When we arrived at the dock, it wasn’t too long before Fiske’s boat was ready to go. The boat looked to be a small fishing boat but was in bad shape, the cracks and dents in the body work, as if it had been rammed by something big and powerful, but as long as it floated, that was all that mattered, right.

“Are you sure this is safe?” questioned Link nervously. I was guessing he had never been on a boat before, but neither had I.

“It’ll be fine,” I said, not sure myself, seeing the condition of the boat I was having second thoughts about this.

“Not much to look at but she’ll do what we want her to do,” said Fiske who took his place at the wheel, patting it. “She has faced that monster many times, but it has yet to claim her.”

“You don’t have to come,” I mentioned.

“She sails with me or not at all.” I nodded, acknowledging his words, obviously the little boat was important to him.

The ragged old boat took us out into ocean waters. I noticed Fiske trembling the further we went out, coming to a stop in the centre of where they usually set up their fishing boats.

I glanced up seeing Raziel flying in the skies above. I was certain he would keep an eye on things from up there. “I’ll be back in a second,” I said, ready to jump in, gazing into the waters wondering what it was I would find down there.

“What are you doing?” Fiske was alarmed, shrinking down, he held such fear within his eyes, perhaps he had seen the monster who was attacking their boats.

“It’s fine.” I smirked. Mila’s spirit appeared behind me. “I have a master water talisman.” He said nothing as I dove into the water, trusting Mila to guide me.

As I entered the water I was blinded by darkness, which was strange considering how clear the water had been from the surface. I coughed, shocked by the dark smog all around me, Raziel and Link had been right, there was a heavy concentration of dark power, had my awakening taken too long to happen, was this too late to cure.

Through Mila’s power of water, I could not sense the movement of anything, there was no fish for miles, most probably scared away or killed by this dark smog.

“What are we going to do master?” asked Mila. I could hear the sadness in her voice.

“I can’t let the ocean stay like this,” I shook my head. “There is only one thing I can do to draw out the one causing this I need to purify these waters.” I looked around. “I think it is mainly affecting the area around the village, outside this darkness is the fish.”

“This is too much for just you,” said Larana. You’ve only just recently received your awakening; your purification abilities are still growing.”

“Someone has to,” I responded. “I can’t wait for my abilities to get stronger; this needs to be done now.”

I allowed myself to sink a little deeper, closing my eyes, trying to purify some of the waters, but I quickly realised the concentration of it was even too much for me. It would take days of purification to get the waters just clear enough to see through.

I spent about twenty minutes trying to purify the waters, before I rose to the surface re-joining Link and Fiske on the boat.

Fiske stared at me as I jumped onto the boat. I had not seen the monster who had been attacking the place, the one who also left behind all this dark power. He remained silent, finding no words through his fear of the oceans around us.

“Well.” Link was keen to find out what the situation was down there.

“It is pretty bad.” I sat down feeling the strain from trying to purify that much dark energy. “The water is filled with a dark smog, which is the cause of the fish no longer being in these oceans.”

“Can we do something about it?” questioned Link.

“I can start to purify the waters, but that will take a few days, unfortunately it takes quite a lot of my energy to do so.” I sighed. I had only just recently figure out I could purify the darkness; I was not a master at doing it. “It would be faster to purify if we find the one who is creating the darkness.”

“I see.” Link was thinking. “I think we should go ahead with the purifying plan, if we clear it away the one who caused it may reappear.”

“Agreed.” I nodded.

“Let me help.” Link grabbed the pendent around his neck, about to remove it.

“No.” I gave him a stern look. “You are never to take that pendent off.”

“But I can help.” He seemed confused by my response.

“No.” I shook my head. “You must promise me you will never take it off.”

“Uh…” He removed his hand from it. “I promise.”

“One day there may come a time you need to fool the darkness into thinking you are one of them, do you understand.”

“Yes,” he nodded. “Be careful.”

“I will,” I acknowledged. “I can go for another twenty minutes.” I stood up, heading back into the waters without another word.

“Please don’t push yourself master,” said Mila. “This may even be too much for you.”

