Dungeon of Doors

The gentle rush of water flowing through the grates in the walls is a nice change from the silence of the past. I'm standing in the core room alongside Silva, who is admiring the mana fed flowerbeds I've installed. We're in the core chamber--the one housing my false core--and it has been redecorated a bit. I've added some elements for both Silva and my yet to be born custodian of water. While planters with live plants have been added for Silva's sake, I've carved and filled small canals specifically for water travel.

My plan is to create a custodian who is not meant for life on land, but beneath water. She'll be perfectly capable of breathing air as well as water, but not of walking on land. I'm making my custodian of water a mermaid.

Silva turns to watch as I begin to create a stone statue version of his sister-to-be. I start by forming her tail, a solid muscular fish tail coated in scales. The tail alone is nearly as big as Silva himself, and he looks surprised by the scale of his sister. I continue, adding the portion where her scales blend into smoother skin. Gills are carved into her middle.

Her arms aren't quite human, while resembling them in shape she sports webs between her fingers to help her swim effectively. Her upper body is quite muscular to help with her underwater traversal. Her breasts I don't depict properly in statue form, to save Silva and her the embarrassment. She'll have a human bust, but I plan on providing her clothing before she is introduced to her brother.

While human-adjacent, her face is unique. Her ears are simply small holes on the sides of her head. In addition to these I give her ear like fins on each side of her head, making her loot a bit less obtuse. While sporting a relatively human mouth she has a variety of teeth modeled after the sort of fish I can find within my domain and from my memories of my previous world. Some teeth are like plates, meant for crushing, while others are sharp and meant for slicing flesh.

I give her eyes in addition to the mouth, but no nose, instead giving her a smooth face meant to resemble that of a fish. She gets a full head of hair, voluminous and a feature only meant to make her appear more approachable--it will slow her in the water.

Now all that is left is to create her for real. No more planning, just doing.

I send a trickle of mana to Silva and he immediately understands, moving to the other side of the core cradle to give me and his future sister some privacy.

I gather my mana up into an unseen glob, letting it hover mid air. I take more of my mana and shape it like a paintbrush, dipping it into the floating sphere of mana like a painter. I begin painting flesh and blood over the statue like I'm creating art. Each stoke of mana replaces stone with bone, organs, and muscle.

Her tail goes from dull stone grey to a lustrous blue. Her scales gain an iridescent quality, reflecting myriad purples and blues. Her skin is a cool light grey color. Her webbing and fins all bear a partial transparency, shimmering in the light. Her fingernails are the same reflective color as her scales. Her lips turn a shade darker than her bluish grey skin, a muted indigo. Her eyes shine like pools of water reflecting a starry sky. Her hair is the same vibrant indigo as her lips, yet bears a glistening quality.

With her body complete, she thuds unceremoniously onto the ground. I find myself wincing as I use mana to gently push her body into the water filled canal beside her. Her lifeless body drifts down to the bottom as I brace myself for the most harrowing part of creating life. The spark.

A jolt of mana from me causes her body to spasm, and screams to erupt from her mouth. The sounds are muted by the water as she thrashes incoherently. Bubbles float up from her mouth as she convulses. It hurts to watch even though I know she will be okay in the end.

Then, as if she never seized at all, she goes still once more.

I know she's alive. Her heart is beating.

~

My eyelids flutter open to see shining lights somewhere above me. The surface of the water shimmers, refracting the light in unpredictable ways. I flex my tail and hum, feeling the vibration move from my throat and through the water around me.

Curiosity overwhelms me as I notice I'm not alone. I swim up silently, taking care not to disturb the water's surface. Then I breach!

The water splashes up and nearly douses the person as I soar up slightly before careening back into the water. They don't react to my brilliant splash, and instead they speak to me in a calm and level voice--or should I say voices? This robed woman is talking as if there are three of her in one. It's a little eerie!

"Greetings, custodian of water."

I tilt my head up at her, finding it irritating I can't see her face beyond her strange hooded robe. The way she talks to me is a little odd. It's like she knows me, but how can that be? I don't know anyone right now!

"Hello to you too, whoever you are, but I'm not a custodian!"

The robed lady pauses as if taken aback by my words. Or maybe it is my voice? I do sound rather beautiful, so maybe that's why she's clammed up all of a sudden.

"I made you to be the custodian of water. Are you saying you don't wish to be?"

"You made me? Are you being serious right now?"

I swim over and rest against the edge of the trough I'm in. My arms sit on the edge of the stone lip, while my head rests atop my arms. I give her a curious look as she regards me like I'm the strange one here. Isn't it stranger to claim you made a fully grown person out of nothing?

