Seraphin was a little surprised to see that it was true; they hadn't met him yet. That was probably one of the reasons Prue was taking so long to give them a tour of the Nihil: they couldn't leave without Sangreal.

«Well, let's hope the thing in the sea didn't eat him» Nana said. And she pulled the photo she'd taken earlier from her purse.

«The thing in the sea?» Marti asked, hurrying with her sisters to surround Nana.

Seraphin arrived last and craned his neck above the others' heads to look at the photo.

«What is it?» He asked, his eyes wide

«A fish» Ionia replied «A very strange fish»

«A fish with a plastic bag obstructing its view and making it look like it has an unusual shape?» Martine tried to guess

«It has arms» ​​said Nana «I've been looking at it for a while... I don't think it's an optical illusion. Its shape is too precise, too organic».

The photograph showed the smiling group, facing the sea: slightly off-center, with plenty of open space visible above Nana's head. The water was clear, a spectacular blue, and in that blue, in the distance, something could be seen, a serpentine shape that seemed to be heading toward the ship. It was gray, but a small piece of its back was protruding from the water, and if one looked very closely at the photo, they could make out some red in the shape of a fin. The part of the shape closest to the boat, though blurry, was thicker and swollen than the rest of the serpentine body, with two things that looked like arms, or very long, strangely articulated fins.

«It's an oarfish» Seraphin said, his eyes narrowed «Not a monster»

«Here's the arms» ​​Nana reiterated

«They're the oars, the pelvic fins, not the arms»

«Its front is too swollen for an oarfish»

«Are you seriously suggesting it's a monster?».

Nana laughed, fanning herself with the Polaroid. «No, come on! It's just that there's all this mystery surrounding what happened, and then a strange fish pops up in the photo and...»

«We're trying to study these» Marti said, her voice very high.

The Panorme siblings suddenly burst into a series of choruses, slapping each other on the back, hugging, and jumping.

«An oarfish! It's an oarfish!».

They ran to the spot where they'd taken the photo, nearly falling down the stairs, sticking their hands to the glass and scanning the entire sea. No sign of the fish.

«What did I miss?» Sangreal's voice asked, slowly emerging from the stairs.

Seraphin gestured in his direction, inviting him closer.

«We saw the first oarfish of the expedition! I can't believe it!»

«Really?» Sangreal raised his eyebrows «So close to the coast?»

«Yes!»

«Either that» Nana interjected «Or it was a sea monster that can make people lose their sanity»

«And where is it now?» the krill expert inquired, approaching the glass window with his hands behind his back, his eyes scanning the waves

«We can't see it anymore!»

«Maybe it was a sea monster that can make people lose their sanity» he declared, before turning and heading down the stairs.