Dark Waters Rising

Heart

Hot, burning pain roared in Valentine's abdomen. He had made the mistake of curling up before he was fully conscious, and now he was facing the consequences. A firm grip wrapped around one of his arms, guiding him to uncurl his body along with words that he could hear but could not understand. Eventually he recognized the voice as his mother's.

The subtle scent of his own blood drifted to Valentine's nose as he straightened out his frame and willed himself to relax against the sand beneath him. He weakly brought his hand up to feel his stomach only to find the area wrapped in seaweed. His nose scrunched as more pain shot through him, but he swallowed it down the best he could and forced his eyes to open.

Thankfully, the bioluminescent glow of the life around him was dim enough that it did not sting his eyes. Instead, it basked the area with just enough light to show Valentine that he was now inside the hull of what appeared to be a downed ship. The architecture was familiar, comforting, but it was also overgrown by glowing anemone and slick algae. The sun may not have made it down this far, but the bioluminescent creatures allowed a whole ecosystem to live without it. The sight of a surface vessel being overtaken by subsurface life reminded Valentine of his own duality. He felt nostalgic as he observed his surroundings, though he wasn't sure for which part of his life.

Andromeda's face came into his line of sight then, and he finally managed to focus on the words she was sending to him.

"You've managed to re-open your wound," she said with an unimpressed frown as she moved to replace the seaweed wrappings. "You need to stay still so it can heal properly."

Valentine nodded his head minutely. He wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep, but looking upon his mother's face was not a comfort. She appeared younger than he remembered. Not by a lot, but enough to tell. Even if the effects of her reverse aging were that fast-acting, he had to have been out for days. Maybe more.

"Here," his mother guided a fistful of kelp to his hands. "You should eat. You'll need your strength."

Valentine did as he was told. Looking past his mother, he easily spotted two other figures in the room. The older of the two had dark skin, close cropped, greying hair, and an emerald tail. There was not a single visible glow on his toned body, indicating his higher class. The younger of the two was obviously his progeny. They shared almost all of their features, with the exception of the younger being somewhere in the awkward stages between boyhood and manhood. Valentine could tell he was still growing into himself, but if his father was anything to go by, the boy would be a force to be reckoned when he got older. Turning his eyes back to the elder, who already had a pair of dark eyes trained upon him, Valentine cracked his lips apart to form around his words.

"You must be Calloway."

The man nodded, but said nothing else.

Valentine closed his eyes for a moment as a wave of pain stemmed from where Andromeda was re-wrapping his injury a bit tighter than necessary. Once the searing pain had died down to a glowing ember again, he re-opened his eyes and met Calloway's again.

"Do you know where they're keeping suspected magic wielders?"

"I do," the man said, thick arms crossing over his chest, "but you're not going to like the answer."

Valentine could feel his hope deflating.

"It's the heart, isn't it?" he guessed.

Calloway nodded grimly.

The entire kingdom of Aurelia was built upon the side of a vast, underwater mountain. The lower classes were condemned to live deeper, where the sun never reached them, while the elite families dwelled further up. The Aurelian palace, where Valentine had lived for the majority of his childhood, was nestled into the ruins of a long dead civilization. Elaborate structures of carved stone and cracked pillars made up the outermost sections of the palace. The rest of it was carved into the mountain itself. Beyond that, there was a labyrinth of tunnels that braided deeper and deeper into the rock. They reached all the way to the heart of mountain, and though Valentine had spent much of his childhood exploring the seemingly endless caverns, he'd never made it all the way to where his father kept his prisoners.

"We have to go there," he said, though he knew it was a fool's errand. The palace, the only entrance to the tunnels, was guarded heavily. Anyone who recognized him would kill him on sight. Anyone who didn't would arrest him for trespassing. Still, he had to try. For Wesley. "They have my mate."

"It seems we all have that in common," Calloway said.

Valentine's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

"They have my mate," Calloway elaborated. He nodded toward the boy and said, "His mother. They took her around the same time they took Andromeda's mate."

Valentine turned his gaze to his mother, accusingly at first, but it softened when he saw the broken look on her face. His mother did not show weakness often, but he could see it plainly in that moment.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked softly.

Andromeda shook her head softly, "Because I may not have him for much longer."

"We'll be with them again," Calloway said, as if reassuring himself. "If not in this life, then the next."

Valentine didn't have the heart to tell the man what the next life looked like. Instead, he settled for silently praying that he would be reunited with his merchant in this life.

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A/N

What's your favorite style of shoe? I wear the same pair of Dr. Martens every day of my life and they still have more sole than me. ;)

Next update Tuesday,
-Mora Montgomery