Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Atlantis

Eve POV:

Sparing with Kaldur was pretty awesome. Being witness to the ‘birth’ of Arsenal was pretty awesome. Testing ‘Conjure Barrage’ with explosive arrows was pretty awesome. All in all, that day had been pretty awesome. Today I was going to visit a legendary sunken city, so everything pointed to this being a pretty awesome day as well.

“Welcome to Atlantis!” Kaldur said as I exited the zeta-tube. “This is Garth and Tula, my two best friends from school. They are both apprentices to Queen Mera and will accompany us today.”

He was gesturing to the boy and girl standing next to him with a smile, clearly happy to see his friends after being away for a while.

Garth was a fair skinned boy with blue eyes and black hair. He wasn’t quite as muscular as Kaldur, but it was clear that he got his exercise in. Tula was a cute girl that almost reminded me of M’gann with her red hair and shy smile. She was about my height, and her skin was lightly tanned.

“Garth, Tula, this is Arcana,” Kaldur continued. “A new friend from the surface, a member of my team, and the one Queen Mera wished to see.”

“Hey guys! It’s nice to meet you,” I said as I waved my hand in greeting. “And just call me Eve.”

“Greetings, Eve,” Garth walked forward with a friendly smile on his face and extended his hand. “Your reputation precedes you. Queen Mera has been pestering King Orin non-stop to bring you here ever since she heard stories of your unusual magic.”

I shook his hand before Tula came forward and we repeated the gesture.

“Don’t let her hear you say that, Garth,” she said before turning to me and adding, “But, yeah. Your magic sounds really interesting. And your Atlantean is perfect, by the way!”

“Ah, thanks,” I replied with a sheepish smile, “But I don’t speak a word of Atlantean. It’s a spell.”

I had cast both ‘Water Breathing’ and ‘Tongues’ before coming here. I planned on using ‘Alter Self’ to give myself gills and webbed limbs, but I didn’t want to drown if I accidentally lost concentration, so I doubled up with ‘Water Breathing’ which would stay active for 24 hours no matter what. ‘Tongues’ just made sense since I was going to a place where most didn’t speak english.

“And it just got even more interesting,” she said with a raised eyebrow before muttering to herself, “Magical knowledge acquisition? No, too much. Empathic connection? Hmm…”

“Forgive Tula,” Garth said. “She specializes in magical theory, and we rarely get to see bloodline magic like yours outside of old research papers.”

I was about to reply when Kaldur spoke.

“Perhaps we should get going?” He said and gestured to the door, where a magical barrier kept the water out. “The Queen would likely not appreciate being kept out of this conversation.”

Garth and Tula both turned a little pale and quickly agreed.

“Do you need a water breathing spell?” Garth inquired politely.

“Nah, I’m good.” I responded and cast ‘Alter Self’. The spell took care of most of the work, so all I had to do was think ‘gills and fins’ as I cast it. As the spell took effect, I felt my hands, feet and neck shift.

“Ghack!” I exclaimed as the spell finished. “Chis is choinch cho chache chome checkinch chuchech cho…”

My throat felt weird and it was hard to make the sounds I wanted to.

“Instant fleshgrafting!” Tula exclaimed in amazement and rushed forward to inspect my gills. I didn’t really mind having the cute girl this close and stroking her hands across my skin, so I just let her. Unfortunately, Garth had other plans.

“Tula,” he warned. “You’re being rude! And the Queen is waiting.”

“Oh! I’m sorry!” she exclaimed and drew away quickly.

“Ha chonch chinge. Ghach! Chow cho cho chalch chiche chich?!”

“Try closing your gills,” Kaldur helpfully supplied with an amused smile, and I experimented with muscles that I just discovered now that I paid attention to them.

“Chow ish this? Ghack! How is this?”

“Much better,” he said. “You need to open them while underwater though.”

“Alright, let’s go see the queen then,” I smiled, “Lead the way!”

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Atlantis was beautiful. It looked more like a city from the future than ancient Greece, but everything ran on magic rather than electricity. If anything, I would describe the aesthetic as ‘aetherpunk’.

I noticed several different types of Atlanteans swimming through the streets. The most populous seemed to be a traditional mermaid type, with fishtails instead of legs.

“Triton grafts,” Tula explained. “Purebloods like me and Garth are actually pretty rare, but you’ll find most of us here in Poseidonis. Other than purebloods, triton grafts are the most successful adaptation so they make up the biggest part of the population. Tritonis is the biggest city state other than Poseidonis.”

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“That’s probably why they appear in surface legends,” I noted. “Bigger population means a greater amount gets adventurous, goes to the surface, and gets spotted by a fisherman.”

“You might be right,” Tula agreed. “I’ve never thought about that, but it makes sense.”

“Kaldur! You’re back!”

We turned to see an octopus graft approach us. At least that was what I assumed his adaptation was called, since he basically had an octopus with beady black eyes for a head. The rest of his body was humanoid, with pale grey skin. He seemed quite young, but it was hard to tell with his inhuman features.

“Topo!” Kaldur called out with a smile. “How are you? School going alright?”

“I’m doing well in history, but I keep failing physical.” Topo said with what I thought was a pout. “Magic is going fine, but my family doesn't really have a talent for it.”

