A/N: Image is Mihael and Aegea, who you'll learn of in this chapter </3

Niamh knew that there was an air chamber within the temple, a literal bubble of safety. We had to reach that room before we ran out of air. 

Freezing water washed over me, and my stomach convulsed, trying to push out my air with the shock of the cold. By reflex, I held my breath, swirling in the water. My limbs seized tightly, so that instead of moving, I drifted slowly downwards. Around me, my friends struggled to get their bearings, me included. Sakura was darting, looking around-- I presumed, wrongly, for me. But she didn't settle even when she passed me a grim nod, but continued scanning.

Then I felt a tug upon my arm.

Niamh was pulling me along, unfazed by the numbing cold of the water. Iggy was doing the same ahead of us, ensuring that we started swimming towards the temple. Val's red hair was a beacon through the dark water ahead, and I began to follow with strokes of my own unaided. Niamh darted away, helping Fabian along. He looked worse than I felt, ashen grey and shaking as he was as far away as possible from the air that was his comfort and gift. Beside him, Scarlett was a small body of force, helping push him along.

My fins sped up the swim, but I found my air was running out faster than I anticipated. In a stream of people, we sped through the open gates and into the dark chambers beyond. Niamh, faster than us all, managed to return to the front of the group to guide us through the hallways, bypassing the empty welcoming chamber.

Val glanced behind; her eyes showed panic, her cheeks puffing. She swam faster, still ahead as we dove into the adjacent room, where several serving Mer looked upon us in shock. The huge vaulted ceiling was lost in the darkness overhead, and the eerie silence of the water only served to make the stone chamber scarier. The Mer were signing rapidly to Niamh, but she waved them off, ensuring we surged forward rather than wasting time. So we continued on into the next room, and that was when I saw Val, a whirling ton of red hair, begin to struggle.

Because the next chamber was long and tall, and our goal was to reach its peak, surging up beyond decorated mosaic walls and through rings of golden fire. Fire, underwater-- it was enough that I nearly let out a gasp of my remaining air. 

Kirsten, beside Val, had gone beyond her fear, and grabbed the younger girl with a ferocity of someone seeing the way out. They shot upwards, and I chased them, conscious that my breath was slowly exhaling now, leaving a trail of bubbles. Inside my chest, my heart thudded. Still we rose, not yet reaching the flames. 

Scarlett and Sakura swam together, the former looking fearful and pained, her face flushed red. Below them, the tunnel of mosaic swallowed the two, so that the pair, clinging to one another, appeared to have jumped from the scene of blues and mermaids. 

Fabian was slightly behind me, his face a furrow of determination and terror, with Iggy at his side. My heart began to sound within my ears, and an ache blossomed along my chest.
Just take a breath...it won't hurt. 

Ahead, Val's head lolled, losing her momentum. Rapidly, pairs of hands were on her, pulling her and dragging her along with them, her body as limp as a doll. The girl's eyes were shut and my heart squeezed in fear.

I cannot take that breath. Not until we're safe.

Fabian was trying to conjure air, but surrounded by water, his bubble was a difficult flicker. Kirsten was moving too quickly to surround Val with it, and besides, I couldn't see the red head breathing. 

Through the ring of flames we swam, the heat rippling through the water as we passed. My muscles were hurting and seizing from effort, and my lungs were aching now, threatening to take the breath involuntarily. The passageway became narrower, and so dark that I could barely see Iggy's fin ahead. When black dots began dancing across my vision and my head took to swirling, I couldn't tell if the blackness was already there or a new change. 

My hands scraped along the passageway as I clumsily drifted. The sharp pains in my arm caused me to flinch, exhaling the last of my air. 

Take a breath. You can't go further.

Damn it, I have to! I thought. In my last attempt for freedom, my strokes became more powerful and heavier. 

I burst through the surface as my lungs finally forced me to inhale.

I retched water, coughing and spluttering and trying to breathe. Pairs of hands hoisted me out of the pool as Fabian emerged from the water beside me, only mildly distressed. I turned back to face the stone I was kneeling on, feeling my vision return to focus on the grey edges. When my ears returned, the sounds of my friends coughing was filling the room. I managed to look up weakly, where Val lay on her back, and a man with scales and a remotely humanoid body was pressing on her chest, until she woke, hurling up a lungful of water.

