Accompanied by her retinue of mermaid attendants, Emily returned to the balcony where Caelum had first left her. He was waiting there for her. As their eyes met, she could see his expanding, taking in all of her. She couldn't help but blush and squirm, but refrained from covering herself. There would be no point, really. This was to be her outfit for the Coral Gala, where she would be the center of attention, as both a human among merfolk and the bearer of the Stoneshell.
"You look radiant, Emily," said Caelum, taking her hand in his and softly pressing his lips to it.
Oohs, aahs and fitful giggling erupted from the mermaid retinue and Emily bit her lower lip. A small voice in her head told her that Caelum would not have been quite so enthralled by her in a ballgown.
The next half-hour passed in a haze, and before she knew it Emily was standing beside Caelum before the grand doors to the palace's ballroom. The doors swung open, revealing the enormous and splendid interior bathed in the soft, iridescent glow of bioluminescent corals. Like many other public areas of the palace, it was partially open to the ocean, allowing fish and other sea creatures to swim in and out as they pleased.
Caelum's beard and hair had been combed, and he wore as his only clothing a thin purple sash from one shoulder to base of his tail. He offered his arm to Emily, and she took it gratefully.
"Announcing Emily Stoneshell Bearer of the surface world, heiress to the legacy of Evangeline, and Sir Caelum, Vanquisher of the Leviathan."
As they entered the hall, a hush fell over the crowd. All eyes turned to gaze upon the pair and whispers rippled through the gathering. A few of the younger merfolk appeared to pay close attention to the movement of Emily's legs, pointing and nudging each other. The older merfolk appeared more interested in the Stoneshell, which they gestured and squinted at. Emily began to shake under the weight of so many curious gazes taking in her naked form.
Sensing Emily's unease, Caelum pulled her closer, pressing her against his side, and increased the speed of his swimming. He pulled up, lifting Emily's feet from the marble floor, and swept her to the back of the hall. "The King has not yet arrived," he whispered in her ear. "But there's someone else I'd like you to meet first."
Caelum carried Emily past the chattering crowds towards a table in a corner of the hall, which was set apart from the others. A single mermaid sat at this table. Her hair was completely white and her face lined with age, but she was fit and strong as all merfolk were. She had a green tail and smiled as Emily and Caelum approached her. Unlike the rest of the mermaids and merman, she had not put much effort into her appearance for the gala.
But the first thing Emily had noticed about the mermaid, who took her hand and introduced herself as Zephyr, was that she was just as naked as Emily was. It was slightly surreal, seeing a pair of bare breasts that weren't her own reflected back in a mirror.
"Please, sit," said Zephyr, gesturing at a seat next to her. "It is an honor to meet the heiress of Evangline. I can only hope I am as much help to you as Sir Caelum believes I can be."
"Don't undersell yourself," Caelum said to Zephyr. Then, to Emily, "With your leave, I must make my rounds. I will return shortly to your side."
Emily waved to Caelum and then sat down as instructed, grateful for the opportunity to hide herself slightly from the crowd. "A—are you a nokal?" she asked, before wondering if that was a rude thing to say and blushing in embarrassment.
But rather than taking offense, Zephyr let out a musical laugh. "Ah, how much you have learned about our culture in such a short time," she said. "Yes, I am what is commonly called a nokal, a mermaid who was not gifted with an alkayi, one who was passed over for the symbiotic pairing with a true covering. But I like to think it keeps these firm." At this, she cupped her right breast and winked at Emily.
"W—why are you seated so far away from everyone else?" Emily thought back to what the mermaids had told her about nokals. "Are they scared of you?"
"Oh no, nothing of the sort," replied Zephyr. "People feel sorry for me, sometimes, but I am quite welcome here in Aquius. I spend most of my time in the city library, researching, and nobody gives me any trouble."
Emily nodded. The presence of another naked woman, and one who seemed considerably more at ease than she was, made her feel a little better.
"Of course it was quite embarrassing at first," mused Zephyr. "They blamed me for quite a few dolphin collisions, but really it was the mermen's fault for not keeping their eyes in front of them. And when all your friends get alkayis and you know you'll never have one, well... that does hurt. I adjusted after a few years though."
"A few... years..." Emily repeated. Here was a woman, a mermaid, who had endured for years—no, decades—what Emily had lived with for only a few weeks. And all without any hope of having clothes... ever! A wave of pity mixed with admiration washed over her, and she put her hand on Zephyr's. "I know exactly how you must have felt."
Zephyr's brows crinkled with confusion. "But how could you? You have the rarest and most powerful alkayi of them all."
"What?" Emily asked, mouth hanging agape. "I— do you mean—"
"The Stoneshell," said Zephyr. "Forged in lava by Thurseus Irontail as a betrothal gift for Evangeline, the Queen-Who-Wasn't, to join her, a surface dweller, to the merfolk. A powerful magic talisman and the only alkayi ever deliberately forged by merfolk hands."
