Currents dark and deep

It was a somber mermanta who swam slowly towards the shrine. He took his time cleaning away weed and sand, settling his mind to calm clarity as he put the underwater altar into order once more, even though the tides and life of the deeps would reclaim it soon enough when he had gone again.

When he was ready he set the offering down: a long knife carefully chipped and smoothed from snowflake obsidian. Flawless and deadly. Fragile, but brutal because of it. The steel handle and spine of the blade were steel rubbed in wax to keep the water from damaging it, and the hilt was wrapped in silver cord.

Next to himself he planted his own trident in the sandy seafloor, its steel similarly treated against the ravages of salt water. Then he bowed his head and prayed.

The waters stir and swirl as currents stroke along Hadama's long hair and fins. No matter the length of his visit no starlight will appear for him today.

The mermanta waited patiently in prayer, seeking answers and favors and all those things for which mortal hearts reached out to the divine. The dim waters grew dark, but when no starlight came to light his way he eventually raised his head to consider the shrine with a slow lash of his tail through the strange currents around him.

Not so strange, this silence at this shrine. But not so common now as it had been in years past, before the fall of the Barrier in a faraway corner of the drylands.

"Be well, Safrin," he murmured at last, dipping his head in acknowledgment of the lack of response. He left the offering but gathered his trident and swam towards home with a faint line of worry marring his stoic brow.

~Fin~