You can’t just bribe my sidekicks into working for you. That’s rude!

Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Current Date: February 23, 2023

Character: Xiang Zhao
Race: Merman – Octopian
Age: 34
Current residence: Mariana Trench
 

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I’m fairly certain that, to some, the places where I find helpers—and the type of helpers I find—are quite baffling. I don’t need helpers of the mer kind. Merfolks are fine and that is beside the point. My helpers are usually shaped rather differently and their brains don’t have the necessary connections for us to have full discussions together. I’m aware that they can discuss, so to speak, with their own species, but interspecies discussions like those I have with Halim are not going to happen.

Anything that swims in these waters I can manage to draw to my side as a helper. There are plenty of species that I avoid for the sake of potential danger and others because, well, they would do me no good either due to their shape or size or the fact that they might stand out a little too much for the task I need of them.

I used to do this a lot more when I was younger; I think I was testing the reach of my abilities. I didn’t want to turn these lesser—so to speak—creatures into slaves. I only needed their help for small tasks. These tasks, when I was so much younger, were, well, fitting of my being a child, I suppose. They were childish. Especially considering this was during the rare times when I was around others who were possibly close to my age.

Using a fish or two to tickle someone else. To steal a piece of food from someone’s hand. Little things that were mostly harmless. The former happened a handful of times, the latter, up until I found properly forage for my own food once I was truly on my own, happened a little more often than I’d like to admit but to child-me who was starving—as far as my child mind and stomach were concerned—this was one of my only options because even back then, once I’d started roaming, I was looked upon rather poorly.

I was not the only child who used lesser fishes to play around, or so most adults I came across seemed to think. As far as I was concerned, I wasn’t playing around, but I saw plenty of others who seemed to play with small schools of fish and I won’t lie, one of the things I did like to do as a child—out of resentment, perhaps, I can hardly remember that much detail at this point—was drawing away these schools of fishes. I could, as much as I managed back then and it was already quite something, attract these fishes to me with very little effort necessary.

I’ve lost count of the number of children whining or complaining about their friends just very randomly abandoning them. I always made sure I was mostly out of sight when I did this. Only once, to my memory, did a young boy—another octopian just like me but in much, much brighter colours—saw me and assumed that I was the one taking his so-called friends away from him. He had no proof but as they were all slowly, lazily really, swimming towards me, I suppose it was enough proof for him.

I recall that he complained about how I couldn’t just bribe his sidekicks away from him. That it was rude. I might have blinked at him because I don’t know that I’d heard that word before—sidekick. I had no idea what it meant but since I had been in the process of drawing the fishes away from him as he’d been playing with them, I could only assume he meant them.

These are strange memories to relive. I wasn’t a bad child, not really. At least, I didn’t try to be. I admit that I might have been a bit of a butt while I was still learning what I could of the archives of the sea witches’ knowledge. I had no family to call my own and I might have been a bit bitter about that. It’s so long ago at this point, I suppose it hardly matters.

Eventually, years down the road, through listening to the land people as they spoke, I did learn what a sidekick was, and I recall being so confused as to how the boy had even known what it had meant. Perhaps it was because he had had a family and they had known. I know I felt confused about that for a short while, but I had things that were much more important than this to deal with and I sort of left it behind.

It’s hard to tell why this particular memory has surfaced recently, not that it matters all that much, does it? I wouldn’t think so, not really. It’s all right, though.

Final Word Count: 805

All I wanted to do was go to the store and you’re telling me we’re in some sort of magical Fae realm? How does that even happen?

 
Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Characters: Xiang Zhao
Race: Merman – Octopian
Age: 33
Current residence: Mariana Trench
Final Word Count: 759 words
 

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A few more weeks is all it took. After that, I could boot her out of the place without any issues and I warded the whole palace and now, not a single one of her people can come inside unless we allow them. If they want anything to do with the people, they will have to meet at the gate. It is on her that the blame can fall for this. It became clear, just a few days after I had met up with her properly, that she truly was trying to pheromone her way into places she had no rights to enter.

So, I made it clear to her that she wasn’t welcome, without having to put much effort into the whole thing, and the rest is rather history. It has been fairly peaceful around since, though there are days when I wish we could simply leave this place and find a spot to call our own that would only be ours. No royal courts, no issues from the people, nothing. I know that this is little more than a dream to be had but perhaps, one day.

I hear stories from the outside, since the only time I allow myself to travel is when he is with me, and those times are rare. Some of those stories are moot, others are more interesting, but the ones that do hold my interest are the ones that come through from the outside. The ones that are sent directly to me for the reading. They are uncommon but they happen, and I send news and stories back to them just the same way.

Recently, through news of a new pod of whales coming their way, there was a short mention of the land-living ones and how they still baffled him, even now, years later. I’ve been on the ground, I’ve only been on the ground briefly, though it was an interesting enough time and I know that what little I know of the land-living ones is very limited.

