The vibration of the Nihil's engines was incredible: it was as if the entire ship had come to life, as if blood were pulsing inside her, breathing deeply as she cut through the waves.
It took the Panorme family a while to get used to the sensation.

Sangreal, elegantly seated in one of the armchairs with his legs crossed, gazed out at the sea with the absolute tranquility of a dead man in his eyes.

They were headed to the first observation point, about thirty kilometers from the coast. Some records reported ancient sightings around a buoy; the buoy had not existed for hundreds of years, and was likely one of the things, if not the thing, that had attracted the oarfish, but the marine biologists currently had no other evidence of the presence of oarfish populations and had to make do.

When they arrived, the sea was rough, the wind swelling the gray waves, making them splash noisily against the lower part of the hull.

«Shall we disembark?» Sangreal asked, suddenly coming to life, stretching his legs to stand.

Nana approached him. She had been standing on the stairs leading to the upper deck, but had decided to turn back.

«Disembark? Where are we going?»

«Into the water» Sangreal replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world

«You're in such a hurry to jump overboard, aren't you?» she laughed «Where's the equipment?»

«I'll take you. We've got everything, we're ready. Gather your sisters. And Seraphin, too».

Ten minutes later, the Panorme family stood near one of the ship's rear stairs, looking out at the waves that seemed made of iron.

«Why, exactly, is Sangreal in such a hurry to jump now, with the sea so rough?» Ionia asked, putting her hands on her hips

«Because he's a fishman» Nana laughed, carrying a pair of wetsuits under her arm.

Sangreal was trudging along behind her, the wind ruffling his hair and beard, his gaze determined.

«You have no idea what's down there» Nana continued «I saw some incredible gear, lots of colorful diving fins and stuff»

«Did Sangreal take you there?» Seraphin asked, shrugging and hunching his neck. The wind was merciless with his carefully combed hair, forcing it into a tiny, tight bun, but the loose lock of hair flapped against his cheek, his forehead, his eyes.

Nana nodded, then pointed to the floating, wheelless cart that Sangreal was dragging. Inside the cart, which like the rest of the ship was white and gold, all sorts of equipment could be seen: tanks, fins, full-face diving masks (as well as more traditional masks, of course), weights, belts, suits, sample collection containers, a couple of floating balloons, and some cameras.

«So, are we starting work right away?» Martine asked «Even in such rough sea?»

«Especially in rough sea» Sangreal explained «You don't want to miss the best sightings»

«Oh no, of course, not the best ones»

«Do I detect sarcasm in your voice?»

«If I die, you pay»

«Actually, it's the insurance who will pay» Sangreal looked confused «You were there too, when the contract was signed, I remember you clearly»

«Yes, of course. It was... it was a figure of speech»

«Strange expression. I imagine it's normal for your people, though. Sorry, I didn't understand... well, I can't guarantee we'll see any oarfish right away. But there's a good chance»

«Right away?» Seraphin exclaimed excitedly

«There's a chance» Sangreal repeated  «If we hurry. The ship just arrived, the anchor will attract them, but their curiosity won't last forever. We have to take advantage of this if we want to see them»

«Oh, sure! Sure. You're the expert!»

«Then let's go»

«Um, we have to change»

«Do it»

«Here... here on the deck? Out in the open?» Seraphin chuckled nervously

«Are you cold?» Sangreal asked, looking him directly in the eye. He seemed impervious to the wind, uninterested in the way he flapped his jacket.

Seraphin blinked, surprised.

«Yes» He said, trying not to overemphasize it «The wind is stripping the heat from me now, and if I were bare-skinned... but I don't want to miss a sighting! Just give me a moment and I'll join you»

«I'm sorry, I hadn't considered that you might suffer from it»

«I envy you, my friend»

«The water will be cold too»

«But the wetsuit also serves that purpose, it provides a bit of thermal insulation. By the way, which one do you have?».

Sangreal frowned, as if making a small private calculation, then began to undress.

«And that makes two» Marti said, raising his thumb and forefinger in a V «You talk to him and he undresses»

«I think it's the sea that has that effect on him» Seraphin replied absently, watching their supervisor with interest.

He was sliding his jacket off his shoulders, but his movements were a little awkward, so much so that Seraphin had the urge to go help him. He stayed where he was.

«Seraphin?».

He wondered if he would be able to see the "gills," the device that allowed him to breathe underwater that Sangreal had at the gala. Was he still wearing it? Was it something he wore or something installed in his body, some sort of biomechanical enhancement?

He couldn't see anything attached to the pale curve of his neck.

«Seraphin».

His dark forelock, tossed by the wind, continued to obscure his view of Sangreal.

The aristocratic profile of his neck and face, crowned by the red mane of his hair, seemed made to be carved into an agate and coral cameo. He gazed out to sea with an intensity that pierced the waves.

Dark freckles adorned his strong shoulders and chest, fading as his torso slimmed down to his narrow waist, revealed as he dropped his wine-colored shirt. They didn't look blue in the daylight. And Sangreal always had very little respect for his fine clothes.

«Seraphin, we have to...»

«Change clothes! Of course. And go searching for the legendary oarfish! Yes, yes, yes, let's go».

The Panorme family took refuge inside the Nihil to get equipped, practically in the hallway so as not to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for their mission; trying to hurry, there was a constant tugging of wetsuits and fins to get them into place, and a continued passing of objects.

They had grown up together and continued to share the same house: seeing each other in their underwear didn't embarrass them.

«Do you think Sangreal has already jumped?» Ionia asked

«For sure the guy is not waiting for us» Marti declared

«We should have given him a camera» her brother sighed, handing her a white and blue mask «So if there are any, we'd at least be sure to have some photos...».

