Born in Blood

521  Curse

Eventually, Liam and the one-eyed Barracuda entered through a large underwater cavity, leading to a circular-shaped home.

Fish furniture was… weird. There were just lumps of filth crudely molded into chairs and tables designed just for a barracuda.

The one-eyed fish was the pack's leader, and it was actually a 'she'... somehow. Her name was also Vermin Eater, which was a crude translation of whatever her name actually sounded in oceanic tongue.

It was then that Liam realized that the waters automatically translated whatever language he spoke, into the tongue the Quadrants conversed with!

It was another masterful work of the Herald of the Seas. "Sorry for the mess, I wasn't expecting guests," the barracuda, Vermin Eater said.

"What part isn't supposed to be messy?" Liam asked, confused. He shook his head. "Nevermind."

"Haha…" the barracuda laughed awkwardly. "Well, I'll cut to the point…"

The fish paused, her eye expressing graveness.

"The Eels aren't the only ones in on it."

The words lingered in the air for a few seconds.

Liam raised a brow.

"Explain." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Vermin Eater crawled over to a 'chair', which looked more like a hotdog bun, the 'sausage' of which had become the fish itself.

"Let me start from the relationship between our tribes. Our kind abhor the Rock Frogs and the Moray Eels… but we've had no issues with the Stonefish. They just… sit around and do nothing all day."

"Uh huh," Liam said. "You don't have to tell me why you hate them. Continue."

"Right. A few cycles back—"

"What's a cycle?" Liam interrupted. Bill hadn't told him, the prick. "Uh… if I remember correctly, it equals a week of human time… are you a human, even?"

"Define human."

Silence.

"Nevermind," Vermin Eater said. "A few cycles back, our scouts reported a meeting between a couple of Rock Frogs and the Moray Eels. Except… the two hate each other just as much as us."

"Not soon after, whispers reached us that the Pink Rosary was losing their princess."

'The timing checks out,' Liam realized. 'The princess was kidnapped a few weeks ago, too. There's no way to figure out the time underwater, unfortunately.'

The Division blocked out all the light from the surface, after all. 'But the Moray Eels that stole the princess are a separate group. They're not associated with the tribe, are they? Or maybe they are…'

Liam felt like Sherlock Holmes cracking a difficult case. He was just missing the smokepipe and the hat, plus the accent.

He wasn't going to tick off the Stonefish just yet.

"Well," the barracuda said. "I'll be honest and say… our scouts were drunk on brine wine that particular night, so you'll have to take their report with a grain of sea salt."

Silence.

"Drunk?" Liam asked, eyes widened a little. Silence.

Vermin Eater 'coughed' and averted her gaze. "...yes. It's a once in a month sort of thing that we do…"

Liam furrowed his brows.

Party night?

For fish?

What kind of customs did these seafolk have, exactly?

"Why do they think they abducted the princess?" Liam asked. The reasons were still a little unclear.

The report didn't mention why the princess was stolen, just that she was. "Gup if I know," Vermin Eater said with a 'shrug'. "But there isn't one… there's many. Axolotls are considered 'Roses of the Sea'. But their beauty is more of a curse than it is a blessing."

"Because of it, they're a targeted species. In some Dark Quadrants—"

Liam raised a hand. "What's a Dark Quadrant?"

"Places unruled by a particular fish species. A hub for trade, service exchanges and entertainment. These are Neutral Quadrants. A Dark Quadrant is all of these… but for way darker purposes."

So… a black market for Seakind? Neat.

Liam nodded, prompting Vermin Eater to continue.

"As I was saying, in some ghetto Neutral Quadrants, Axolotls reel in a hefty price if sold alive. I heard they're quite a delicacy."

"Some cults even include them as sacrifices en masse to the Unholy Lamprey in exchange for a favor."

Liam couldn't help but raise his brows.

Cults? Underwater?

Heresy! "Does the Lamprey do what they ask?" Liam questioned.

Vermin Eater expressed a bit of fear.

"I think so. If it's reasonable, and the sacrifice is equal to the request. If it's not… they just get eaten alive for daring to ask."

Another silence followed.

That was a little terrifying. But at the very least, it was a way for Liam to talk to one of the Great Tides. If he was ever feeling edgy on a particular day.

'If her whole shtick is about blood, maybe she could tell me one or two things about cultivating it as a Quality.'

A thought for the future.

***

What Liam did next was interrogate all of the drunkard scouts that saw the Rock Frogs and the Moray Eels, but the results were disappointing.

Since they were drunk, the idiots were unable to make out most of the details between the vague silhouettes they caught glimpses of.

The disgusting, murky environment of the Stonehedge Deep Quadrant didn't help in the least. However, there was a silver lining. All of them confirmed seeing a rose-skinned creature amidst four other fish. What those fish were, they had no clue.

But there were at least four!

Four culprits!

And Liam had a bright idea on how to fish them out. "I'm done here," Liam said to Vermin Eater at the end of everything, taking out a single Shelling. "I might come back to ask more questions."

He outstretched the Shelling.

"Until then."

Thanking him, the fish used her mouth to graciously accept the gift.

A moment later, Liam took off, leaving the Bulwark Barracudas and heading straight towards the intersection where their villages connected. There, Liam could choose which village to go to next. Starting with the Stonefish.

'There's a tiny chance they were lying to me,' Liam thought. 'But I can safely say the barracuda aren't the guilty ones.'

Liam Holmes, on the case!