It was a beautiful mid-summer day in New Celest when the tranquility of
the afternoon was suddenly upended by the shrill yells of a young merian
girl. "Looooooushaaaa...," her voice rang out through the city, "Lousha,
where are you?" Although the citizens were at first slow to rouse,
Meleris, Keeper of the Pool of Stars, eventually spurred some action
after quite publicly voicing his discontent at the racket. It was Azula
Vivalde, the Sidereal Adjudicator, who first located the raucous Joiya
Olearium outside the mouth of the New Celest harbour, although several
others arrived soon afterwards. Inquiring about how she might help the
young merian, Azula discovered that Joiya had wandered into the harbour
while trying to find the Moon River, all in hopes of locating a
mysterious being named Lousha who Joiya described as "green" with "lots
of green tentacles." Upon learning that she had inadvertently swam all
the way to "New Silliest", as she called it, Joiya was at first ecstatic
about the prospects of finally exploring a big city (complete with "real
ayferships and everything! Pew! Pew!"). But her joy was short-lived, as
Joiya soon thereafter realized that her mother would be extremely upset
if she were to find out that Joiya had ventured so far outside of the
Carai Caroo. Determined to continue looking for her friend, however,
Joiya enlisted the aid of Azula, Squire Kreaton Ladyn, Archmage Laxinova
Mero, and others from New Celest to escort her to the Moon River.

Upon arriving at the mouth of the Moon River in the Serenwilde Forest,
Joiya continued calling loudly for her friend and, despite some initial
reservations from her escorts, eventually convinced some of those in her
party to call out for Lousha as well. The group pressed on along the
Moon River, and moments later the sounds of splashing water heralded a
new arrival. "Lousha?" Joiya asked, looking up hopefully. But it was
merely High Chief Everiine Silvermoon, come to investigate the racket.
"That's not Lousha," Joiya said matter-of-factly, "that's a bird." The
party pressed on, with Everiine and his companion Yvonari Delauney
following closely behind, eventually swimming all the way to Moon Lake.
Failing to find the elusive Lousha, it was here that Joiya suggested she
might need to give up and go home before her mother began to worry.
Before asking Azula to help her find her way home, however, she insisted
that her escorts not to tell Joiya's mother about the extent of their
adventures, including a playful, half-giggled threat of, "Snitches get
stitches, m'am!"

Upon returning to the Carai Caroo, Joiya found her mother relieved to
see the young girl home safely. Although those of the Serenwilde Commune
left the party to its own designs at the borders of their forest, the
group of adventurers from New Celest had grown dramatically in size; as
Grandmaster Havastus Ama'nar'isil, Quartermistress Bleuu Hartfyre,
Grandmistress Mjoll Hartfire, Tremula Windwhisper, and Sir Romaan
Hartfire piled into her small living area, Girelle could only look at
her daughter in exasperation. Suspecting that her daughter had
deliberately disobeyed her by traveling outside of the Carai Caroo,
Girelle began to ask her daughter how she had come to encounter so many
city-dwellers. Albeit nervously, Joiya managed to answer her mother's
questions without lying and yet without revealing where she had been;
and despite a few close calls from Bleuu's loose tongue, the assembled
party kept their word, never letting on that they had found Joiya
wandering so far from home.

The topic of conversation soon turned to the elusive Lousha, whereupon
Girelle explained that she was simply a friendly but somewhat
slow-minded kelpie who sometimes played with Joiya. After learning from
Joiya that the young girl had not seen Lousha in some time, Girelle also
asked the assembled adventurers if they would consider searching for
Lousha just to make sure that the kelpie was okay. Girelle's request
redoubled by Joiya's pleading, many of the adventurers agreed to take
the task upon themselves and began scouring the Inner Sea.

It was Azula again who first unknowingly located the coral-filled cave
in the southwestern inner shallows of the Inner Sea, but it was Sir
Romaan Hartfire who at long last located the addlepated kelpie known as
Lousha Loo. As more adventurers arrived, however, everyone began to
understand the true depth of Lousha's propensity for mental
dissociation: the kelpie hummed to herself constantly, failing to
respond to the adventurers except to mutter to herself repeatedly that
she couldn't remember the name of Lanikai and Jeitara's lost sister.

