Chapter 22
In her dream everything was lush and cloaked in humidity. Her bare feet were on earth that held her; she was moving towards something. Laughter, that existed more in idea than in sound.
She can hear water trickling, gently making way for the body it has welcomed.
Pushing through deep green foliage to reveal a clearing. The dribble of lazily a falling stream down rocks, grown over with vines and moss. A deep clear pool.
Staring back at her: grey eyes, ringed in purple.
Something emanated from Abbi in the night. Or else the night was casting it on her. Either way, it suited her, and so did the mystery of the Night Market.
Since Sebastian had drawn out the connection between the wizard and Abbi, it bubbled relentlessly to the forefront of Maru’s mind. And her tongue. She was biting it back, almost to blood.
Abbi caught her staring more than once.
“Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
“I’m not.”
Abbi gives her a look like she doesn’t believe her but drops it anyway. Sebastian gives her a look like he knows exactly what it is and she better keep it to herself. She swallows it back and follows them further down the docks.
The Night Market was never exactly Maru’s favourite festival. She didn’t share her brother’s fondness for the cold and her scientific mind took the vendors for charlatans and snake oil salesmen, but now... she wasn’t so sure. She didn’t feel sure of much and in this space it made her uneasy.
She almost walks into her two companions after they stop by one of the vendors demonstrating some sort of optical illusion. Maru doesn’t reposition herself for a better look of whatever their watching, instead choosing to survey the rest of the market. Was it busier than usual this year? More perfumed? Or was she just more attuned to it? As she’s waiting for Abbi and Seb to lose interest, she spots Haley and Ry, walking down the beach towards the docks. They’re holding hands.
Childish panic takes her over and she immediately turns the other direction and starts moving, without saying anything to her brother or Abbi. They’re tangled up in their interaction with the vendor and she doesn’t need to raise their suspicions. As she walks away she feels caught between wanting to run and wanting to put an end to this immaturity. She looks around desperately for something to help, with no clear idea of what that means.
She’s not sure if she’s more uncomfortable about confronting Ry entangled with Haley, or encountering Ry and not being able to trust her brother won’t bring up the wizard. Most likely a healthy mix of both.
To her relief, she spots Penny having an exchange with the coffee vendor.
“Hey,” Maru greets her.
“Hi Maru,” Penny takes a sip from her steaming mug. “You want? I know you don’t usually.”
“Sure, I’ll take one.” She nods to the vendor who passes her a fresh mug.
“Smells good, doesn’t it?”
At least with a beverage she would have something to do with her hands.
“You here alone?” Penny asks.
“No, I came with Seb and Abbi. You want to do a lap?” She asks before Penny can suggest they rejoin the others.
Ry’s expression had receded into unreadable some time ago and Haley felt the uneasy urge to do something, anything, that would bring it back to legible. It hadn’t taken Ry long to realize something was up with her the night of the panic attack. This only made Haley want to take the edge off with sex even more, and hope she could pull Ry along with her and make her forget she’d caught any glimpse of something being less than okay. She’d thought it had worked, but now she was pretty sure it hadn’t and she didn’t know what to do about it.
“Let’s go to the Night Market.”
It was a surprise when Ry asked her, after Haley had showed up to the farm, unannounced, in the middle of the afternoon, looking for an endorphin rush. She told herself that, chemically, what she got from Ry would be better than anything Harvey could give her.
She’d wondered if Ry was asking her on a real date. What does it mean? Haley didn’t normally go for that. Too complicated. Never enough time. But she had time now, they both did. So she told herself it was a nice thing, maybe it was just what she needed. Halfway to the beach she’d pulled Ry’s hand out of her pocket to hold it in her own. Okay, look, I’m making an effort, she told herself. Ry hadn’t refused.
By the time they got to the docks Haley felt almost delirious to be walking in her old home town, openly holding hands with the farmer. She’d never done anything like this. She found herself wanting to show it off, make a scene – yes I fuck women, so what? She hoped everyone would see.
Ry remained unreadable. Haley tells herself that’s just how she is.
The first valley people they encounter are Abbi and Sebastian. Seb notices the hands first and pretends not to. When Abbi sees she openly falters before raising an eyebrow at Haley. Does she think just because she helped me once she’s entitled to the intricacies of my life?
Haley pretends to take interest in a vendor as Ry greets them, avoiding Abbi’s questioning gaze.
