Mr. Sangreal, with whom they were supposed to discuss the depths of the Mediterranean, had ironically disappeared beneath the surface of the waves.

Seraphin couldn't stop scanning the sea with his eyes, holding his breath as if he himself had slipped under the water. The surface rippled slightly beneath the lazy motion of the waves; it was a dark mirror of the night sky, adorned with the orange and gold freckles of the lights coming from the shore. No red hair.

«He's not coming out» He said aloud, inhaling through his nose. Salty air and scented candles.
«Maybe he's returning to the beach from somewhere else» suggested another of the scientists in the group, a serious-looking woman with green dye on her short hair. The color had been applied long enough for the dark roots to be visible by now.

«Maybe so» Seraphin nodded «Should I get in the water? Should I go get him?».

Marti pulled her phone from a pocket in her elegant jacket, turning on the flashlight to shine it into the darkness. Her smartphone was thin and transparent, looking like she was holding a thick, framed sheet of agar agar; phones like that had gone out of fashion a few years earlier, so easy to lose, but she still held onto hers.

«You can't see anything. If you dived in, how would you find him underwater in the dark?»

«By touch?»

«He must still be down there holding his breath, or did he come out somewhere else? If he'd fainted, his body would resurface»

«It depends. Not everyone is built to float, and he was fully clothed. Let's alert the staff»

«And what about our funding?» Marti objected, without warmth

«Oh»

«If the person we need to contact for funding jumped overboard and is... well, our project could be affected, right?»

«If he’s dead, we won’t be able to talk to him anyway» Seraphin observed «So we might as well do the right thing and try to help him, I think»

«Okay. Okay, that’s true»

«I’m going».

Seraphin touched the shoulders of the two closest sisters, in farewell and comfort, and strode off.

The interaction with Sangreal had been as brief as it was bizarre. The fact was simple: a man had heard him speak and, in deliberate response, had walked into the sea and not returned. Still fully dressed, too. But why? Was he okay? Seraphin had simply introduced himself.

President Aether saw the biologist striding breathlessly and motioned him closer with a limp flick of her wrist. Seraphin obeyed.

«Ah, dear. Have you spoken to Sangreal?» She asked, unmoved by Seraphin’s agitation

«I, yes, but, um… h-he s-he…» The woman’s flat expression stopped him. He was babbling. He took a breath and tried again: «I introduced myself, but he went into the sea and hasn’t surfaced yet. He might need help, a doctor».

Lusamine looked at the man with the pearl earring, who was still smiling and clinging tightly to her arm, an amused glint in his eyes. Then she smiled back and leaned slightly toward Seraphin, whispering as if in confidence:

«Typical Sangreal?».

The president had a way of speaking all her own, as if each sentence began a joke and ended with a question. Sometimes it was hard to tell if she was actually asking something or not, so, unsure whether jumping into the sea and perhaps drowning was typical of Sangreal, Seraphin simply blinked.

«Has it happened before?» He asked instead

«He's a bit introverted, but is it anything serious? Don't you worry?»

«I don't know if he's been underwater the other times... I mean, one can be introverted and still not be able to... to breathe underwater».
Lusamine had turned to look at other guests. Seraphin saw her gesture and immediately thought of a door closing: President Aether's attention was slipping away before he even considered alerting the medical staff.

«He's probably underwater» He repeated «How does he breathe?

«With his gills?»
«But...».
The president turned to look at him with such obvious annoyance that Seraphin immediately retraced his steps. He couldn't risk upsetting her, turning his back on the lucky star that had allowed him to win her favor until now.

He clasped his hands together and flashed the most amiable smile in his repertoire.

«Thank you very much for your time, President. I ask nothing more of you. You knows the situation better than I do, so it reassures me to see you calm» He added a light laugh, placing a hand on his heart «I owe it to you. Have a good evening, thanks again».

The woman showed her teeth in a smile.

«Let's talk again. I'll email you?»

«With pleasure» the biologist replied, relieved.

Seraphin waited for Lusamine and her companion to leave first.

