Skin Deep
by Zoe Storm

---

Part the Second: Under the Sea

In Which Sight Are Seen,
a Sea-Witch Is Met,
and Magic Happens

“Good morning, Father!” I exclaimed as I descended the manor’s staircase at a run.

“Oh, good morning, Blair!” my father replied, looking up from the table, which was crowded with letters and notes and maps, as well as writing instruments, and had several clansmen standing around it. “You’re quite cheerful this morning. Do you have anything special planned for today?”

I shook my head. “No, not really,” I replied. “I was thinking of exploring the forest some more, maybe take a walk along the sea shore. I should be back in the afternoon.”

“Alright,” he said. “Ask someone in the kitchens to pack you a lunch.”

“Don’t you think it would be better if he stays here to help us with all of this, Chief?” one of the clansmen asked, gesturing at the table.

“Come now, Angus,” my father chided him. “It’s true that he’s my heir, and that he’s begun to help with business matters, but he’s much too young to understand the subtleties of politics. He’s not ready to write missives and negotiate treaties.”

“He has to start at some point,” Angus said. “The boy is already ten.”

“The boy is only ten,” my father rebutted. “Let him enjoy his youth for a bit longer still.”

Angus held my father’s gaze for a few seconds, then nodded. “As you say, Chief.”

My father nodded back, then turned to me and smiled. “Have fun on your day out, Blair.”

“I will,” I said; I nodded to him and the clansmen, then ran out of the door and down the road which led to the forest and, through it, to the beach.

As I passed through the thick of the trees, I thought back to Angus’ words. He was right: sooner or later I would have to start learning how to handle the family business, like I had to learn how to greet guests from the sea; but, like my father said, it would be a while still. After all, I wouldn’t become a clansman, with all the responsibilities that entailed, until my fourteenth birthday. I could still relax, and enjoy myself.

And besides, unbeknownst to my father and the clansmen, I already was doing something that could be seen as part of the ‘family business.’

I ran out of the forest, and waved excitedly as I approached the shore; from the sea, Aine waved back.

Spending time with my friend Aine counted as ‘negotiating with trade partners,’ right? After all, she was the daughter of the Chief Paramount of the Confederation of Sea Clans.

I paused briefly where the grass began to give way to the beach’s sand and gravel, and shed my clothes, placing them under a rock so they wouldn’t be blown away by the wind; then, shivering in the cold air of morning, clad only in my small-clothes, I made my way to the water and dove into the waves.

Aine was by my side almost immediately: she put an arm around my shoulder and, expertly moving her tail, she dragged me out to sea, several hundred yards from the shore. She turned to me and gave me a questioning look; I took a deep breath, nodded, and she dove under the surface, pulling me with her, down into the depths of the ocean. Deeper and deeper still she dove, and farther away from the shore, until the light of the sun gave way to a blue-green gloom.

I let her carry me, holding my breath for a few minutes, until I found myself in need of air: I tapped Aine’s shoulder, and she stopped swimming and turned to me with a smile. She leaned in, and our lips met.

It’s a weird feeling, having someone blow air into your lungs. You have to learn to relax, to just accept their breath as if it were your own, offering no resistance, otherwise it could be dangerous, especially when doing it underwater. It had taken Aine and I a while to learn how to properly do it, and we’d half-choked ourselves on the first few tries; but by that point it was the fourth time we’d gone out to sea together, so we were experts at that tricky manoeuvre. We were confident that we could manage to breathe together long enough for Aine to take me all the way to her home, under the sea.

As we separated, Aine looked at me and inclined her head slightly in an unspoken question; I smiled at her, and blew out a brief stream of bubbles. She smiled back, and we both giggled as she grabbed me again and we resumed our descent.

As we went deeper and deeper, I was amazed to see that the darkness of the ocean depths was slowly being replaced by a soft, yellowish-white glow. Aine had told me about it: apparently some rocks just gave off light on their own, strong enough to see by, and the merfolk gathered them, using them to build their houses and pave their streets. (When I’d questioned why merpeople would even need streets, Aine had explained that it was so they wouldn’t get lost while going from one place to the other, which made plenty of sense.)

