This one's for Noah. My first "real life" fangirl.

Before I could save the world, I had to find somewhere to bathe.

Not that I understood yet how I came to be living underwater in a space of enclosed air. But after discovering your orphan best friend had been lying about your mutual angel heritage and had staged her own kidnap, being underwater didn't faze me too much, and a bath seemed like a really, really good idea.

Leaving a few minutes for Morwena's footsteps to fade, I swung my head outside the door. To my surprise, a lone figure stood, leaning against the marble wall, a sentry posted outside my door.

The girl was beautiful; dark skinned, but with a spattering of freckles like stardust across her cheeks, and black hair woven tightly into a sensible braid. Unlike Morwena, she openly wore a guard's uniform, but one of which I'd never seen the like before— a metal plate over her chest of scales, thick but skin tight trousers, and, most bizarre of all, elbow-length gloves.

On the alert, Sakura heard the swishing of my movement, and spun.

'Princess!' she breathed, and rolled me into a crushing, jaw-splitting, shoulder-popping hug.

After a few seconds, I choked, 'Sakura...I can't breathe...!'

She released me immediately, apologising profusely. To my shame, she tried to bow low, get on her knees— I grabbed her arms to make her stop.

'What are you doing?' I asked her, flushing red at her reverence. The girl was still trying to kneel. 'Why are you guarding my room?'

'Guarding, my lady! After all, you never know when danger will strike,' Sakura's eyes narrowed, as if to emphasise her point. 'I've been taking shifts, usually during the day.'

She reverted back to the distrustful glare around the empty corridor.

'Morwena said there's no danger,' I reassured her. If Morwena thought it was okay, then I certainly did. 'Please— stop trying to kneel! And— just call me Lumina. Or Mina.'

With a wince, I remembered that "Mina" was Reia's old nickname for me. Reia the orphan, that was.

But it's time to stop associating a simple nickname to something so painful, a voice in my head gently suggested.

Sakura's expression isn't horrified— it's more disbelief, as if I'd said something incredibly stupid. 'I can't not kneel! Princess, you awoke the legendary phoenix that is said to have created the Angel race. The Angelicans call you Firebird.'

'I thought we were past this formality,' I sighed. 'I'm no phoenix, I can assure you. There's been no sign of anything except scars since it happened. Speaking of...can you show me where to wash?' A change of subject would do wonders for my flaming, embarrassed cheeks. Firebird at blushing!

Sakura nodded, trying to offer to fetch me servants, but I protested. In any case, I argued that I wanted to be alone.

'I can understand that,' she agreed. 'I will stand on watch outside the door, though. Follow me.'

The girl ensured that her weapons— a bow strung on her back, and her quiver in place— were steady, before striding off down the corridor. Although it was empty, the walls were decorated lavishly enough to make me realise what kind of people— or Merpeople— must live here.

The idea of running into somebody made me feel queasy. I needed to sort myself out before I could face anyone. Days of not washing, sleeping poorly and eating little had left me in a state. The "Firebird" had turned to ashes.

'Can we try to avoid people?' I whispered to Sakura ahead of me. 'Please? At least until I smell nicer?'

Sakura's grin widened. 'It'll be like a training exercise.'

And she sank into a crouch, checking around corners and rolling across passageways. I trudged behind, not even bothering to hide.

I counted a left, a right and then spiral steps downward when we came across a great oak door. Sakura gave me a smile, gesturing to it.

'This is the communal bath, but I'll make sure nobody else enters so you have privacy. It's not quite like our baths at home, though, so don't be shocked.'

I assumed she meant that because Merpeople had no need for baths— they spent all their time in water— that the visitors' bath would be a farce. I fumbled for the latch, for the corridor was dark, lit only by blue orbs of light.

Sakura resumed her stance outside the door.

I entered the room.

My breath caught.

The room was an architectural feat, with rows of towels lining the walls and soaps across the other. Benches of light brown contrasted with the warm— warm!— slate of the floor, and I automatically stepped my feet out of their slippers and onto the tile. My toes skipped with the heat.

Around the room, the blue lights hovered, creating a cool glow to the room.

But the middle was the most amazing.

I wasn't sure how it worked, but it did. Where the water met the palace, the wall opened, revealed the great deep blue outside. But what was more special than that, the water flooded, controlled, into the baths, heating as it did so. It gathered into a pool in the middle, before another channel was taking it back out, as if on a circuit.

