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Word count: 2,364
Summary: Alia Atif-Akinyemi seeks Layla Chandrani out across the strangest environments of planet Imion. What even is their relationship?
Story notes: This short story was written for Lesbian Visibility Week. Took minor inspiration from an old artwork from 2024, which is the main image for now due to my shoulder needing to heal.
Remember not to try this sort of thing in the real world.
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Blue Horizon: Follow You Anywhere
by Naila Moonsi
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“Huh. Layla’s usually the one searching you out, not the other way around.” Konna commented.
Alia Atif-Akinyemi had a dilemma. The skies were bluer than they often got during skirmishes with Psyche across the Shrouded Seas, with the drifting white clouds coloring with silvery gray shadows as they continued their journeys far above them.
Many in the Protector’s class were idler along the extensive beach-sides of Estrellada City; rumor of a party beginning by evening-time was spreading everywhere. Konna wasn’t quite sunbathing. Instead she sat upon beach sands in her usual clothes, the rainbowing leafy colors of the Queen’s Guard uniform—soft, easy-to-move-in cloth with a shirt that was always over-baggy on her.
She sat right under a palm tree, surprisingly relaxed for the person she was. Her mouth was in its typical curve downward and her fuchsia-heightened red eyes inquisitive. The curls of her hair reminded Alia of Layla’s, yet Konna kept her hair moon-lavender instead of the pretty rainbowing moon-silver Layla had manifested by the time she’d started gaining in power by her pre-teens.
Two of the six moons above their ocean planet Imion were visible amid the afternoon skies. The ocean’s patterns stayed as peaceable as it could, one historical texts had called ‘eerie’ for being both more orderly and less predictable than an ocean planet with a singular moon or duo moons.
Alia forced herself not to crouch. Konna, the shortie, might consider it a grave offense. The sword that was practically the height and width of Konna’s body lounged nearby her—it was somehow connected to her Spectral core, and thus hard for anyone else to grasp and try doing anything with.
In truth, Konna could manage to make it feel like there was a mountain’s force of weight pulling a person down into the ground with the thing. The sword easily swung around with her air magic.
I could probably manage it. Alia thought. With careful maneuvering—my starry waters can have it flash around anywhere on planet Imion.
Alia said, “Can I try swinging your sword, Konna?”
Konna said, “Stop asking.”
“Damn. Alright.”
“You seriously lost Layla?”
“I don’t babysit her.”
“She’s your…” Konna squinted up at Alia. “Bestie…?”
Alia said nothing.
Konna tried, “You’re...datin—”
“No.”
“Alright. Uh. You still lost your bestie. Too bad.”
“I’m looking for her!” Alia burst out.
“So they are your bestie… Well, I do have a bad feeling with my Red.”
“I did want confirmation.” Alia winced. “Did Layla walk into the ocean or not?”
Konna was staring up at her with a troubled expression, at this point. She was struggling. Proper beach-goers walked about, easygoing—people laughed, children ran. The day was bright.
Konna didn’t seem willing to speak.
Tattling, right?
Until the girl said, “Yeah. She walked right in! Everyone says she can handle it, though, the pressure of the sea. She’s a high-tier ocean mage, Alia. But...are you used to it? The deep ocean. Can you handle it?”
Oh…
Well!
Who thinks I’m that incapable? When I am the Galactic Depths!
🌅
Alia stared out across the beach a while longer. Soon, she was at the edge of the oceanic waters. As a humanoid, the ocean was home more than the hot-cold depths of space. As an Imionian alchemist of freakish caliber—
The depths of the stars was something she understood to an eerie extent. The ability to understand ‘location’ and how to reach it without effect toward past and future—to become a ripple in time and space via the Boundless—became scarily effortless to her mind and alchemical ability.
There was a barrier. It was clear. There always was, no matter the star-hound, but for her, it was especially tricky. Her awareness of planet Imion, however…
Some would deem it more dangerous if they’d understood the extent of her ability to manifest ‘anywhere.’ Others would be the danger. It was like this upon planet Imion, where elemental prowess notably reigned supreme.
