Chapter 38

Massive silhouettes swam into view.

The shapes appeared to be moving slowly, but quickly arrived at the chasm.Fey’s party was awed into silence.

The new arrivals were a mother blue whale and her calf, the adult about 150 (metric) tonnes(1) and her offspring a third of the size.

Ignoring the (tiny) players, the mother whale circled the newly-sealed chasm, inspecting the change to the seafloor while her calf tagged along.

After taking several minutes to get used to the sheer enormity of the largest animal in the world, Fey and Sirena glanced at each other.:Is this even quest-related?: Fey asked quietly, so as not to disturb the gigantic creatures.

Wellia had mentioned nothing about whales when giving out the quest.Sirena shrugged.

:Can’t hurt to ask.: She swam forward, her pace matched by a quest-eager Requiem.:Unless we get killed, you mean: Fey muttered with her typical ‘take things literally’ mindset.

Blue whales were filter feeders, but their sheer size made them apex predators.

She swam forward anyways, not truly believing that the whales would kill them.

(Blade also followed.) :Hello!: Sirena called out cheerfully from approximately one whale-length (30 metres) away.The whales did not appear to notice.After a few seconds, Requiem tried.

:Hello?:Still no reaction.:Maybe louder: Fey suggested.:HELLO!: Sirena yelled, to no effect.

Impatient, Requiem swam daringly close to the whales.

He was first noticed by the whale calf.:It’s a merman: he noted.

His voice sounded childish despite being immensely loud and deep.The mother whale spoke, her voice even deeper and louder than her offspring’s.

:What do you want, merman?::Do you know anything about siren’s song?: Requiem asked.:Did you say something? Speak up, merman.::DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SIREN’S SONG?: Requiem yelled as loudly as he could.Both whales swam away from him with annoyed flicks of their tails.

:What are you screeching for?: the mother whale asked irritably.

From Fey’s perspective, she found it obvious that whales would find the normal pitch of human voices to be shrill and annoying.

Reassured by the fact that Requiem had not been mauled after annoying the sea-giants, she decided to give communication a try.

Swimming closer to one of the mother whale’s eyes, she imagined her voice as a resonant bass, amplified as if by loudspeakers.:Hello!:The whale glanced over.

:Greetings, human.:Fey ignored the mistake about her species in order to build good relations with the possible source of their next quest clue.

:Greetings, great one.

My name is Fey.

The merman you spoke to is Requiem.

Allow me to introduce my other party members, Sirena and Blade.::I am Laaguuna.

This is my fourth offspring, Iaabaanaar.: The whales’ names had deep, elongated vowels.:Hi!: Iaabaanaar chimed in.The conversation appeared to be flowing smoothly.

Fey continued, :If you could spare us a moment of your time, we would like to consult your wise knowledge about a mystery we are exploring.:Laaguuna gave no indication whether the flattery had any effect, but nonetheless granted the request.

:Ask.::Do you know anything about siren’s song?: The party’s expressions became more alert, each member paying sharp attention to Laaguuna’s answer.The whale gave a deep-pitched snort.

:The merfolk spent too much time among the land-dwellers: she said, answering the question indirectly.

:They confused singing with the noise-making that the humans make, and lost much of their ability.:Fey felt that the whale was providing crucial information to unlock siren’s song, but did not quite understand what it meant.

:Could you give an example of how merfolk have lost their ability?: she asked.Another snort.

:The way your Requiem screeched when attempting to speak with me.

Even you, a human, are closer to grasping the true capabilities of sea-speech.:Fey paused to reflect on the information.

If “sea-speech” was telepathy, then Laaguuna had stated that Fey’s telepathy was closer to siren’s song than Requiem’s… Laaguuna did not wait for Fey to finish thinking.

:If that is all, we shall be leaving.::Hey wait—:Fey interrupted Requiem’s exclamation with a well-placed elbow and a bow (only realizing halfway through the motion how stupid it looked underwater).

:Thank you very much for your aid.::Bye!: said Iaabaanar cheerfully.Mother and calf swam off majestically in the direction they had appeared from.

:What the hell, Fey?: Requiem complained.

:She didn’t tell us anything!: Fey was busy trying to recapture the line of thinking that had been interrupted by the whales’ departure and made no reply (other than an annoyed shushing gesture in Requiem’s direction).

Requiem was wholly unused to being ignored by a member of the opposite sex (sorry dude, wrong species), and tried again.

:Are you listening to me?: :Shut up unless you have something useful to say: Sirena snapped.

She recognized the look on Fey’s face as the one present when puzzling through problems.

Requiem had had just about enough of Sirena’s rudeness.

:Sirena, you really need to—::SHUT UP!: Sirena borrowed Fey’s earlier technique and altered her telepathic voice to boom like speakers set to maximum volume.

She did not bother altering it to sound deeper than her speaking voice.