Lochness and Lies

They walked between the buildings and onto the beach, the clomping of their shoes against the hollow sea-shell floor turning to the sifting of sand. They passed all kinds of people walking around, some carrying crates or hauling fishing nets, others carrying baskets of fruit that looked like giant yellow stars.

Ignacio licked his lips, tasting salt again. “Koharu, is the air this salty because of the ocean?”

She glanced over her shoulder at him, nodding with a smile. “Yep, the water tastes awful because of it.”

Ignacio’s gaze followed a young boy with bright blonde hair as he wheeled a giant animal shell past him.

“What is that?” Ignacio asked.

It was pale in colour, swirled in the centre with red lines stretching to the rounded edge. Seaweed and moss patched it, the spiral of the shell seeming to move as it rolled.

“Gigurchin shells, and giant hermit crabs,” Koharu said, shielding her eyes with a hand. “Ki, is that a Lochness sub?”

Ignacio frowned as he followed her gaze to the water. He stopped in his tracks as a creature with a long, eel-like neck stretched out of the water’s surface, water streaming off its head. Waves rolled and crashed against a glass shell that was saddled to its back, its white underbelly spotted with barnacles.

Its front flippers broke onto the beach, and it shuffled forward, people clearing out of the way for it.

“My goodness, I think that’s Marcus,” Kiyomi said.

Ignacio frowned as they walked past the enormous creature. It tilted its head to the side, staring down at Ignacio with a yellow eye. Its teeth stuck out of its mouth though it was closed, its rubbery grey skin scaled like a crocodile's along the back of its neck and torso.

The glass shell strapped to its back was made up of glass pentagons, black metal holding them together in frames. One of them swung open on top, and a man stood up from inside, stretching his muscular arms to the sky with a groan.

His eyes settled on them as Kiyomi waved, and a grin split his face.

“Kiyomi and Koharu,” he said, leaping out of the hatch and landing on the sand. “Wasn’t expecting to see you guys here.”

“Neither were we,” Koharu said, thumbing over her shoulder. “We got a rookie to take care of.”

The man regarded Ignacio with glittering blue eyes, flecks of turquoise floating inside them.

“Hey there,” he said, offering Ignacio a fist.

Ignacio stared at it for a moment, then bumped it with his own fist.

The man laughed. “Yeah, you’re new, alright.”

Kiyomi stopped, turning to him with arms crossed. “Did you see any lumen-whales this week?”

Marcus walked around the back of the Lochness, crouching and removing a thick rope from around its back flipper.

“Nope, not so far,” he said, standing and dusting his hands. “I’m off to see Silas Blackwell in Miraveth today. He’s training Pix at the Aspectary at the moment, and apparently she’s quite good.”

Koharu’s head perked up. “Pix? As in his niece, Pix?”

“Yeah, that’s her,” Marcus said, glancing to the side. “You lot need to be careful, though. You look so outta place people are gonna figure out that you’re a bunch of Cypher users.”

Ignacio frowned. “Aren’t you a Cypher user?”

A man walking past with a ropy beard glanced at them, his wrinkled eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“No I haven’t seen any,” Marcus shouted, eyeing the old man as he passed.

Koharu placed a hand on Ignacio’s shoulder. “Forgive him, he knows not what he says.”

Marcus chuckled, wrapping the rope around his hand. His white shirt was soaked wet, sand clinging to it. He also had an orange sun emblazoned on his shirt, right over his heart. The rushing of waves almost drowned out his voice as he whispered.

“Don’t say stupid things in this place, bud. You’ll die before realizing what you’ve done,” he said.

Ignacio nodded, and Koharu pulled him away. “Hopefully we’ll catch you at the Aspectary,” she said, smiling as she waved goodbye.

He gave them a two-fingered salute, flashing a devilish grin at her. “Hopefully, Koharu.”

She rolled her eyes, and Ignacio brushed her hand away as they turned away from him.

“Oh, sorry,” Koharu said, placing her hand behind her back as they walked along the shoreline.

“Don’t worry,” Ignacio said. “Just don’t touch.”

Her cheeks flushed and she put her head down. The waves that crashed beside them rolled up to their boots, the water a pale blue unlike any he’d seen before.

“Have you seen an ocean before, Ace?” Koharu asked.

He shook his head. “No. Just the Grandyne lake.”

“Beats the hell out of Grandyne, doesn’t it?” Kiyomi asked.

He smiled. “Yeah. It does.”

He shook his head. He wasn’t here to sight see. He was here for one reason only: to help Celeste.

“Where are we going? Do we have a plan to help my sister?” Ignacio asked.

Kiyomi raised a hand, shooing him with it. “Yeah, yeah. Just hang on until we’re safe.”

They passed a dock lined with boats anchored at an angle, like leaves on a branch. Eventually after a few minutes of walking they made it to a land bridge arching from a dark grey cliff side to a sea stack further out, its shade cooling Ignacio’s sun-fried skin.

“Good. Now we can talk,” Kiyomi said, her dress flaring as she turned to him with folded arms.

She held out her hand, a red light glowing from inside it. Then, as if rising from beneath water, a book slid out of her skin and lay flat on her palm, opening up as if the wind blew it.

“State your name,” she said.

Ignacio took a step back, holding up a hand. “Nope, I’m good. Take me back.”

“Take you back?” Koharu said, hair falling to the side as she tilted her head. “But this is the way to help your sister, Ace!”

Ignacio clenched his jaws. And take such a huge risk over her? He wouldn’t be able to help if he was dead.

It’s this, or we leave her to Cypher Corp.

Ignacio sighed. “Okay, fine. Ignacio Torvado.”

Koharu gasped. “That’s such a cool name.”

“Koharu, please don’t interrupt him anymore, he’s already blushing like a ripe tomato,” Kiyomi said.

He shook his head. “What else?”

“Is your sister the First Nexus?”

“I told you, yes-”

He jumped back as a giant snake head made of black smoke rose from the book’s pages, its red eyes gleaming like lightning in a cloud.

What in the world…

Kiyomi snapped the book shut with both hands, and the smoke snake dissolved in the breeze, a wave crashing against a rock behind him.

She leaned to the side to look at Koharu. “He’s lying.”