Lukas had just finished collecting earth from four different continents. While merfolk can walk on land as easily as humans, using tentacles, slithering, or using fins, they needed to be hydrated. Lukas was given a special pendant that used the moisture of the air to keep him hydrated. “There! That’s all four!” He looked at his pendant and saw that the glow was only half as bright as before. “…Huh. I guess this thing runs better than Calliope thought. I’ll have to tell her.”
“Tell who what, escaper?” hissed a voice. Lukas froze. He turned to see a dark-robed mermaid cracking her knuckles.
“…Sea-storm!” he whispered.
“You didn’t return to us for too long, Miner 746!” hissed his tormentor, Megan Sea-storm. “You will return to us for punishment!”
“…No!” he said defiantly.
“Oh, a bit of defiance, huh? I’ll personally beat it out of you!”
“You never did value your own freedom! Your power granted to you!” said Lukas.
“What could you possibly know?” scoffed Megan. At that point, Lukas decided to get serious.
“That Sly and Maria are hunting you!” Megan stopped.
“…How do you know those names?” she demanded.
“Let’s just say I now serve a mighty beast, the same mighty beast you pricked the side of and failed to run away from. Really, Megan, I admire your courage, I should like to admire it from afar.”
“You went to Calliope? She doesn’t know what I’m doing! She’s been ignorant of my activities for years!”
“You really think so? She’s very protective of those who work for her or are actively paying off their debts. Right now, she’s probably assigned Sly and Dr. Maria De La Mariana, her scouts, to find you. They’re probably ransacking your flunkies’ homes, poor devils.”
“You think she views what I did for our tribe as a breach of contract?”
“You think she doesn’t?” Lukas smirked. “If that particular sea witch is collecting on your debt to her, the Gods help you. And the Gods help those in her way.”
“Why?” demanded Megan.
“…Matron Sea-storm, all those stories you heard about her, they’re not stories. They’re true. Honestly, you’re not telling me you’re ignorant of what awaits you this month?”
“…I’ll see you back in the tribe! And you WILL return!” hissed Megan as she headed to the water.
“Our tribe’s home, the cave we mine, do you know why they call it Evil’s Retreat?” Megan turned back.
“How did you know the cave’s name?!” she demanded.
“A few of your goons are customers of Calliope’s currently serving in the Garden of Centuries,” replied Lukas. “They’ve each got about 50 years left in their sentence.”
“The cave’s name comes from some old saying,” scoffed Megan.
“The oldest, Megan. And a slight mistranslation. There shouldn’t be an apostrophe in Evils. The full sentence is ‘All Evils retreat when one good person goes to war’!” Megan said nothing and dove under the waves.
As Megan swam for home, she felt like she was being watched. She carefully reached for her sword, then Sly sprang from the rocks and grabbed her, wrapping his tail around the mermaid. “GET OFF ME, YOU BASTARD MORAY!” she shouted.
“Fat chance! You’re gonna pay for what you did to Lukas!” snarled Sly. Maria then swam out and opened a portal.
“Boss! We have her!” called Maria. Sly backed off as three of Calliope’s tentacles wrapped themselves around Megan and pulled her into the portal.
The lair was pitch-black, showing how angry Calliope was. She slammed Megan into a rock wall, forcing her to collapse to the lair’s floor. Megan looked up. All she could see were Calliope’s lips, hair, the underside of her tentacles, her sleeves, and her angry eyes. “I told you that I would grant you immortality and, in return, you would use it to help your tribe! You chose to abuse that gift!”
“I abused nothing! I did the right thing! I made people tough! I-!”
“YOU ENSLAVED YOUR TRIBE! YOU BROKE OUR CONTRACT! YOUR ENTIRE IDENTITY IS FORFEIT!” A swirling green light then surrounded Megan and a horrific transformation began. Her arms fused to her sides as her tail became green roots. Her chest shrunk into itself as her eyes bulged out and became yellow. Her teeth sunk into the gums as her vibrant green hair became a sickly gray-green. All she was now was a polyp with very rare distinguishing features. The ground opened up beneath her and she fell into deeper waters. “To the Garden of Loss with you!” said Calliope. “And may the Gods have mercy upon you because I have none!” The hole closed above Megan as she fell, condemned to lose all her features and her identity over a century, becoming a mindless filter-feeder in the dark.