[Bungleau]

Switching her helmet and bow for the underwater helm and breather she'd purchased from Buckley at the shipyard, Missy took a deep breath and dove back down to the chests. Searching around, she found a doorway into the underwater city, but after a few moments' search, she was blocked. Taking another breath from a bubble of air in the ceiling, she dove down and swam back out. After a few more minutes, she found another entrance, and this one led to something more interesting.

Missy swam in the eerily glowing water, illuminated by some deep-sea plankton or other glowing plant life. As she swam, she saw where time had taken its toll, with pillars crashing down and fish swimming in and out of holes in the walls and ceilings. She saw another painting with the flying mermaid, but the head was gone, algae growing on the edges of the hole in the wall where it used to be. Heading through one small room, she surprised a beautiful woman relaxing in the water.

"Oh, no, go away!" she shrieked, and tried to swim away.

"Wait, wait," called Missy. "I mean you no harm. Why do you swim away?"

The mermaid turned around. "All air breather hate water breathers. That's how it has always been. You're an air breather. So you must hate me, even though I think I'm nice. And now I'll get in trouble for talking to you..."

Missy smiled as best she could with the strange-looking water helmet on. "It's true that I'm an air breather, but that doesn't mean I hate water breathers. Even sharks... I don't hate them. If they went their own way, I'd leave them alone. If they bother me, then I defend myself, but I don't hate them."

The mermaid looked curious. "You don't?"

Missy shook her head. "No, I don't. And I've only met you...why would I hate you?"

The mermaid looked perplexed. "I don't know why you would hate me. Perhaps what I've been told all these years isn't so true."

"Perhaps not." Missy extended a hand in friendship. "My name's Missy. What's yours?"

"Sarellia," said the mermaid, touching Missy's hand gingerly, as if she expected it to bite her. "What are you doing down here?"

"Exploring," said Missy. "And looking for some tablets."

"Tablets?" said Sarellita. "The Oracle knows about tablets. You can find her through here," she pointed, opening a large grate. "And here. This stone may help you. You seem nice for an air-breather, not like they told us in the stories growing up."

"Stories, huh?" said Missy. "Those stories about air-breathers... did they include stories about winged mermaids?"

Sarellia shook her head. "Everyone knows the stories of the goddess aren't real. That air and water could exist together... preposterous, they used to tell us. They said that the winged mermaid was the most evil person in the land, that she killed her lover because it suited her. They never told us what a lover was, but they told us that if we didn't behave, we'd be left for her to catch and do with us what she pleased. And it never pleased her to do nice things, either."

"Did this goddess have a name?" asked Missy. "What else can you tell me about her?"

"She never had a name, just the goddess. It was because of her that the city went into the sea. She forced air and water together to beat earth, but it didn't work. Then she added fire, and she beat earth, but air joined with fire and water ran away. That's what they always told us."

Missy could see that the mermaid would be of little more help, so she took the glowing stone and headed down the opened passageway, stopping to take a breath at a pocket of ancient air. It was stale, tasting of years gone by. She wondered who might have breathed there before; she wondered if someone may have passed gas there, that floated and remained, stored for centuries until one such as her needed a breath.

Continuing on, she found her way to a library of sorts, where she met the Oracle, who told her of the need to collect all the stone tablets to fulfill the prophecy and battle Cet. Missy found the first tablet in the library, and swimming around, found more air pockets and a second glowstone. She soon found the second tablet, and en route to a third glowstone, found the largest crab she had ever seen. Truly the size of a room, the crab was worthy of the title inscribed in the golden tile near her... the mother of all crabs. Perhaps the person-sized crabs she had been battling in the depths of the Lost Sea were but this crab's offspring... even so, the mother was not happy, and Missy fought a furious battle, being wounded near unto death before finally slaying the mother crab. She paused for a moment, her hand upon the pendant passed down from her mother, and thought of her, wondering what she would be doing now, if she were alive, and what she would think of her daughter's activities. Shaking her head, Missy buried the thought in the back of her mind with the dagger blow that she was certain had ended her father's life, and continued down the passageways.

She found a blank wall with a slot near it, and placing one of the glowstones in the slot, saw the wall move, opening up a rotating room. Entering in, she continued to search the underwater city, soon finding a spy serving Cet, whom she quickly dispatched to another life. She finally found her way to the third glowstone, and then made her way to another room where she could sense treasure, but couldn't see it. Looking around, she found slots that appeared to match the glowstones, and with glowstones inserted and levers flipped, soon opened a hidden room with the third tablet. Collecting all the tablets, she retrieved the glowstones and headed back, to head up to the surface and find Cet's final resting place.