I do, however, remember one thing that happened while I was still roaming, searching for this one who called out to me from so far away I felt as though I had travelled through the whole ocean to find him. I was still quite young during that particular memory, I was already travelling, however. I sought the reason for my travelling and while I knew it was not on land, I still had to explore some, to make sure that I had left nowhere unseen, unsensed.

Legs are strange. It took me some time to get used to them enough that I was able to walk without a wobble. I didn’t stay out of the water long, a few hours at the most, but it was enough that I could feel that whatever was tugging at me to find it was not on land. It was so much deeper than the land could offer.

Still, while I was dry and roaming somewhat, I came across men, they seemed older than I was, they were playing a sort of game. It had cards and there were things on the tabletop where they were settled that even now, I have no true idea as to their points or uses. Or even what they truly are. As I was walking by them, one of them complained about wanting to go into the store but, somehow, now he found himself in some sort of Fae realm. It made me shake my head. I knew what stores were, though somehow, I don’t know that their stores are like ours, I could be wrong. I knew about the Fae to a point, I’d come across several during my travels, but his statement made little sense.

It was fairly clear that he was nowhere near a Fae realm at this point. I kept my mouth shut, however, none of the others seemed to react to his statement, a few chuckled but otherwise, that was the most of what came as reactions. I didn’t stay very long to listen to them keep at it, whatever it was that they were doing. I found myself drawn away from them and I merely kept walking, they didn’t hold my interest.

In a way, however, they must have held my interest well enough since I still remember that particular event even now, decades later. I’m not sure why, I suppose it simply is one of those things and that’s all right. Land-living is just not for me, I will stay under the water, thank you.

Silly, I wasn’t sent here to help. I was sent here to watch. There’s an obvious difference.

 
Timeline/World: Edge of Forever – Shifting Sands
Characters: Xiang Zhao
Race: Merman – Octopian
Age: 31
Final Word Count: 668 words
 

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I didn’t like her at first and it would be a lie to claim I like her any better now that I’ve had time to get to know her some since she’s been with us for a few weeks.

She came from the deep. That alone says something as this place is already deep enough in itself but there is so much deeper to be had out there. She came to us after a small expedition so happened to take place not very far from her home and her people and she claims to have been ‘sent’ to watch. She claims witch blood but there is none in her but perhaps the barest trace. If there is witch blood in her, it is generations down and so diluted that it is completely useless; I should know.

Had she truly had proper witch blood, she would have been able to pick me out from the crowd and point her finger my way, claiming me as one of her own and yet, it took her almost a full week before she had even noticed me at all. Then again, as dark as I am, even in the deep, I know how to be invisible. I roam unseen to most eyes. It is as I wish to be and that is perfectly fine.

When I was finally, properly so, introduced to her as the adviser to the throne, she looked just so surprised. As though somehow she couldn’t imagine what I was doing there with these people. A stranger, one of so many limbs to the single-tailed ones. I have to imagine that she wrongly assumed that these people did not welcome strangers easily, despite the fact that they allowed her into their homes without much of a fuss. At least, she thinks there wasn’t much of a fuss but the shields I have around the most important places let her through, so I know she’s harmless.

After finally managing to get a few moments with her, I did ask her what she really was doing around. She certainly hadn’t come to help us, we didn’t need help. She stated, again, that she’d come to watch, not help. There was an obvious difference. Her tone made her sound haughty and I could have ripped her fins off just because she annoyed me that much. I’m hard to rile up but she was pushing all the right and proper buttons.

Halim knows what I think of her presence amongst us. He knows how little trust I have for her but so far, she’s proved to be little more than a meagre nuisance. Still, we’re keeping an eye on her because I’m still trying to figure out why she’s with us at all. When I asked to know when her people were expecting her back, she gave me this shrug as though it didn’t matter how long she stayed or went. She’s yet to be granted a presence during the more important meetings and I know that’s not going to happen because it would be a stupid, oh so stupid idea.

We don’t need her hearing things that she has no business hearing. That she has nearly free roaming privileges of the halls is frustrating enough. It’s not hard to keep track of her, she leaves her scent everywhere and if she thinks she can pheromone her way into anyone’s personal favours, she’s got another thing going.

Sea-Witch my loving tentacles; she’s got something else coming and she’ll never understand what hit her; I’m not going to hurt her, I’m just going to remind her that she’s not as perfectly wonderful and whatnot as she thinks she is and that her welcome is going to be wearing out sooner rather than later. I’ll then just ward the whole damn place to the likes of her and they can be met down at the gates from now on.

This isn’t even about personal issues; this is just so much bigger than me.

Oh, wow, aren’t you just the scariest?

 
Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Travellers
Characters: Xiang Zhao
Race: Merman – Octopian
Age: 31
Final Word Count: 668 words
 

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While swimming the darker depths of the seas and oceans, you come across strange and unusual creatures that you wouldn’t normally find anywhere else. Creatures that are bioluminescent are common down there but even now, those rare times when I have to head down to deeper depths than usual, I discover new things that I’d never seen before.

