At the center of all this, there was the Sea Heart, a hollow piece of rock usually shaped like a sea shell or coral that was used solely for events that involved the entire community, be they good or bad.
In Yhen’s case, the Sea Heart was shaped like a group of statues. They were all roughly outlined since sight played a minimal role in merfolk society but the sculptor had taken care to make each one of them recognizable.
In the front, there was Tista, kneeling on the ground while holding Khalia’s lifeless body. On her left, there was Phloria with her shield raised, protecting her companions from an invisible horde of enemies.
On the right, there was Lith in his Wyrmling form. He wielded War and there was the skewered corpse of a Kolgan hanging from the blade. Behind the four of them, there was the winged figure of Lith’s Tiamat form.
It wasn’t as big as the original, just three times taller than the others. The statue had its arms raised, while the ground at its feet was jagged as if something was crawling out of the seabed.
‘You probably can’t recognize this place, but this is where Kolga once stood. After you left, we cleared the debris and built Yhen. The mana geyser that fueled the lost city turned out to be powerful enough to fuel the enchantments of both cities.
‘With no longer the need to spend our resources to contain Kolga’s expansion and the geyser, my people have achieved a prosperity the likes we haven’t seen since the War of the Race.’ Rem’s vibrations sounded like a smile.
‘This wouldn’t have been possible without you. For this reason, we have unanimously decided to shape the Sea Heart after you guys so that the memory of those events will live on forever. Also, it’s too soon to thank me. Please, wait a moment.’
Orion had no idea who those people were or how he could suddenly see clearly what until a second back had been pure darkness. Those were just minor details, like the fact that if not for the shield he wouldn’t have been able to tell Phloria from Tista.
All that mattered to him was that there was someplace on Mogar where his daughter was remembered for the way she had lived rather than the circumstances of her death. It was enough to pierce through the dark clouds surrounding his heart and add one more drop of salt water to the ocean.
‘I take that back.’ He said. ‘You have no idea how much this means to-‘
Mal broke the formation, gently pulling Orion with him as he approached the Sea Heart.
The merfolk put his hand on the statue of Khalia while another merfolk took Orion’s free hand, forming the third link of a living spiral of merfolk that reached higher than the tallest building of Yhen.
Mal’s body started humming, the sound echoed through the Sea Heart before being sent back to be amplified through every member of the living chain. It sounded pleasant, but no different than someone performing vocalisms to warm up their voice.
The sound rose all the way to the top and then went back to the Sea Stone where it exploded into a choir of different voices.
Orion could see the youthful joy that had marked Khalia’s life turning into sadness when she had chosen to lay down her life for the future of her people. There was regret for the things she had dreamed of and now she would never experience.
There was fear for the cruel destiny she knew awaited her inside of Kolga yet there was also the bravery to face it head on.
Tista’s statue reverberated with grief for Khalia’s death, compassion for her suffering, and mercy for sparing her the slow agony of her core falling apart. Somehow, Orion knew that those weren’t Tista’s feelings but those of everyone who had known and loved Khalia.
As the vibration spread from Tista to Phloria, Orion felt his daughter’s warrior spirit and her indomitable will to protect those she loved, even at the cost of her life. He could almost see the spells she was blocking with her shield and the flurry of parries of her estoc.
She was alone against many, fighting in what a cynical person would define as the pointless effort of defending someone stupid enough to weep for a corpse on the battlefield. Yer Phloria didn’t move and nothing got past her.
Orion felt the trust the merfolk had put in his daughter back when they had erected the monument and he felt it growing louder through the living spiral because they still did.
The merfolk knew how Phloria had died yet they didn’t think any less of her for it.
Then it was the turn of Lith’s statue whose statue released a music with a slow, solemn tempo filled with cold fury. It expressed not only the wrath that Lith had displayed while fighting the Kolgans, but also the thirst for revenge of all the people of Zhen against their ancient enemy.
The melody carried their grudge for living under the constant threat of the lost city and the toll of lives that keeping Kolga contained cost them.
Finally, the vibration reached the Tiamat statue which sang a dirge of death and reckoning. The merfolk now knew how the Forbidden Sun was fueled and what happened to the unfortunate ones captured and dragged inside Kolga.
The tune echoed with the sounds of battle that had spelled the end of the centuries-long conflict. The low, baritonal tones reached the ground at the Tiamat’s feet, signaling the rising of the dead to protect the living and keep them from joining the Demons’ ranks.
The song of death spread out, reaching the nearby buildings and turning into a happy sonata about life. The battle was over and from the rubble of Kolga, a new city was built.
Orion could see the daily life of the people of Yhen, scavenging the ruins of the lost city for the remains of their loved ones. The materials that the Kolgans had amassed and refined to build their city had become part of Yhen.
The new settlement of the merfolk was more modern, sturdier, and bore enchantments that would have been impossible without using the work of the Kolgans as a foundation.
Yhen would forever carry the bloodstains of the conflict, but the merfolk didn’t consider it a mark of infamy. It was their way to honor those who they had lost and make their sacrifice amount to something.
Those very bloodstains made the fallen like Khalia and Phloria immortals, the echoes of their deeds forever engraved in the rock and metal of the buildings.
As the vibration spread, the city of Yhen lit up to the Sonar spell with such strength that even Orion’s amateurish technique could perceive it with clarity. Each building shone with a different color and expressed a different emotion, yet they all carried the echoes from the Sea Stone.
When a merfolk was born, when someone argued, and even when they slept, the vibrations from their bodies from their house to the next until the monument and back.
