Just a Man and his Rowboat [DragonSong][M]

[Goldie]

Nik froze with the cup halfway to his lips when the woman's words finally registered in his brain. He couldn't believe it...it didn't make sense that she...this woman was...but why now? After all this time? After all these years?

If she truly was who she said she was, did she only now care about him because he had almost died and now she felt something? Felt what? Surely if she knew he was injured to the point of death and now just showed up right where they were with a gift in the shape of an evil man she had to have known where he was all this time. Right?

He felt angry. It was a white hot rage that grew in his stomach but he wasn't even sure if it was justified.

And now this? This place? Why the theatrics? Why send Lia to find them when it could have just been her instead?

The woman laughed at Morgana's comment as if she had just heard a terrific joke, "I prefer the term enchantress. Sea witch has such negative connotations don't you think?" She took another sip of her drink and leaned back in her chair while crossing her leg over the other. She looked completely at ease and if it weren't for her extremely sharp eyes, one might easily believe she was completely nonchalant.

She waved off the comment about Selari, a secretive smile and a chuckle bubbling at her lips, "Oh no, Selari wouldn't dare." Then she placed her cup down and smiled warmly at the two of them.

"I am so happy that you're here. I wish it had been under different circumstances, but I'm just so glad it doesn't need to be pushed any longer. I'm sure you have questions that Lia couldn't answer for you – she's a nice girl but simple. I believe you want to know where you are and what this place is?"

She stood and waved her hand, the bracelet on her wrist flashing gently again before the water on the floor next to them rose gently to form the semblance of the very massive undersea dwelling they had stumbled upon outside.

"This is Home." She said quietly, proudly, "A project of mine...a very long project...it's taken decades but here we are and while it might still need some tweeking here and there but it serves it's purpose." She waved her again again and the water shifted, the bottom door opening and then transforming into the cavern they had seen only moments before.

"This is our entrance for seafolk, the one you were brought into. I found that something more organic tends to help our kin feel more comfortable and at home than swimming into something more...human....in its design. In fact, most places here can be customized to your own preferences. We have about four hundred souls on board and there's still room for more. Now this..." the water shifted yet again and formed a small boat on the surface, "Is our human entrance."

[DragonSong]

Morgana was still and silent as the woman—enchantress, if she was so picky about the word—talked. Explained, she supposed. She didn't react to the magical shaping of the water, beyond a hint of tension creeping into her shoulders.

That hint grew stronger as Nik's mother continued with her explanation. Specifically at the way she phrased it: four hundred souls. Not people. Souls.

"But why are we here?" she pushed as soon as there was a moment of quiet. "What is this place for? Why did you bring us here?"

[Goldie]

"It's a sanctuary, Morgana." She replied with fire, "One I've spent my whole life creating. One I had hoped to share with my family. With you, Nikkolai. You and your father...rest his soul."

She took a moment to blink rapidly at the ceiling before standing swiftly and beckoning them to follow, "Come. See for yourself."

With that, she stood and walked behind the shelves to their right and disappeared from view. Nik looked over at Morgana, mouth open as his brain still processed everything that had been revealed.

Could this really be his mother? And if it was...could he trust her? Should he trust her?

[DragonSong]

Morgana stared after the woman, eyes wide, though she at least managed to keep herself from going slack-jawed as Nik had.

She looked at him and shook her head slowly--an expression of disbelief and confusion rather than any sort of denial.

she glanced after where the enchantress--his mother--had gone, then back again. "I don't..." She shook her head again. "I don't know..." She looked back the way they had come, then to Nik yet again. "I don't think we can leave," she whispered.

So...it seemed their only option was to follow. Wherever it was she led.

[Goldie]

Nik reached over and took Morgana's hand, nodding in agreement. They did need to follow, if only to get answers because every time she talked he had more questions. Those questions were lost in a giant swirl of brain confusion and he couldn't pull them out when he needed them, but they were there.

"She saved my life so...chances are she's not going to kill us...right?" it seemed like solid logic to him. And she had said she wouldn't harm his mate...Gods that was the first time anyone had put it like that before. It was so much more official sounding than girlfriend, or lady friend, or some other less savory descriptors for what they were...but those didn't apply because he actually cared for her.  No, cared was too small of an emotion. He loved her. He would die for her. Hell, he'd already died for her. Now he just had to keep murdering every so often for the mere pleasure of continuing to be with her.

And maybe that was the real reason he wanted to follow. Maybe there was a work-around. Maybe his mother had some way to take away this price.

"Ready?" his words were quiet and he didn't want to actually go but...

