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43 – Something Fishy

  ARWIN

  She appeared at the door of the lower sor in mid-afternoon.

  Arwin looked up. “You came.”

  The Dark Enchantress wore a white blouse with ce cuffs that looked like they could be rolled up and buttoned back. She also wore a bck pencil skirt that only reached mid-thigh and bck stockings. She was in heels again, though these were simple, bck pumps. Her long hair was in a loose ponytail tied high up on the back of her head, and she released it, shaking the hair free, as she came closer. When she saw Arwin surrounded by a pile of books on the table, she beamed. “You’re reading!”

  “Wow, you’re so surprised. You didn’t think I could read?” He gave her a mock-sad face.

  “What? No, of course not.” She looked flustered.

  With an exaggerated air, he pretended to be aggrieved. “I’m appalled that you think so little of me. Is it my face or my voice? Do I look stupid, or do I sound stupid?”

  She caught on to the teasing, gave him an apologetic look, and pyed along. “It’s…a little of both, actually. I’m so sorry.” She consolingly patted his shoulder.

  The fact that she’d joked back caught him off guard. It tripped him up for a half-second. He hadn’t been expecting her to be so quick and witty.

  He closed the book he’d been reading:

  A Visual Guide to Succubi

  and

  How to Make Contracts with Them

  She leaned over and caught the title. “Oh, good. I’m gd you found the picture books.”

  He coughed a ugh, unsure if he was supposed to be embarrassed. It was honestly a really fascinating read. “Hey, now. I read the articles too.” To be fair, the incredibly detailed pictures were both plentiful and ultra sexy and might have commanded some of his attention as well.

  “So you’re trying to figure out how to summon a succubus?” She looked at him with a mock pout. “Are you so bored of me already?”

  “Never!”

  “Huh.” She turned away and crossed her arms. “I was going to invite you to look around the castle a bit, maybe have dinner together, but if you’d rather hang out with some infernal woman from the Twisted Abyss, it’s fine. I understand.” She started walking away. “I’ll just leave you to it.” She mockingly dismissed him with a short wave.

  “No! I’d love to come with you.”

  “I’m going,” she called over her shoulder, her tone indicative that she was expecting to be followed.

  He scrambled up and trailed after her, suddenly in a very good mood. Being around her felt…fun more than anything else. Weird.

  They made their way up the main stairs. He stepped gingerly to avoid creepy crawlies and their homes. The further upwards they ascended, the more the webs around them diminished. Arriving at a higher floor, the spiderwebs ceased altogether, leaving the area with a much cleaner and less intimidating feel. Arwin breathed a sigh and rexed.

  She exited the staircase, and he followed, finding himself in a rge room with a domed ceiling. He came to a halt, taking in the scene around him. “What is this pce?” he wondered aloud.

  “It’s part museum, part hobby. I just thought you might find it interesting.”

  The room was dimly lit, most light coming from magical shafts of bright sunlight shining down on the many aquariums and terrariums on dispy. The stone walls and ceiling had been draped in royal blue velvet. Unlike the rest of the castle, the floor here was fully covered in rug. The colour of the carpet matched the drapes. Drapes and carpet deadened sound, and the deep blue gave the pce a calming mood while allowing each dispy to stand out in contrast.

  Around the outside of the room towered various vertical tanks, with dark-painted metal walkways high above for access. Some tanks had fish; others held exotic things that Arwin had never seen or imagined. There were several glowing species of jellyfish and some kind of underwater butterfly.

  A handsome, well-muscled merman or triton zily drifted on his back in one, somehow reading a book underwater. Some kind of rge octopus-type thing, each arm at least two meters long, rested on the floor in another. Arwin knew the tter wasn’t a true octopus, for its tentacles weren’t eight; they were myriad. The triton barely gave Arwin a bored once-over before returning to reading.

  He saw swimming serpents and brightly coloured, and probably poisonous, sea snakes and fish. Lithe blue sharks swam with deadly grace, and whenever they came close to another of their kind, small bolts of blue lightning crackled across their sandpaper skin. Brilliant coral growths formed mountains and tunnels in the tanks. Many terrariums featured fanciful cities, towns, and shipwrecks rendered in exquisite miniature. Each had a fully formed miniature environment with ndscapes and pnts. There were mountains and deserts, beaches and jungles.