She focuses a little too hard on looking away from the group that she jumps when someone asks “are you interested in metal work?”
She’s dismayed when she realizes it’s Leah, who she hadn’t registered had just been at the stall she was pretending to take an interest in.
“What?” She says, a little too harshly.
“This woman crafts some pretty fine sculptures out of different metals. Her jewelry is quite nice too.”
“It’s a little gaudy for my taste.” Haley remarks, barely having glanced at any of it.
Leah’s cheeks go slightly pink, but her expression remains impassive.
Haley notices too late the neatly wrapped bundle of whatever it was Leah had just purchased from the vendor. Her tongue goes limp in her mouth.
Ry wasn’t as slow as Haley. “Adding to your already magnificent ring collection?”
And suddenly her hand isn’t in Haley’s anymore. It’s stretching towards Leah’s and then holding up Leah’s many ringed fingers up for examination, a thumb tracing over a smooth stone inlaid in one of them.
A small sad smile is twisting across Ry’s face. It’s the only expression Haley’s seen revealed all night, but she still can’t decipher it. She feels her heart coming up her throat, a jealous pang in her chest.
“I guess it’s my weakness.” Leah laughs.
“It suits you, though. I can’t really pull off any jewelry, or anything fancy altogether.” Ry laughs, nodding towards her own attire.
“And that’s what suits you.” Leah smiles.
Haley’s hands are suddenly freezing.
Penny and Maru come to the end of their lap of the Night Market, and despite Penny being a welcome distraction, her uneasiness has only grown. Any glimpse of blonde hair has her stomach doing a somersault. Holding hands? Holding hands??? She wants desperately to ask Penny about it, find out if there’s any town gossip. At the same time, she's desperate not to care. To shove it away, to not have it matter. She exists between both – her mind spinning circles, but her mouth staying closed.
When they approach the dock where she’d first seen them, she quickly scopes out the area and she sees that Seb and Abbi have only moved about four feet further into the market – Haley and Ry blissfully absent. Before Maru can guide Penny towards them, Jas comes bounding forward to accost her old tutor.
“Penny! Look what I got!” Her early teenage petulance worn off in the wonder of the thing, whatever it was she’s showing off. Maru, not knowing how to talk to teenagers, silently excuses herself, figuring Penny will realize she’s only wandered a few feet away.
Abbi and Seb were in front of the spicy eel vendor, bent together and speaking in hushed tones. The slurp of eel disappearing down Abbi’s throat louder than their words. It was not an inviting posture and Maru approaches cautiously, not wanting to intrude, but also not wanting to go back. She pretends to be interested in a rack of fine silk scarves until they seem more open... coincidentally close enough that she can hear what they’re saying if she really strains her ears.
Between bites, “it’s weird. It’s off.”
“We don’t know the full story.”
Maru freezes where she is, her suspicions of to who they are referring rising.
“Heh. I know more than you do.”
“Like what?”
“Haley... She’s...”
There’s a pause before Abbi continues, and Maru tries to sink inside the rack she’s inspecting, praying they don’t notice her and continue their conversation.
“She’s what?” Her brother asks, his tone betraying his lack of amusement.
“Not well. I don’t know. All her years of being a stuck up bitch catching up with her. She’s a mess.”
“There’s no way Haley is the same person she was in high school.”
“I’m not saying she is. That doesn’t mean she’s not just fucked up in a new way.”
“She wasn’t that fucked up.”
“Sure.”
Sebastian ignores the sarcasm and moves on. “Look at Alex now.”
“She’s not him. All I’m saying is, complicated. Weird, not sitting quite right.”
He sighs, “alright, I agree.”
Penny grabs her arm, startling Maru so hard she almost knocks the rack over. “Maru look, its the magic hat shop we used to love. Wait, are you getting a scarf?”
Maru realizes she clutching a pink lacy thing in her hands, Penny looks down at it puzzled. She releases it suddenly and steps away from the booth before the vendor can realize she’s wrinkled it with her tight sweaty grip.
“No... No, just examining the craftsmanship.” And she reluctantly follows Penny towards the booth that sells colour changing hats of all sizes and varieties, trying to parse out what exactly she’s just heard.
“Would you like to try one?” Leah offers Haley one of the strange Night Market specialty candies she was passing around to the group.