With gills, She had said.

«With gills» Seraphin repeated, without even realizing it, when he reached the sisters.

One of the four women, who had short, purple hair neatly pinned to her head with hair gel asked him back, «Gills?»

Seraphin shook his head, as if to snap out of his thoughts.

«That's what the president told me. That her friend Sangreal breathes with gills»

«What do you mean? Does he... does he have gills? Is it a device called 'gills,' or is it...»

«I don't know, I have no idea! But at least... at least she told me she'll email me, so at least we've bypassed the control of this... this... Sangreal»

«Is he alive or dead?»

«Eh!» the other sisters chorused, gesturing agitatedly.

Seraphin closed his eyes, lowering his chin to his chest. What was he supposed to do now? Would it be considered a failure to assist, doing absolutely nothing?

«It's him! There he is!» Exclaimed Nana, pointing to the dark sea.

The whole family pointed their eyes where Nana indicated. It looked like something, roughly human-shaped, was actually emerging from the water, though it was strangely flat.

«Damn, how do we get him?» Marti asked, taking off her shoes and wading into the water barefoot «Oh, Arceus, it's freezing!»

«Let's give him something to grab!» said the green-haired scientist

«What?»

«I see a broom down there! Wait, I'll get it!».

Seraphin laughed nervously. Even though they were in a potentially dangerous situation, if not for themselves, then for Sangreal, he couldn't help but notice how this simple request for funds was turning into a daring rescue.

«Get him, get him!»

«Hey! Sangreal, grab... hey... wait...».

The waves had pushed the floating shape toward them, and that was how they realized it wasn't a human. «Those are his clothes» Marti said, lifting a jacket with the broomstick «He took off his clothes»

«Is he naked?» Aliana giggled, putting a hand over her mouth

«They're just his clothes, he's not here».

Seraphin breathed a tiny sigh of relief: a drowning person usually can't undress. He helped his sister pull all the pieces of Sangreal's clothing out of the water: his jacket, his shirt, his pants, one of his socks (the other had gotten lost somewhere, it was hard to see in the dim light), and even a pair of red underwear.

«I thought he was wearing his diving suit under his regular suit» Marti commented «But... well...»

«Who wears underwear over their diving suit?» Seraphin finished, throwing the piece of underwear onto the sand behind him «He must have taken it all off»

«What's wrong with him?»

«I don't know! How am I supposed to know what's wrong with him?!» Seraphin threw his arms in the air, but he was more amused than exasperated, now that he knew that probably no one had died, and that it was some elaborate and incomprehensible prank.

He knew how rich people were: they liked to surprise people. Walking into the sea and somehow managing to strip completely underwater was certainly a way to get people talking.

«So you talked to him, and he went into the sea and stripped naked» Marti summarized, smiling as she nodded winkingly at her brother.

«I just introduced myself, I repeat, I just told him who I am» As he spoke, Seraphin pounded his chest with the stiff tips of his fingers

«A bit melodramatic, my friend. Now what should we do?»

«Uh... we sit and wait for him to come out? We can watch the stars from the beach»

«Are we really that desperate, brother? Can't we go back to the party?»

«Do you want to go back to the party or do you want to look at the stars with me? I have an excuse to stay out here, I'm not wasting it»

«Looking at the stars. Looking at the stars is better».

Seraphin sat down on the sand, less than a foot from the highest point of the waves. Supporting himself on his hands, he leaned back a little and looked up. Most of his sisters followed suit, but the green-haired one remained standing, her nose pointed in the air.

«It's a beautiful night» Marti said, stretching her legs out in front of her. She had sat a little further back than her brother, but even so, her toes occasionally touched the water.

Seraphin laughed, feeling a small lump in his throat. Beautiful things always moved him. The light breeze, the smell and sound of the sea, the beach illuminated by the golden lights of the party behind them, being with her sisters in the midst of another crazy adventure, the sky above her head that looked like a black sheet of paper, one of those thick cardboard ones, in which someone had punched a myriad of tiny holes through which the light of another world shone, far away.