Alia watched the calming patterns of the ocean, its sweep in and out, its dance with six moons. The waters were dreamy and clear. Planet Imion was an ocean planet that had long been cited as ‘eerily similar to the Origin, Earth.’ It’d been cited as such for something like 100,000 years among their human populaces.
The Shrouded Seas occasionally had whispers. It was otherwise calm under a vast blue sky. She could hear a rush of whispers with the rising tides. Silence fell again. The heat of the world was something glorious. It would become quite cold soon.
Alia began walking. She kept her mind clear.
🌅
One’s Boundlessness under the Imionian seas was well-known. Ghosts haunted the Shrouded Seas in particular; she was haunted, and the people were surprisingly warm. Then they left.
Her breathing turned careful—keeping the air around her from above would be key. It wasn’t difficult to do as the Galactic Depths; she could circumvent air from the Wanderer’s Desert all those endless kilometers away if she wanted.
Her journey would become precarious. The ocean glittered all around, colorful fishes were plentiful yet quieter near this human beach, and the vibrancy of coral abundant. She thought to stay here.
I have to.
She wanted to retrieve Layla. Layla could get such a way down there.
The ocean, at some point, became the epitome of darkness. It was a difficult place for humans to thrive. Not the merfolk…
She didn’t quite come across merfolk in her trek. There was the sound of something singing—it was far away. The voice was what she expected. Merfolk avoided human contact as often as possible. They were closed off to people who’d had a consistent habit of murder, and…
In the domain of the seas, merfolk dominated more than humans ever could. Many humans were deemed unsafe undersea without certain alliances.
Such as one’s alliance with a Chandrani.
—Or an Atif!
🌊
Alia knew when the time came. Stabilizing one’s environment to deal with the pressure of the sea was paramount. An Atif wasn’t so disconnected from the sea—far from it. The pressure of space was another thing entirely; going from ‘near-zero’ to the pressure of any kind of moon or planet wasn’t anything to laugh at. An Atif-Akinyemi dealt with the pressure of both space and sea in a way most humanoids couldn’t dream about.
She transcended time and space—she managed pressure, and she stepped through a flash-portal to another part of the ocean. It became emptier—it became vaster. Deeper down. The trill and cacophony of endless bubbles dancing. Iciness; the need to adjust one’s temperature and keep it consistent.
Alia’s hair stayed dry. It was full of curls, drifting around her, as black and bouncy as ever. Her now oceanic, darker teal-blue skin showed no sign of trouble.
A depth… For the Galactic Depths. The stars sang louder than the increased call of merfolk.
🌊
The blues of the ocean. The blue overwhelmed. It became darker; in the darkness, sound began to stay consistent. Until the rare, eerie song—
She changed depths. She went from one point in space-time to another—the pressure of the ocean wasn’t terrifying; it was as uneasy as the pressure of space. She slid and began drifting down.
Down, down, down. Far into the darkness.
The music became eerier. Her ears stayed clear of ringing, and for a moment Alia feared it—the rush of her elemental power. The intensity like sugar at the tip of her tongue. She was powerful. Her body didn’t even ache. The pressure was noticeable around her; it was, in a way, trying to destroy her. It wouldn’t.
It was, in a way, simply existing as a part of physical space. The physics of it, its mathematics, Layla obsessed over far more than the rest of them. She particularly enjoyed the Boundless, and…
The Boundless knew Alia Atif-Akinyemi. Alia stayed focused. She followed a Red thread with her Red eyes. She knew where she wanted to be. She knew how to get there.
🌊
Far, far in the future—an hour, maybe two—further into Alia falling into the depths of Imionian seas, a place much deeper and a little bit more terrifying than Earthian seas had ever gotten back in the day—
There was an individual in the dark depths of the sea.
She was lying there. She did this. The sands of the deepest seas weren’t always clear of its bizarro fish and oceanic animals. The Spectral core of the Chandrani was something to treat with caution.
