Arthur turned his head to glance at her, releasing a bubbling stream as his voice echoed through the water:
"Do you have Seven Seas blood?"
Ririko waved a hand dismissively and lazily blew out a string of bubbles. "Maybe some ancestor of mine with terrible taste slept with a mermaid."
They soon reached the depth of the trench's outer rim.
An enormous dark fissure split the seabed and stretched into the distance, its edges thick with dark reefs and dense clusters of coral.
Slender black shadows moved silently in the darkness. She could just make out elongated limbs and beetle-like heads without facial features.
Arthur gestured to her, indicating that they could ignore them.
"They're Trench sentries. They detect intruders solely by sensing disturbances in the water. They have no vision, so as long as we don't create strong currents, we won't attract their attention."
The two began descending into the trench, sinking deeper along the walls of the fissure.
Within minutes, the light vanished entirely. Every so often, a patch or two of phosphorescence from deep-sea creatures flickered in the distance.
A few minutes later, they finally reached the depths of the trench.
Underground magma cast a red glow, illuminating a "palace" built against the cliff from stacked deep-sea rocks, with clear signs of deliberate construction.
Ririko slowly drifted toward the enormous "entrance":
The rock had been ground into rough curves. Several naturally formed stone pillars stood on either side of the passage, their surfaces covered in phosphorescent moss.
Arthur stopped on a relatively spacious stone platform and turned to her. "The chief is inside. Wait for me to translate."
Two especially lanky Trench sentries emerged from the darkness, barring their way with iron forks.
Arthur stepped forward and produced a series of rhythmic guttural sounds, apparently speaking the