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They had passed out of the Center by now, and were crossing the drop off. They swam silently over the dark ocean floor far below, heading south. Merletta felt a flicker of excitement. Tilssted was the northernmost of the cities. She’d never been outside the barrier to the south before.
They didn’t pass through Skulssted this time, instead making for a low wall that ran along the southern edge of the drop off. It was a visual barrier only, of course. The patrol swam up over the marker, and found themselves in a wealthy neighborhood.
“Is this Skulssted, or Hemssted?” Merletta asked.
Freja grunted. “Hard to say. It’s right on the boundary of the two. Depends which house you knock on as to what answer you’ll get. Those who drifted this way from Skulssted say it’s part of Skulssted, and those who…well, you get the idea.”
The residents of the neighborhood were stirring, going about their morning’s business as the patrol passed. Merletta was surprised by how much attention their group was getting, and even more surprised when she realized that the whispers and gestures seemed to be focused on her.
One of the other guards had clearly also noticed. He looked back curiously at Merletta, and sudden recognition lit his eyes.
“You’re the Tilssted trainee, aren’t you?”
“Uh, yes,” said Merletta, taken aback. “That’s right. I’m Merletta.”
The guard grinned. “I’m Felix.”
Freja looked Merletta over appraisingly. “I thought you looked familiar. I saw you collapse at the memorial. Glad to see you’ve recovered.”
Merletta winced. “Not my finest moment.”
Felix chuckled. “It’s one way to make yourself memorable, I suppose.”
He cast another glance at the interested onlookers, and Merletta followed his gaze. She’d found it strange enough to attract the attention of strangers when the trainees had been in Tilssted. It was even more unnerving to realize that she’d become recognizable even in this unfamiliar neighborhood.
Soon enough, they reached the oyster farms that sat at the southernmost tip of the triple kingdoms, nestled between Skulssted and Hemssted, although here also there was no clear boundary between the two cities.
Merletta gazed in amazement at the farms. They were both like and unlike the kelp farms she was used to. For one thing, they were very clean. And for another, there were well-dressed merpeople floating around the edges, obviously there to buy pearls wholesale.
But the strands reaching upward were in some ways reminiscent of the kelp towers, except that these were covered in clusters of oysters rather than waving fronds. And the workers hurrying up and down the rows could have been laborers from the kelp farms.
Merletta scowled slightly. Of course. She should have realized that the wealthy residents of Skulssted and Hemssted wouldn’t want farm jobs, not even in an oyster farm. These workers were probably from Tilssted, like her.
They didn’t linger in the farms. The patrol collected a group of a dozen merpeople, each with a sagging empty satchel slung over a shoulder. Then they continued down one of the long rows, between pillars of oysters that disappeared upward out of sight. She knew the moment they crossed the barrier, because the familiar ripple passed over her.
No one else showed any reaction to the barrier, so she didn’t realize she’d erred until Freja gave her a sidelong glance.
“Not easily rattled, I see. Most trainees find it unnerving, passing through the barrier for the first time.”
Merletta grimaced internally at her slip. She should have remembered that, unlike everyone else in the group, she was believed to have spent her entire life inside the boundaries of the triple kingdoms.
“I was prepared for it,” she said, which was of course true. “I read about it in the records room at the Center.” This was also perfectly true. “It wasn’t quite like the records described, though. They made it sound like it would be painful.”
Freja frowned. “Really? I wouldn’t say it’s ever felt painful. Uncomfortable at first, perhaps, but that’s probably only because it’s unfamiliar, and therefore unsettling.”
Merletta said nothing. She didn’t think she’d ever found it even slightly uncomfortable, even as a child. But since so much of the Center’s job seemed to be to convince everyone to stay inside the barrier, it wasn’t difficult to imagine why the public records would describe the experience as unpleasant.
“How far is this natural oyster farm?” Merletta asked.
“A fair distance,” Freja said. “About half an hour’s swim. It’s not harvested often, and we always try to take trainees with us if there are second years. It’s in a particularly good position for acclimatization training.”
“Instructor Agner never explained what that—” Merletta began, and the older mermaid cut her off with a nod.
“Ah yes. Well, as you know, the triple kingdoms are built on a large, mostly flat section of the ocean floor. Although there is some variation within the cities, no dwellings are built very high above the base level. The work towers, and the farms, extend quite far up, but it wouldn’t be safe to actually live so close to the surface.”
Again, Merletta held her peace.
“But as a guard, you will need to be capable of not only passing through, but maintaining your skill level at the deepest and shallowest points of our territory. And that territory extends beyond the borders of the triple kingdoms. We regularly patrol outside the barrier, and take groups for activities such as this.”
