Chapter 44 - Merry Greetings

Daniel stared down at the water's surface, barely making out a human face staring back up at him. He could sense her clear as day through his mana, watching him with curious eyes.

Artorias had never seen a mermaid before, so Daniel had no idea what exactly they would look like. But the reality was shockingly close to the mermaids in the Disney classic. Perfectly human upper body, which transitioned seamlessly into a fish-like tail covered in shimmering scales.  Maybe because that’s what Daniel had in mind when writing that they existed.

This one was beautiful, almost elf-like in her appearance, though not quite as perfectly symmetrical. Long red hair floated around her face, moving with the water's current, and a set of green eyes studied him with great interest.

Her upper body was covered in some peculiar cloth, woven from what looked like kelp or sea grass. Not sea shells, though that easily could have been the case a thousand years ago.

“...Are you shy?” Daniel asked, waving down at her. “I don’t bite.”

Her head tilted to the side as she put a finger up to her lips, more as a gesture of questioning than silence.

They know our language, right? I’m pretty sure they do.

“Could you come up so we can talk?”

All of a sudden, she burst out of the water right in front of his face, breaching with enough force to land on the wooden platform beside him. Water exploded outward in a spray, creating a rainbow in the sunlight.

Daniel jumped to the side just in time to avoid being knocked over, but he couldn't escape getting drenched. Cold seawater soaked through his shirt and dripped from his hair.

"Merry!"

She yelled the word with her arms raised high above her head, almost like she was presenting herself. Her smile stretched from ear to ear, showing perfectly white teeth. 

Her tail was strong enough to balance on the tips of her fin, making her much taller than Daniel at her full height—easily seven feet.

"Merry?" Daniel blinked water from his eyes, wringing out his sleeve. "Merry what?"

"Merry greetings!" She bounced slightly on her tail as she turned to look at him. “Is this not how you meet first?”

Her voice was light and fresh, somehow echoing slightly in the air. And the dialect sounded Eastern European for some reason, with stilted words and rolling R’s.

"I don't know, I've never greeted a mermaid before." Daniel pulled a small towel from his index and started wiping water from his face. "But the ritual is meant to start a trade, right?"

"Merry greetings you, human." She leaned forward, adjusting her tail to keep her balanced, bringing her face closer to his. "Will you not respond?"

"Oh, of course. Merry greetings, mermaid."

"No, your name!" She threw her hands up in exasperation, nearly losing her balance before catching herself. "Merry want your name!"

"Ah, now I get it." He should have guessed—her name was Merry, not a greeting. "My name is Daniel. And you're Merry?"

"Danil!" She clapped her hands together, delighted. "Very good! Merry is Merry, yes."

The way she pronounced his name, dropping the 'e' sound, was oddly endearing.

"Nice to meet you, Merry." Daniel tucked the damp towel away. "So, are you willing to trade?"

"Trade! Yes!" She bounced again, making small puddles splash around her tail. "Do you have human thing? The glowy round thing?"

Her hands traced a circular shape in the air, trying to demonstrate what she meant.

"Glowy round?" Daniel tried to follow her gestures. "Do you mean a formation?"

"Yes, veeery correct!" She pointed at him excitedly, nearly poking his chest. "For-mee-shon. Do you have?"

"I do have formations, yes." He stepped back slightly, giving her more space to move without accidentally hitting him. "But do you want them... engraved on metal? Or just anagrams that explain what they do?"

"I can know formeeshon?" Her eyes went wide in surprise.

"Sure. At least… if you know how to read." Daniel summoned a few sentences in the air above him with gold light to demonstrate. "Do you know what this means?"

Merry squinted at the floating text, tilting her head left and right as if different angles might help her understand. "...That Danil is good at magic?"

"Well, yes," Daniel had to smile at that, "but those are words... It says 'nice to meet you, Merry' in English."

"Oh!" She smacked her forehead with her palm. "Human writing. Merry only know Merry writing."

"I was afraid of that." He dismissed the glowing text with a thought. "It will be harder to teach you anything if you can't read it. But I can explain a few formations for you right here, show you how they work."

"Yes!" She pumped her fist in the air. "Much more easy."

"And since this is a fair trade, I want to ask you some questions as well." Daniel watched her carefully, gauging her reaction. "Is that fine?"

"Kveestion?" She scrunched up her nose, thinking. "Oh, yes, Merry can say you things."

