“Fine, I’ll admit it, I’m an idiot. I should’ve trusted the humans. We never should have left the camp,” Enomy said, still thoroughly aware of and annoyed by the magic poisoning her… her – his – no, her, no… urgh… whatever… mind.

“Did you see how many there were?” asked Tiphaine, unaware of her mental battle, still slowly dragging Emony limply behind her with the back of her tail. “That was no small skirmish! I hope the humans win – those dead people really are crazed monsters!”

“Makes you question who you make friends with, I hope. By the divines, what has that Verena gotten involved with? Also, are you sure we are going in the right direction? We’ve been going downwards for a while now.”

She/no, definitely he – no, wait… she?... Which one was it? She should have definitely been feeling emasculated by then, she thought, after being carried around by Tiphaine for so long, but, disturbingly, she didn’t.

“You still don’t trust me?” Tiphaine inquired. “I think I’ve proved myself both smarter and more capable than you tonight. Urgh, I’m sorry, I have to stop for a moment. I’m going to throw up. I’m exhausted… you’re heavy.”

“Rude. You should never say that to a woman.”

“Haha, have you accepted that you are one right now, then?” Tiphaine laughed before spitting a couple of times on the ground. “Lenah did say it would affect your mind, too. Feeling girly?”

“That’s not happening,” Emony lied. “It’s just hard to deny it, what with me being forced to watch my very own tits bounce around on the ground. Hey, Tiphaine. Mine are bigger than yours.”

“No, they’re not. Pervert. We’ll have to find you a bra after this.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll just ask the knight commander to give me one, that’s a conversation I’ll look forward to. I’ll need a new tunic too, actually. This one’s ripped in so many places it’s a miracle it’s still on. Won’t be for long, though, since you were so rough with me. And I need pants again. I blame Lenah for all of this. Say, what’s that over there? Something looks shiny. I think we’re reaching the end of the forest.”

“Thank the divines,” Tiphaine said.

A moment later, however, they realized their mistake.

Emony simply smiled. “You’re an idiot, Tiphaine,” she laughed, feeling a perverse resignation cloud her mind, momentarily filling her with glee even as she noticed again how cute she sounded. “You brought us straight to the lake.” She looked into the jeweled eye sockets of her mask. “Ha! And you’re too tired to carry me any further! We’re dead!”

Still breathing hard, Tiphaine reached under her mask and wiped off the rain and sweat from her forehead while Emony laughed.

“No, we’re not. Not yet. I was lying, you’re actually really light. I can easily keep going, I won’t leave you. But look – the rain is starting to stop. Maybe you can grow legs again if we dry you off quickly.”

“I’d have to be completely dry, Tiphaine. That’s not going to happen. Oh, and… The human said the undead return to the lake when it stops raining. We’re screwed.”

“No... Verena might be able to help us! If only we could find her…”

Emony quickly glanced over at her surroundings. The only mermaid she could see was herself.

“Hey, do you think the men of the lake are better swimmers than a mermaid? Maybe I could carry you now.”

Tiphaine slithered nervously back and forth, looking in the direction of the lake. “Even if you’re a fish now, you don’t have much experience swimming, doggy.”

“Stop calling me that. Well then… we really are down to screaming for help. I can hear them coming.”

It was true, the quiet rustling of the forest’s undergrowth was slowly getting louder behind them. The dead were returning to the lake, and the two of them were in their way.

“Verena!” Tiphaine shouted at the top of her lungs. “Verena, we’re here to see you! Are you there?!”

“Mermaid, king of the lake! We come in peace! We are friends!” Emony joined in.

The army of the undead had reached the edge of the woods and was already stepping onto the pebble beach the two of them were stranded on. A hundred rotting faces stared at them with lifeless eyes, a hundred swords clutched in what remained of their bony hands. They walked towards them in unison, as though a single entity.

“Stop moving!” Emony hissed, lacing her voice with magic. It worked – but on Tiphaine. Not on the men of the lake. “Don’t get any closer!”

As the undead moved unrelentingly closer, a trickle of water sounded right behind her. Turning around quickly, she saw something resembling a human walking out of the lake.

He was a gaunt, tall and pale man, with majestic clothing that had been ripped apart by age and murky water, and long grey-white hair tied in knots over his middle-aged face. There was a long, broad sword on his back, and he wore an expression of undiluted contempt. He stalked out of the water towards them, completely unimpeded by it, and looked down at them from the wet ground.

Emony noticed out of the corner of her eyes that the undead had stopped moving towards them.

“King of the lake,” she proclaimed quickly, unable to show much respect as she was already laid low on the ground without her legs, “We come in peace.”

“You can move again,” Emony whispered to Tiphaine, noticing her companion’s affliction.

I should have made her leave me while I had the chance! she realized in horror, though by then it was too late.

Tiphaine quickly bowed. The snakes on her head were dead quiet. Even those things were afraid.

The king glared at the two of them, as if disgusted. Emony looked down from her face towards the ground, signaling submission. She noticed his chest was moving, so he must have been breathing. He was alive – if only sort of. Tiphaine was struggling for breath. He must have been the source of all the black magic in the air. Even Emony could feel it.

“Who are you?” the king asked calmly, seemingly putting away his anger for a moment.