“Bullies giving you any trouble?” Kaldur asked with some concern, but Topo waved him off,

“It’s fine. Some of the purebloods are still snooty with everyone, but they’re not actively bothering anyone.”

“That’s good to hear,” Kaldur said with some relief before gesturing to me. “This is Eve, a friend of mine from the surface. Eve, this is Topo. He’s a friend from youth school— um, that would be elementary and half of middle school on the surface, I think.”

“Nice to meet you Topo,” I said with a smile and extended a hand. He took it readily, but eyed me with a confused look.

“Are you some kind of surface graft?” he asked curiously. “I thought all surfacers looked like purebloods.”

“I’m a bit of a special case,” I replied with a laugh. “I am a magically altered human, so I suppose you could call me a ‘tiefling graft’, but it really isn’t the same as with you guys.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you. A friend of Kaldur can’t be a bad person,” he said with what I think was a smile. “Welcome to Atlantis!”

“Thanks!” I replied with a smile. This kid was pretty nice.

Topo accompanied us on the trip to the Royal Conservatory where we would meet Queen Mera. He was chatting happily at Kaldur who was nodding along with a warm smile on his face. His inhuman features made him hard to read for me, but the iconic scene of a kid idolizing a nice senior was unmistakable.

“Thanks for not freaking out,” Tula said in a low voice that wouldn’t reach the boys swimming in front of us. “I know full grafts like Topo can be disturbing to surfacers.”

“He was kinda right, you know?” I said with a raised eyebrow. “I am pretty much a full graft myself, even if I have more human features. Treating him any worse than I want people to treat me would be the height of hypocrisy. We’re kinda in the same boat. Besides, I always liked octopuses. Octopi? Octopod?”

She eyed me with a strange expression for a moment before saying, “You really are a good person.”

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Topo left us to explore the campus when we reached the conservatory. It was basically the Atlantean version of a college, with dorms, classrooms and research labs. Queen Mera was the headmistress. How she managed that while also being queen I didn’t know, especially since the king spent a lot of time running around as Aquaman.

“My Queen, your guest has arrived,” Kaldur called out after knocking on the door of what I assumed was the headmistress’ office.

The door swished open by itself and I could see Queen Mera rising from behind her desk with an excited smile on her face. She was wearing a scaly green skin-tight suit, and a fancy crown on her head.

“Come, come!” She said and gestured towards a sitting area in the corner. “I have been dying to meet you!”

I swam through the door and grabbed her extended hand in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you, your majesty.”

“Please, call me Mera,” she insisted. “Now, Arcana, would you please explain as much as you are willing to about your magic. I hear you can teleport at will? How does it work? How does distance affect it? How do you get around Eirene’s Law?”

It was kinda cute seeing a grown woman — and a Queen at that — acting like an excited child. I put my hand up to forestall any more questions though.

“First, sure, Mera. Call me Eve. I’m not a superhero right now so just use my name. Second, I’ll explain all I can. Third, yes,” I took a breath — which, oddly enough, didn't feel weird even if I was underwater.

“It’s a spell called ‘Misty Step’. I’ll be able to do more complicated ones later, but that’s the only one for now. Fourth, I have no idea. Fifth, no, but it’s limited to 30 feet. The spells I will get later can go further though. And finally,” I finished my rant, “What the hell is ‘Eirene’s Law’?”

We looked at each other for a moment before Mera’s face donned a slight blush as she spoke again.

“My apologies, Eve,” she said with a sheepish smile. “I get excited when it comes to magic. Especially bloodline magic such as yours.”

“It’s fine,” I said with a grin. “How about we start with this?” The Maginomicon appeared in my hand and I handed it to her. “I permit Mera. This is all the spells I have access to. For now, I’m limited to the ones up to here. My actual knowledge of magic is basically ‘mana goes in, spell comes out’, so I’m afraid I can’t actually give any explanations beyond that.”

“I see,” she said, now with a concentrated look on her face as she studied the Maginomicon. “Do you mind if I try to cast one of these? The spellcasting method is not too dissimilar to how conventional spells are cast, but the rune construction is completely foreign to me.”

“Go for it,” I agreed. “It didn’t work for the Zataras, but they don’t have much talent for conventional magic.”

Mera got a focused look on her face for a moment before she shook her head.

“No luck,” she explained, before asking, “Would you mind me using some analytics spells while you demonstrate?”

I had expected that result, but it added to our theory that my ability was similar to bloodline magic. In D&D terms, I guess that made me a sorcerer. ‘Maybe I should start referencing my magic as ‘sorcery’ instead?’

“Sure,” I agreed readily, and started casting.

We kept discussing magic long into the night. Tula joined in, but both Garth and Kaldur asked to be dismissed. While very little of it applied to my spellcasting, I learned a lot about magic that day. Eventually, both Tula and I almost fell asleep in our seats, and we decided to call it a night. Tula invited me to spend the night in her room, which I happily accepted.

Then I was invited for another meeting the next morning. I wondered how long I would end up spending in Atlantis. By recasting ‘Water Breathing’ I could stay here indefinitely, but… would I look like a prune when I got back to the surface?