Someone was thumping my back, coordinating my heaves. After a few frantic seconds trying to place if everyone had made it, I settled: we were all alive, if shaken. Iggy and Niamh were back in their legged forms, helping the others to recover.

Once I stopped coughing, I looked up to see a robed shaman. A hood shadowed the majority of her face, but beneath it I could see the fishlike eyes, the slit of a nose and lips spread across a row of sharp, flat teeth. 

'Welcome to the Temple of Aegea,' a voice of a thousand lifetimes said. 

The room was long and mirrored, reflecting the waves dancing in channels on either side of the walkway. Patterned tiles became whole pictures depicting scenes of Mer and Angels, flowing from the floor to the ceilings. Crystal chandeliers glowed with bright red flames. In the centre of the room, a large basin sat, and at the foot, a man knelt. 

If anyone were to have spoken, it had to be him. Only he could have a voice that carried such depth, as judged by the ancient lines of his face. Entirely bald and scaled, his eyes were the most recogniseable feature. His ears were flush with his reptilian face, and his nose was slitted to a small, fine point. His mouth was hinged like a snake's. 

Despite the lack of human features, there was an age about the man that made me think he was very, very old. His scales had a silver shine, like the greying of an aged man, and they formed rows that wrinkled together. 

His robe was the most embellished of the shamans of the room; I counted six of them in total. They all wore white, whilst his was silver and laced with orange-- the colour, I noticed, of the orange topaz of the Underwater district. 

The way he knelt and prayed towards the basin, then rose and bowed to us, made me certain that he was the highest rank of the shamans. 

The remaining five, after helping us to our feet, retreated to behind the silver-robed shaman.

'You are Lumina Fawcett, correct?' the man intoned, gesturing towards me. As if to mimic his followers, my own circled around, so that they all stood behind me. 

I nod, wondering how to greet him. I settled on a strange head-nod-turned-bow of my own, and was given a smile in return.

'And Fabian Lovelace?'

My companion, at my right hand side, jumped, startled. Fabian's gaze flickered to my own; few people used his family name. A name, we now thought, must be related to his father, Carnelian.

But Fabian was much more graceful than I was, and he swept into a gracious bow, hiding any uncertainty he felt over being called out.

'We have been waiting for you,' the man continued. 

That did cause a stir; from my other side, Sakura stepped protectively around me, taking the waiting as an ominous sign. Scarlett rested a gentle hand at her elbow, giving the man time to explain the statement. 

'We were told by the spirits that you would come to see us one day,' the shaman explained, 'And they also told us how we should answer.'

I swore inwardly, trying hard now not to pass a worried glance with Fabian. If these people already had a preconceived plan-- if they didn't listen to what we said-- what could we do? We'd have come all the way, risked our lives, for nothing.

And, maybe, we'd have to rely on Kirsten to convince them, and that didn't bode well. 

'Do not worry,' he said, and I saw his strange smile once more, 'The spirits were not unkind. They, too, have been waiting for you. Would you like to sit?'

He gestured behind us, to where a few rows of benches had been placed. I wondered if it had been done especially for the occasion, if they'd known about us. There was the exact space available for the entourage. In worried silence, we sat, our eyebrows raised and doing the conversing for us.

What is going on? I thought.

'My name is Eleras, and I am one of the many servants of Aegea,' the man said. Eleras, I echoed, sounding his name through my head. It sounded every bit as wise and fearsome as the shaman before me.

'Aegea?' Val, behind me, spoke up. 

Eleras smiled. 'Valkyrie. Aegea is our Goddess. She was once a Sea Witch who, with the help of an angel, enabled the citizens of Angelica to live here.'

I saw Fabian shuffle, as if he didn't quite believe this. I was sceptical myself. But Eleras seemed to see our disbelief, and smiled further, patient to convince us.

'Do you know the history of our land, Lord Fabian?' 

There was emphasis on the Lord. Hostility flared in Fabian's eyes.

'Angelica has been our home for over a thousand years...'

'Our true history,' Eleras said softly. 'Before Angelica. How we came to be: Mer and Angel...and Demon.'

When it appeared none of us had an answer to that, Eleras asked us, in his polite way, whether he could tell us the Legend of Aegea.

