SL Huang - Up and Coming - Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors

At the entrance, she passed through the main gates and entered the airlock. The glass walls showed her the floating world outside and the gravity oriented world within. While she found passing from land to water delightful, entrance to the Domed City always left her disoriented. As the water drained away and pumped back out to the sea, she took a deep breath, pulling oxygen in through her lungs instead of through osmosis via her skin. Warm, stale air blew over her, drying her skin and clothing.

As soon as she stepped into the dryness of the city, she heard her housefille calling out.

“Nilafay,” the hushed voice carried across the air. “Where have you been? Your mother has been worried sick!” The young girl hurried over, her long skirts a symbol of her low status and servitude.

“Serishee, calm yourself.” Even though they were only a year apart, the housefille’s demeanor seemed so young. “I’m here now. Come, tell me what I’ve missed while we walk.”

“There’s no time for that!” Serishee hailed a rickshaw and climbed in the back, motioning for Nilafay to join her. “To Fay Manor,” she ordered before settling back into the seat.

“Why are we in such a rush?”

The younger woman eyed Nilafay sideways and stifled a laugh behind her hand.

They traveled in silence, sitting together but with the customary space between them that all Sualwets maintained except with family. It was so rare to be touched. Perhaps that was why so many of her people loved being out in the sea so much: the feel of the water against flesh was like an embrace.

Nilafay closed her eyes. The artificial atmosphere of the Domed City dried her out, and already she longed to be back in the water. The smooth rocking of the rickshaw almost reminded her of floating on the surface, but the bumps in the artificial road jolted her out of her fantasy.

She clasped her hands together and tried to recall each touch she and Adaltan had shared. They were so few, and she longed for each moment they would share together once they were married. It seemed an eternity between when they’d been betrothed and when their wedding would finally occur.

The rickshaw passed by the fountain in the center of the city before weaving its way back through the residential area. At the end of a long drive, Nilafay’s home shimmered against the nearly black sea that resided behind the south wall. Having a property at the edge of the wall elevated her family’s status. Not only did her father run the Domed City’s government, but her home backed up to the best view.

From her bedroom the view extended past the drop-off and into the deep. Fish and other creatures whose ancestors hadn’t seen the surface in hundreds of years flashed in the darkness. It reminded her of the night sky far above.

As soon as the girls stepped inside the grand hall, Nilafay’s mother swept out from the back rooms. She wore the ceremonial dress for the mother of the bride. A low-slung belt with links of pearls draped around her hips and dangled to the floor. On top, draped across her breasts, she wore a tight band of cloth decorated with matching pearls and quartz from the Sualwet mines.

“You’re late.” Her mother’s scowl struck Nilafay like a slap in the face.

“There’s time. It’s not like I have to do much to get ready.”

Her mother’s face darkened, and the corners of her lips dipped impossibly low, making her look like grouper or a ladyfish.

Nilafay bowed her head and hurried up the curved marble staircase to her rooms. She’d grown up in this house, but she hated it. Her parents maintained all the trappings of above-water status—trinkets and decorations that would be stolen by the tide if they lived outside the walls of the city—and yet they never used any of it. As a child she had to be careful with everything she touched, every movement she made. Those possessions were more precious than her childhood.

This was one of the many reasons she couldn’t wait to leave home. Adaltan already secured a place for them within the city walls but nearer to the entrance. Her parents disliked the lower status of the location, but she imagined they secretly expected they would move back in with them before too long and were simply humoring their youth.

In her room, she stripped off her bodysuit and stepped into the shower. It felt so strange to bathe after being in the water, but residual sea salt speckled her pale skin. She rinsed quickly, running her hands over her smooth head and hairless body to wash away the outside world.

Once she’d bathed and dried, she sat at the dressing table in her room and reached for the powder her mother had given her. The container of finely crushed pearls reeked of decadence and waste, but Nilafay knew better than to fight back over her appearance. Soon she’d be married and out from under her parents’ thumb, able to come and go as she pleased.

Her lips tingled as she remembered the exhilarating press of Adaltan’s mouth against hers.

She opened the powder and applied it to her head, lips, and face until she glowed like the bioluminescent algae that danced near the shoreline. Once the crushed pearls blended down to her neckline, she looked like she were rising out of the sea, her face shining in the moonlight. She applied black ink harvested from the octopus farm around her eyes, making sure to get it on the tables of her eyes so the large black irises loomed, threatening to take over her entire face.

The effect was stunning. Even she couldn’t deny the otherworldly effect the makeup had on her appearance as she stared at her reflection. She truly felt like the lady her mother had always tried to shape her to be.

Naked and painted, she removed her traditional jewels from the drawer and stood up. The long chains wrapped over her right shoulder and hung down to the opposite hip where they attached to a belt, much like her mother’s. However where her mother’s had been decorated with pearls, Nilafay’s were covered in rare obsidian. The effect of her pale, naked flesh beneath the links of silver and black completed her transformation from girl to bride.

As she looked at her reflection, her mother opened her door. “You look quite lovely, Nilafay.”

Her mother’s formal voice pulled her attention. When had she stopped being “Nila” to her family? When had she stopped being a child? The withdrawal of affection had happened so slowly that now she had difficulty remembering it ever having been there.

“Thank you, Mother. As do you.”

“Come then, if you’re ready. Your father is already at the square.”

They walked side by side, but not touching, down the stairs and out to the waiting rickshaw.

Serishee hovered nearby, her excitement barely contained. “Exquisite!” she squealed, hands fluttering at her sides. The long skirts flowed around her in ripples.

Nilafay smiled, but her mother ignored the girl completely, stepping up into the waiting seat and beckoning her daughter to join her.

Once Nilafay climbed inside, Serishee draped a dark cloth over the passenger part of the vehicle, and the driver pedaled them away.

Nilafay wiggled her toes, the thin webbing between them pulling gently with her movement, grounding her in this body. Otherwise she feared she would float away and swim through the air of the city as she did in the sea. She felt like a pufferfish, swelling with excitement until its body expanded to its limit.

“Try to stay calm tonight,” her mother said as the rickshaw stopped.

Nilafay’s heart dropped.

The cloth covering them was removed from the outside, and when she stepped out of the seat, the world glittered around her. The fountain at the center of town had been completely redecorated since she’d been there earlier in the day. Lights trailed in the air between the buildings, sparkling and reflecting her elation.