“I am Emony, and this is Tiphaine,” she said. “We’ve come here because we were told our friend lives in this lake. Her name is Verena.”

“You know the lady Verena?”

The lady? Are you friends? If not, we’re dead.

“Tiphaine used to be close to the lady Verena. We don’t mean to interfere with anything happening here. We only want to speak to her, but if you wish it, we will leave immediately,” Emony said, daring for merely a moment to look up from the ground.

The king’s murderous stare was pointed straight at her eyes. He left it there for many moments before turning it to her golden tail and studying it for a few long, quiet seconds.

“Men!” he suddenly boomed. Emony flinched. “Return to your stations.”

Upon hearing the command, the entire army of corpses surrounding them started walking towards the lake and disappearing, one after the other, under its surface. Emony saw, from the corner of her field of vision, that some were carrying soldiers that he’d seen in the camp that very day.

More fodder for the army, she thought. The volume of black magic this king must possess… There is too much.

Even the one she’d decapitated earlier was walking into the water, apparently unimpeded, holding its severed head in its hands.

Only once the entire army, a thousand men at least, had left, did the king speak again.

“I believe I may have heard of you, snake, from the lady Verena. You two will find her in the depths. Should you be friends, I will refrain from making you join the ranks of the dead. If you are not, you will become tools, like the rest.”

“Understood,” Emony and Tiphaine said in unison.

“Come, then. I take it the water will welcome you, snake?”

Tiphaine glanced over at Emony in fear, shaking her head. “I… I can’t breathe underwater.”

The king, despite his showing a smile, seemed ever more ready to grasp his sword. “Is that so? You claim to have been close with Verena, yet she hasn’t given you the gift? That is strange. Well, perhaps your friend can give it to you, then.”

“I don’t know how. I’ve never done it before,” said Emony, who knew next to nothing about the powers of mermaids. She wasn’t a real one, anyway.

“You don’t know… how?”

“It’s a long story.”

The king seemed to contemplate something, his suspicious demeanor abating for a moment. “Are you from the seas of Aeliah? Your accents betray you. Verena told me of those ignorant few that never left the waters there, that taught her of magic… They were opposed to my love… Alas, it matters not if it is merely your family that is wretched. We are at an impasse. You need to kiss.”

“K-kiss?” Tiphaine stuttered.

“As I said. A mermaid’s kiss allows a being of the land a life underwater.”

Emony glanced over at Tiphaine nervously. “Maybe... if you don’t want to, you could stay out here. I could talk to Verena alone.”

“No. You will both go – and enough delays. I will not be made to wait,” growled the king. “Are you friends or foes?”

“It’s okay,” said Tiphaine fearfully, shakily taking off her mask, her eyes closed.

It’d be impossible to miss the blush on Emony’s face. But under these circumstances… she’d have to accept that their first would be with her in this form. “Then… come closer,” she said, lacing magic into her voice.

Both Tiphaine and the king did so immediately, startling all three of them. A moment later, the confusion that’d spread across the king’s face turned to rage. The air swirled, tendrils of black magic becoming visible and spreading all around them. With unbridled fury, the king brought his wicked sword down within an inch of Emony’s eyes.

“Do not enchant your words to me! Nobody will sing to me but my queen!” he bellowed.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!” Emony cried, her voice reaching a fever pitch.

The tendrils of black magic spread angrily through the air.

“No more delays,” the king snarled.

Emony hastily nodded.

“Tiphaine, I can’t reach you. Lean in,” she said quietly. This time, the magic worked only on her.

As soon as her companion got close enough, Emony raised herself off the ground on thin arms and reached for her lips.

Tiphaine’s expression tightened when they touched, her face becoming a crimson shade of red. But then her expression abruptly changed.

All of a sudden, she lurched away from Emony, convulsing on the pebbly ground, clutching her stomach with an expression of pure agony written all over her.

She was writhing right in front of her. Forgetting everything else, Emony grabbed Tiphaine’s shoulders, quickly trying to find a way to help. She didn’t know where to start.

“Tiphaine!” she squeaked. The king only looked on with indifference. “Tiphaine, don’t feel pain! It doesn’t hurt!” she shouted, over and over again. It didn’t work. “You’re okay!”

A minute later, after Emony had failed to help her in any way, Tiphaine stopped shaking and opened her eyes. Emony quickly avoided them.

“I’m okay,” she whispered, and put her golden mask back on, her hands trembling, before gently leaning on Emony’s shoulder.

The king gave them a moment to compose themselves before he spoke again: “Come. I have no more time to waste on your nonsense. Follow me and meet your fates. If you spoke the truth regarding your relationship with the lady Verena, I will apologize for causing you this pain. If you lied, you will die horrible deaths.”

The king turned towards the lake, giving them no more of his attention, and walked into the water.

Emony and Tiphaine glanced at each other for a moment, unsure, then nodded. Tiphaine wrapped her tail around Emony and dragged her across the pebbles to the edge of the water. There, she saw steps leading down into the lake. Real, stone steps, carved into the ground, without a trace of dirt or seaweed on them.

Emony likely couldn’t use them, though the king was somehow doing so just ahead of them. In any case, she hoped swimming would come naturally to her – along with breathing underwater. She’d never tried either.

Still nervous, she and Tiphaine shared one last look before they each took a deep breath and held it for as long as they could while they pulled themselves under the surface.