Ross clicks to the next slide, shutting down the million questions popping up left and right about how elves work.

Mer Babies

“See? I told you I’d have all the answers to your questions,” Ross says with that sarcastic tilt to their mouth.

No, we don’t have sex to make babies, you perv.

Merbabes are born on the Blue Moon (it’s the most powerful day in the ocean, remember?). Eight elders, each with a different type of mer magic, cast a spell to create baby mer to take the place of those we’ve lost since the last Blue Moon.

“Sure, you don’t have sex, but you’ve got to tell him about scaling!” Kavya’s reading the slides too. “It’s not like you guys don’t bone, you just use your tails to do it.”

Ross clicks to the next slide and shouts, “I’m not going into it, Kavya! For flick’s sake, can’t a mer leave a little to the imagination, bless the Blue!” By the way they can’t make eye contact and how quickly they jump to the next slide, I wonder if Ross has done that—scaling—before.

8 Types of Mer Magic

Clarity—To transfer concepts, sense memories, and images directly into another’s thoughts

Flow—To direct water at will

Healing—We don’t get sick

Language—To understand all living creatures

Light—It can get dark down in the Blue, after all

Sleep—To calm down angry predators

Transformation—Allows for the Journey

Passage—To traverse the Blue in the flick of a fin

“How does all that work?” I ask. “Do you just recite a spell, and ta-da! It happens, or—”

Ross mimes zipping their mouth shut. I guess it’s not just emojis and PowerPoint they’ve taken to quickly. Human mannerisms and sayings too.

Mer Magic Basics

The magic is triggered by tail movement and concentrated thought.

Those who have yet to develop their own magic can be temporarily given the powers of other mer with a spell, or Blessing, as some call it.

“We’ve made it to the part of the presentation you already know most about, but just in case you need a refresher.” Ross clicks the space bar one more time, a rehash of most of what they’ve told me up on the screen.

The Journey

A mer tradition wherein every sixteen-year-old mer lives on land to help a “fellow” human. Must be completed within a moon cycle, or the magic wears off and you’re stuck on land forever. Journeyfin also have the choice to stay on land, but most don’t. There are two main Journey rules:

1. Do not go into the ocean during your Journey (or you will be stuck as a human forever).

2. Do not get wet in front of humans (but if you do, make sure it gets posted on all socials).