"Okay, good. One question for one formation, sound fair?"

"Much fair!" She nodded vigorously, sending droplets flying in every direction.

"Then my first question." Daniel took a breath, preparing for the answer he both expected and dreaded. "Has the mermaid egg that only hatches when the mermaid race is in danger already hatched?"

Merry's expression turned serious in an instant, like the child-like enthusiasm had simply been an act. Her voice had dropped lower, more guarded. 

"How you know of the egg?"

So it was real.

It didn't come as much of a surprise, seeing as he had written it in the book. But he had kept a slight hope that not everything had been included, that some elements had been left as ideas rather than reality.

Damn my worldbuilding.

"The same way I knew of the ritual to summon you here." Daniel kept his voice calm as he lied with a straight face. "I read a lot of very old books. Ancient texts that most people have forgotten."

Merry studied him for a long moment, her green eyes sharp and calculating. Her fingers drummed against her tail in a nervous rhythm.

"...Merry did not think humans know." She finally relaxed slightly, though she didn't return to her earlier enthusiasm. "But is not so bad. Queen is born, yes."

…Aah, fucking… fuck.

A shiver ran down Daniel’s back. Not only was the egg real, but it had already hatched. The mermaid queen, the being he'd written as powerful enough to unite all the scattered clans, strong enough to challenge the surface world, was alive.

But what could have forced the mermaids into such dire straits? What had caused the queen to break the egg?

"Why?"

"No no no," Merry waved her finger at him, halfway back to her playful self. "Merry want formeeshon. Big powerful formeeshon!"

She spread her arms wide, trying to show how big and powerful she meant.

"Right, sure..." Daniel had expected that. "Anything in particular you want it to do?"

"Do big damage!" She made an explosive gesture with her hands, spreading her fingers outward. "Go past scale and mana barrier, make big hole!"

She emphasized 'big hole' by forming a circle with her arms, meters wide.

"...Are you fighting leviathans or something?"

The pieces were starting to come together, and none of them painted a pleasant picture.

"No no," Merry shook her head rapidly, "Merry is fighting—"

She stopped herself mid-sentence, snapping her mouth shut. Her eyes narrowed as she pointed an accusing finger at Daniel. "This is new kveestion, Danil. Good try, but Merry not stupid."

It was worth a shot, he’d figured.

Merry is fighting, and it's something big with scales and barriers, not a leviathan... Do blue dragons stay underwater? And how powerful is Merry if that's what she's fighting?

"Fine," he conceded with a slight smile. She'd caught him. "This formation should do well."

Daniel summoned a triple-layered formation with his gold light. Dense with runic chants and overlapping function circles, each layer rotated independently at different speeds.

Freezing water into an ice missile, adding spin and a piercing core, then filling it with explosive mana that would trigger an instant after hitting its target. Rechargeable, firing at a rate of six missiles per minute, and capable of expanding to extreme levels of power before breaking.

"I could make it more suited for your needs if I knew what you were fighting," he added casually, "but this should pierce most defenses, if you have the mana for it."

Merry's eyes went wide as she stared at the formation, moving her head to track its rotation.

"...It spins?" She leaned closer, squinting at the intricate runework. "Could you... Is so complex!" Her tail slapped against the wood in frustration. "Make easier!"

He was sort of hoping that would be the case. It was hard to say how many formations she would ask for, and Daniel needed every question he could get.

"Oh, this is too challenging for you?" He kept the formation spinning, watching her struggle to follow its patterns. "But I've already shown it to you, so you'll have to answer another question first."

Merry’s expression shifted from frustrated to calculating. She crossed her arms, weighing her options. "...This is fair. Ask."

"What threat caused the queen's egg to hatch?"

"Danil very curious about queen egg..." She uncrossed her arms and stretched back to her full height. "Big big eel is reason, it kill many fish and mermaids. So queen born to help."

"...How big is 'big big' exactly?"

"Too big to see end." She spread her arms as wide as they could go, then shook her head as if even that wasn't enough. "Which is why Merry need formeeshon."

Too big to see end.

Daniel felt his stomach drop. An eel-like creature, so long and so powerful that even the mermaid queen—the being meant to save her entire race—still hadn't beaten it.

What else could it possibly be?

The world serpent is awake as well.

Fuck me.

Ch.43 --I-- Ch.45