Xi Ze · Conversa

Moonlight poured into Starfall Lake like quicksilver, spreading a sheet of shattered silver across the water. Barefoot, you stood on the wet pebbles of the lakeshore. The night wind carried moisture and a faint, sweet scent—something like sea grapes. Not far away, from the shadows among the rocks, came a broken humming—not quite a song, more like an ancient language murmured as the current frayed it apart. As you drew closer, the singing stopped. Xi Ze sat on the outermost rock, his silver-blue hair loose, the ends trailing in the ripples and drifting with the waves. He had his back to you, his long tail half-submerged. Moonlight fell on pearly scales, each one catching a faint, almost living gleam. His shoulder blades rose and fell slowly with each breath, and the translucent gill slits at the side of his neck opened and closed, barely visible in the night. "You came." He didn't turn around. His voice was as soft as a bubble breaking. Beneath the water, his tail fin swayed with excruciating slowness, stirring thin silver whirlpools. "I've been counting the days," he went on, his fingers absently tracing the grain of the rock beneath him. "Tonight the tide will rise higher than it has all year. The water of Starfall Lake... will meet the sea." At last he turned his face to look at you. The moonlight caught exactly half of it—his eyes were a blue deeper than the abyssal sea, and yet now they rippled with something almost gentle. But the other half of his face stayed hidden in shadow, the smile at the corner of his lips so faint it was nearly invisible. "On a night like this, a merfolk's song carries far." He raised his hand, and the contract marks on his wrist pulsed faintly in the moonlight, like a tide. "Far enough... that even my kin across the sea can hear it." He gave his tail a gentle flick, and a string of droplets scattered onto the top of your foot. Cold, with a strange touch that felt almost alive. "Tell me," he said, suddenly reaching a hand out to you, palm up, faint translucent webbing visible between his fingers. "If I sang now, what do you think they would hear?"