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 Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 4:19 pm
 Piroska swam through the poorly-lit, cold depths. They weren't as dark and cold as the trench villages she'd grown up in. Still, it was sort of homey, in one of the less traumatizing ways. Her home village had been nothing to sing about, a cold, dark, isolated little village with a charming tradition of sacrificial rites and a strong discouragement from ever leaving. Just your average cultic center that even a devotee of horror stories would want to leave.
She'd gotten out. A surprising number of souls from similar villages had gotten out. Piroska thought she still saw some from nearby villages from time to time. Not that anyone had wanted to socialize. Even if they had, Piroska would not have been a first choice, given her predilections for telling foals terrifying tales, not to mention her bloody, spectral appearance. Nonetheless, the sanguine Seathi had been rather glad to hear that some of her fellow survivors were organizing a harvest market, and even gladder that they'd thought to invite her as an entertainer.
Piroska grinned. Even if they'd asked her to save her spookiest tales for the later hours of the market, this was going to be so much fun, she'd enjoy the market, make some trades, savor seasonal treats, introduce young foals to their first...shivers...
She glared at her little booth and the giant clam that would serve as her stage, surrounded by glowing fishing weights. It was a wonderfully creepy stage, draped with ripped fishing nets, spectrally lit, with a canopy held aloft by whale bones. It was also located at the far end of the market from the foals' section, filled with its non-soluble sweets, games, toys, and simplified rides. Next to her were dealers in more...mind-altering...foods, and a dark-colored Seathi dealing in unusual antiques that Piroska privately suspected were cursed. Sure, it was atmospheric, but she still preferred a younger audience. It was more fun that way.
Well, maybe she could sociali--
Oh. Oh no.
Piroska recognized the Seathi with the artifacts. Sadaf had never been the most chatty of survivors, even when Piroska had traveled with her mother to Sadaf's village when Piroska and Sadaf had been foals. Frankly, the only reason Piroska couldn't describe Sadaf as taciturn was the dark Seathi's pleasant, if mysterious, demeanor. Whether that pleasant demeanor was reflective of Sadaf as a person was an open question. None of the survivors particularly disliked Sadaf, but she held no one any closer than an acquaintance, either. Sadaf did not qualify as a source of social interaction. Sadaf was almost finished arranging her current array of trade goods when she spotted the occupant of the neighboring stage. She grinned.
Piroska. She should have known. Perhaps the most gifted and enthusiastic storyteller of the survivors. Sadaf rather liked Piroska's stories, even if they weren't as terrifying as the things Sadaf herself had seen in the deeps. Watching some deep nightmare devour the mother who'd tried to sacrifice her as a very small foal probably had something to do with it. Messily, too. Parenthood hadn't really left an impact on Sadaf herself, either, but quietly letting her children's other parent do all the raising didn't help. Honestly, Sadaf didn't think she'd ever be a good parent, and rather respected Piroska for having an affinity for children, and a nonviolent one at that.
Sadaf eyeballed her platter of seafood wraps. She had enough to share.
"Piroska! Come join me before the market opens!"
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Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 4:36 pm
Piroska wanted to scream. Of course Sadaf would choose now of all times to socialize. That was just the plankton on top of the poorly spiced sushi.
But everyone else looked busy, no one else appeared interested, and her stomach chose that precise moment to inform her that food was necessary now. Plus, those seaweed wraps looked like they were rather similar to some of the better class versions of seaweed wraps from the trench villages.
Unbidden, Piroska's mouth began to water. Traitorous digestive system.
Sighing, the ghostly Seathi swam over and snagged one of the wraps Sadaf slid toward her, savoring the flavor. Sweet crab, salty shrimp, and tender clams blossomed on her tongue, balanced out with something creamy she'd heard identified as avocado, seasoned with a fruity sauce of some kind. Different from home, flavored more by brighter coastal waters. It was rather lovely.
Looking up, Piroska saw Sadaf smile wider than she usually did, and an unwelcome thought began to percolate through her mind, like a hungry squid looking for a meal. Sadaf had selected the wraps to pass to Piroska, and Sadaf had probably calculated that choice with an eye toward what Piroska would like. The ghostly Seathi swallowed awkwardly.
"It's delightful," she admitted weakly. Sadaf's grin widened even further, and Piroska felt worse. Sadaf had done a genuinely considerate thing for Piroska, and Piroska had dreaded interacting with her.
Uncertain of what to say, Piroska reached for another wrap, as Sadaf watched.
Sadaf watched, noting Piroska's enjoyment with mild delight. Insofar as Sadaf chose to be intimate with anyone, she considered Piroska sort of a friend. The ghostly Seathi might not realize it, but seeing Piroska and her mother easily move between the trench villages had inspired Sadaf to finally swim upward, even as Piroska and many others did the same.
Without preamble, as Piroska continued to eat, Sadaf said, "In thanks for all the entertainment you have given the rest of us, it is only fitting that I pay you the same gift, insofar as I am capable, for I am no storyteller as you are, so anything I choose to recite will not bear the same power as you."
The ghostly Seathi blinked in surprise, before swallowing quickly, opening her mouth to raise an objection.