Aine stopped a few hundred yards away from the shining underwater city, letting me take in the sight for as long as I wished, and I just floated there for a long while, marvelling at the beautiful and incredible spectacle, while exchanging breaths with her every now and then.

Then I reluctantly tore my eyes from the glow, nodded, and let her pull me away, in another direction. I knew where we were going, since we’d discussed things beforehand: to an underwater forest, a place she knew and loved at least as much as I knew and loved the forest that lay near my clan’s manor – she had grown up exploring her forest like I’d grown up exploring mine.

I thought we would just pass above the forest, but Aine surprised me: she dove right into the thick of it, manoeuvring expertly between huge stalks of blue-green, which swayed wildly when disturbed by our passage, and pointing out things for me to focus my attention on – underwater plants, mostly, but also a wide variety of fish and crabs and shrimp and squid and molluscs, all lit by a smattering of light emanating from rocks spread all over the ground, like a night sky in reverse. At one point she raised her finger, telling me to wait for a moment, and plunged her hand deep into a huge clam, retrieving a fist-sized pearl from it, which she lobbed at me underhand as if it was nothing more than a ball to play with. And play we did, tossing the misshapen sphere back and forth between us, until we got bored of it and let it float down to the forest floor.

By that point we were more than a bit tired, so Aine pulled me into an underwater cave, which I was surprised to see was half-filled with air; we climbed out of the water and flopped down onto a rock to rest, Aine shedding her seaskin.

“Your land is beautiful, Aine,” I said, smiling at her. “Almost as beautiful as mine.”

“Almost?” she asked, raising a sceptical eyebrow at me. “Oh, come on, it’s at least as good, if not more.”

“Can we agree they’re both beautiful?”

“Yeah, we can.” She paused. “Mine is better though.”

“Is not,” I replied with a laugh, punching her in the shoulder.

“Is too,” she said, laughing along with me.

“To be honest, though, it’s still a bit of a bother that I can’t actually breathe underwater. Or that we can’t communicate except by gestures and touch. I mean, it’s nice to be able to be here with you, don’t get me wrong, but I still have to bother you to be able to breathe.”

“You’re not a bother, Blair,” Aine said. “But I get what you mean. It’s why I brought you here, actually.” She gestured at the cave around us.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ve had an idea. There is a way to make you able to breathe underwater. I think, at least.”

“There is?”

“Yep!” she said brightly, and she pulled herself up and offered me her hand. “Come on, we have to go deeper into this cave still. There is someone I want you to meet.”

Puzzled, I grasped her hand and let her pull me to my feet, and then followed her as she climbed over stones and rocks and boulders and made her way deeper and deeper into the depths of the cave.

“I haven’t told her we would be coming today, actually,” Aine said. “But don’t worry, she’s really cool and really nice. She tries to pretend like she isn’t, but she is.”

“Who’s ‘she?’” I asked.

“Shh,” Aine said, raising a hand to stop me. “We’re almost there. Hear that?”

I strained my ears and I did, in fact, hear that. It sounded almost like… snoring?

“Looks like we caught her in the middle of her afternoon nap,” Aine said with a grin. “Come on.”

She kept walking, until we turned a corner, and opened a wooden door – a door? – which creaked on its hinges: the cul-de-sac that was the final part of the cave stretched out before us, and I could see what looked like a kitchen, a table heaping with all sorts of knick-knacks, several chairs which were clearly unusable from the amount of stuff piled up onto them, and lots of things scattered all over the cave floor, which was almost impossible to see. And a bed, of course; on the bed, a huge figure, which was clearly nearly as tall as Aine’s dad, but twice as wide, was sprawled. She had dark skin and white hair, and was lying on her back, snoring loudly through her wide open mouth.

Aine giggled. “She’s always like this,” she stage-whispered. Then, loudly, she called: “Auntie! Aunt Ursula!”

The huge woman stopped snoring for a moment; she grunted loudly, flopped over – almost falling off the bed – and resumed snoring.

Aine giggled again; walking carefully, stepping on the few patches of floor that were visible, she made her way to Ursula’s bed, reached over, and shook her. “Aunt Ursula! Hello? Auntie!”

