Mother frantically patched the holes in the walls of our hut through her laughter and smiles. I moved to help her before the rains made their way here. She saw me and her eyes dropped with a slight sadness I did not expect, but she kept to her work, still smiling. We tore strips of my tiny old clothes and tied them together to use as ropes to hold the fallen sides together. She worked on the inside and I worked on the outside.
I felt a drop fall on my arm and knew it was time to find Lulu. I did not know how long the rains would last and the channels needed to be opened. I searched my mind and listened to the harmony directing the clouds in the distance.
With the hole I had torn in the roof mended, I turned my attention to the village. A roaring thunder started from the edge of the acacia forest and crackled its way to us. I heeded Mother. She nodded, and off I flew. My wings were strong as I battled the heavy water away from them.
Lulu listened as I whispered to the last of the Sleepers in the market about the Mer and the crystal rains filling the river. A murmur sprouted from them as they made sense of the news. I explained there were channels all over Sleep for the water to fill the lake and the ground for the uruses to drink. Lulu scurried back to her hut and sang to the honey bees.
It called the queen out of the hive and onto her dress. The rest of the hive followed her out of their coves in a single file. They packed onto her dress. "They will help us."
I flew directly over Lulu to shield her and the bees from the heavy rain as we traveled back to the Mer. She studied the symbols and markings on the side of the stones carefully. She walked to the symbol marked with two zigzag lines and sang her melody into it. Its stone opened and she went inside.
Our voices echoed as I sang my note into the coin to find the path through. The stones above started to shift in and out, twisting on themselves. The longer I sang, the more active the stones became. We continued, making our way to a huge flat rock resting on its side. I felt a hum coming from the other side. I took a deep breath and leaned against it.
Trickles fell down the other side of the wall. "Water!"
We came to a small dark room far beneath the ground. Lulu studied the marked walls, then the floor, and finally she settled on the roof. She opened her palms to me. "The egg, Sera."
I held it out for her. She grasped and positioned it in the center of the room. She continued her melody. The egg took it in and gave it back to the whole room. I brought my fingers to my bracelets and added their song to hers. The bees on her dress jumped off and swarmed the space before focusing their efforts together on the center of the roof. They danced and shook the stone. After a few moments, I saw a small trail of water trickling down the path. They synced their buzzing bass, and the stone began to melt under their tones like the honey they made each day.
A crystalline river flowed through the Mer's labyrinth. The water was freed and began to flow through the channels and around the keys. The air changed as the Mer's song shifted slightly, changing as the water ran through it.
The colors that danced at the peaks of the keys grew thick. The water that entered the keys through the channels was heavy and violet from the river. It became light and clear as it merged with the color and tone of each of the keys. They tuned their notes.
The harmony made the air around us clear. The tone of the Mer's song shifted lower once the water made its way the heart of the sphere, where peace rested. The air thickened as water filled it.
The colors found their way back to one another and melted into a golden mist. The currents twisted around themselves and climbed up to the sky and past the stormy clouds. They became a single column of light that beamed out to the Edge of the sky. Focus. It connected with a new star on the other side of the Edge.
I soared higher and faster and broke through the clouds with my wings. The crystal drops rolled off them. There was a point in the sky, under the storm clouds, where the rain stopped and the clouds grew thin. Above it, lay a stunning view. The warmth from our hot star peeked through. I smiled when I felt the steam gather between my feathers as I broke through the clouds and entered the golden rays. Here, up above the clouds in the warm, quiet light of our star, I heard the Mer's song again.
Our hot star was in front of me, but the air sweltered behind me. I turned around to move toward it. My face seared as I reached my arms out as far as they would stretch into the spiraling column of blue light.
Hands first, I entered the pulsing beam of light. It was familiar. The air stuck to my skin. My body followed my hands into the column. Warmth and light surrounded me. Harmony filled my head. I flew down through the blue light, and played my bracelets in time to the pulses to move through its thickness. My toes found the top of the key. The pulses stopped.
Balanced on the point with my wings and arms resting beside me, I surveyed the village from the great height. Lulu called her queen below. The Sleepers bustled in the village to the east. My fingers settled on my bracelets. What would they do with so much the vigorous rain?
I listened.
The music rang loud and clear. I sang again into the coin and could see a path through the stones of the key. It started at the peak I sat on. I placed my finger on the sharp point while I sang softly. The pointed top crystal inverted into itself. The new harmony shifted the stones of the key into a new pattern that left a path straight to the bottom of it. The light column followed it down and I waded through it, using my bracelets to maneuver.
I floated down below the sphere, where no water was flowing. I came down closer to the base and saw the song had caused the dirt to shift, revealing sealed stones. I placed the coin over a seal and sang. The stones under the dirt began to shift, clearing the way for the yellow current. The path led down and bent out of sight into a new opening in the ground. The thick air surrounded me as I waded through, following the current down.
The air at the bottom was lighter and easier to move through. A shiver broke through my body. I flew around the large chamber and came to a sealed stone on the floor. I picked up the stone and found a store of red seeds beneath it. I saw another to my right filled to the brim with purple seeds!
I focused my mind on the floor and saw it was covered in these stones. I lifted one marked with a spiral and scooped hundreds of smooth green seeds into my hand. They sat on my palm a moment before giving way and passing through it, returning to the ground, leaving a glassy silhouette of my hand in their place.
