64 Beneath the Tide

64 Beneath the Tide
(Ella's POV)

The wind gradually stopped.

The thunderous roar of the waterfall once again dominated the entire valley. The air still carried the acrid scent of violent magical collision. Shattered rocks scattered everywhere, and water mist mixed with the smell of blood drifted around.

I hadn't even had time to recover from that attack when I heard a suppressed groan.

"Colin!"

Not far away, Colin suddenly dropped to one knee.

The water currents that had been swirling around him instantly scattered out of control, crashing heavily back to the ground. He kept his head down, shoulders trembling slightly, blood continuously dripping from the corner of his mouth.

The scales from his mermaid transformation were rapidly receding. But this wasn't a good sign - it meant the backlash from losing control of his power had begun.

I glanced back to check that Kyle's condition was okay, then immediately ran to Colin's side.

"Colin, don't move!"

When I supported him, I realized his body was alarmingly hot, and his breathing was severely irregular. The scales on his arms looked as if they had been forcibly torn away, with blood even seeping from the edges.

If this condition continued to deteriorate, he could completely lose control. Yet Colin acted as if he felt no pain at all.

He stared fixedly at Eli in the distance. The thin mermaid had her arms spread wide, protecting Kyle.

"...Lily?"

I heard him whisper a name softly.

"Sister." He reached his hand forward, his tone careful and tentative.

"Sister, I've been looking for you for so long. Where, where have you been all these years?" His voice was terribly hoarse.

Eli was clearly startled and instinctively stepped back half a pace.

The little mermaid who had just been rescued clung tightly to her arm, watching him warily.

Kyle stood not far away, blood still flowing from his wounds, looking coldly at Colin with complete indifference, as if he had no intention of participating in this family reunion scene.

"Ella, come here," Kyle said to me.

"But..." Colin's condition was very poor. I thought he needed treatment.

Kyle extended his hand toward me: "The knight captain can't be bothered with these little injuries right now." He pointed to the wound on his abdomen, "I'm in so much pain..."

I looked at Colin's tense expression, sighed, and walked to Kyle's side to help clean his wounds.

"You, what's your name?" Colin asked Eli.

This time, his voice even carried a tremor I had never heard before.

Eli was silent for a while, the wind blowing her wet black hair.

She finally spoke in a low voice: "...Lily."

In that instant, I clearly saw Colin's pupils contract sharply.

"Who are you? Do you know me?" Lily asked guardedly.

"Lily..." Colin repeated the name. "I'm your brother! I'm your brother Colin!"

I was completely stunned.

Lily?

Sister?

My mind was in chaos.

"Wait..."

I barely reacted: "Eli... is a girl? That's impossible. When I examined her body before, her physical state was that of a boy. And the age doesn't match either. How could she be the sister Colin has been looking for?"

Colin had always been secretly searching for his sister. This was also a secret between Colin and me.

Kyle tucked my hair behind my ear, saying flatly: "Who knows? Mermaids can just change back and forth like that. Powerful magic and bloodlines make them lose respect for life. Ella, you should stay away from mermaids."

Colin seemed to want to embrace Lily, but she dodged him. His expression looked very sad: "Lily, how did you become like this? It's all my fault. I didn't find you in time. But it's okay, from today on, your brother will protect you!"

Lily didn't speak, but the little mermaid beside her timidly raised her face and spoke softly.

"Are you big brother? Then are you my big brother too?"

Lily pulled the little mermaid behind her: "I don't know. I don't have any memories from before." She looked at Colin suspiciously, seemingly not believing his words.

"If you're my brother, then why can't I sense your aura? Mermaids should have a connection with each other."

"I used something to conceal my aura," Colin said. "It's normal that you can't sense me."

"Then release your aura and let me feel it."

"I, I can't do that," Colin's breathing was labored. "Sorry, I can't."

Lily clearly didn't believe what Colin was saying: "You have scales on you, yet you don't have a mermaid's aura. What exactly are you?"

Colin's face instantly turned deathly pale. His lips trembled twice, but he said nothing. As his friend, I had to step forward and try to say a few words for him.