The frustrated adventurers found no answers from Lanikai the Sea Hag,
who refused to speak of her lost sister, other than to say that she had
left the Inner Sea of her own accord long ago and that she longed to
look upon her sister's face and hear her beautiful voice once more.
Jeitara the Seductress, perhaps unsurprisingly, provided even less for
the adventurers to go on. Those who stayed by Lousha's side, on the
other hand, discovered that the kelpie sometimes broke out in long bouts
of song, singing almost entirely in fae but at times unwittingly
translating lyrics into the common tongue. Havastus and Azula quickly
set out for the Ethereal Faethorn to approach Butter Sweetpease with
hopes of gleaning answers. Although Butter did recall having a third
aunt by way of the kelpie sisters, she could not seem to remember her
name, and quickly shooed the two away so that she could focus on her
cooking.

Unbeknownst the adventurers, their haste had gotten the better of them,
as they had been passing by the clues necessary to find the answer to
their question all along. The murals of living coral that grew
throughout the cave recounted a tale of the three fae sisters who once
ruled the Inner Sea, among them a younger kelpie of mottled complexion
with the ability to coax the coral into growing through her song alone.
After seeing a mural depicting the creation of the Great Coral Spire of
the Inner Sea, Bleuu Hartfire took it upon herself to empower the Great
Coral and retrieve the pearl of power, an effort that proved successful
but entirely unrelated to the unfolding events. It was again Sir Romaan
Hartfire who, through patience and cunning, discovered the name of
Lanikai and Jeitara's long-lost sister and shortly thereafter revealed
it to Lousha. No longer fixated on the forgotten name, Lousha looked
upon the adventurers brightly and began answering their questions,
albeit still with a bewildered train of thought. After extensive
back-and-forth, the adventurers discerned that Lousha could seemingly
hear something that they could not: the remnants of Sirenalai's song,
which echoed through magical corals that had long been buried by the
sands of the Inner Sea. Romaan was the first to offer aid in restoring
the song, and Lousha, in a moment of clarity, gave instructions for the
necessary preparations.

Many from New Celest spent the next several days working as a team on
the task at hand: while Kreon Zayah stood guard at Lanikai's side,
others gathered the necessary blood from the local tiger sharks, blades
of seaweed, and pristine coral. Pushed to the brink of exhaustion, some
had to retire from their efforts, but other citizens soon arrived to
take their place. Lady Andala Ladyn became a particularly integral link
in the chain, dispatching tiger sharks left and right and also managing
to be the first to provide Lousha with all the necessary ingredients for
a batch of her "super-tricksy kelpimaki." Although meant to be fed to
the local fauna in order to arouse them to such an extent that they
might help in digging up the buried coral, Lady Andala was also the
first to taste the kelpimaki for herself, followed shortly thereafter by
a taste-test by Bleuu. This scribe cannot comment as to whether or not
these two ladies found the kelpimaki to be an aphrodisiac, but the
tricksy treat did succeed in making certain animals within the Inner Sea
particularly virile.

The exemplary teamwork exhibited by the citizens of New Celest
eventually paid off; as the last patch of the singing coral once again
graced the shallows of the Inner Sea, a sudden jolt shot through the
water, and the entirety of the Inner Sea began to hum in response. Faint
whispers of an ethereal song soon after began to echo from the shallows,
and the Inner Sea shimmered with a newfound lustre. The most amazing
transformation, however, took place within the kelpies themselves, who
bustled with newfound strength and began to glow faintly. The
transformations were even more pronounced in the elder kelpie sisters: a
surge of power rippled through the water from each of them, and where
once swam Lanikai the Sea Hag and Jeitara the Seductress now floated
Lanikai the Sea Queen and Jeitara the Temptress of the Deeps,
respectively. Encouraged by Lousha to seek out either of these kelpies
for a reward, Azula quickly decided to approach the Sea Queen, who
thanked the Celestine for allowing her to hear her sister's song once
more before sharing the song's blessing with Azula in a grand display
witnessed by all present.

How long will the Song of Sirenalai grace the Inner Sea, and are its
effects permanent? What powers, new or only recently recovered, does
this blessing bring to Lanikai, Jeitara, and the other kelpies? Where is
Sirenalai, why did she leave the Inner Sea, and will she ever return?
Did the kelpimaki succeed in arousing Andala and Bleuu, and can it do
the same for other mortal adventurers? Does the song that Lousha sings
bear any significance, or are the fae words just the idle chatter of an
addlepated kelpie? These questions, along with so many others, remain to
be answered.


Penned by My hand on the 11th of Tzarin, in the year 432 CE.