Ursula grunted again; from where I was standing, I could see her open her eyes, and blink blearily. “Wh– Hwuh– What?” She babbled. Then she coughed. “The fu–?”

She blinked again.

“I… I mean.”

She jumped off the bed, stood up to her full height, spread her arms wide, and bellowed, “WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMBER?” Then she blinked yet again. “Oh, hi, Aine.”

“Hi, Aunt Ursula!” Aine said with a laugh, stepping forward and embracing the woman, who reciprocated the hug, wrapping her enormous arms around Aine.

“What are you doing here, my girl?” Ursula asked. “You know your dad doesn’t like it when you come see me.”

“Oh, whatever, who cares,” Aine said. “I mean, my dad is nice, but he’s a bit too grumpy and a stick in the mud.” (I blinked in surprise at that: from the one time I’d met Chief Flyde, he’d seemed anything but ‘grumpy’ and ‘a stick in the mud,’ really.) “And anyway, can’t I come visit my cool aunt?”

Ursula smiled. “Of course you can, dear.”

“And! I brought a guest,” Aine said, stepping back from the hug and pointing at me.

Ursula’s eyebrows raised as she turned her eyes on me. “Oh? And who are you, boy?”

I gulped nervously. “Blair of Clan Fraser. It’s good to meet you, Ursula of Clan Flyde.”

The woman blinked, then threw her head back and laughed a deep, bubbling laugh. “Ha! Ursula of Clan Flyde, that’s a good one!” she exclaimed. “I’m not part of any clan, darling.”

“But…” I said, and gave her an askance look. “You’re Aine’s aunt, right?”

“Honorary aunt,” Aine grinned.

Ursula straightened up, and put a hand to her chest. “And I wear that title proudly. Now, what can I do for you, kids?”

“Well, you see, I was thinking,” Aine said, “Blair likes the sea, at least as much as I like walking on land. But while I can go up to the world above without much difficulty, bringing Blair down here is pretty inconvenient. I’ve had to breathe for him the whole time.”

“Yes, I see,” Ursula nodded. “That would be inconvenient.”

“So I thought, since you’re the best sea-witch in the business…”

Ursula grinned. “You got that right.”

“…maybe you could work some of your magic? Find some way for Blair to be able to breathe underwater?”

“Of course I can, honey!” Ursula said brightly. “Of course I can! Let me think for a second. Let’s see now…”

She started walking around the cave, carefully stepping over and around piles of junk, grabbing something off the table or off the ground a few times, while mumbling under her breath. She shook her head once or twice, one time she popped open a bottle, overturned it, and scowled at its emptiness. Then, suddenly, she seemed to brighten up.

“Yes! I got it! I have had the best idea. Aine, you have your seaskin here with you, right?” Ursula said.

“I left it by the entrance,” Aine replied. “I’ll go get it.”

Ursula nodded, and the two of us watched her go out of the door, which swung shut seemingly on its own.

“Alright, kid, listen up,” Ursula said after a moment. “You care about Aine, right?”

“Yeah, I do,” I replied. “She’s my friend.”

“Good. Now, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she’s a foolhardy girl, that one. Tends to dive head-first into everything. She puts herself into situations.” She paused. “It’s good she found someone like you to be her friend, actually. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders. Can I count on you to be there for Aine? To protect her and keep her safe should she do something dangerous?”

I looked at her for a few seconds, then nodded. “Of course, ma’am.”

“Good,” she said, smiling. “And cut the formalities. I’m Ursula. Aunt Ursula if you really want, but Ursula is enough.”

The door swung open, and Aine walked in, carrying her seaskin; she paused on the threshold. “What were you talking about?” she asked.

“Nothing much,” Ursula replied. “I just asked Blair to do something for me.” She winked at me.

Aine looked at her for a moment, and then nodded. “Alright. Here’s my seaskin, Aunt Ursula.”

“Good,” Ursula said; she marched over to the table, pushed everything that was on it to the floor with a sweep of her arm and an accompanying crashing noise, and laid the skin flat onto the surface. “Now, where did I put… ah, here it is.”