My mouth opened automatically to ask Sakura a million questions.

How is it doing that?

The water. It's not flooding in. Doesn't water do that kind of thing?

The water is warm. How?

There's fish in my bath.

But I shut it, the words dying on my lips. Sakura was outside, and for once, perhaps I wouldn't ask questions. Like everything, questions would wait, and would be answered. For now, I'd just enjoy the world for what it was.

Perhaps being "Lady" Lumina does have its perks. She's still curious, but too polite to blurt it out.

Smiling, I slipped out of my grimy clothes, and then stepped up to the edge of the water.

The pool was deep; easily my height and a half. My reflection gleamed upon the surface, shifting my focus from the bottom of the water to the young woman before me.

My face was the same as ever; pinched, small, elfin-like. Dark hair, cut straight, swamped my body as I pulled out the ties holding it in and shook it out. When I pushed back locks of long fringe hair from my eyes, the purple irises nearly glowed back.

I traced my fingers over my eye, feeling for any evidence of Reia's marks when she'd pulled the little opal out of my eye that fateful night.

Since then, the stone had gone where I had: literally.

After being saved by the phoenix, my allies had found me, curled up and naked, with the stone in my hands. When I had woken, it still followed me, even when I tried to throw it away or hide it, it would return to me. I knew nothing about it, except perhaps that it housed some unnatural being, and that it had saved my life on several occasions.

I shivered. It had saved my life, yes— but with fire. The memory of the burning flames of the phoenix was enough. Any more, and I might start remembering the fires that set Opal alight.

Opal. The stone was named after my district. "Black Fire Opal", Arianna had called it.

Right now, the Black Fire Opal sat on top of my pile of clothing, innocently watching me at the poolside. I'd left the rock back in the cabin.

It followed me everywhere. Even bathing. 

I looked back to my reflection, catching the glimpse of a dark shadow behind me.

Thankfully, I blinked and my illusion fixed; the dark reflection was of my wings, now fully-grown and as large as Fabian's. I recalled the moment they'd torn through my back and I'd cried down Fabian's front. Then, when I'd fallen from the Diamond Palace and they'd grown again, tearing through more muscle to aid me.

The skin around them was still scabbed and sore. Luckily, Scarlett had been bathing it for me, to stop it festering. I flexed and folded them, tentatively trying to make sense of how to move what— like learning how to control your arms again.

They were large enough now that, once I wasn't in pain, I should be able to learn to fly.

Fly and go where? A dark voice in my head sighed. I pushed it away, and leaped into the pool.

It took me a few split seconds to realise that Lumina the Orphan Thief couldn't swim, and would normally be terrified of water.

Only, this water hadn't terrified me. If anything, it felt familiar to feel the silence of the water, and the swirling of my hair fanning out around me. When I reached out, my hands knew what to do.

Instinctively, Lady Lumina was remembering how to swim.

Triumphant, my hands and legs began to kick, and soon I was doing lengths up and down the pool and tumbling into the depths of the water.

'You're more below the water than above it! Heavens, are you sure you aren't Mer, Lumina?'

The memory of that voice came into my head unbidden, and my eyesight blurred with tears on top of my already-blurred water sight.

The more I remembered of my parents, the more I realised that they were gone. Those kindly memories I was getting back would be just that: distant, lonely memories.

It was enough to put a dampener on my swim, at least.

After a thorough wash, I rejoined Sakura to ask whether I had any clothes except the fluffy towels swathing my body. The guard left and fetched me back what she described as a "typical Mer casual", or lack of. The Mer were apparently a people unafraid to show their bodies— as such, my dress was more of a scaled impression with a tiny skirt of golden scales and a bralette of gossamer and black. When I emerged from the baths again, another figure had joined Sakura, and for once, my second-in-command wasn't watching me. Her head was lowered, whispering to Scarlett conspiratorially.

Uneasily, I cleared my throat. What was going on?

Was something wrong?

The two jumped, with Sakura rushing to my side. Scarlett hovered further back, eyes wide.

After a moment of staring at each other, her lips widened into a smile.

'Lumina,' she breathed, 'You're recovered?'

I nodded, 'Getting there. Thanks to all of you.'

