ACT ONE. CHAPTER II:
THINGS MY WAY

SOMEWHERE IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.
2016, JANUARY 28.

Never before had Sade felt the weight of such silence after a question. It was true that perhaps she should not have made a joke about the appearance of her abductors, considering that she did not even know if they could understand her.

A new conversation began between the four people present before the sole person not of blue complexion was left in the darkness. The young woman was not afraid, she was never afraid, and it was not "mermaids" that would change that.

The man began to approach her, in a light, distinguished―predatory―step. Because in this crypt, far from any oversight, she was only a disoriented prey, who despite the knowledge of her doomed fate continued to violently fight back the claws of the water.

Every step he took seemed to tighten the vicious noose around her, causing her to firmly clutch the gun she had quietly removed from her boot. It was when he emerged fully from the darkness of the cave that she felt her heart burst under the pressure he had so skillfully built. It was as if an electric shock had pierced her through and through, leaving only the smoke volute that heralded an inferno.

The man standing in front of her seemed to be similarly shocked as he stopped dead in his tracks, his raised eyebrows painting his face in unmistakable surprise. It was the intensity with which he looked at her that made her want to drop any lingering resistance, the same feeling that had gripped her so forcefully on the smuggling boat.

A minute, two minutes, several minutes elapsed without either of them saying a word. Sade finally blinked several times, seemingly coming out of her trance.

"Um," she simply blurted out before clearing her throat at the unnaturally low pitch of her already hoarse voice. "Where are we?"

As soon as the sentence was out, Sade wanted to slap herself as she realised her voice had gone into the highs unwillingly. She hadn't asked him who he was, for she felt that his answer would sound like a death sentence. A bitter taste of defeat plagued all her senses, the result of a future that was still unknown to her. She had already lost a war that she didn't even know about yet.

He closed the last few steps between them with a calm step, deliberately ignoring her question. Now here he was, towering over her, his dark brown eyes trailing over her, taking in every inch. There was this glint in the darkness of his gaze, too dangerous in its intensity to be mere curiosity.

Sade wanted to get up, to escape from the submissive position he had effortlessly put her in, but she could feel the faint tremor in her legs.

He lowered himself slightly to her level, placing his face a few centimetres from hers. The marine scent that wafted from him tickled her nostrils, disorienting her entire olfactory system. She could see the shimmer of saltwater on his exposed golden skin, like a thousand stars on the sand.

"And who are you?" he finally asked, not taking his eyes off her, his accent slithering over the words like the forked tongue of a trickster, a snake―of the Devil.

The young woman held his gaze, refusing to look away. "Where are we?" she repeated, pausing after each word.

The man did not answer immediately, continuing to look her up and down, scanning every inch of her, unknowingly (deliberately?) making her heart beat faster. Sade struggled not to let anything show, but he seemed to sense that she was tensed. Raising his gaze to her, he let the ghost of a grin appear on his lips.

"You didn't answer my question... fair human."

"Answer mine first."

A faint, quick twitch made his right eyebrow wobble at her answer. Adrenaline began to pulse through Sade's veins as the dangerous glow doubled in intensity in the murky recesses of his brown eyes.

"Don't make me repeat myself. What is your name, surface dweller?"

Looking into his eyes was akin to being battered by the current, trapped in the arms of a riptide. It was when his hands came to rest on either side of the rock she was sitting on that Sade clicked. Almost immediately, the barrel of her pistol came to rest against the man's temple who couldn't hide his surprise this time.

A deep laugh, seeming to come from the deepest depths of the ocean, escaped from him as she continued to press her weapon against his forehead in the calmest of ways.

"Do you really think your weapon will do anything, little human?" he asked menacingly as soon as his mirth ceased.

It was Sade's turn to smile at his comment. The weapon was made of vibranium, the bullets of vibranium, there was no reason why it couldn't kill him on the spot.

"Answer my question and I won't use it, little mermaid."