The wetsuit provided by the ship's equipment was made of thick neoprene, with zippers at the wrists and torso to reduce water infiltration and double-layer anklets. They were semi-dry suits, designed for cold water.

«How will he not get hypothermia?» Nana asked, clearly referring to Sangreal

«He must be like those crazy people who dive in the Arctic» Marti laughed «Accustomed to the freezing cold».

They raised hoods, closed velcro flaps and zippers, and tightened buckles. 

«I didn't even want to go down there» Celestine said seriously, as she jumped toward the foaming waves. She turned to the water, splashing, and plummeted vertically.

«She's crazy» Seraphin commented, amused, carefully climbing down the ladder to the lowest platform, where he put on his fins before sitting down and sliding into the water, lying on his side.

The water wasn't nearly as cold as it looked: almost warm, but terribly murky, it pounded Seraphin's shoulders.

«Ah, that's how he'll avoid dying of hypothermia» Marti commented, descending into the water, right behind her brother.

«Yeah» Seraphin reached out to grab the BCD, the buoyancy compensator with the scuba tank mounted on it, which Nana was handing him «We should go join him, shall we?».

Nana was the last to enter the water. «Do you think he's completely naked again?» She asked, just before putting the regulator in her mouth and disappearing beneath the waves.

The visibility wasn't perfect. Sangreal, certainly, wasn't in sight. Martine, as the eldest sibling, was the first to light a flashlight (even though there was no need) and gather all her sisters, gesticulating. They had their own way of communicating underwater, made of finger gestures and neck movements, and that's how she let the others know they had to head for the anchor.

They passed under the immense belly of the ship, the dull thud her mere presence made in those waters in their ears, and they reached the thick golden anchor chain. Even though they were underwater, Nana couldn't help but laugh, her index fingers pointing and pointing at the metal, as if to say, "That's absurd, they've painted the chain!".

From there, they began to descend. Not even six or seven meters away, they saw what looked like a long silver body.

Celestine nudged Marti's arm, and she grabbed her brother's ankle. When he turned, she pointed into the dark blue-gray. Seraphin immediately raised the camera dangling from his neck and flapped at full speed to reach the fish, but within a moment it had vanished. He turned back to his sisters and shrugged. Martine gave him a playful slap, then headed back to the place where they had spotted the animal, but no matter how far she pushed, she saw nothing, and she too was forced to return to the anchor.

Even though they knew they had probably missed their only chance to photograph an oarfish that day, they had to try to get further down. Sometimes there were two oarfish, when they were this close to the surface, traveling in pair.

Martine swung the flashlight to attract attention, a column of bubbles rising from her respirator.

Some thing.

Seraphin could only think this: "something." A monster, a dragon... a fish. A body that looked like a silver ribbon, no, a mirror, bisecting the water horizontally. Beautiful.

And too big.

Was an oarfish supposed to be that big? It was incredibly thick, too close to them. Seraphin felt a shiver run up his spine, momentarily paralyzing his legs.

The great ribbon began to move, changing angles, slowly until it was vertical. It was so long that its tail disappeared, blending into the darkness below them.

Marti swam toward the creature, the flashlight in front of her, making the mirror-like body shimmer. Seraphin, shooking himself up, raised his camera and began snapping, from bottom to top.

Without knowing why, he felt his stomach twist. Something was wrong, something was wrong. He swallowed convulsively, wondering if he was going crazy, as Seras had warned them, or if this unexpected encounter really wasn't the fish they thought it was.

He finned upward, the camera held out in front of him: he wanted to photograph the head. Maybe once he saw that familiar face, the same one he'd observed a thousand times in his textbooks, in online photos, on Nana's stickers, he'd calm down.

A sort of octopus appeared in his field of vision. Its short tentacles, connected to each other by a red membrane, looked too thick, too angular. As if they had bones. Seraphin stopped, his heart racing, taking the picture.

The octopus was attached to some sort of... silvery tube. And it didn't seem to have a head. In fact, it didn't even look like an octopus.

Seraphin stifled a cry, stepping back when he realized that the creature was somehow attached to the oarfish's body, and that the silvery ribbon he had been following until then was now expanding into a shape that had nothing to do with that of the fish he knew: a sort of bloated, bulging torso, much larger than its lower body.

The president's voice echoed in his mind: «I won't pay you if you go crazy over what you encountered, understand?».

An irrational, poisonous fear gripped Seraphin's limbs, forcing him to turn and run, bubbles enveloping his head, his breathing quickening.

Martine, seeing him coming back at them at such speed, gestured as if to say "What's happening?". Seraphin didn't even reply. He swam at full speed, reaching the anchor chain, and used it to help himself go faster, grabbing it and pushing, while finning like crazy. He broke the surface as quickly as he could and almost climbed onto the chain before realizing he was on the wrong side of the ship.

«What's going on?» Martine asked, surfacing right behind him.

«There's a... something...» Seraphin had roughly torn the breathing apparatus from his mouth and was now panting, one hand flailing as he tried to stay in place, splashing «Something, down there»

«Yes, the oarfish, we've all seen it!»

«What's going on?» asked Nana, followed by Ionia and Celestine, who waved before removing the breathing apparatus themselves.

Seraphin shook his head. «It wasn't an oarfish» He said «I don't know... I don't know what it was...»

«You photographed it» Celestine said ironically

«It wasn't an oarfish!».

Seraphin fiddled with the camera, looking for a photo, then showed it to his sisters.

«Look at this thing!» He exclaimed «It... it appeared in front of me as I was climbing. I didn't think it was safe to touch something... an animal, because as you can see it's... it's clearly... organic... well, an animal I don't know»

«It's a hand» Martine said, her voice serious.