“Where am I going? And how will I know I’ve reached whatever it is you want me to inspect?”

“Simply swim straight down. I know you’re a strong swimmer. And you’ll know what you’re looking for when you see it.”

Dyeawan sets the brake of her tender and begins pulling herself over the edge of the litter.

“May I assist you?” Edger asks.

Dyeawan ignores him, climbing down onto the rocks with the fluid ease of one accustomed to navigating the world by their hands while pulling the lower half of their body behind them. She crawls across the rocks, and slinks down the incline toward the bay, reaching the final boulder rising above the water. Dyeawan glances back at Edger briefly through the lenses he’s fashioned for her, then pulls her body over the boulder and lets its own momentum propel her through the surface.

The water is cold and dark, and though the lenses over her eyes are clear Dyeawan isn’t certain how she’s meant to see anything down here. The bottom of the bay appears black when she first enters the water, though it can’t be more than a few dozen yards deep this far from the shore. She strokes her arms and swims straight down, the natural buoyancy of her legs pulling them toward the surface and keeping her body level.

An object rises from the darkness below, very nearly colliding with Dyeawan’s face. She reaches out simply to deflect whatever it is, finding her hands grabbing at the material of a garment. It is a simple dress, thin and not well made. She yanks it aside, turning the body of a young woman. Dyeawan stares through her lenses into the eternally closed eyes of her shrunken face.

The girl is missing her arms and legs. Even in the grip of shock and panic and fear, Dyeawan’s mind can’t help examining the stumps left of her limbs. It’s clear they have not been severed, either in life or death. The girl was born that way. Her arms and legs grew only a few inches and then ceased growing forever.

Dyeawan allows the girl’s body to drift back toward the shadowy depths. She is ready to swim back up to the surface then, but something in her gut even colder than the water surrounding her compels Dyeawan to remain there. A moment later she begins stroking her arms anew, driving herself deeper into the shadows, following the path of the limbless girl’s corpse. Dyeawan watches her sink back to the shallow ocean bed, her descent abruptly halted. As Dyeawan swims closer, shapes beneath the girl begin to reveal themselves to her adjusting eyes.