The comparison didn't seem to please him as he gripped the rock she was still sitting on tightly, causing a few small stone crumbs to fall out.

"Angry already? I thought you liked to have fun." she added as she slowly stood up, the gun still pointed at his forehead. "We do things my way."

He also stood up, his grin unnaturally widened.

Thinking the worst, Sade tightened her fist around her weapon, arching an eyebrow as he finally answered her question. "Talokan."

Her first thought went to the Afghan city of Taloqan before her mind took in the way her captors were dressed.

"Talokan." she repeated before quickly looking up at him. "Tlālōcān? One of the underwold realms described in the Aztec codices?"

"What an interesting human you are." he said simply, stretching his lips into that dangerous smile only he had the secret to.

"Stop calling me that and answer my question, Ariel."

"Yes, like Tlālōcān." he finally replied, looking down the barrel of her weapon, running up the length of her arm towards her face. "Now, may I ask who is behind that mask?"

The young woman frowned, wondering if she had understood his question correctly. Yes, she had worn a photostatic veil to avoid being recognised in the middle of a mission, but she hadn't taken it off. How could he know she was wearing one?

The thought of denying what he said occurred to her, but she didn't want to make the situation worse. "Imani."

"Imani." he repeated, trying the voluptuousness of the name on his tongue, making her involuntarily gulp. "And who's really under that mask?"

He didn't buy it.

"What do you mean?"

"I know it's not your real face, Imani." he simply replied before moving closer to her, not even letting the tension-laden air, combined with the heaviness of the sea air, come between them. "Show me who's hiding underneath," he whispered in her ear, the hot air of his breath making her hair stand on edge. "But I've noticed you're always asking for something in return. So I'll tell you who I am, fair human."

He pulled away slightly so he could look her in the eye again, peering out of the corner of his eye at the arm that held the weapon lining her body. "My people call me K'uk'ulkan." he let out in a breath, keeping a silence before adding in a cold voice, "But my enemies... humans like you, call me Namor."

The tension was still palpable as she also turned her head towards him.

K'uk'ulkan. The Feathered Serpent God.

He was a god among his own kind, and she could not risk harming him while she was in unfamiliar territory. So with a slow, calculated movement, she pulled back the photostatic veil that covered her face.

If the man, Namor, had taken the time to detail every bit of her face before, his interest seemed to have found a new source as every beauty mark, every eyelash, every pore passed under the scrutiny of his dark eyes.

"I like that better, Sade." he hummed in his husky voice.

Her heartbeat raced, making her gasp as her other name came out of his mouth, coated in his bewitching accent like a forbidden treat.

"How?" she let out in a breath as his mischievous grin seemed to grow on his face with every passing second.

"I have ears everywhere, and I already knew who you were, Princess."

"My name is Imani, not Sade." she spat as she stepped briskly away from him, picking up the pistol she had dropped in surprise. "And stop calling me Princess."

"I'm sure the name that comes up first when someone is looking for you is Sade." he replied with amusement, taking a slow step to close the gap she had created between them. With her back against the stone wall, she had no way out except to use the weapon in her hands. "Honour bestows the crown, right? So why-"

"What am I doing here? You could have killed me on that boat, and you didn't. Why?"

Namor didn't answer, just stared at her as if he hadn't done so for many minutes before. His warm breath came crashing against her face once more, a stark contrast to the coldness of the cave. His eyes rested on her lips for a fraction of a second longer before he pulled away and held out his hand.

"You asked me where you were. Why not show it to you?"

His voice had become inviting, like a whisper, a melody cradled by the waves like a baby against its mother. It was as if the timbre of his voice wrapped itself around her mind, breaking down mental barriers that no one else had been able to breach.

What's happening to me?

"How do I know you won't kill me on the way?" she asked him, stepping forward anyway to look sceptically at his extended hand.

