Chapter One

Elysia checked her bond with her boat every second, trying to will it closer as she sent frantic looks over her shoulder, straining against the resistance of the water as they shot through the ocean.

Despite not noticing anyone following them, they maintained their sprint through the ocean. Though their current pace might not be because of their fear of capture. Sereia and Ione rocketed through the water, giving each other determines looks. Unfortunately for them, neither seemed capable of out swimming the other. Whenever one pulled ahead, the other dug deep to catch up.

Fortunately, the mysterious force keeping Elysia planted on Ione’s back didn’t give out, though the water pressure annoyed her. Though the annoyance could be from the constant taunting messages through their bond, with Elysia used as a relay. At first she found it amusing, but after several minutes of constant bombardment she stopped relaying, not that it stopped the two fish hybrids from sending their taunts.

She couldn’t understand why they didn’t just send them directly to each other. As far as she could tell, there was a bond between them. It wasn’t as strong as the bond Elysia had with either of them, but with their close proximity she doubted they would have any issues communicating to each other.

After a lengthy barrage, involving dozens of images from each of them, Elysia put her foot down. She returned their bombardment with images of stop and friendly conversation between them. To punctuate her bombardment, she sent them an image of her head exploding.

The effect was immediate. Both culprits sent an apologetic series of images and slowed down their race. They eyed each other, competitive glint still in their eyes, but they came to an agreement to shelf their competition until later.

Now no longer focused on their race, Ione focused her senses outward, joined by a pulse through the water from Sereia.

To both Elysia’s relief and annoyance, they simultaneously sent all clear images. She needed to teach them to coordinate. Her head would explode if they continued like this. Fortunately, they were nearly to Umbra and going by their scouting, they were in the clear.

Did they outrun the fleets or did something happen? She heard explosions, but who knew what that could have been? She found it hard to believe a fleet of water elementals capable of chasing her sister across the ocean couldn’t follow them.

Whatever the reason, they would put as much distance as they could once they reached Umbra. At least she hoped Umbra was in one piece. She didn’t know if her bond with the ship told her its condition, like with her sister and Ione. Every time she prodded the bond, it only showed her the distance and direction.

Her worries turned out to be meaningless as they breached the surface soon after to find a flawless, sleek, black yacht floating in the middle of the ocean. From her vantage point, she couldn’t see anyone on board, but a message to Ione earned her two images, one of Eva sunbathing on the pads affixed to the front deck naked though laying on her front. Mischievousness sparked as she imagined sneaking up on her, but she quelled it. Who knew what their situation was? She didn’t want to earn a knife from Joe, though going by his current shirtless attire while manning the grill, she doubted they were expecting danger.

For a moment, jealous annoyance shot through her. While they were fighting for their lives on an island, her crew was relaxing. The jealousy vanished soon after when she remembered only she could start Umbra and going by that currently off engines they were effectively stranded.

How did they find themselves in the middle of the ocean then? She couldn’t even see land in any direction. That stupid turtle must have done it. The turtle really dropped the ball on her. First she allowed the Changed invasion, then stranded her crew.

She could have at least helped with their escape like she did with the Chrotile. She doubted it would take her much effort to teleport them to Umbra. Did all of this mean her deal with Thrazk power leveling her was off?

Elysia opened her right hand and stared at the glowing pill that somehow remained glued to her palm after their mad escape. The pill better be worth it. She’d rather have the island, though if it remained level locked, she would stagnate there. Plus, she doubted whatever Alex used to expel them would fend off the surrounding ships forever.

Maybe Alex was doing them a favor. Well, a favor that benefited him. The elementals seemed determined to find them, so with them gone, they had fewer enemies to deal with. Though they might still invade to find out what happened to the lightning elemental. Either way, not her problem anymore. She just hoped whatever delayed the fleets gave them enough time to disappear.

Sereia ran her eyes down the sleek boat. “Nice boat sis.”

After giving her twin a smile, she ushered them toward the back of Umbra and stealthily climbed on board. Understanding her desires, her family followed suit. Sereia waved her hand, causing all the water to flow away from them before she took her place beside her twin as they ascended the stairs.

Unfortunately, Joe ruined their entrance when he glanced up at her, then returned his attention to the grill as if he knew they were there all along.

Elysia deflated but didn’t let it show. Instead of attempting to surprise Eva in person, Elysia entered the cabin, followed by her family. She trotted to the control room, pausing for a moment upon seeing several new electronics on the dash near the control panel. A large screen being the most striking. The screen hung from the dash at a 45° angle, making viewing easy from the control panel and from anywhere else in the control room as it dwarfed any navigation screen she had ever seen in a car. If it was an opening, she had no problem crawling through it.