The blonde woman's head poked around the corner to look back at them, "Stop dawdling. You'll have plenty of time to enjoy each other's...ah.... company after the tour. Speaking of, should you decide to stay, would you prefer ocean, land, or perhaps a hybrid?"

[DragonSong]

Morgana nodded slowly at Nik's assertion that his mother seemed unlikely to kill them. She agreed in principle...but there was an instinctive wariness that had a cold grip on the base of her spine.

But they didn't have much choice. And besides, even if they had--this woman was responsible for bringing Nik back to her. However she'd done it. And maybe...maybe she could fix whatever had happened to him after. What was happening to him now.

She started a bit when the woman stuck her head back around the corner, instinctively moving partway in front of Nik. She blinked at the unexpected question, and glanced back at her companion over her shoulder.

"Ah..." She didn't know how to answer; while she could keep her legs for several days at a time, she didn't exactly like doing it. But Nik might be different--and he'd been out in the ocean for several weeks now. Perhaps he missed land.

[Goldie]

"Hybrid, then." She nodded as if she hadn't needed to ask the question and then gestured for them again. Nik held onto Morgana's hand as he followed, not wanting to lose touch of her for even a moment. He was still wary, still scared even. Magic wasn't his strong suit. In fact, it was one of his least favorite things in the world because it just did what it wanted half of the time. Every good thing was always accompanied by bad...

But he was also magic. He just didn't know it yet. Or hadn't known. Or...it was all too complicated.

He wanted some candy.

"Cora!" A woman ran up to the blonde witch and clasped her hands excitedly, "I worked! It worked! Thank you thank you thank you." She pressed something into her hand and then sped off after giving her a massive hug.

Nik exchanged a look with Morgana. She looked...human.

[DragonSong]

Cora. The woman's name was Cora.

Or at least, it was a name she used. Morgana wasn't sure she trusted anything about this place at face value.

She gave Nik a helpless sort of look in return, shoulders rising in the minutest suggestion of a shrug.

As she watched the woman who had thanked Cora hurry away, she asked cautiously, "How many people are here? Are they guests too, or do they...live here?"

[Goldie]

"Nylah?" she asked, looking up at Morgana almost as if surprised that she was still there, "She lives here. Her mate suffered extensively at the hands of slavers and was likely going to die. I found them, brought them here, and worked to heal him. It took...time...and patience...they insisted on limited magic use which made things...difficult." She frowned at that, "Curses aren't easy to dispell without it, but we did it. Finally. It's been months."

She held out her hand and took Nik by the arm. He shrunk away from her instinctively, but found that she was walking and there wasn't much more he could do but follow and desperately try to keep hold of Morgana at the same time.

"As for how many? See for yourselves." She opened a large double door with intricate carvings of seafolk and creatures swarming around, but they all seemed...happy...existing amongst one another as it it was perfectly normal and not at all the life that Nik had quickly come to understand since being with Morgana.

When they stepped through the threshold they were standing in a hall far more expansive than Nik would ever have imagined could exist in the hodge-podge floating house they had seen from the outside. It was both filled with water and not. People walked around the walkways against the wall while others swam in the middle. Merfolk, humans, tritans, so many. Dozens. No, more than dozens, hundreds.

"What....the fuck...." Nik stuttered as he stared. People started noticing them and waved.

[DragonSong]

Ohhhhhhh dear.

Morgana didn't like much attention at the best of times--luring a ship to crash on rocks was one thing, but the sailors didn't pay attention to her, then, not really. Just her song.

This was...something else entirely.

Granted, it seemed the swarm of people in front of them--landwalkers and seafolk intermingled, what wasthis place?!--were mostly noticing Cora, but she and Nik were standing close enough that they caught the edges of people's attention.

Thrown entirely out of her element, the siren found herself shrinking back against Nik's chest, simultaneously seeming to futilely try to make herself unnoticeable while also positioning herself protectively in front of him.

[Goldie]

Nik caught her as she pressed closer to him, wrapping his arms protectively around her as he sensed her unease. No...unease was too small of a word but his mind couldn't function properly at the moment to coming up with something better.

What was this place? How had so many come to live here? Because he didn't doubt for a moment that they lived here. Wherever here was and whatever here was. Gods he didn't even know what to think anymore.

"Y...you brought them all here?" He finally found himself able to form words.

"Me?" Cora asked with a startled chuckle, "By the sea, no! But also a little bit yes?" She pursed her lips in thought for a moment and then shook her head, "This place has its own song, much like a siren." She nodded towards Morgana, "Only, you can't hear it or feel its pull unless you need it. The world is full of hatred and bigotry that threatens us all and I simply helped build a place that accepts us at our lowest. So you see...you have to be at your lowest to see it at all.

