Page 112 of Storm and Sea

“Mom, we never even tried to understand.” Nyel pleaded.

“Well, excuse me for trying to protect my family from all of this,” she gestured at Nephi— covered in burns.

“Alright. If all of this is your excuse, then what about him?” Nephi said, jerking his head towards Atreus.

“I don’t even know who that is,” Bianca retorted.

“This is Atreus. He’s the one I told you about,” Nyel said. “He’s the one that taught me how to live safely on Baia Vita. He’s my friend.”

For a moment, Bianca said nothing; then her eyes went wide as she gasped. “I remember you.”

The water shifted as Atreus’s tail swished behind him, nerves billowing.

“What do you mean you remember him?” Nyel asked, looking from Atreus to his mother. “Have you two met?”

The look on Atreus’s face made Nyel’s stomach churn, a nauseating wave of guilt washing over him. Despite being the largest in the room, his friend looked impossibly small—shrinking under the weight of something Nyel couldn’t fix.

“Atreus?” he asked, but his mother cut in.

“Oh, it was years ago. He came by while you were doing chores. Of course, I did the right thing and told him to go away, given what he is. I wasn’t about to let anything happen to my baby.”

“Is that true? We’ve met?” Nyel asked, appalled that he hadn’t remembered. That Atreus hadn’t told him.

“It was a long time ago,” Atreus said.

“So you threw your lot in with the humans? Well, I guess that’s about as good as you can hope for, given what you are,” Bianca commented off-handedly.

“What he is!?” Nyel shouted, rounding on his parents. “Do you even hear yourself? Atreus is kind and generous to a fault. He’s honorable and has worked himself to the bone to survive all because Corallina cast him out.” He lowered his voice, unable to keep it from shaking, “Because we cast him out.”

Nyel fell silent, grinding his teeth as tears of frustration spilled over. He wanted to bolt. To run away from all of this, just like he had with Chel all those weeks ago.

A webbed hand rested on his shoulder, and he met his brother’s gaze. Nephi gave him an encouraging squeeze, anchoring him in his conviction. And that small gesture was enough to push Nyel to continue.

It was the first time Nephi had ever been anything other than angry toward him, and that flicker of warmth from his cold, standoffish brother stoked a fire in Nyel’s chest.

Don’t stop now. Say it all.

“I met Atreus before I learned what he was. And when I found out, it took me about three seconds to realize we’d been wrong. There is nothing wrong with halflings. They aren’t sick, they aren’t mad, they’re just like us. Mer.”

“Son, they aren’t like us. Their blood is mixed,” his father said, speaking for the first time. “You’re young, and it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement. But mixing blood is dangerous. The Spirits have warned us of the Skraith⁠—”

“HA!” Nephi burst. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you. And you think the punishment of mixing blood rests on the child’s shoulders? The child that had no choice?”

“I’m not saying what I did was right. But what’s done is done.”

“Yeah. I exist. Fucking whoops, right?” Nephi said, a hysterical edge in his tone.

“Nephi, stop.” Nyel placed a hand on his brother’s chest. “Let me do this.” Once again, Nyel was shocked to see his brother back down. He faced his father, more than a little disappointed by his reaction. “I don’t care what you think, Dad. I know that there is nothing wrong with halflings. They’re like us. End of story.”

Silence stretched in the small room, its weight like sinking stones. Finally, Bianca inhaled sharply.

“If you want to live like an outcast, there is nothing I can do. I tried so hard to make things better for you, to give you opportunities I never had. I wanted better for you,” Bianca huffed with frustration. “But I can see you’d rather spit in my face.”

“Mom, that’s not what⁠—”

“If that’s what you believe, fine,” she interrupted, her voice now trembling with the threat of tears. “I guess I have to live with the fact that my little boy is going to get all kinds of ideas in his head. If you’ve found some kind of life on human land, there’s nothing I can do to stop you. You’re an adult now,” she said, the regret in her voice unmistakable. “But I want you to know that every minute you’re in that landwalker den, I’ll be aging tenfold from worry. Who knows? Maybe when you finally manage to visit, I’ll already be in Thalaren.”

Nyel supposed that was about as good as he was going to get.