“No, I would not.” Haley snips, without making eye contact. She was beyond caring that she was being rude, beyond being able to assess her own actions. It was too cold, and there were too many people, and this wasn’t really a date, was it? Ry had barely spoken to her since they’d arrived at the docks, more intent to converse with Seb, Abbi, Leah, Elliot, Harvey, anyone but Haley. She felt like an idiot. She felt raw and embarrassed. This was what happens when you get attached to people, she sulked. She lets them peel back a layer of her veneer and they don’t want anything to do with her anymore. And all it takes it a single night. Why the hell had Ry even invited her?
She wants to leave, prevent herself from getting it any worse, but instead she follows the group along. At this point it’s her, Leah, Ry, Harvey and Elliott. Meandering down the docks, examining this and that. Haley drifts behind them, not making conversation because they obviously don’t want her to. She’s not paying attention when Harvey asks, “would you be interested, Haley?”
“Sorry?” She says, having been lost in her own misery.
“Interested in the mermaid show?” Ry finally deigns to speak with her. A flash of anger slashes through Haley.
“I’m actually going to go.” She says coolly, and without explaining herself she turns heel and begins walking away form the group. She knows this is too abrupt and will raise questions, but there’s no way she can handle sitting through that stupid show with all these people. So what if they talk about her after she leaves? She’s used to that.
She wouldn’t admit it to herself, but she had known even before she’d turned to go that Ry would follow her. And moments later, when they’re out of earshot of the group, she feels the tug on the expensive fur lined cuff of her sleeve.
Haley spins around, snapping her sleeve back to her side. “What?” Her voice betraying her through its shrillness. “Now you’re paying attention to me?” She’s able to recover the second half, sounding bored, picking lint of her coat.
“What the hell?” Ry’s voice comes out low, a mixture of incredulous, angry and embarrassed. It drives the knife in deeper. Embarrassed of me?!
“Go play with your friends, you don’t need me here. I’m cold, I want to go home.” Haley says, voice dripping with venom.
“Okay.” Ry says dryly, anger clear in her eyes, but too willing to let it go, already turning to leave.
Haley hadn’t expected Ry to actually back off like that, and the shock of it has her taking a step towards her. Wrong direction, everything is going in the wrong direction.
Without realizing what she’s doing, her fingers twisting into the fabric of Ry’s coat, pulling her closer. The heat coming off of her is going straight to Haley’s head, an intoxicating cloud of campfire smoke, pine and something heavier, feminine, beyond description.
Ry almost shoves her off, “I don’t know what’s going on with you right now, but it’s not okay. You can’t just walk away from people like that, you can’t speak to people like you have been to Leah all night.” Back to Leah.
“You don’t get to tell me how to be.” Haley almost spits.
“I don’t even know what to say to you.” Ry mutters angrily. Before Haley can come up with a response she’s stalking back to her friends, hands in pockets, a cloud of contempt swirling around her. Or so it seemed to Haley.
Penny grabs Maru’s sleeve, pulling her towards her, “ooo, I don’t know, um...” There’s a nervous twitchiness to her friend’s posture, her eyes darting between Maru and something over her shoulder.
Maru turns to look, Penny’s attempt at distraction only peaking her curiosity.
“Maru, maybe don’t.” Penny insists, another tug on her arm, but not strong enough to turn someone who’s expecting it.
“What-” Maru starts, but before the word has completely left her mouth she can already see what Penny is trying to prevent her from seeing. Down the near empty docks, Haley’s hand tangled in Ry’s jacket, pulling her close.
They’re too far to hear the words over the winter wind, but the tension between them is palpable even from a distance. Maru’s stomach squirms uncomfortably, but before she can even consciously register her feelings Ry is tearing away from Haley, with obvious displeasure. Without being able to hear them, she can tell whatever words are being said are biting.
Ry turns and disappears behind one of the many boats, leaving Haley with an obvious expression of shocked rage.
Maru hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until Penny lets out her own.
“Maybe that’s good news.” Her friend says, somewhat shyly, looking at Maru like she’s trying to get a read.
“What’s good news?” Maru says, the wind whipping up her words and carrying them away. She’s too shocked to sound defensive, or even know why or if she should be.
“I saw you two at the saloon, Maru, you don’t have to pretend.”
“I... it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Of course it means something.”
“But maybe not for me.” She admits. She has to remember that, respect that.