She might have told herself that he was her captor, and that he hadn't yet told her why he'd kidnapped her, but curiosity often won the battle against her common sense. Sade wanted to see for herself this city under water, safe from all eyes, but so fragile at the same time.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it without you knowing, Princess," he chuckled slightly as he looked at her with an air of challenge, wondering if she would agree to visit an underwater city hidden from view with a complete stranger.

The young woman continued to look at his outstretched hand before finally placing hers in it, ignoring the heat that dissipated inside her as their bodies touched for the first time.

"If you try anything, I won't hesitate to put a bullet between your eyes."

Namor looked for a moment at the serious look that had taken over her features before merely nodding. "I know you won't, Princess."

As he began to lead her towards the exit of the cave, he stopped abruptly and looked her up and down.

"You can't go out like that."

"What's wrong with the way I'm dressed?" she replied, looking down at the jumpsuit that had kept her from freezing to death in the icy waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

"It's not worthy of a Que-" Namor stopped abruptly in his sentence when he saw the dark look Sade had given him before smiling and resuming. "Of a Princess. Royalty should be treated right."

The two women from earlier appeared behind her, carrying two robes in their arms. Sade looked for a moment at the one who had seemed to resent her presence earlier before turning to the one they referred to as K'uk'ulkan.

"Really?"

"I promise I'll show you Talokan once you've put on our clothes," he told her with that look of amusement that seemed to permeate him since she'd told him she wouldn't hesitate to shoot him.

How much weight did his promise carry for me to believe him?

The young woman squinted her eyes before following the young women into another cave nearby. One of them put her hand out to help her remove her suit, which Sade quickly grabbed.

"I don't need help getting a dress on."

The blue-skinned woman walked away while the other one who was constantly looking at her with suspicion stayed in her place, not breaking the eye contact between them.

"Listen..."

"Namora."

Sade looked at her for a moment, thinking it was a joke before seeing the serious look on her features. She couldn't help but giggle, making said Namora frown.

"Namor, Namora. It's like calling my kids Taylor and Taylora." she giggled despite the growing annoyance on the blue woman's face.

"Cousin."

"That's even worse. Can I dress myself?"

Namora continued to look at her before turning her back on her, indicating that this was the only form of privacy she could have. The young princess rolled her eyes before quickly removing her jumpsuit and putting on the water green dress with nacreous beads. Golden strands adorned the dress, woven expertly into the fine fabric. Despite her reluctance to wear dresses, she could only admire the work of the Talokanils.

"I'm done."

Not taking the time to turn around, Namora led the way through a maze of caves that she couldn't help but contemplate, to a room unlike any she had seen. More rounded in shape, the walls were covered with brightly coloured drawings, ready to bring whatever they represented to life before the eyes of those who looked at them. A little table stood in the middle, full of what she assumed where brushes and paint. Sade approached one of the murals, unable to stop herself from running a finger over the outline of a snake, marvelling at the delicacy of the brush strokes.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" asked a deep voice near her ear, startling her.

"Have you ever heard of 'personal space'?"

The Talokanil king only responded with the sneer that was beginning to seriously get on her nerves, pulling away from her slightly. Looking briefly at the wall, he let his eyes roam along the dress she'd had to put on, arching an eyebrow.

"These are my colours."

Lowering her head to look at the outfit more closely, she couldn't help but see the similarity, "I can change-"

"No. It really looks good on you."

The tension between them seemed so strange and appealing at the same time. She has never felt such thing ever before, it was as if she was willing to lose for whatever was going on here.

But, what did she have to lose?

AUTHOR'S NOTE
namor :

sade:

shorter chapter but i want to take the time to reaaally describe talokan in the next chapter sooo. first encounter between my babies hehehe. the tension, the angst *bang fist on the table* namor activated his simp card immediately and i'm pretty sure he secretly enjoyed the fact that sade told him that she wouldn't hesitate to shoot him.

namora being like:

now that i've remembered that he is also blue, new nickname activated
&& don't forget to vote, comment and share 🫶🏾

© ADONYSIAC ― IZIA™