EMP-454: Koishi

Koishi’s name means a few different things in Japanese; ‘small stone, pebble, or “I miss you”’. Koishi is a very quiet grifix and has no origin of his real parents.. only the female grifix that raised him and loved him like her own child.

One night, an entertainer from the Kraken's Lure was tasked to empty the house's thrash down at the sewers. As she made her way down to the canal, she noticed something moving through the few reeds that grew on the side of the canal. She went closer to see, and saw an eel that was trying to devour something very big. As she looked more carefully, she realized it was a grifix egg, and in the darkness she could still spot a dim magic glow to it - it wasn't dead yet.

In the entertainment guild, she had seen eggs killed a few times by the house mother, and she didn't bat an eye, but now she couldn't watch for some reason. She thought that the only reason that egg ended up there is if an entertainer threw it away, hoping this way someone might find it and hopefully it won't get killed.
Desperate, she went to the eel and begged it to give her the egg.

"But this is my meal." the eel protested. "Surely if you want to take it from me, you must have something to offer me instead." The entertainer looked around, but she had nothing to her name, she knew not what to offer the eel. The eel looked at her and understood. "Very well then. I shall spare the egg's life. I'll give it to you and you will feed it with your magic, and once it hatches you will raise the kid like yours. But when the kid will reach the age of 16, you must return him to me, and I will become his bride."

The grifix, desperate, didn't even think about it and she agreed, promising to the eel that she will do just that. The eel surrendered the egg, and she took it to her House. Once she had time to think about it, she thought the eel's request was absurd. No way she will do that, she didn't owe anything to the eel, it was a grifix egg, and naturally, it should be returned to a grifix.

The egg hatched, and she named the cub Koishi, the name having a symbolic meaning to it to her. He grew up beautifully, and the entertainer loved him like her child. But as he grew closer to 16, she became more and more worried. Every time she went to the sewers she could feel the eel maiden's eyes on her, and so, she didn't allow Koishi to go there anymore, going in his stead every time he was on duty to empty the thrash.

She never told him the story of how she found his egg. The only grifix who knew was the House Mother, for she could not keep any secrets from her. Once he reached 16, she grew too scared to go herself to the sewers anymore, and started trying to ask other entertainers to go in her and his stead, doing various tasks for them instead. But one time, a year later, she couldn't find a way to get out of it, so she had to go.
It was poring rain that day, and when she walked down to the canal, she was met by the eel maiden, who crawled outside in the rain, taking a shape almost like that of a grifix.

"I've been waiting here for my groom for over a year.. yet you didn't bring him to me. Even though you promised. Surely you must know then.. that you will have to pay for not respecting your promise."

That day, the entertainer didn't return to her House, and she was never found again. The House Mother declared a mourning day for her, and they held a funerary ceremony for her. Koishi mourned the passing of his mother, whom he loved dearly. "We will all miss her dearly." The House Mother told him. "But you must not forget that while she was like a mother to you, you still have your family here."

While Koishi knew he could never stop missing her, she was right, he was not alone, he still had the other members of the House as his family, and the House Mother as his Mother.

After his mother’s passing, it never sat right with Koishi that they held a funerary ceremony despite the fact they never found his mother’s remains. How could they know she was dead, and that she wasn’t still alive somewhere, perhaps suffering. He would talk about it with his siblings in the House, but they never seemed to take his concerns seriously. 

“If Mother decided to hold the ceremony, it means she must know she has passed. We must have faith in our Mother, for she knows what is best for us.”

Koishi knew that was true - his own mother would often tell him so when he was in doubt. A single word from her would be enough for his doubts to wash away - but she was not there anymore.

So he was left wondering, every night, what had happened to his mother.

Koishi found the smoke in the main room quite bothersome, so he avoided it trying to find work in other areas of the ship - even if there was almost nothing out of the main room. He would go and clean up below deck, in the area where they would all sleep in their hammocks and in the few guest rooms they had once the customers were gone. He even managed to convince Madame Thalassa to let him clean in her room, where he found a few books, and while at that time he had never read a book before, he tried picking up one and he found it fascinating.

It was some old pony tale about a strange underwater ship that would sail the oceans of the world. He then asked Madame Thalassa if he could read more of the books, and she allowed him to borrow one at a time. There were a lot of stories about seas, oceans, lakes and rivers, books documenting types of fish and aquatic creatures and many legends about waters. She told him they were copies of books from the Scholars Guild which she obtained over time as payment from Scholars who were in need of her and her house’s services.

Haunted by the memory of his mother, Koishi would often dream of her. But after a while the dreams became different. The dreams were dark, and it felt like water was splashing around his legs, the air was wet and smelled really bad.

Something dark, long wet would start to slither around his legs in the shallow water. He could never tell what it was, until one night, the creature jumped out of the water, towards his face. It was black, with small, sharp teeth. Koishi woke up in a panic. With the image still vivid in his mind, he could recognize it as an eel - one like those he saw in Thalassa’s books, just much scarier.

Still trembling, he got out of his hammock, and greeted his fellow entertainers. One of them was just taking out the bucket to the sewers, and when he passed by, Koishi felt a whiff of that smell he could still vividly recall from his dream.

Before he could think, Koishi reached out to the entertainer and offered to take the thrash out instead. The entertainer gladly accepted. Only when he got out of the house did Koishi realize that he didn’t even know the path to the sewers - he only had a faint memory from when he was very young, riding on his mother’s back, he could see the back of her head bumping up and down as she slowly made her way down the narrow paths to the canal. He tried to remember the way, but he only had a vague idea for the direction he should walk in, so he started walking. 

After a while, he felt like he could smell the familiar odor from his dreams, so he started following that, and after a while, he reached the canal. the smell was so bad, yet familiar. He remembered a shadow from his childhood, someone who used to talk to him down at the canal. It was a common figure in his memories, but now it became much more vivid than ever. He always assumed that was some imaginary friend of his, but now he wasn’t so sure anymore.

He braced himself before he made his way down to the water. As he got ready to dump the bucket, he spotted some bubbles in the water in front of him.

“Hello…?” He said hesitantly. Something raised from under the water, just enough to stare at him with a large pair of yellow eyes.

“What are you..?” He questioned as the creature raised above the water,approached and looked at him closely, smelling his scent. It almost looked like a grifix - a very slimy, dark and wet one.

“She never told you about me, did she? Well there is nothing to be done about that now… I once vowed to spare your life, and unlike her, I shall keep my promise now that the debt was paid, so you must not worry about that.”

“I think I dreamed of you… Do you… Do you know what happened to my mother?”

“I do, but I don’t believe I should be the one to tell you. The Mother of your House keeps that secret from you. The only way for you to find rest in your family is for her to tell you the truth.”

From then on, Koishi would often go down to the sewers to meet and talk to the eel.

Koishi never asked the Mother anything. Perhaps he was afraid to find out. But the question was always stuck in his throat. And Thalassa felt it. She could read her kids like a book, especially him. And she knew something was going on. She could feel his lack of trust in her.

So she took it upon herself to confront the creature. She walked down to the sewers and met the Eel. 

“I know you’ve been seeing Koishi. I know you have put doubt in me in his heart. I can not be having you mess with yet another one of my entertainers. Your acts against my house will be ending now.”

That day, Thalassa pulled Koishi aside and told him everything about his arrival in the House, and what happened to his mother.

From that day, Koishi could never find the eel again. But now that he knew the truth, he could once again feel like home in his house, finding trust in his mother and siblings, and he could find rest at last.