Penny squeezes her shoulder, “maybe not yet.” There’s a mischievous hint to Penny’s tone, and Maru tries her best not to let it sink in. It might be dangerous.
It takes Haley well into the next day to calm down. The rage is an old familiar friend, comfortable. Part of her knows what follows, and it’s easier, better, to sit in the anger. Through most of that day she’d been expecting Ry to appear, to apologize. She spent this time pacing back and forth, occasionally throwing something across the room. She tore more than one of her magazines in half. She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep. It was about twenty hours in before she realized the farmer wasn’t going to come, which briefly reignited her rage, before tipping her into a solemn sorry-for-herself despair.
Emily gave her a wide berth. She’d seen Haley like this before and knew that the smallest thing would provoke her. Even giving her a wide berth made Haley mad, but Emily was out of the house before she could throw anything at her, words or otherwise.
The shame began to kick up sometime the following evening. When she couldn’t grip her indignant rage any longer it slipped from her and was replaced with a humiliation so thick she thought she might be sick.
Emily found her half undressed on the floor of the bathroom. The bathtub was about to overflow, and Haley just wasn’t able to lift herself off the floor to turn the tap off. Her sister did it for her, before emptying the tub a little, helping Haley out of her clothes and into the bath.
“Here’s one of my favourite candles.” Emily said, lighting it for her. She’d also given her lavender bath salts and washed all the day old makeup off her face.
“You’re going to be late for work.” Haley said through her teeth. These were her first words throughout all of this.
“Gus will understand.” Emily said quietly, lighting another candle.
“You should go.”
“At least let me make you some tea.”
“I can make my own tea!” She’d shouted, because she needed Emily away from her. She didn’t deserve her gentleness, and once again she’d taken it... she couldn’t bare taking anymore, when she would never have anything to give back. Thankfully she sister got the message.
When she was a teenager she would have gone to Alex. Fallen into his arms and he would hold her until she cried it all out, without questioning her. The memory of his kindness only made her feel worse now. She hadn’t deserved that either.
She stayed in the tub until well after it was cold. By the time she got out, she did feel slightly better, and did actually make herself a cup of tea. One of Emily’s bizarre mixes that smelled like grass and tasted worse, but somehow did slow her heart rate.
She was hiding in her room by the time Emily got back from work, early in the morning. She knew she would not find much sleep this night either. And she was beginning to accept that if she ever wanted to again she would have to do something to make up for her awfulness. If it was possible.
Maru had taken to regularly submerging her concerns and herself in the humidity of the spa. Nothing made her mind go blank quite like it, and she found once she got in it became difficult to leave. She was well into becoming a prune by the time she’d pulled herself out today, and the weak winter sun had already disappeared by the time she trekked home.
She’d accidentally locked herself out of the own door, so had to reroute through the front door. Her mother was sitting at her desk. “You coming to night market with me and your father this evening?”
“I went last night with Seb and Abbi.” She said as she stomped the snow out of her boots.
Hearing the commotion, her father pops his head out of the lab.
“Did you go down in the submarine?”
“No.” She admits, to her immediate regret.
“Well, then you have to go down tonight.” Demetrius smiles at Robin, clearly pleased by how he’d caught his daughter in this trap.
“I could do it tomorrow.” She points out, only somewhat sullenly.
The straight line of her father’s mouth told her what he thought about that.
So she went with them, figuring she’d hit the submarine right away and be free after that. Though it wasn’t like she’d really experienced the market last night, with most of her energy going towards avoiding people, so a lap or two again tonight wouldn’t kill her. Maybe one of the vendors would have some magical artifact she could bring back to the lab to analyze.
Her father couldn’t stand going down in a submarine. It was one of very few barriers he had when it came to scientific research. He’d tried to get over it multiple times, but it was just one of those things he couldn’t get past. So every year he got Maru to go down on his behalf and to record what she saw. It had been a few years since she’d last done it, and by the time they got to the market she was beginning to feel bad for not having suggested it herself. Her parents had put up with her moping, aimlessness for months now, and she never did anything for them.
“What do you think I’ll see this year?” Maru asks, before buying her ticket down.
He immediately goes into a detailed list, building on some of the things she’d recordedbefore, and making new guesses based on weather patterns he’d been observing.
“Only one way to find out.” He grins at her, before biding her farewell. She holds back from telling him that there are other ways of finding out than sending your daughter into a submarine in the middle of the night.
