After Ice

The Portal

"So what are we going to do?" I ask, flicking my toes, droplets raining down from where we sit on the rocks. Rei scrutinizes the ripples, watching as they expand and disappear.

"Originally, I was going to go back so that they could outcast us on the nearest landmass," he tells me, expelling air. "Now, I think I want to make a deal with Esther."

"Esther?" I ask, letting my head fall to one shoulder.

"The Queen."

"Oh." Rei purses his lips.

"Each sundown this pool becomes a portal to Nemaephis, which we'll take tonight. I'm going to ask Esther how to... fix this thing between us. The one that allows you to do... stuff." He hurries on after glancing at my face. "I don't want to hurt anything or anyone every time I touch you. I want to be able to do it without the ground tearing apart, so we'll have to ask her why. She'll be able to help us, and I thought that you'd want that too."

I wait for a beat after he finishes.

"And what will we give her in return for helping us?" Rei looks down, turning his head away. "If you go back, the Mer won't appreciate it. They might hurt you. I don't know if Esther will make a deal with an outcast Mer."

"There's only one way they'll bargain with me," Rei says quietly, still refusing to look in my direction. "The Alliges Duplicia, it's a binding oath."

"And what does it do?" Rei doesn't answer.

I let it drop for now.

"I feel really helpless, you know." He turns to me, waiting. I laugh. "You're way stronger than me, can swim better than me, know what to eat and what to do and how to do it, but I just keep asking questions. I feel like maybe I'm just holding you back; making things harder." He opens his mouth, but I continue. "I'm not angry, I just hope that you're not mad about having a tag-a-long that you need to explain everything to." I stare him in the eyes, the ones that are shifting between different shades of blue, green, and grey.

"Well," Rei smiles, shaking his head. "You're not my tag-a-long, Shai. You're the reason that I want to do this." He leans towards me, and I get the feeling that he's trying to imply that he's sincere, but I can't help my reaction. I glance down at how close he is, and Rei grins crookedly. "I would just tease you until the sun went down, but then we'd probably have no island." He ducks closer, tilting his head. "And I get the feeling there's something else you want to ask me."

I shift, and he pulls back as I drag my feet through the water, wondering if he will become closed off from me if I do ask.

"Rei..." He raises his eyebrows. I open my mouth to try and start, moving my jaw. His eyes follow the movement and his hair flares up briefly. "I really don't mean to pry, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but... Why were you cast out?" The Mer's lips part in surprise, but he quickly recovers, changing positions. 

I've asked him this before, but he didn't answer then.

"Merpeople are thrown out when they do something to displease the Queen, and it's this way for a lot of others. I know this may come as a shock, but humans are actually quite rare. There are plenty of other creatures that exist that you just haven't found." 

"So you were thrown out because you did something to make Esther mad? That's-" He gives me a look.

I shut up.

"A long time ago, the Mer came out of hiding when the world was thawing after the Ice. Before, humans had tried to reverse climate change, but in the process had frozen the earth. The Mer were planning to drown a human city that had murdered us in the past because we were different and more powerful than they were." 

Rei shrugs. 

"Being stupid, I went to warn the humans. There was someone who I was friends with; a girl. She was so little, and not all of you were horrible. I- I wanted to save her. She and a few others were able to run from the water. I gave her a sea glass stone to break should she ever need me." One of Rei's hands curled into a fist. "Many years passed and I knew that she was dead. No human lives for thousands of years. It was that day in your town that someone must have accidentally broken it. I swam there, thinking that she had passed it down through the generations. I took a wave to the top of the wall, climbing down the engineering ladders. But your town hated the Mer. So they took me." Rei shakes his head, looking down. "It was a clumsy mistake. So now I'm paying the price." 

Of wanting to go back, but you can't.

"So you aren't my age at all," was my relatable comment.

"What on earth gave you that idea?" It takes me a minute to realize he's being sarcastic.

A Mer. Sarcastic.

"You also said that humans are rare. Why?" Rei picks up a rock and chucks it in the water, once again watching the ripples.

"There used to be billions on earth, so many that a one-child policy was passed to try and manage their numbers. Pollution raised the temperature way too high anyway. When they reversed the climate, it went a little too far. The whole world began to freeze as the sun couldn't get through the atmosphere, and that was the Ice. Eventually, as human numbers decreased and the cities were abandoned, Earth began to right itself. But only a small portion of life was human. The rest were creatures that were... similar."

I take my feet out of the water, beginning to braid my hair. My fingers catch on a knot, and I tug them through.

"The town walls weren't protection, then," I murmur. "They were gates to keep us inside. To keep the human race alive." I finish my braid, and Rei raises one arm cautiously as if he can't decide whether to touch me or not. I lean into him anyway, resting my head on his shoulder as he lets out a shuddering breath.

"When the earth began to thaw, all the glaciers melted. There used to be cities on land, massive ones in America and Asia. Everything except small portions of land sunk underwater, including most of the lower areas. So many people died that the humans barricaded themselves in higher places to keep themselves out of danger."

We are silent for a moment, Rei's fingers tracing patterns on my shoulder. It's hard to filter all the information in. Except it must be true. It has to be.

Because it all fits.

Many hours later as the sun begins sinking, Rei and I wade back into the water. Red, orange, and golden light filter in through the boulders making the water to appear oily, and my hair a flame. I stand deep enough that the water laps around my neck, swirling around Rei's shoulders. He glances up as the sun descends into a fiery red blob, taking hold of my hands. My heart pulses faster, my mind blank. 

We're going to Nemaephis, the underwater ruined city of the Mer.

Should be a vacation.

Time flies, and soon, there is only a red speck. The world plunges into darkness as the freshwater begins to swirl. Something dark seeps out from the bottom, and Rei grips my hands tighter, pulling me against him. The darkness reaches our feet, and a second later as I suck in air, we are yanked under. 

Then something comes crashing down on me, a thought so obvious I can't believe I hadn't brought it up. There's no going back, though, after the water pulls over my head, the cold eating away at my bones as we are whirled down down down through the portal of the ocean.

I'm human.

I can't breathe underwater.

And neither can Rei.