Virgil cast the spell to open the Novice spellbook, and James found himself in another underwater cave, this one reminiscent of the Little Mermaid’s alcove but without the floor. James stood at the edge of a wide cliff etched into the side. Looking up, he could see where the water reached the surface, and sunlight glittered through.

  If he looked down — which he only dared to do once — he saw the opposite. The cavern tunneled downward so deep that the water turned black, and there was a hint of movement down in the depths.

  A central pillar rose up in the center of everything, craggy and dotted with bits of sea life. A mermaid swam lazy circles around it.

  James’s jaw dropped. This mermaid did not have seashells covering her breasts like the Siren had, but every time she turned, no matter how she twisted, her long auburn hair kept them covered.

  Even without her singing, he was entranced.

  He couldn’t have said how long, exactly, it took her to notice him. James was perfectly happy to sit in place and watch the rhythmic motions of her tail, and at first, when she did see him, she ignored him.

  Until at last, he called out. “Excuse me! Are you the Water instructor?” The words bubbled out of his mouth, unintelligible, but the mermaid pulled up short. Her hair billowed around her like a dark cloud and she looked at him curiously. She could understand him!

  “You are… here to learn?” she asked. Her voice rasped like it hadn’t been used in a while. It was the complete opposite of the Siren’s beautiful tones. Even so, he could understand her! That fact alone nearly made him weep; he hadn’t realized how much he missed straightforward communication.

  “Yes, please,” James burbled. “I don’t have the Water Affinity yet.”

  The mermaid squinted at him. “I see. In that case, consider this.” She coughed heavily to clear her throat, which turned into a coughing fit that lasted so long James worried that was what he was supposed to be considering. But finally she spoke again, and when she did her voice was much clearer. “Two young fish are swimming in the ocean. They pass a much older fish who greets them, saying, ‘Morning boys, how’s the water?’ They swim on without returning the greeting, and finally one fish turns to the other and says, ‘What the hell is water?’”

  Without any further word of explanation, the mermaid swam away, returning to her lazy spirals up and down the central pillar.

  James sat down on the edge of his cliff and let his legs kick in the water. It was a nice, soothing motion made all the better by the slight resistance.

  How could a fish not understand water? Was he supposed to explain what water was? In which case, he would have to do it in a way that wasn’t too specific; he’d learned that much from the fire instructor.

  James took a deep breath. It was good, he thought idly, that the effects of his underwater breathing ring translated into this space of “real” magic. Where was the line between System magic and whatever original magic these ancient mages practiced?

  Did it matter?

  “I’ve never been very good at riddles,” he said, thinking out loud more than actually trying to make conversation. Which was just as well, since the mermaid ignored him.

  He flopped backwards. Was it his imagination, or was the stone more comfortable than it should have been?

  “I don’t even know what’s real anymore,” he mused. “Everything I’m doing seems to be the right thing. Even the things that might be bad are in service to a greater good, but I’ve always been against the idea of the ends justifying the means.”

  His legs continued to kick. “Not that I ever really put that to the test, in my old life. I never had to, so it was an easy conviction to hold.”

  James returned to the spiral he’d faced in the Siren’s garden. “I can only know what I’ve been told and what I’ve seen. And how much can I trust what I’ve been told? How much can anybody? At some point, we have to make our own decisions based on our own observations. Right?” He looked up.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The mermaid only spiraled silently around her pillar.

  He let his head flop back down and sighed. “It feels like I’m being led down a path I don’t like. Bit by bit, the line between good and evil is becoming just a little more blurred, and what if I’m like the frog in the water, slowly getting boiled? What if that’s how the previous Hero went evil? What if that happens to me, too, and enslaving people starts to sound like a good idea?”

  He kicked his legs harder, bumping his heels against the cliff face. “What if there’s nothing I can do about it? Am I supposed to fight it? Or am I supposed to learn the lesson that’s being taught? There’s too much I don’t know! I don’t even know if the dungeon creatures are alive! Hell, I don’t even know if this is real! For all I know I’m still on Earth, deep in a coma and tripping balls! Maybe that truck didn’t kill me, maybe I’m hooked up to a machine and getting high as fuck!”

