'Flame of the Ocean' - Chapter VII
When Satoshi had gone, the dragon king let out a low bellow that rippled the water. All the squid that lighted the throne room turned away and dulled their glow until the room became black. Kasumi’s eyes could see in the dark, but she felt more than saw her father rear up and crane his head toward the center of the room. He turned his head one way, shutting the far eye and opening the other wide. It shone in the dark like a star trapped in ink, and a swirling globe of mist projected out from it and filled the throne room.
Kasumi swam to one side of the globe, Namika the other. Mother stayed at the back of the throne.
Inside the globe, Kasumi saw the room of ever summer from above, a far-reaching shoreline of fine white sand and deep green waters. Kasumi had played in the room sometimes, as she had all the special rooms. What she remembered most about the room of ever summer was the heat – a blistering, sweltering heat so strong that nothing and no one could move in it, except into the water.
Kasumi watched Satoshi enter the room and wince at the heat. He tugged at his yukata, dragged his feet as he walked, and was almost crawling by the time he reached the shoreline. As soon as the tide lapped against his ankles, he fell down into the spray, and inched his way forward until he was under the surface.
As if it were a crane making a dive, the glove’s vision followed Satoshi down into the water. Below was a forest of seaweed, long flowing growths of it all tangled together in a bigger mess than Satoshi’s hair. Swimming among and around it were several creatures: a turtle, many small silver whiting, rice fish, and a large school of jellyfish.
Kasumi heard Namika tut and shudder softly at the sight of the jellyfish, and she heard Father smack his lips. No one remarked on the number of jellyfish. No one noted or objected to the count.
Satoshi swam over to the school right away. He waved to them, but only a few waved back, after a long hesitation. Good, thought Kasumi. They’re playing their part well already.
“Hello, jellyfish!” Satoshi called to them, in their own tongue. Through the globe, it was like listening through a glass. “Have you seen a large pearl somewhere around here?” Or at least that’s what he tried to say. Kasumi knew Satoshi’s accent, his common mistakes, his well-meaning tries and confused sounds. She knew them all too well not to recognize what he meant. But the jellyfish looked among themselves, as if wondering what they had just been asked. Most of them truly were wondering, while those Kasumi had smuggled into the room during the first task continued to play their part.
One large jellyfish, not one of Kasumi’s, floated up to Satoshi’s face and said, “What?” That one word, Kasumi was sure, Satoshi knew in jellyfish language.
“Have you seen a large pearl?” he asked again, switching out a gurgle for a squeak. But the jellyfish still gave no sign of understanding. Kasumi heard Namika titter, Mother scoff, and Father let out the quiet, rolling rumble that passed for his laugh.
Kasumi sighed. It would have been nice, of course, if she hadn’t had to send in jellyfish who knew what Satoshi would try to ask. He had gotten better from when he first tried. But better than a disaster was still not particularly good.
Satoshi tried a third time, with an added gurgle that made his question future tense and nonsensical. But as he asked, he traced the shape of a circle with one finger, and even some of the jellyfish Kasumi hadn’t smuggled in reacted in understanding. Kasumi hadn’t expected that. It made everything more convincing, and much less of a cheat. Not a cheat at all, really. Well done, Satoshi.
A small jellyfish, one of hers, and the large one drifted away from the school and motioned for Satoshi to follow. They swan down and down, the globe’s view following after, until they were nearly out of the reach of light. The jellyfish stopped at the base of one stalk of seaweed that grew out from a gap between two corals. Even in the globe, Kasumi could make out the shimmer in the dark. She watched as Satoshi reached his hand inside and drew out the second pearl.
The globe vanished as Father snorted. The squid unveiled their blue light. Kasumi saw Namika huddled together, arguing quietly again. Mother and Father were conferring on the throne in in hushed tones. Every few seconds, someone spared a glance at Kasumi. What her sisters were thinking, Kasumi couldn’t guess, but the cold disappointment from her parents could not be missed.
Denko stuck his head out from Kasumi’s hair and gave a little cheer when the yellowtail led Satoshi back into the throne room. He looked very pleased with himself, and already had the pearl out in his hand. “That’s two!” he said proudly.
“Two that others have found for you,” said Mother. She was now mounted on Father’s back. He nodded his great head and blew out his beard.
“The task was for you to find the pearl,” he said. “Not to be led to it by our livestock.”
Satoshi began to protest, but Kasumi raced to cut him off again. It would do no good for him to find the pearls if he doomed himself with the wrong argument. “These were not his trained pets,” she said to Father. “He did not tell them to look on his behalf, only asked for directions. And surely, it’s impressive that he has been learning the languages of the sea, and used this knowledge to reach out to our creatures?”
“Exactly!” Satoshi said. Without turning around, Kasumi flicked her tail out to smack his legs. “You never forbid him from asking for help,” she said, “and he withdrew the pearl with his own hand.”
The dragon king grunted and growled. He lurched forward, so that Mother slid further down his back, and he turned his head around so that they could confer once more. Namika continued their argument. It seemed to Kasumi that Hikari was on one side, Ayako the other, with Sayuri pulled between them. Satoshi just tread water impatiently.
Finally, Father looked back toward them, his hackles up and his teeth glistening in the squids’ light. “The second pearl is fairly found,” he conceded. “But you will not call or ask any beast of land or sea to find the last two for you or point you on the way. You must find them all on your own. Where do you mean to search next?”
“Take me to spring,” Satoshi said at once. “I could use some nice weather after that heat.”
Kasumi wished he had picked winter next. That was the harshest of the rooms, she knew, and the one where she had the surest help prepared. But at Satoshi’s word, Father clapped his hands, and a herd of seahorses appeared to lead the way to the next room.
“You’ve done very well so far,” Kasumi told Satoshi as she swam with him to the next doorway.
He made a face at her. “You don’t need to sound surprised. But why are your parents trying so hard to say I haven’t?”
Because you’re meant to be the fool who pledged to wed a princess, spoiling their plans for their wayward daughter. “Because you aren’t playing the way they would play, which to them is the only way to do it.” It was another broad truth. Father would never deign to ask for help or trust his pets with anything important. “Good luck with the third pearl. Even without getting to ask for help, you should have everything you need.”
Kasumi patted at Satoshi’s chest, until she found the lump that was his sling. She pressed down on it, hoping he would notice. Satoshi didn’t say if he had or not. He only smiled and followed after the seahorses.
Kasumi glanced out a window on her way back to the throne room. The shimmer of sunlight coming down from the sky above was gone. Instead there was the dull, fracturing waves made by moonlight, that somehow made the sea’s shadows darker.
Night was already on the surface.