She bent over, opened a small crate, and pulled out several bottles and jars. Over the next few minutes, she poured all sorts of liquids and powders over Aine’s seaskin, until she nodded in apparent satisfaction. “Now watch this!” she said.

With a flourish of her hands, she grabbed the skin and tore it neatly in half.

Aine gasped, and began to say something, but quieted quickly when the two halves of the skin started growing, and in a few seconds, Ursula was holding up two identical skins. “Ta-da!” she exclaimed. “Neat, isn’t it? Okay, this is yours,” she handed one of the two seaskins to Aine, “and this is yours,” she concluded, giving me the other one.

I blinked. “Mine?”

“Yes, of course. Put that on, and you can breathe underwater.”

“…Oh. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I would normally charge you for this, maybe ask you for your hair, or one of your eyes, or your voice, but I like you kids, so you get this one for free.”

“Thanks, Auntie, you’re the best,” Aine said, stepping forward and hugging Ursula.

“That I am,” Ursula said. “You should probably go out to the entrance, though, because when you do put it on, you won’t be able to breathe air.”

I nodded, and the three of us made our way out of the door and back to the entrance of Ursula’s cave; under her and Aine’s directions, I stripped my small-clothes off, and pulled the skin on.

Having my legs fuse together into a single limb – a single tail – felt different than anything I’d ever experienced before, as did sliding the seaskin up onto my body: it adhered perfectly, and it felt a bit wet.

“Now pull the hood up over your head, and you’re done,” Aine said; I nodded and, with her help, I complied.

I immediately found that I couldn’t breathe. I started looking around in a panic, and Aine returned my stare, wide-eyed, but Ursula just rolled her eyes, picked me up, and tossed me into the water.

“Hah!” I breathed out, feeling my lungs fill with air. “Thank you.” Then I paused. “What happened to my voice?”

“It’s not just your voice,” Aine said. “It’s… your face, and your body, and… everything.”

“…What about my everything?” I asked.

“You… well, you look like me. Exactly like me. It’s like you’re my twin.”

“What?”

“What did you expect?” Ursula said. “Your seaskin is an exact copy of Aine’s, so your body, right now, is also an exact copy of Aine’s.” She shrugged.

It took me a few moments to fully realise the implication of her words; then I asked, “I’ll go back to normal once I take the skin off, though, right?”

“Yeah. You will.”

“Alright then,” I said, shrugging. “I’m okay with this, as long as you’re also okay with it,” I said, looking at Aine.

“I am,” she said, and smiled. “I kinda always wanted a sister, actually.”

“Now, listen carefully, because this is important,” Ursula said, as Aine started pulling on her own seaskin. “That skin? Never wear it for more than a few hours at a time. Four or five or six. Or seven? No, seven is probably bad. Let’s say six. Five if you want to be safe. So aim for five, but no more than six. Got it?”

I gulped. “Why, what will happen if I wear it for longer than that?”

“That’s the fun part! I don’t know!” Ursula grinned. “I’ve only done this kind of magic a couple times before, and never for a human. A human wearing a seaskin is actually unprecedented, I think.”

“So how do you know he can’t wear it for more than five hours?” Aine asked, flopping into the water next to me.

“Well, he can wear it for more than five hours. But longer than that, and the magic will probably leach into his body. I don’t know what will happen then.” She paused. “And be sure to let a full day pass before wearing it again, to let your real skin breathe. Got it?”

“Got it,” I nodded.

“Good. Well, off you go, kids! Have fun.”

Aine and I both nodded, and we dove under the surface, heading for the exit to the cave; I soon found myself struggling to keep up with her, and she turned back to me.

“You don’t know how to move your tail, do you?” she asked.

“Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s a weird feeling, I have no idea how to even begin to move my muscles.”

Aine smiled. “I remember that from the first time I took off my seaskin, it took me a while to figure out how to move my legs. Come on, let’s swim around a bit; we should still have some time before you have to return to the surface, I’ll teach you everything I know.”

I nodded, grabbed the hand she was offering me, and let her take the lead.