CH.432 Insane Princess

CH.432 Insane Princess

Once we got down to the island, we headed for the water.

Of course before heading in, Alice, Cailie and I swapped into our swimsuits. Again, Cailie doesn’t really need a swimsuit, but she wanted one, so I made her one.

Our swimsuits were full body ones that honestly looked more like wetsuits than swimsuits. Cailie’s only covered her top half, leaving her tail out, while Alice and mine were full body. Ours even includes webbed hands and swim fins for legs, so we could keep up with the speed Cailie could swim at.

“Do you have one for me?” Lady Janina asked, as we were getting dressed up.

“... no, sorry. I didn’t think you’d join.” I admitted.

“Well, what about a spare? I can alter its size with magic.” She said.

“Sure. I can give you Alice’s spare.” I told her before I got another wetsuit out of Storage and tossed it to her.

After just a bit of modification, Lady Janina was dressing up. I didn’t look, I swear, I don’t want to stare at her changing. It was a bit of a shame that I didn’t design Lady Janina a wetsuit, as she had to also alter the suit to have holes for her wings and her tail, so it likely is a bit less effective than it could be, but honestly speaking, I don’t think that is a problem for her.

“This way.” Cailie said, as she still moved with her floating wheelchair. “... okay. We’ll go under from here. Brian, can you get my wheelchair?”

“Yeah, I’ll keep it safe.” I responded.

Cailie then pushed herself off of the chair and dove into the water. I took her wheelchair into Storage and followed after her.

The ocean water wasn’t as cold as expected, but it wasn’t super warm either, so I definitely appreciated the wetsuit.

“This way.” Cailie called out from the front and we followed.

I guess now that we are swimming, it is about as good of time as any to go over our breathing devices. As I said earlier, we have three of them. Well, a primary one and two backups.

The primary breathing device basically creates an invisible bubble of air around the person's mouth, allowing them to breathe normally. It uses Wind Spirit Magic to make the air, regular Wind Magic to control the air and a bit of Water Magic to keep the water away. It also has an additional feature where it reinforces your voice to help you speak underwater.

The second option is a full face mask, looking kind of like those breathing masks from the Avatar movies. And no, not the one where people bend elements, but the one where humans decide that it is fun invading other planets. It also had the speakers that allowed for the wearer to communicate underwater, so that was nice.

The last one was one I styled after the breathers they use in the Hero’s country. It is basically this bite thingy you put in your mouth. Actually, it is kind of close to those breathers used in Star Wars. I personally hate them, because while they work just fine, they don’t cover your eyes, so you get water into your eyes, and they are impossible to speak with. ... If Ula heard that, she’d say I just haven’t practiced enough.

Following Cailie, we eventually spotted some sort of structures built at the bottom of the sea. ... Calling it a bottom feels wrong, because we aren’t actually all that deep, but still. Even if the sea isn’t deep here, it is still the bottom of the sea.

The structures looked like they had been made with Earth Magic, molding the seabed into houses and other shapes. ... Though calling them houses isn’t accurate either, since the way things are built is so different from basically anything I’ve seen. The underwater structures in the Hero’s country looked relatively normal, but these look like they really were built by a different race of people.

Which they of course are, but I was just corrupted by the way the Hero’s country built their houses for aquatic races. Those were much more ‘mixed use’. You could still almost use them even if you were a human.

As we got closer, we spotted a group of armed merfolk swimming towards us quickly. Someone must have spotted us and sent some guards to confirm who we are. Or maybe they will just see us as a threat and kill us on sight. Let’s see how this goes.

“Lady Dragon. What brings you here?” One of the warriors took the lead and spoke to Lady Janina. At least they clearly identified her as a dragon and showed her respect, so we are starting off well.

“Oh. I’m just here on a whim. She is the one you want to talk to.” Lady Janina said, pointing at Cailie.

Cailie then carefully swam to the front of our group, before speaking up.

Spoiler[collapse]Spoiler[collapse]

... what? Yeah, I know I just murdered him, but he is alive, so did he ever really die? It is nothing worse than what this clan did to Cailie. They threw her away like she was disposable, so I showed them just how worthless they are.

Swimming into the ... I guess this is a city, so I’ll call it a city. Swimming into the city with Daedalus still following us, I was expecting to see more merfolk, but the city seemed quite empty. Like it was made for a much larger population.

I know Jala told us that there was a second group that formed, but I assumed it was a small group of only a few merfolk, but honestly, looking at the city, I think it might be way larger than I assumed.

“... what happened?” Cailie wondered. “... where is everyone?”

Hearing what she said, one of the warriors, Larkos I believe, broke off their group and came to swim next to Cailie.

“... it was soon after your second imprisonment.” He began. “Our Lady got extremely angry at anything done wrong, and she began to banish people for the smallest of mistakes. I’ve heard they have formed their own clan on the other side of the island and one of Great Prabhu Jala’s students is keeping them safe.”

“... but why?”

“I do not know, but I believe it is because she sees them as useless. Before you were imprisoned, she could blame everything on you. ... but now, she no longer has the scapegoat and takes it out on everyone else.”

“... She... Is she insane?” Cailie pondered.

Yes. If that really is true, yes. Your sister has gone off the deep end.

“You useless piece of filth!” We heard someone shouting, followed by a cracking sound, almost like someone was whipping something ... or someone.

“Yes! Mistress! Please punish me more!” Was the shouts that followed, and I definitely recognized that voice. It belonged to Iremur. He is a freaking masochist.

“... Can we leave now?” I asked, really not feeling like dealing with this.

“You already killed someone, so just kill a few more and we’ll be done.” Alice said.

“... no killing. Please.” Cailie noted.

“Yes. Killing should never be the first choice, even if resurrection is an option.” Lady Janina said.

“... but we can’t just leave.” Cailie said. “If nothing is done, my sister will keep going. ... so I think it is time for me to show that I’m not worthless.”

As we got closer to the temple entrance, someone came out of it. Two people, actually.

One was Iremur, held in some sort of bindings made of water.

The other was a merfolk ... no, mermaid woman with a light blue tail, as well as long deep blue hair. She was ... well, I would call her extremely beautiful were it not for the expression on her face.

She looked almost deranged. And that isn’t good. Like at all.

In her hand was a whip made of compressed water, or at least I think that is what it is.

She looked up at us, first at Daedelus, then Lady Janina, quickly running her eyes over both Alice and I, finally locking onto Cailie. And as she did, her face morphed almost as in glee.

“He. He, he, he!” She began to laugh, and it sounded so wrong. Like someone who had never heard legitimate laughter trying to fake laugh after only hearing laughter described to them. “Welcome home, Sister!” She yelled. “Let’s play!”