For a while no one wanted to recommend a course of action as everyone was trying to process that they had somehow become merpeople and where in the remains of Atlantis.
“Well…” started Lindsay as everyone looked at her, she was the youngest here at 19 as far as she knew. She knew Oscar was about her age, but she had always been the youngest in her class in high school, so she assumed it was the same here. “If I am reading this map correctly, there is both a residential district and a guard post between us and the Royal University.”
“That’s right.” Confirmed James “So we could do three things at once.”
“At least if we stick to the main streets.” advised Barbara
“We are fish people now couldn’t we just swim over the city?” inquired Elizabeth as she proved her point by swimming up to the ceiling of the room, they were in. Then she noticed another bench located near the ceiling, she swam over and sat down her head only a foot away from the ceiling. “Hell, it even looks like they designed that into their buildings. We can swim above the streets.”
“And what if something sees us high above the city?” countered Stacy “I think we should stay at street level and be prepare to go into buildings at any moment.”
“Makes sense.” Said Oscar as they studied the map again and plotted a path which would take them out of this building, down one of the main streets into a residential area, pass a guard post before coming toward the Royal University.
“Alright everyone stays close.” advised Barbara as they headed back out into the central square.
As they swam maybe five or six feet off the cobblestone streets, the only light they had came from the glowing rock lamp in Oscar’s hand, a few similar lights which hung like streetlamps seemly randomly down the street. The fallen posts told everyone that they had once been commonplace and in the past likely provided light during the night. The night seamed to be fast approaching as the glowing orb on top of the pyramid began to fade like a setting sun.
Still with their limited light it became clear that the city had not been abounded, it had been sacked. Buildings where not destroyed by just age, chunks were taken out of walls, their looked to be crossbow bolts in the stone walls, items littered the ground. The only thing really missing where dead bodies.
“What happened here?” inquired Lindsay as she reached down and pulled a mermaid doll out from the sand. She looked at it, it reminded her of a rag doll she had up in her room that she had ever since she was little.
“I don’t know.” Answered Oscar as he swam beside her. “Nothing good.”
They kept swimming passing more destroyed homes and shops, some of the shops still had items on display others looked torn to bits. Schools of fish swam around and through the destroyed buildings as crabs crawled among the remains, like birds and squirrels would in an abounded city. All the sea creatures paid the passing merpeople little to no mind, they did not move away from them nor did the go toward them.
They kept swimming until they passed by where the guard post should have been, however it was nothing but rubble, the whole building had been destroyed and everything around it was flattened and crushed.
“We should be nearing the university.” Said Stacy as they turned a corner and saw a series of larger buildings on a small hill, it looked like something from ancient Greece or Rome, parts of some roofs looked gone but most looked totally intact from this distance. The hill itself was lacking any buildings and was instead overgrown seaweed and coral beds, like green space on their college campus back home.
“Alright, lets hope we find some answers up there.” Said Stacy as they swam up to a pillar which marked the path leading up to the campus.
“Found some right here.” Announced James as he looked at the pillar. Like their college back home there was an announcement board set behind some glass. The glass must have protected whatever passed for paper because set behind it was still readable.
“Human Wizards Stripping us of Magic! Turning us Human!” it proclaimed.
“Humans have found a way to take the magical gift without merpeople and other magical races which have shared this planet with them since it began. In the process it turns the victims into humans lacking all the gifts of magic and their form which they had since birth and trapping it inside a stone shard.”
“A stone Shard like the one I got in class.” Said Lindsay with some excitement.
“If you or someone you know get transformed you must act fast, if you are able to get your shard before the humans take it you can break it and return to your old form.” The paper proclaimed. “If you find a shard bring it to the nearest authority because it can be used to turn non merfolk into merfolk.”
“My God…” said Stacy “It makes sense, the stone Lindsay had must have been one of these shards and when it broke it released the magic within and it caused us to become merfolk.”
“Ok…so how do we get back?” inquired James “We need to find these wizards and get them to transform us back?”
“Maybe.” Confirmed Stacy as she looked up the hill to the university. “Hopefully we can find some answers up there.”
"Well lets get up there...it is getting dark and I don't want to be out here when it gets dark." added Barbara as she looked out into the remains of the city and for a moment thought she saw movement.