"So, really, though we happened to be nearby, if you weren't at your lowest...." She frowned and took a step forward to lean around Morgana and take Nik by the chin and staring into his eyes, "That shouldn't be happening." She murmured.

"Come." Her smile had faltered and she set off down the walkway with a brisk pace without even waiting to see if they were following.

[DragonSong]

Morgana found herself starting to bear her teeth in an instinctive threat display when Cora took Nik's chin in her hand. She forced herself to swallow it down, but she didn't move from her protective stance in front of him.

"What shouldn't be happening?" she tried to demand, but the other woman was already striding off down the hall. She twisted to look back and up at Nik over her shoulder. "She--I don't--"

She growled quietly, frustrated. "Do we...follow?"

Should they follow?

...Did they have another choice?

[Goldie]

Nik was just along for the ride at this point. He hadn't even really processed the fact that this woman, no, this witch, was his mother. A part of him still wanted to deny it despite the fact that they looked related not only in coloring, but in the shape of their eyes and the slope of their nose. Even the scales that danced across her skin was the exact same color as his scaled scars.

He licked his lips, "I...I don't know..." he admitted. He felt weak. He felt stupid. "I feel like I don't know anything anymore, Mor..."

But he didn't sound sad, he just sounded...lost. Confused. His words weren't laced with darkness or sorrow but rather spoken as if they were cold, hard facts. He ran his thumb across her cheek for just a moment before water slammed around them both so quickly it was almost like they were bugs being squished between the pages of a book. He gasped sharply as he was surrounded by cold for just a moment before his body reacted and transformed back into his hybrid self.

"Stop wasting time!" Cora's voice was sharp; biting. Then, Nik felt himself jolt forward and a string of surprised curses escaped his lips.

"There will be plenty of time for sight seeing, but if you'd rather not absorb another soul by sunrise, come now."

[DragonSong]

"Hey!"

Morgana lurched forward after Nik--not because she felt forced, but because judging from the cursing and his stilted motions he clearly had been. She grabbed for his arm--not trying to hold him back, but wanting to keep some sort of physical connection between them--and glared at his mother's back.

"Don't do that," she started hotly, anger making her eyes go from deep, inky obsidian to flat black, reminiscent of a shark. "You can't control him like that, it's--it's not right!"

[Goldie]

"The spell didn't take." Cora snapped, not even looking back to look at Morgana as she continued to swim forward and drag Nik behind her on some kind of invisible leash. Her teeth were clenched and the stress was audible in her voice as well as visible in her posture and overall speed with which she moved.

"What do you mean?" Nik asked, holding onto Morgana's hand tightly as he sped along. At this point he wasn't even fighting the magic that bound him and was just along for the ride. Literally.

"I mean, that something went wrong." She turned a corner and Nik's body jolted in the same direction and he flopped a little to the side almost like a child's doll. "Souls contain magic. A large amount of magic. As you get older the magic dwindles and you die."

Nik looked at Morgana, making sure to keep hold of her hand as tightly as he could, "I guess....that makes....sense...." he chewed on his words, trying to process everything that was happening. The spell didn't take. He might need to absorb another soul by morning. Gods, what was his life? How had he gotten to this point? How many people would he need to kill in order to stay alive?

Another corner sent his head rolling as he was dragged along, still grasping at Morgana's hand like a life-line. As long as he could feel her, he could see his reason for doing all of this. He was doing it for her. He would continue doing whatever he needed for her.

Then they were at a door that opened into a cave-like room that was also half wooden house. Shelves lined the walls and a table sat at the unsubmerged section of the room on planks of damp flooring. Cora waved her hand and the water parted as they stepped up onto the dry section and she sat him down on a chair before bustling off to begin pulling things down from the shelf.

"Mor..." he couldn't hide the fear that had crept into his eyes, "Are you ok with this? Being with someone like me? I'm....I....I'll have to absorb souls all the time won't I? Constantly. Otherwise I'll lose you."

[DragonSong]

Morgana gritted her teeth, but things were moving too fast for her to continue arguing with the sea witch about her control over her son--not that she was even entirely sure what she was arguing, she just...this just felt wrong.

When Nik looked to her, she tightened her grip on his own hand in silent assurance. She was half-jogging to keep pace as Cora--quite literally--seemed to be dragging them along. She stumbled when they wheeled around a corner, but held onto him all the tighter.

The moment they were inside the next room and he was all but shoved into the chair, she sank down next to him on her knees and moved her hand up from his to clutch at his arm.