“I’ll be fine Mila,” I replied. “I have no option but to do this, if I don’t there will be nothing left of this place.”

“Just make sure you don’t use too much of your power, otherwise you will be unable to fight if the culprit does show up.”

“I understand.” I nodded.

I sunk deeper, focusing on the task I had planned to do. I had a small amount of doubt this would not work, but I wasn’t going to give up on this little village, until I tried everything, I could do to save it, and I wasn’t going to let Queen Daz down.

Returning to the boat, I was exhausted I’d put more effort into this first session to get a true reading on how bad the situation was under the water. I also feared it may have spread further out to sea than I thought, perhaps even reaching the waters close to Cathopia.

With my work done for that day we headed back to shore. I informed Fiske of everything we had planned, he seemed hopeful things would finally get better and even showed us to the inn, which wasn’t too far from the docks.

Link had previously been rejected here, but Fiske’s brother owned the inn, so we got our rooms for free. I went straight to sleep, I needed some rest, but unfortunately, I hardly got any. I woke plagued by the nightmares of my unit being wiped out. I sat up panting I couldn’t escape it, not even here.

The second day there I sent a message through the winds to dad to investigate the waters around Cathopia. I had hoped the effects had not reached the waters around the city; I had yet to hear back from him, so I presumed it was good news. If he had spotted it, he would have purified it before it got any closer to the city.

-

I spent the next few days trying my hardest to clear the oceans, it was slowly responding to my power, the water clearing little by little. It was during one of these sessions I discovered the dark smog was a sensual network, most probably informing the one who did this of what was happening within the ocean, but why had they not attacked us yet, considering his connection here was growing weaker with each day I spent purifying it.

I struggled to keep the quality of the purifying high, but the lack of sleep and still getting used to this discovered ability was taking a greater toll than I thought.

“I think you should rest tomorrow master,” informed Mila as I finished up on the fifth day.

“I need to get this done.” I stumbled onto the boat.

“Fang.” Link came over worried.

“Rest,” ordered Mila. I snorted.

“You should listen to her,” said Link.

“Alright.” I let out a sigh as I sat there.

Link sat down beside me. “Can I ask you about something?”

“Sure.” I nodded as Fiske began to take us back to shore.

“I heard you crying out in your sleep again last night,” he mentioned. I looked away. “I heard from Tigra you re-live the deaths of your unit.”

“Yeah,” I responded. “It’s gotten worse since leaving the city, it’s been every night. I don’t know why.”

“Perhaps the princess has something to do with it,” commented Link.

“Tigra,” I said her name. “Maybe.” I looked at him, thinking about, her presence did seem to sooth my mind. “Do you and the others know…” I wanted to ask if they had figured out what was between Tigra and I, but I hesitated.

“After a rest tomorrow, how long do you think it will take to purify the oceans?” asked Fiske from the helm, who had grown more relaxed each time we set sail.

“One or two more days I think,” I answered. “I can see down there now.”

“Thank the goddess for sending you.” Fiske smiled with relief.

“Goddess?” Link repeated.

“You know the goddess,” I said.

“Of course.” He nodded. “She watches over our oceans, brings the fish, she is worshipped in the city of Atlantis”

“Atlantis” I repeated the name of the city. “Where is that?”

“Under the sea of course,” he smiled.

“An underwater city.” Link found it a little hard to believe.

“You have your cities on land we have ours underwater,” smiled Fiske.

“I’ll have to visit it sometime,” I said. I began thinking about it, I would most probably be the first Feles to ever see it.

“I’ll even give you the tour.” Fiske was happier now than he was when we first met him.

“Empress Milliana.” I remembered her from the summit meeting, she governed over all the seas.

“Yes. I am sure she would give you her thanks for purifying the oceans.” Fiske smiled. “Soon I’ll be able to go home, to see that wonderous city again.”

I would do everything in my power to see everyone in Dagan with that smile, freeing them of the loss the darkness had brought, to give them the chance to return home again, but I couldn’t help but wonder what other places had been inflicted like this one.