"No, please, I would do you this honor, no matter how small." She paused, looking for the right words. Sadaf had had little intentions of recounting any of her foalhood in the deeps, but Piroska, as a teller of tales, a mistress of shivers, and a fellow survivor, was most likely to appreciate the experiences Sadaf had squirrelled away.
"Have I told you of what became of my own mother?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 5:05 pm
Piroska was trying very hard to make sense of what was happening. Sadaf was the quietest person she knew, the most outwardly mysterious, never hated, but never loved, either.
And yet...
When Piroska had first met her, Sadaf was already an orphan, her mother gone, her father having failed to flee. Sure, it was a little odd, how Sadaf never spoke of her parents unless pushed, and even then, nothing beyond "They're gone," but that was somewhat normal in the deeps. Virtually all of the villages had been cultic centers of the bloodiest sort. Missing loved ones you didn't talk about was sort of the norm.
But...the way Sadaf spoke...was there something beyond the normal tales of sacrifice and failed escape attempts?
Whatever it was, Sadaf seemed intent on sharing, and it would be rude, and foolish, to refuse this moment.
"No, you haven't. Please, go on," she finally said.
Piroska reached for another seaweed wrap, wrapping her own tail around one of the supports to Sadaf's booth so she could float, eat, and listen.
Sadaf wrapped her own tail around another support at the back of the stall before beginning.
"My mother and father were not the closest pair to bond with each other. Father was delighted when I was born, Mother said nothing. I think Father still wanted to think the best of Mother, and told everyone that Mother was just tired out from the birth, even though Father was the one to carry me to term. But she would still play with me and care for me, yet never with any great interest.
"Then, one night, Mother came back from wherever she went some nights changed. When she settled me in at night, she sang sweet lullabies to me, fed me my favorite treats, all as Father did. Father, thinking Mother was finally ready to be more of a mother to me, accepted a mission from the elders that he had long delayed in favor of taking care of me while Mother was so distant.
"That night, after supper, Mother did not settle me down and sing me lullabies. She instead said we had to go somewhere, she had someone I truly must meet before sleeping. I was sleepy, but I went, trailing after her into a cave deep in the side of the continental shelf.
"Once we were inside, I lost track of her, and swam more slowly, calling out to her. Then, from below, a light began to gleam. Thinking it a colony of deep sea fish or jellies, I floated to a safer vantage point as a great shape ascended from the floor.
"It was no jelly, but a sort of deep sea fish that I have never seen the like of ever since. A translucent head with seemingly blind eyes on tubular eyestalks pointed straight upward, the head crowned with a glowing lure, the jaw hanging slack and filled with needle-like teeth. As it rose, my mother screamed, 'I have brought you the sacrifice, O Gracious Mystery!'
"And the eyestalks rotated forward. The toothy maw opened. And my mother screamed again. She kept screaming as the Gracious Mystery enveloped her in its jaws, and blood began to fill the water. When the screaming stopped, the Gracious Mystery's eyes rotated up once again, and it sank back into the floor, fading from view.
"And I went home. Father came home shortly after that and learned what had happened. Horrified that Mother had tried to feed me to the Gracious Mystery as a premature offering, and unwilling to live with the possibility I might be offered to the elders once I became old enough, he took me and fled. Or tried to. I swam away from him, as I knew the elders would find and punish all runaways who had not paid the Fee. And Father had no Fee for either of us. When they caught him, they took him away, and I never saw him again. It was not a few moons later when your mother visited our village, with you in tow. And it was then I decided that I must gather my own Fee, so I, too, might see the world beyond the Village of the Gracious Mystery."
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Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 5:19 pm
Piroska stared in horror and befuddlement as Sadaf's story came to an end. It had to be a story. It couldn't possibly be real. But the details...they rang too true of some villages. And Sadaf's village had demanded that would-be runaways either face the trial of the Gracious Mystery, whatever that was, or pay an exorbitant Fee in the form of salvage from shipwrecks. It was rumored that the council of elders of Sadaf's village were quite wealthy.
"...Thank you for your tale," Piroska said carefully, quietly filing that away as "Probably a True Story, But Too Personal to Share". "The Gracious Mystery sounds rather...mysterious." That was putting it mildly. What made the whole affair worse than an unusually weird and mutant-y looking fish was Sadaf's cold and emotionless response to how Sadaf's own mother had, for some unknown reason, torn her little family apart, ultimately getting both of Sadaf's parents destroyed, and leaving Sadaf an orphan.
One thing was for sure, Sadaf had paid for Piroska's many shivers with a truly impressive and disturbing shiver of her own.
Sadaf smiled serenely at the thanks. "You are most welcome, dear Piroska." Turning around as she heard a gong reverberate, Sadaf saw the first market-goers arrive, and busily moved to finish preparing her booth, clearing her seaweed wraps below the countertop.
What was ahead would likely be a very long night, indeed, and, knowing Piroska, filled with many more shivers to come.
Piroska nodded, detaching herself from the stall as she heard the gong ring, and Seathi, Nixies, Mer, Kelpies, and all manner of familiars began to circulate around the market.
Floating back to her own booth, the ghostly Seathi promised herself she'd only tell the best stories tonight. The ones with the deepest shivers. After such a modestly shared story from someone who never discussed their past, it was the least she could do in return.
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