that she's being let go, but then she feels her knife drive into her side, and Vincent lets her topple over the rail into the pitch-black water below.
"Aw, come on Lilith! It'll be fun," Ava pleads, but Lilith will have no part in this. The queen is already worried, Lilith already showed up today with patterns in her scales that look like blood in the water and she'll not give the Queen those same concerns about her daughter.
"Absolutely not, Ava. I cannot believe I've let us get this close to a port, this is insane," she hisses, glancing warily at the bulky, dark hull of the nearest ship. She reaches to grab Ava's arm, pull her away from being so near to the surface, when they both hear the water break. There's a dull splash, and from the shine of the moon they can see a dark body sink into the sea. It's not moving, doesn't even struggle around the way humans who can't swim do. Ava looks at her, eyes wide. "We cannot get so close to a ship, Ava!" Lilith insists, but when has Ava ever listened to rational sense?
Rhetorical. Never. She breaks Lilith's hold and darts straight for the human. Lilith glares, rolls her eyes, and follows after. As she gets nearer, she smells... blood. Is this already a dead body? Has the human simply been disposed of?
The ship they're beside sways, something must shift, and now the moon shines directly on the human's face. To Lilith's utter shock, it's the girl from last night. Her eyes are open, but lidded, and she's staring right at Lilith. She's drowning, something in Lilith whispers. The blood is coming from a knife, driven in her side. It's the same knife she'd used to cut Lilith free. Is this because she freed Lilith? Were they caught after all?
Ava sees the blood, the knife, and gathers the girl in her arms. Lilith is frozen, can only watch as Ava swims around the island's coast until she's out of sight. This, finally, spurs Lilith into action, and she darts further down, out of surface sight, before she follows.
Ava's pulled the girl onto an empty beach by a rocky cliff, and begun chest compressions. Where and how she's learned to save drowning humans, Lilith has no idea, but there's one rather important detail she's missed. You have to convince the wound to close itself, too, and Ava has no Song to do that with.
This girl most likely saved her life. What other choice did Lilith have?
Camila comes to for the first time while it's still dark out, two bodies leaning over her on the sand. One is familiar, hair a dark void to match the scales of her body, and the other is unknown, but shines like a pale sun. Whose voice was she hearing, this ghostly melody dancing in her mind?
The void places its hand on her cheek, and Camila passes out again.
The second time she comes to, it is with a horrible headache made worse by the clanking of plate mail and chain under clothes, with the horribly worried face of the Prince above her. She thinks Beatrice says something, sees her mouth move, but doesn't hear anything. Feels someone grabbing at her arms, and suddenly she's upright. She's freezing, doesn't know how long she's been out here but still has that beautiful melody from the void dancing in her head. Camila goes limp again before they even get her off the beach.