Emily glanced down at the Stoneshell, hanging from its chain between her other necklaces. She noticed that Zephyr's eyes were also fixed on it and had been staring at it the whole time they'd been sitting together.
"You can understand why I'd be interested in such a thing, I suppose," Zephyr said, still staring at the Stoneshell. "I never had an alkayi of my own, and I supposed that's part of what drives my fascination with them. I've pored over every book about the subject multiple times, and books about the Stoneshell even more often than that. When I was younger, I even tried to emulate King Irontail's methods to craft my own alkayi. Unsuccessfully, of course." Here, she made a face and gestured at her bare torso. "But in the process, I became Aquius's foremost scholar on ocean magic."
Emily glanced down at the Stoneshell and then back at Zephyr. "But aren't alkayis supposed to... uh... cover a bit more?" A horrible sensation churned in the base of her stomach as she recalled Coraline's words about what her alkayi did not deign to cover. Had the Stoneshell condemned her to constant nudity? It made a certain amount of sense.
"Not always," said Zephyr. "There are plenty of mermaids whose alkayis never cover their stomachs or their backs, and some that leave one breast exposed. I once heard of a mermaid whose alkayi was a single tiny shell worn over her left nipple. Certainly, such small alkayis are unusual, but the Stoneshell was made for a human, and humans have their own clothing customs. Or at least, they did in Evangeline's time."
Emily folded her arms across her breasts. "They—we still do. I don't, uh, normally walk around like this. Well, at least, I didn't used to."
Zephyr gasped. "I thought you looked uncomfortable! Oh Emily... you didn't need to follow our alkayi rules so closely! Evangeline always wore a dress from the surface." Here she gestured to an abstract mural on a nearby wall, which depicted a merman with a gray tail and a crown holding hands with a woman in long black dress. A gray shell hung suspended from her neck.
Emily stared at the mural for some time, reassuring herself that constant nudity was not, after all, a condition for being the Stoneshell bearer, but merely a result of her absolutely rotten luck.
"I am sure, though, that the king will appreciate this deference to our traditions," Zephyr mused. "Oh, look, here he is now."
A hush came over the ballroom and the all eyes turned towards the closed entrance doors. Emily spotted Caelum hastily swimming towards their table, where he took his place at her side. Two lines of mermen and mermaids assembled on either side of the ballroom entrance, holding large spiraling conches ready to blow. For a moment, all was silent, frozen in anticipation.
The doors swung open and the conches began to play a triumphant, slightly pompous melody. A small, bald merman standing among the conch-blowers proclaimed in a high, clear voice, "Presenting His Majesty, Trilato, King of the Western Mer!"
A powerfully built man with flowing white hair appeared in the frame of the doorway. His tail was shimmering green, and in his right hand he held an enormous white trident. He was adorned by ornate jewelery and a crown of coral and pearl. His expression was hard, and there was a suspicious look in his eyes, as though he was entering a battlefield rather than a ballroom.
King Trilato glided to the other side of the ballroom, where a stone throne had been set up for him. Upon reaching it, he turned and sat down. His narrowed eyes scanned the ballroom, briefly locking on Emily's. If he was surprised to see a human in his palace, his expression did not betray it.
"The king is in ill temper tonight," Caelum whispered to Emily. "Choose your words to him carefully."
Emily shuddered. Meeting a king in her birthday suit would be difficult enough without that additional complication.
After surveying the room a few more times, King Trilato raised his right hand, a signal for the bald herald to make a further announcement. "By order of King Trilato, let this Coral Gala, the thirteenth of his reign, commence!"
A cheer went up from the crowd, and music began to play, dissipating the tense atmosphere at once. "Eat, drink and be merry!" the herald continued, shouting to be heard over the music.
Caelum and Zephyr both smiled at Emily, and she had almost begun to relax when the bald herald suddenly materialized in front of her. "King Trilato gives you leave to approach the throne, Emily Stoneshell Bearer," the herald said, speaking at a normal volume that somehow retained all the pomp of his louder pronouncements, and staring fixedly at the Stoneshell.
"Oh-okay, I'll be right there," Emily replied. She was finding it difficult to tell exactly how much of the herald's attention was being held by the Stoneshell versus her breasts.
"Don't keep him waiting," said Zephyr. "It was wonderful to meet you, Emily."
"And you! I have so much more to ask you about the Stoneshell."
"And I look forward to telling you all I know."
Caelum held out an arm for Emily and led her swiftly through the throng of merfolk towards the throne. "You'll have to present yourself to King Trilato on your own, I can't stay by your side for that, but I'll be right behind you in the crowd."
Emily gulped nervously.
"Don't worry, this is just a formality. Be polite, convey the surface's warm greetings, and thank the king for his hospitality. He won't be in the mood for long conversations tonight." Caelum gave Emily's hand a reassuring squeeze.