I took his Royal Highness—my fine and wonderful mate—on a quick trip a few weeks back. I needed a few ingredients that could only be found even deeper down than he and his people live, so it was an interesting trip. I’d been that far ‘down’ before and watching him discover new things was just as interesting as discovering them myself, I’m not going to lie.

Now, one of the things I had to keep an eye out for were the deep-sea angler fishes. I’ve crossed a few on my travels deep below and for as big as they are, they can still eat something twice their size and I’d rather not be anywhere near their teeth if I can help it. Another thing, however, that a lot of people seem to not realize is that at times, it’s the smaller things you have to worry about.

What some people also don’t seem to realize is that there are others, not unlike us, who live deeper down below and they are actually pretty breath-taking when you overlook the fact that they’re also terrifying.

I wish I could have introduced him to a few of the people I’ve come across in my travels but that would require months of swimming and somehow, I don’t think his people would quite like the idea of their ruler being gone that long. I don’t mind, I steal him away every now and again, mostly for a day or so, so we can get away and just be ourselves.

There was this little slip of a girl I met near the very beginning of my travels. I had just started to feel that pull and I was mostly aimless in my direction but I went to quite a few different places and met many different species, including other merfolks. She was this bright yellow colour with gorgeous blue rings but she was a tiny thing when I met her. A fierce tiny thing.

Or so she wanted to believe. She tried to scare everyone away from a little pool of water she’d claimed as her own and it amused me to watch her do all she could about it. The first she tried with me, I played along, I told her that she was just the most absolute scariest little slip of a girl I’d ever seen but she saw through me and tried harder. She tried for a few days until she realized it was moot and I wasn’t going to go anywhere until I was done gathering all I’d come for.

I do wonder what happened to her after I left. That pool was close to where several land folks had been staying and it wasn’t the safest but I knew, even back then, that she couldn’t be made to change her mind about staying there, so I didn’t try.

Someone else I met through my travels, though this one was in much deeper waters, was a… well I don’t know exactly what he was. I want to say he was from a jellyfish family but it really was hard to tell. He should have been at least partially bioluminescent considering the depth we were at but he wasn’t at all and it just was hard to tell. He was a good person, though, helped me find everything I’d been looking for and I was on my way from that area rather quickly. I don’t like what it did to my skin; there was a constant prickle while I was out there.

One day, I’ll take Halim out on a longer trip. I’ll show him what he’s been missing.

I have it bad. They laugh and suddenly I’m running the soup pyramid over. They say my name and I’m slipping on the wet floor sign.

Timeline/World: Alternate Earth – Travellers
Characters: Xiang Zhao
Race: Octopian
Age: 29
Final Word Count: 605 words

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I have travelled my whole life. From the time I was old enough to know how to survive in waters filled with predators that were bound to be bigger and meaner than me. I was a tiny little octopus when I first set out. I was so young. I don’t remember when, exactly, I set out. Just that I was old enough to handle myself and I had learned all I could from what little archives of sea witch knowledge I could get my hands on.

For years, I just went where I thought I was supposed to go. I helped people I met, I healed those who needed it and I just tried to be a good soul. Many are not fond of octopians and I suppose I can’t blame them. We don’t exactly have a good reputation but it depends on the subspecies. Everything depends on the subspecies but most people that I’ve met tend to generalize so I don’t give it much thought.

In some of the locations I ended up at, I felt a pull. I couldn’t explain it. Whenever I tried to follow the pull, it would dull and fade. That was, until just recently when I found myself in an eel-centric little corner of the world. The pull was present but dull and I couldn’t even try to find its source. There is such a thing as being at the wrong place at the wrong time and that seems to be the case for my visit in this particular city. I found myself in the dungeons, being blamed for the disappearance of a king I had never even heard of or met.

While I was being not-quite tortured down there, in those dungeons—amateurs—the pull grew stronger. It was a little by little thing, as though somehow its reason was coming my way. My mind was so muddled from hunger and exhaustion that when the reason for that very pull found itself in the same room as me, I didn’t really understand it any better. There, in my presence, was the king I had been blamed for having kidnapped somehow.

The connection was undeniable but I didn’t really want to let it take over me so quickly. The notion was a little frightening. I couldn’t deny that this eel, this kind king was the reason I had travelled all of my life. It was right there, staring me in the face, like one of those human magnets that draw two things together strongly. Once I allowed myself to accept things, to accept that this was it and that we were meant; things simply made sense.

I know that for many, believing that some are bound at birth is a myth but for the few of us Sea Witches left, it is a blessing. Finding our one is like finding that one missing key to open the vault that will lead to, well, everything.

I admit that I’m still wrapping my mind around how my heart sings for him when he’s near. How I want to make him mine, how I feel like I can’t share him with anyone else though I know I need to because he’s likely the greatest king this kingdom will ever have to lead them. I take my role as his adviser very seriously and I want nothing but the best for him and his people. Beware the ones who might try to harm him or take him away from me. You will fail. You will regret ever trying to get in the way long before I am done with you.