'Thank goodness,' my birth sister breathed. Her black hair was the same as mine, only hers cut short around her jaw. Her face, however, was unlike mine; more round, more kind, and her eyes were slightly darker. As she pulled me into a hug, I was slammed by a memory.

'Scarlett, look! That girl is crying.'

I pointed outside the carriage, beyond the dust clouds conjured up by the rotation of the wheels.

'Where?' Scarlett turned, swivelling her head in the wrong direction. I tugged at her arm, my body rocking in the carriage being pulled by the family horses. Outside, the shouting and screaming of the day market roared through our open windows, the silk curtains fluttering in the breeze.

'She's there, but she's going to get hurt,' I said. 'She's in the middle of the thoroughfare.'

A small figure was curled up ahead of us.

'We should go home and tell mama and papa...'

'No,' I said, hearing my voice as if from far away. 'That will take too long.'

'Lumina? What's wrong? Why are you shaking your head?'

I blinked away the memory, finding my palm pressed against my clammy forehead. At some point, I had pushed my sister away, and now Scarlett was looking at me with concern, whilst Sakura looked on with terror.

'I knew it was too soon for you to be up and about...' my sister continued, reaching out for my arm.

Before I knew what I was doing, I had twisted away from her outstretched hand.

I can't remember more, I thought. I don't want to remember Freya.

It's too much.

But the look of unhappiness in Scarlett's face filled me with guilt.

'Just feeling a bit sore,' I lied automatically, gesturing to my arms that were covered in welts from the fire. 'Not a good idea to hug me yet!'

The two women relaxed. My distraction, my lie, had worked.

'So...I'm now fit to be seen,' I said, gesturing at my cleanliness. 'Who should I meet first?'

Scarlett snorted. 'The hairdresser.'

True to her word, I wasn't allowed to meet the ruler of the Topaz district until I'd been dressed appropriately— involving more jewellery, an added ear piercing, and hair neatly brushed back— and seen one of the Mer diplomats. This was all prepared by Kirsten, apparently, for the moment I was back on my feet. 

The fact that Kirsten had said when, and not if, did not slip my notice.

I surprised my tutor with my ready knowledge; clearly, they had been told that Orphan Lumina had no concept of Angelican history, but Lady Lumina did. Lady Lumina could answer just about any question of this underwater district I'd never seen.

'The capital of the Topaz district is...?' the older gentleman narrowed his eyes at me. His skin had a bluish hue, and he wore a toga of scales and white cloth. When not answering questions, I surreptitiously glanced at his legs to make sure that he did have feet, and not fins.

'Lir.' The answer rolled of my tongue easily, and I continued to assess the wrinkled visage of the man. Who was he? Why would he be living down here?

'Religion?'

Mers rarely allowed non-Mers to understand their culture. As a lady, I knew the most basic facts— as was proper, and enough to be able to deal with any border connections with the Mer. Opal had been on their banks, and so Opal rulers had passed on more knowledge than was commonly known, right down to me.

But even we knew so little about the mysterious people of the water.

'They worship the Sea Goddess, Aegea.'

'What is the title of our Queen ruler?'

The questions were getting faster, and I had less time to think.

'Queen Sirena Naiades the third.'

'And her children?'

'Niamh, Nautia, Ephyra and Earwyn.' Rote learning— a memory bubbled at the back of my mind.

'Niamh is Sirena's first daughter. You are the same age as her, Lumina.' My mother, teaching me in our quiet library.

I poured over the sketch of the mermaid princess; only an infant, with fins instead of feet.

I had shrieked in amazement. Until then, Mother had only shown me pictures of adults. I had assumed children couldn't be Mer.

Now, I knew.  And I had not stopped talking about becoming a mermaid for weeks.

Niamh; I remembered the mermaid that had come to us under the tunnels of the Ruby Prison. She'd claimed to be Fabian's relative— but legend had always said Fabian's mother, a mermaid, was dead, and yet "Niamh" had brought a message from her.

And, as if he had read my mind, the old man smiled.

'And Fabian. Queen Sirena's only son.'

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Are you ready to meet the (in)famous Mer Queen and Fabian's Mum? What do you think she'll be like? What does she want from Lumina...?

And hopefully Ch 3 will bring back some more of the Equinox characters...