'Mer and Angel share a common form, as do Demons. We began our origins together, on another Earth; one we called Exertia. Over time, we became separate species: the winged and the finned.

'Our land contained many gateways to Earth. Here, the Angels would watch over the human race; I believe the phrase "guardian angel" comes from those days.'

At this, Eleras looked towards me, giving a nod to my human days, before carrying on.

'However, the peace could not last forever. Some Angels discovered another way to watch over the humans-- by killing them, and later, by corrupting them. Corrupt humans gave these Angels a much greater source of power than by killing them, and much more than by helping them. Thus, the Demon race was born.

'Now, back then, there was no ruler of Exertia. There had no need of one: it was a peaceful kingdom, at first. But as the Demons' power grew, they selected powerful leaders to try to control the Angels.

'Aegea was one of the strongest Mer of their time, and she was horrified by the Demons and their growing order. She was not the only one: the most powerful of the Angels, Mihael, wanted to save the human race from further destruction. Together, they formulated a plan.

'At this time, Exertia had become a terrible, warring place. The lands were once held by great creatures; the phoenix, the kraken, the giant, the dragon, the arachnid, the behemoth, the unicorn and the golem. But with the corrupted lands, the creatures wanted to leave, and Mihael and Aegea begged for their help.

'They asked the creatures to be patient. They asked the creatures to guide a new generation of Angels, away from the terror of the growing Demon Kingdom, in a land constructed for the purpose. The ancient creatures agreed, and even added to their plans. 

'And so Aegea created Angelica: molded its geography, designed its hills, and filled its waters. She did not have enough power to transfer live animals, hence why Angelica is so devoid of birds and creatures, aside from ones that slipped through during the Transfer. 

'Whilst Aegea crafted the island, Mihael gathered seven gemstones: the diamond, the ruby, the sapphire, the topaz, the amethyst, the opal and the emerald. And unto these gems, he bound the creatures of Exertia, to save them from extinction.'

A shudder passed through me at this ominous tale. Because, suddenly, it was making sense: my opal, containing the spirit of a phoenix that had saved me. I nodded, enraptured, whilst Fabian gritted his teeth and admitted that there was starting to sound an element of truth in the old man's tale.

'Now, these creatures knew that they would be trapped within the stones for a very long time, but would activate when they sensed an appropriate wielder. One such as you, Lumina, and the Opal you hold.'

My hand reached to my chest, where the opal was tucked inside a pouch. At my touch, it flared in warm comfort. 

'Similarly, Mihael also crafted the Lapis Lazuli: said to be the fairest judge of character, only it could select the new leader of the Angels after the passing of another. In fact, as Mihael was an Exchanger, it was said to have housed his soul as it cost his life doing so.'

I heard Kirsten's intake of breath, aghast at the twist in the story. And inside, my own heart hurt at the thought of the sacrifice he had chosen to make, just as my mother had. 

Eleras bowed his head, as equal in his pain as Kirsten. 

'Aegea, as I'm sure you've surmised, loved Mihael. She sacrificed her own life in sending through the remaining survivors of the Angels and Mer, and sealing the gates so that the Demons could not follow.'

Utter silence fell on his last words, the group of us too absorbed to respond. Even Fabian had turned very quiet, his eyes glancing to where I clutched the Opal. 

'That is the when and how of Angelica,' Eleras murmured, rising to stand over the basin. His reflection flickered as he placed a hand on the still water. 'A more valuable lesson is the why, but that is much harder to teach.'

---

A/N: SORRY FOR THE LONG DELAY!

That chapter was so hard to put into words. I've been planning Angelica's history for months but trying to get it onto paper without it becoming a bullet point lecture is difficult >.<

What do you think of Eleras and his history? And the revelation that each stone holds a mythical creature. Are we going to meet any others?

And what's coming next...? 

Thankfully the next chapter shouldn't take as long to post. I am working on two other novels at the same time (Great Sinner Queen and Swan Song), so please excuse the lateness. If you have time, please support LITTLE SAINT BRIDE over on Inkitt. I still need 60 more readers to be applicable for their Story Peak contest.

I'll post the link in the comments if you're interested! 

lots of love

L 

xxxx