  James was screaming and hyperventilating by the end of his tirade.

  The mermaid laughed and clapped her hands. “Oh, very good!” she said. “Most people take ages to get there!”

  James blinked. “What?” He sat up so straight he nearly wobbled off his perch. “You mean I am in a coma?”

  The mermaid laughed. “No, silly. Just because Grimora has different rules than you’re used to, doesn’t mean it’s pretend.” She swam closer. “The important thing is that you’re not taking anything for granted. You’re still looking at the world and pulling back the curtain. You’re asking what the water is.” She giggled and spun away. A flurry of rainbow bubbles trailed after her.

  “What— hold on! You can’t just say that and leave!” James leapt off the cliff and swam after her. There was no chance he’d be able to match her grace, but he was hoping she wouldn’t try her hardest to evade him. The mermaid sounded like she had answers — answers he desperately craved. He didn’t even care about the spell; if he could understand what was happening to him, that would be worth it.

  The mermaid laughed. The way she swam was like a dance, and every so often she would peek around the central tower at him with joy sparkling in her eyes.

  When he finally caught her it was because she let him; his palms slammed against the stone tower on either side of her shoulders, and her smile was mischief itself.

  “Water isn’t answers,” she giggled. “It’s questions. I can’t tell you what’s right or wrong, only that it’s important to ask the question.”

  “But that doesn’t help me!” James cried.

  The mermaid slipped out of his grasp and darted away, quick as a fish. James chased after her.

  “Is the dungeon sentient? Does it create life?”

  The mermaid spun in place and shot water bubbles at James. He didn’t realize at first what he was looking at, and they slammed into his shoulder.

  “Hey! That hurt!” He rolled his shoulder. He wasn’t bleeding or anything, but the attack was similar to being shot with a paintball gun; you certainly noticed when it happened.

  “Why are you shooting at me?”

  The mermaid spun once again and shot another bubble beam. This time, he twisted and dodged the attack. Now that he knew what to look for, he had plenty of time to dodge.

  “Keep asking questions!” she laughed.

  Gritting his teeth, James did just that. He asked every question he could think of: Would they be able to restore Inara’s class? Were the summoning circles strengthening the Demon King’s power? Did they have to destroy the Siren’s Garden like they thought, or had that been an unnecessary evil?

  For every question, the mermaid attack. Every time he dodged, she got a little faster. She hit a little harder, so much so that the next bubble that grazed him left a trail of blood.

  In turn, James grew quicker as well. He learned how to twist in the water and how to better judge distances. He realized he could push off against the center pillar for extra momentum when the situation called for it.

  The more he asked, the more she answered, until he could finally see the shape of water, and once he could do that, he could reach out and bend it to his will.

  Water wanted to flow. It wanted to twist and bend and bulge, and if he asked it right, he could bend the water like a trampoline beneath his feet or increase the current where he swam.

  Until he stopped asking questions entirely and lost himself in the joy of it. He and the mermaid spiraled up and around the central pillar, and their movements were like a dance, until they crested the surface and the mermaid lunged out of the water and flicked her hair over her head in a perfect silhouetted arc.

  James did the same, although to much lesser effect, and then they rested at the top of the pillar, which jutted out like a stone in the middle of the ocean.

  Suddenly exhausted, he flopped onto the rock and laid an arm across his face. He laughed. “That was wonderful.”

  The mermaid sighed a happy, bubbling sigh. “It was. I haven’t been able to dance like that in years. I am grateful.”

  James smiled back. “Me, too. That’s the most fun I’ve had since I got to Grimora.”

  “It’s not all bad. You Heroes get the short end of the stick, is all.”

  James twisted to look at her. “How many Heroes have you taught?”

  The mermaid flicked a playful splash in his direction, but unlike all his other questions, she answered.

  “I don’t count them,” she said, sounding a little sad. “They come and go, and even if I… Well, it’s not like I’ll see you again.”

  “Oh.” James turned his gaze back to the water. This space, whatever or wherever it was, was apparently in a permanent state of sunset.

  It was beautiful.