The submarine was never a busy attraction. At most, she’d been accompanied by a family of three. Some years she was the only one going down. By the time they returned to the surface there was never more than one or two people waiting for their turn. She expected the same this year, and she wasn’t wrong. There was only one person going down with her. What she wasn’t expecting was for it to be the farmer.
Ry was leaning against the railing in front of the large window. At their shallow level, the lights from the Night Market were reflecting beautifully in the water, and dancing a pattern across Ry’s face. She appeared deeply lost in thought.
Maru considered climbing back up the ladder and leaving, but the captain was slamming the way out shut and preparing for their descent.
There was only one other option.
“Ry?” Maru says, hesitantly, too quietly. The air was humid in the submarine, especially compared to the freezing chill outside, and it seemed to absorb her words.
Nevertheless Ry hears and glances over her shoulder. Maru approaches the window cautiously, maybe a little too cautiously, because the look Ry give her is slightly puzzled.
“It’s been awhile.” The farmer greets her softly.
“Yeah.”
“How have you been?”
“Okay. And you?”
Ry shrugs, and looks back out at the water. The captain yells that they’re beginning their descent. The water starts going darker as they leave the light at the surface. “You been on this before?” Ry asks her.
“Yes.”
“Ever see anything cool?”
Maru starts listing the scientific names of things she’d seen on this trip in years previous.
Ry laughs, “you’ll have to show me for me to understand any of that.”
Maru can feel herself blush, and hopes it isn’t visible in the dim light. “Sorry,” she mumbles.
“It’s no problem.” Ry replies, grinning softly, before turning to look out at the dark watery expanse. Maru can feel how rigid she is standing there next to Ry. She is incredibly aware of the distance between their bodies, and the fact that they are now stuck underwater together, with no escape.
They both stare out at the ocean, with only the groaning of the submarine and the faint ticking of instruments that leaks out from the room the captain was in.
“So... about the woods.” Ry’s voice is almost lost in the ambient noise, but Maru can’t pretend she didn’t hear.
“I...”
“I know you were there.” She says plainly.
“I wasn’t following you.” Maru sounds too defensive for someone who hasn’t been accused of anything yet.
“I didn’t say you were.”
“I swear to yoba, I wasn’t.” She didn’t want to double down on that statement. She just couldn’t stand the idea of Ry actually thinking she’d followed her.
“You swear to yoba?” Ry seems amused by that, and Maru’s feeling of helplessness turns to frustration.
“Don’t make me feel like an idiot.”
Ry loses her composure for a moment and falters in a way that Maru had never seen before. “I’m, um... I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
“I wasn’t following you.” Maru says more forcefully.
“So what were you doing? Slime hunting?” Sheepishness creeps in to Ry’s tone, like she’s still unsettled but trying to recover. She’s not looking at Maru now, she’s staring into the black of the ocean.
“Tell me what you were doing and I’ll tell you what I was doing.” Maru says, mimicking Ry’s posture of leaning over the railing.
“Ha,” Ry looks down at the palms of her hands. “Fucking up.”
Maru didn’t know what she had been anticipating hearing, but that certainly wasn’t it.
“I doubt it.”
“This might be the last year for the farm.” Ry admits. Another thing Maru hadn’t anticipated, and it shocks her, hearing her say it like that, here.
“I’m sorry...” But she's too shocked and discombobulated by that information to really know how to classify it.
Ry shrugs, but there’s an undeniable heaviness hanging over her. She still doesn’t look at Maru.
“How does that connect to the woods?” Maru asks, without cheekiness.
The farmer sighs heavily, “the wizard, Ras... he asks me to do stuff for him and the forest spirits. I don’t get how it works, if it’s restoring equilibrium somehow or not... sometimes I get stuff in return. But mostly I just get home late with a few new scars.”
Maru takes a moment of mull that over. “Are the forest spirits those little slimy guys?”
Ry grins despite herself, “those are basically what they seem. Animated slime.”
“So there’s actually forest spirits?”
“You sure you grew up here?”
“I thought I did.”
“To answer your question, I guess it’s not really connected. The farm, me being some magical errand boy... two separate things I’m fucking up. Among others.” Maru couldn’t help but wonder if that last addition meant things with Haley.
“I don’t think that’s true.” Maru says quietly, “at least about the farm. I know I haven’t been there a lot, but you’ve really transformed it.”