"I'm being very serious... Before we continue speaking, could you put this on?"

I'm pleasantly surprised when the robed lady produces a garment for me to wear. The article is made of something incredibly soft and stretchy, and decorated with shiny patterns that remind me of ocean waves. I take it and flip it over before realizing it's a tube top!

"Oh wow! How pretty, thank you."

The top is easy enough to slip on. Once on I tug it into place, pleased with the way it slims my front and gives me some much needed modesty. I surface more fully and show off how it looks on me, beaming with pride.

"It looks good on you."

"Yes, yes it does. Now, you were saying something about making me? How can that be?"

I watch the robed woman take a deep breath before spreading her arms wide. She speaks with a little more authority than before, and I find myself drawn in as she speaks in her trio of simultaneous voices.

"I'm your Mother, creator, and the sole being responsible for your existence."

A brief pause falls between us as I swallow any complaints. Something in me compels me to believe her words, and my lack of memories make it hard for me to argue with her. I know things, yet I don't know my own origins.

"So, should I call you Mom, or?"

She stiffens up for a moment before giving me a slow nod.

"That will do, yes. I'm not sure if you'll accept it, but I was going to name you Pearl."

"Oh, yeah sure! That feels fitting, since I'm just as precious as any pearl."

Mom gives me a slight smile from beneath her hood. She then glances behind her as if looking for something that isn't there. She turns back to me and says what's on her mind, her tone halting and unsure.

"You have a brother I want to introduce you to. He's very different from you, would you mind meeting him, Pearl?"

I let out a bubbly giggle, leaning against the edge of the canal with a smirk playing upon my lips. I've got a brother! I'm curious if he'll get along with me, considering we're not alike. Mom turns away from me and calls out to my brother apparent.

"Silva! Come meet Pearl!"

The first impression of Silva is his hoofbeats. The clack of his hooves on the stone floor of the room ring in my ears. When he rounds the corner I am struck by his majesty, his antlers like branching coral. While parts of him are beautiful, his brown fur isn't to my liking. He looks at me with deep brown eyes. He doesn't say anything at first, so I speak up.

"Hi, I'm Pearl!" I stick my hand out.

Silva reaches out and takes my hand with his own. Both of us have quite different hands, mine with webbing and shiny fingernails, his with firm pads and fewer thicker phalanges.

"I'm Silva. It is... A pleasure to meet you, Pearl."

"Likewise! Are you a moose?"

"What? No! I'm just Silva."

Silva looks a bit put off by the question. I had to ask, though, seeing as his face is structured like a moose's. His antlers aren't quite right for a moose, though. The big mammal huffs before taking a step back. The staff he carries catches my eye, and I find myself liking the flowers blooming from it. Clearly he has an eye for beauty despite being covered in ugly fur.

Mom steps in since we're not really interacting at this point. Her voices bridge the gap between us as she clasps her hands together.

"Now that you're both introduced, how about we go take a look at your new home, Pearl?"

My eyes light up at the mention of a new home. I was worried she wanted me to live confined to these narrow channels in this one room, but there's more? I nod eagerly before realizing something. How am I supposed to follow them?

"Uh, Mom? I can't walk, remember?"

"You needn't walk--Swim through the opening at the back of these canals, it will lead you to Rushwater Canyon. That's our destination. Do be careful, there's-"

I dip beneath the water in search of the passage she mentioned. Beneath the surface the canal extends into a tunnel. While inaccessible from above, it is easy to swim through. I follow it until I find the taste of the water changing. It goes from somewhat stale to a more tangy flavor.

Then I finally emerge from the tunnel and see real soil beneath me. The walls here are natural and the ground below looks genuine, none of that bland stonework from before! I feel the tug of a current pulling me in one direction. This is a river, then?

Breaching the surface of the water rewards me with quite the sight. I'm in a canyon with high stone walls, wherein a river flows ceaselessly. Small riverbanks ebb and flow along the sides and even middle of the river. The buzz of drakeflies fills the air. I can hear the roar of a waterfall, or perhaps multiple. One I can see at one end of the canyon, upriver.

"This is much better!" I exclaim, swimming downstream.

There are some great pikes in the water, large fish with a lot of teeth. They don't seem to mind me. They're hunting smaller fish that swim up and down the river. I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of underwater plant life, but at least there are reeds and cattails at the borders of the water.

Gradually the roar of a waterfall increases in volume. My instincts scream at me to stop.

I manage to turn and swing my tail aggressively in time to avoid the pull of the water before I can be sucked over the edge. My heart is pounding as I swim back up toward the safer stretch of the river. I'm shaking as I come to drift near the middle of the river.

Why didn't Mom warn me about that?!