Before pressing the start button, Elysia peeked out the window to find Eva sunbathing, unaware of their presence. A flashback to her father’s habit of honking the horn at random times drew her hand toward said horn at the center of the steering wheel. Without remorse, she pressed it, sounding an ear rattling gong probably meant to be heard from long distances. Unfortunately for Eva, she wasn’t a long distance away. In fact, the horn speaker was right above her. In a flash, she sprang to her feet and spun toward the window, only for her hands to shoot to shoot up to cover her chest as she made eye contact with Elysia.

Unable to resist, both Elysia and Sereia giggled as Eva scrambled to grab her clothes with one hand scattered around the sunbathing pad. Faster than thought possible, she donned a T-shirt and shorts and stomped toward the door leading to the control room, eyes sparking with fury.

Unfortunately, before she could open the door, Elysia pressed the start button and shifted the boat into drive before pushing the accelerator all the way forward. Umbra jerked into motion, causing the sound of several things falling behind them and an indignant squawk from Eva as she grabbed the railing to stabilize herself.

The massive screen to the left of the control console lit up. It displayed several views, one being the typical GPS navigation, though she wasn’t sure how that happened because she doubted the satellite network survived, and even if it did, the changed planet probably wreaked havoc on it. The other views were of Umbra’s surroundings, effectively giving her a 360° view.

Elysia glanced at the girl still clutching the railing for dear life. Eva was busy. She should probably make it up to her. First, she’d rather put some more distance between them and Mezo. With her right hand on the steering wheel, she poked at the screen, finding it to be a touchscreen. Like most touchscreens, she zoomed out with two fingers until Mezo came into view. She only knew it was the right island because the map labeled it as such. Something was fishy about this map.

She put the accuracy of the map out of her mind for now as she checked the scale. As she thought, they were still only a dozen kilometers away.

Another zoom out showed Mezo was about fifty kilometers northwest of Vancouver Island. A shiver ran through her, realizing just how far out in the ocean she was, prompting her to turn Umbra to the southeast, hoping to reach the western coast of Washington state as soon as possible.

As nice as Umbra was, she didn’t want to travel the open ocean for too long. Besides, she wanted to keep Umbra nice, not torment her. Now that she had her Sereia back, there was no point in taking the risk of traveling through the ocean.

As soon as that thought formed, Umbra’s bumpy ride as it flew through the ocean smoothed out. She glanced down at the speedometer, thinking something went wrong. However, not only was their ride perfectly smooth, as if they were slowly cruising through perfectly calm waters, but they were actually gaining speed.

Her eyes widened as the speed kept on climbing, yet the engines weren’t working any harder. If anything, she felt she could squeeze more out of the previously maxed engines.

She focused on the camera views to find the water strangely smooth on their current path. A couple of meters away, on either side of Umbra, the surface returned to the rough waters of the deep ocean.

Realization dawned, causing her gaze to gravitate to her sister, who was sitting cross-legged on the couch, eyes closed, brow scrunched in concentration. Worry sparked. She didn’t want to overstress her sister, but she did take the initiative. If she showed any signs of tiring, she would stop her, though. As far as she could tell, they lost the elementals. No need to burn themselves out. They needed all the energy they could get if the elementals caught up.

Any further thoughts paused as the side door to the control room slammed open. A wrathful woman stomped in, only to freeze. Her eyes switched from Elysia and Sereia, confused. With most of Elysia’s body covered by her scaled armor that survived Mezo unscathed, her glowing veins remained hidden, causing the twins to look almost identical. In the light, Sereia’s own veins blended in to her pale skin, though unlike her sister, very little of her body remained covered. Somehow, despite her long voyage, the seashell uniform the elementals dressed her in remained affixed to her body, though there were signs of wear. The previous embroidered patterns were barely visible, worn almost smooth.

Somehow the giant feline curled up near Elysia’s feet missed her notice, or maybe she found two Elysias more alarming than an obviously larger Ione.

And here she thought they couldn’t pull off the twin switch anymore. The vein and eye color was unfortunately a dead giveaway. Though in hindsight, it’s probably for the better they didn’t look identical anymore. Sereia couldn’t bribe her to take tests for her anymore. She couldn’t remember the last time she used the twin switch for her own gain. They tried a few times with father but it never worked. He always somehow knew how to tell them apart. Though being fair, neither of them were the best of actors and had very different personalities. Maybe that was why Sereia kept trying to get her to join acting classes with her.

At the thought of her father, her mood soured, causing her to glance at Sereia, who appeared oblivious of her surroundings. What happened to father? Did she leave him behind? No, that didn’t sound right. Neither of them would ever leave father behind. A pang of sadness hit her. That left only one reason.

With a force of will, she put the unknown fate of her father out of her mind, though she planned to ask Sereia later.

She shifted her attention back to Eva, meeting the girl’s expectant eyes.