“Tell that to the bank.” Ry mutters.
Feeling her attempt at a compliment rebuffed momentarily riles Maru. But she pushes that aside, recognizing that Ry knows her problem better than she does, and that she’s probably too stressed for simple words to alleviate her. “Can I help?” She’s edging closer to Ry, their arms almost touching on the railing, instinct compelling her to use touch as a form of consolation.
“It’s your turn.” Ry says, turning so her back is against the railing now and crossing her arms.
“What?” Maru asks, standing up straight again.
“Tell me why you were in the woods.”
“Oh.”
Ry waits.
“It’s not going to sound believable.”
Ry continues to wait.
“I blacked out and next thing I knew I was halfway into the woods and couldn’t turn around.” Ry’s expression remains impassive, and Maru takes that as good enough indicator to continue, “the wizard did it.”
Ry stares blankly at her, blinking a few times before looking out towards the black water. “Why would he do that?” She says, and Maru can tell she’s saying it more to herself than to her.
“Then a slime got me, but the wizard got it. I tried to confront him later, after y-” she was about to say after you left the saloon with Haley but stopped herself, “after I got Penny home, and he picked me up and threw me into my room, even though I’d been at the tower.”
Ry’s brow is furrowed in a way that makes her looked pissed off, “what the fuck.”
Maru had no idea how to interpret that so she just continued. “I don’t know how any of it happened. I have no idea why he did it. Nothing he said made any sense to me.”
Ry’s hand was on her shoulder now. “Are you okay? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Wh- sorry?” Why didn’t you tell me? Maru is shocked by the presumption of it. Why would I? How could I?
“Why didn’t you talk to me about this? You know I know him.” Ry repeats.
Maru stumbles out of being stunned, “you were busy. I don’t know! Pam fell in the water and then Penny came over and I had to be with her.”
“You saw me at the bar.”
“You were drunk. You were with people.” Maru wasn’t sure if the first part was true, but she certainly wasn’t going to admit it was because Haley was there.
“You could have...” Ry trails off for a moment. “I’m sorry that happened to you. It’s not right. Has anything like that happened since?”
Maru shakes her head, “I tried to catch a slime, but I couldn’t.”
“What?! Catch a slime? Why?” Ry’s eyes are wide, half amused half incredulous.
“For science!” Maru retorts, equally inflamed.
Ry bursts out laughing, “for science? You shouldn’t mess with magic like that, it can kill you.”
“You do it.”
“I don’t catch slimes.”
“But you seek it out. Magic, I mean.”
She suddenly realizes how close Ry is, and despite how much of a risk it feels like, she looks directly into her eyes. The storm grey she remembers, but ringed in a deep purple. Before she can think better of it, “have your eyes always been like that?” Her voice comes out more softly than she’d anticipated, barely above a whisper.
“Like what?” Ry’s voice matches her own for quietness.
“I knew they were grey, but it’s like they’re becoming purple.”
“Probably just the lighting down here.”
Maru’s hand is on Ry’s cheek before she even realized she was going to put it there. “You’re like Abbi.”
“I’m what?”
“I don’t-” but then she realizes, “you’ve got magic in you.” Her voice is a whisper now.
Ry’s hand has dropped from her arm to her hip. Underneath her open jacket but above her shirt. Thumb gently grazing the hem. Despite the heat, a shiver goes up Maru’s spine.
For one heart stopping moment Ry is staring at her with a naked desire, so clear it’s terrifying.
Then with a mechanical jerk the whole submarine shudders and the captain yells, “time’s up!” and they begin the ascent back to the surface.
Ry’s hand is gone so quickly it’s like it was never there, and then she’s half a step backwards too. She looks at Maru with such a complicated mixture of emotions it would take her years to identify them all. But they’re gone in half a moment, sunk back into her regular composure.
“I should probably talk to Ras.” Ry says with a sigh. She sounds exhausted again, like nothing had happened.
“Oh, yoba I forgot...” Maru puts a hand to her forehead, realizing her mistake.
“What?” Ry asks, almost sounding hesitant.
“My dad wants to know what’s down here. I didn’t even look.”
“Think I saw a mermaid.” Ry states.
“Oh really, and you just kept that to yourself?”
The rest of the way to the surface is passed with similar sarcastic remarks, both of them trying to make light of whatever it was that had just happened. If Maru could have swam, she would have.