We pause at the entrance to the Aquarium and look out with a sigh at a virtual undersea garden of profuse color and the endlessly delightful shapes. Every variety of marine creature and plant life that lives in the oceans beyond have sanctuary within these guarded environments. A merfem with the same deep green skin as the coral she seems to materialize from, greets us with lively interest. Although the aquarium is named for Sir Max and he is certainly it's main director, the aquarium is this mermaid's special domain and she never leaves it. Sir Max calls her Hypheria, the underwater guardian angel of the future of the sea.

         I looked around to see Harkin's reaction to this green sea angel but he is looking off into the distance with a most peaked expression on his face. I am positive now that he plans to go in search of the alleged amulet and is not feeling too brave about it. I slowly maneuver Poma over toward him and as we approach Emily she leers menacingly and then darts into a cranny in the cave.

         Playing peek-a-boo with the eel I say, "Harkin, lad, don't you dare go off by yourself in a strange land looking for something that may not exist!" How can I tell him I know it doesn't exsist?

         He didn't answer me for a minute, probably trying to frame his response poetically. Finally he says, "Phee, I have never done anything noble and brave in my whole life. I've spent all my days hiding in my dreary old pages and mooning over what could be. Awesome Stella changed my life forever when she hung me from that star. Now, I want to prove myself. I want adventure!"

         Oh my, thought I, but said aloud, while peeking around a branch of coral polyps, "Well Harkin, I am sure Sir Max has many exciting projects and surprises in store for us, for you, just the right things to excite your creativity. Now, please rejoin the group." It was a lukewarm response but I was sure Sir Max did have some plans to stir our elvin appetites for intrigue and adventure.

         Emily emerged from the coral at Harkin's hesitant assent. It surprised me how she obeyed him. He seemed to have formed an empathy with the eel right off and she responded to him with a loving obedience and the ferocious eye of a protector.

         We rejoined the group and listened as Hypheria described the open sea aquarium we would visit, a temperate zone, the same as the ocean environments found from Australia to the tropical western Pacific in the physical world. While she was talking I noticed some little Beings shyly peeking at us from behind the plants and couldn't help smiling from my heart to my cheeks. I nudged Diafonis nodding my head in their direction.

         These little ones are so like our flower fairies and nature spirits and yet so aquatic in appearance it was something to ponder. The danger to this is my attention wandered off my responsibilities and I completely forgot about Wart. In fact, no one at all noticed that while Hypheria was telling us about the wonders of the aquarium, Dasa Pog, the shark, and Wart had quietly disappeared.

An Enchantment

         We were well on our way to the star fish nurseries when we realized Wart had gone missing. The young ones thoughtlessly dashed off in all directions looking for him. I left it to Sir Max and Zeno to round everyone up while Harkin and I followed my own special talent in finding Wart. Ever since I found Wart in that alley long ago, there has been this uncanny inner link between us.

         The way the vibration was leading us was not to my liking though. We left behind the gardens of multicolored corals and move in and out of disturbing lights and shadows from something above we can not see. The sea floor is uneven and sandy, strewn with bits of rock and shells inhabited by hermit crabs and scattered sea grasses. It is impossible to grasp distance for us novices under the sea, especially since there is a fitful surge that stirs a dark murk at the edges of our seeing. A strange shiver passes through my bones, there is some enchantment at work here.

         Finally, we come upon Wart, the poor lad transformed into an absurd looking fish and buried to his ventral fins in sand and rock. Seems it was the shark who swam away with him and Dasa Pog who did the chasing. When she caught up the shark turned into the sorceress, Dona Juanita and she and Dasa had a terrible fight over him. Wart didn't know which one transformed him or where they had gone afterward. While he talked I was sensing something else very wrong, some spine shivering foreboding of a shadowy presence.