  “Wow!” Arwin excimed, trying to get his face as close as possible to what appeared to be a royal port town destroyed by an earthquake. Half the town was still on the top of an isnd; the other half had crumbled into the sea. Pretty red crabs with cutsses crawled all over the ruins. “Did you make these? The artwork is incredibly detailed.”

  The Enchantress was wandering along the line of tanks, away from him, hand trailing on the gss as she admired the contents. She corrected him, “They’re not art. They’re real.”

  “Real?”

  She paused and looked over her shoulder. “That was part of a small seaside town in the pirate isles long ago. An earthquake destroyed it. As the original inhabitants no longer used it, it was shrunken and preserved here. All of the others are from simir situations.”

  “So, you didn’t shrink any of them down while they still had people in them before putting them in tanks? Give everyone crabs?”

  She shrugged, and a mysterious smile appeared on her full lips.

  What was he to make of that response? Was she evil or teasing? Sometimes, it was hard to tell with her.

  She ughed at the consternation on his face. “Nobody was harmed. The magic needed to do this was developed as part of a joint research project between a colleague and myself. I helped miniaturize the living things transferred to the preserved environment. Everything in the terrariums continues to exist as it had at full size.”

  “Just for decoration?”

  “Not entirely. My colleague is a kind of archeologist, historian, and preservationist. He’s devoted to preserving Heartstone’s past. If left alone, sites like that vilge would not just crumble in time but likely be torn down and built over by newcomers and then lost forever. Or gutted by adventurers and bck market antiquities scavengers. He saves them. It’s like having a picture of the past, but better. A reminder that the past did, in fact, exist, and here’s exactly what it was like. But in a space-saving size that is conducive to museums and galleries. And, obviously, you don’t have loads of tourists traipsing all over them, causing damage. They have to stay behind the gss.”

  “Genius!”

  Arwin eventually wandered into the center of the room, where there stood a gigantic gss bowl, at least a dozen meters in diameter. Inside was a rge statue and a rainbow maelstrom of different goldfish. Arwin pressed his hand against the centrepiece. It was as rge as a small swimming pool. Peach, white, and pink gravel covered the bottom, and from out of it grew tall, multi-coloured fronds of bck and pink vegetation that slowly waved in the current. A single lobster swam and pyed on the gravel, apparently orchestrating a good time. In the middle of the tank stood a statue of a human man and a mermaid entwined in love, the young man kissing the girl. The statue was made entirely of rose-white coral but for pure gold neckces, rings, and crowns worn by the romantic pair.

  The Enchantress joined him. “That was a real couple, long ago. A prince and a princess.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “They were cursed by a sea witch. Poor, unfortunate souls. Now they exist here, forever under the sea.” She sadly smiled. “But at least, this way, we, too, get to be part of their world.”

  Hundreds of goldfish milled about the central aquarium, some in groups, some alone. Arwin excimed, honestly delighted, “These are adorable!” He watched one swim by. It had four eyes, pink scales and delicate streamers. “I’ve never seen most of these species.”

  The Enchantress responded with pride, “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” She bent forward, face to the gss. Sunlight from above reflected off the gold on the statue and gave her face a yellow tinge. “Oh, it looks like the jewelled sunrises have had babies.” She pointed, referring to a specific species.

  Following her finger, Arwin saw a handful of tiny, partially transparent babies milling about.

  Her hand rose. “They’re gorgeous. But that’s a lot of younglings. We don’t want the tank to get too crowded. The old will have to make room for the new.” She used magic to take an adult up and out of the tank, spun it in the air, and then dropped it into her mouth. She bit down, and the fish exploded within her cheeks with an audible pop. It made crunching sounds as she chewed with relish. Speaking with her mouth half full, she confided, “I love when they burst, and you feel that cold, wet explosion of fresh deliciousness and—” She broke off as she turned and caught sight of Arwin’s horrified reaction. Her mouth froze mid-chew.

  Arwin looked at her in open disgust; he couldn’t help it. He feared his stomach was about to revolt on him.

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