"Lily?" I interrupted this uncomfortable atmosphere, speaking to the mermaid. "Colin has always worked in the knight squad. He can't expose his mermaid heritage, so he can only find ways to hide his aura. I can prove to you that he really is a mermaid."

Lily's expression toward me was much gentler. She said: "Miss Ella, I believe what you're saying. But I think you've misunderstood my meaning. I'm not questioning Knight Colin's identity. I just want to tell him that since he has abandoned his existence as a mermaid, there's no need to look for any relatives."

"He wants to cut ties with the past, doesn't he?"

I simply couldn't describe my feelings at this moment. This child in front of me who looked only seven or eight years old - no, perhaps her real age was twenty, which was still very young - this young person had seen through to the essence of the truth with a single glance.

At this moment, I could no longer help my friend make any excuses.

"I did lose my memory once, but after touching your blood, I remembered some things." Lily rubbed her blood-stained fingers.

"Colin, my brother." Lily calmly narrated everything she had experienced.

"That day they killed father and wanted to take us all away. You know, mermaids are very valuable. Especially mother and I, being female, could bear many, many mermaids for them. They would never let us go. Mother knew these people's intentions, so she did everything she could to hide you."

"Even if only you could survive, mother and I both thought that way. Mother had always lived on land in human form, her magic power almost completely depleted. To save you, she exhausted her last bit of magic. We two were like fish trapped in a fishbowl, sent to Dorian's estate."

"Mermaids are rare, so they're valuable. They wanted to use mother's and my wombs, so mother, to save me again, forcibly reversed my gender."

Speaking of this, Lily wiped her eyes: "Mother's spell was so powerful that even without magic power, she still used her blood - pure mermaid blood - to save me..."

"Later, I was sold and wandered with Maren all along." Lily touched the little mermaid's head. "This is Ronan. Though I'd never seen him before, the moment I first saw him, I knew we were blood relatives."

"Our mother is both Maris."

Colin asked: "This is mother's child? How could that be?"

"I don't want to talk about these things, Colin." Lily refused to respond to his words. "If you want to know, go ask mother yourself."

"If her identity hadn't been exposed, our family wouldn't have been so tragic," Colin growled, his eyes bloodshot.

But Lily said: "Without mother, you wouldn't have been born at all."

Colin was very agitated: "Do you think I wanted to be born? Being a mixed-blood mermaid, neither mermaid nor human, living like a monster!"

"Indeed." Lily smiled self-mockingly. "From the moment I learned you joined the knight squad, I knew it would be like this. My dear brother, do you know who killed father, destroyed the village, and kidnapped mother and me?"

Without waiting for Colin to answer, Lily said directly: "It was knights - knights who claimed to protect human subjects. They killed father, who was human, and forcibly captured me before my mermaid bloodline awakened, and mother who had already sealed her magic power."

"That's right, it's your current profession. The City Patrol Knights - so mighty, so righteous, so beloved by the people! How does it feel to become the successor of your father's killers? Very enjoyable, isn't it?"

Colin clenched his fists: "I haven't enjoyed it. I've been investigating who harmed us! I can't take direct revenge. I've been looking for an opportunity..."

"So after all these years, have you found the opportunity you're looking for?" Lily sneered. "One decade has passed, wait another decade? When will we ever be able to wait for you? Great Sir Knight!"

Colin clutched his chest and coughed up a mouthful of black blood. I wanted to go check on Colin's condition, but Kyle held me back.

"Don't worry, he won't die," Kyle seemed to be watching with great interest. I couldn't help but frown, never having imagined that Colin's reunion with his sister would be such a scene.

"We can't wait for you, and we can't afford to wait anymore. We will save ourselves." Lily suddenly slapped her chest, and a round pearl emitting white light was coughed up by her. "Mr. Kyle saved Ronan and me. I voluntarily give him the pearl tear. It's none of your business."

Kyle's eyes lit up as he was about to receive the pearl tear.

"No!" Colin suddenly burst out with a surge of power, rushing over to try to knock Kyle's hand away.

Two wounded hands collided violently, making a teeth-grinding sound.

"Let go, Kyle."

Colin had actually called out Kyle's name! Only then did I realize that I had somehow never noticed the true relationship between Kyle and Colin—

The wanted criminal and his pursuer.