Dark eyes once more liquid and bright, she reached up with her other hand to cup his cheek in her palm. "Anan'mar," she murmured. "I--I will help." She leaned in to press her forehead to his. "I'll help you. Whatever this is...we'll do it together."

[Goldie]

Cora sighed heavily from the shelves and muttered something about Nik being overly dramatic, but it was quiet and he couldn't hear her very well. Unbeknownst to him, the golden ring around his pupil had become significantly less bright since first absorbing the captain's soul, but it would be readily visible to someone like Morgana. What he did know was that buzzing in his ears had started again, but quietly and easily ignored.

He sighed and leaned against her forehead with one hand reaching up to touch the side of her head and just closed his eyes for a moment.

But a moment was all they'd have because Cora was back and pulled his chin to face her as she studied him like a scientist studies an experiment. Then, she ran her fingers through an odd smelling concoction mixed in a large clamshell and began drawing an intricate circular pattern in the center of his chest. The mixture was oddly warm against his skin as she worked.

"What are you doin—" she shushed him loudly and continued to work, not even taking a moment to answer him or assuage his fears. She was focused solely on the pattern against his skin before taking a step back to observe it.

"This might hurt." There wasn't even a pause between that statement and the next stage. She pressed two fingers to her lips and whistled softly while extending those fingers towards him as a thin thread appeared from her lips to her fingertips and then onto the pattern on his chest.

At first he didn't feel anything, but that only lasted a few moments as the thread expanded and made the pattern begin to glow, first softly and then brighter by the second.

As the light grew, so did the heat. He clenched his teeth and his grip on Morgana's hand grew tighter.

"Hold on."

Nik's whole body jerked forward as if being electrocuted and all he knew after that was light and pain.

[DragonSong]

Morgana had to bite back a hiss when Cora grabbed Nik's chin to turn his head. She was willing to believe the sorceress knew more about Nik's condition than either of them, but she really didn't like the way the woman kept jerking him around. Literally.

She swallowed down any number of complaints, deciding now wasn't the time--they seemed to have something of a deadline, and she didn't want to interfere with it.

That is, until Nik's grip on her hand tightened, and then he suddenly lurched forward as though pulled by strings. She cried out wordlessly and grabbed for his arm with her other hand, trying to keep him steady.

"What did you do?!" she demanded, snapping her head around to bare her teeth at Cora.

[Goldie]

Cora didn't even acknowledge Morgana as she focused all of her attention on Nik and the magic that she worked within him. Her brow was furrowed, eyes glowing brighter than the clearest ocean on a sunny day. In fact, her entire body began taking on an ethereal quality that intensified the closer she was to her son. Nik, himself, was soon flooded with golden light until only his outline was visible beneath blinding rays of magic.

Within the field, Nik couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but exist. Every nerve in his body was on fire and there was nothing he could do about it. Even his voice refused to work while he felt his skin stretch and pull seemingly from all different directions. At the center of it all was the design that Cora had drawn on his chest. It was like a black hole that sucked in everything: color, emotions, light.

The golden light that illuminated and consumed him began swirling gently around the circular design growing faster with each breath until it was a vortex of power spinning into his body. The light began to disappear, sucked inside faster and faster until it was gone.

His body collapsed into the chair and haggard breathing escaped from Nik's lips as he lay limply.

He was changed.

The scales that scarred his human body were gone, replaced by smooth unblemished skin. His wrists up to his elbows were now the only indication of his heritage as silver with a hint of ocean blue gently decorated the outsides of his arms before fading away like a whisper of the scales that lived within him waiting to be unleashed by the waves. And, just above his heart in the middle of his chest, remained the circular design that Cora had drawn but it was no longer a drawing, it was like a silvery brand upon his skin.

Nik groaned and his eyes fluttered open.

"Fuck."

Cora smiled. Then crumpled to the floor in a heap.

[DragonSong]

Morgana couldn't feel the magic, exactly, but it was like there was a soft buzzing wherever her skin touched Nik's. It grew steadily stronger, and in turn grew harder and harder for her to keep her grip on Nik as the glow around him became more intense, until finally she was forced to let go and stagger back with a small cry.

"Nik!"

He collapsed back into the chair and she stumbled forward to land on her knees just beside him, reaching up automatically to search him for injury. "Stars and seas, are you alright? What--how do you feel?"

She heard the soft thump as Cora collapsed behind her, and managed to spare the sorceress look over her shoulder.

She sighed. "I...should help her," she muttered, but seemed reluctant to move away from Nik's side.