Sometimes, Alia wondered what sang out. There was someone at the bottom of the sea. She was lying there. She was alive.
🌌
Layla was in the dark depths of the seas. There was no real light. She was at home; to Alia, she seemed comforted. She was zoning out again.
Alia—at the end of her travels, she stayed as cautious as possible. The pressure everywhere around her was high. The Galactic Depths could withstand it; her power; her alchemy; the soul magic in her that emanated outward into her revolving, ever-shifting core.
Her humanoid body was another thing. There’d been a noticeable bruise nicking her bicep earlier. She’d fucked up just a little.
In the end, I don’t favor it. Going this deep. She goes here to get away from people, but…
Alia Atif-Akinyemi could get a gauge of the world with her stars.
In the darkest depths of the seas…
The way the stars illuminated the world around them was downright distressing, dizzying, disorienting. It was practically like space itself, and yet it was so apart from it, with the depths of dark water and the magma of planet Imion nearby…
It disconcerted. It was beautiful.
It was a gorgeous starry array across a 3D landscape of the dark—the waters bubbling as it did, with the eerier hums you got on planet Imion. The Boundless whispered. It came closer.
If we go toward the true Boundless, I’ll be less troubled. Layla is never quite troubled. I have to believe it.
Alia had found her easily, Layla Chandrani. The girl stayed laying there. Alia reached out; her hand carefully pressed forward in movement.
Layla sat up. The sands fell off of her unnaturally; were practically thrown off. She soon hurriedly—reaching up toward Alia’s hand—began standing up. This girl did not explode into meaty ribbons doing so.
Her Layla took her hand. She stood more slowly, afterwards, seeming to note the pressure everywhere. She didn’t seem ill. She was curious, in fact. Her eyes should’ve been on the stars, the way they got often, whether up above on human land or below with Alia, ever-curious of how her friend could zoom into planets, stars, and plethora of interesting sights across the galaxy.
Layla didn’t get curious enough. That red eye was on her, and the silver threads of her black eyepatch continued to pulse. Her rainbowing silver hair—wavy with slight curls—finally glimmered. The faraway lights of the galaxy cast a ghostly sparkle and shine far beneath the ends of the planet Imion.
Her clothes stayed practical, a typical black sleeveless T and those odd-as-hell Earthian-styled ‘jeans.’ However, there was another issue—her habit of simply walking into the depths of the sea in such clothes. They were never quite ragged when she got back, only crusted up as hell and always a tad over-stressed until she did those Chandrani water magic tricks and, voila, the softest cloth known to humankind was in their hands again.
Layla gave her a crooked smile. The waters bubbled everywhere; a symphony, and then worse. The Boundless came nearer—it was drawn to them. They began walking.
They kept a subtle dance as the seas did not change and did not part. They went through some sort of imaginary sea, or a real one of deep amethyst and vermilion—wine-dark—and then through their own again, several times, occasionally with the strangest colors, and once, an odd texture her Galactic Depths still hadn’t feared filtering, likely icier. Each dance felt a little precarious and a little thrilling. The world was lightening, and it sparkled.
Layla’s hand was in her own. Alia was mostly pulling her along. This Chandrani stayed shorter than a majority of her closest friends at 170 centimeters in height.
When they were breathing fresh, salty air—when they were amid oceanic humidity full of airiness and glorious skies, mostly clear of clouds and lovingly reflecting the ocean’s blue—
Layla’s voice sang out.
“Why’d you fetch me? I was just down there trying to think through my shitty problems.”
Alia finally let go of a colder-than-cold hand—the hand of someone with ultra-ancient human temperature, a mere 98.6, if not 97 degrees at most—and spun around, letting hers settle behind her back.
Layla’s eyes on her stayed curious. Always, always so curious.
“Just wanted to.” Alia told her. “Let’s go adventure, Layla.”
🌌
The adventure hadn’t been much. They were finished, lying upon the swooping hills of a favorite hangout, the place full of them in Nelanir. Near those flowers that never quite died out, too plentiful by half, they laid around watching the true stars. Their eyes soaked in the billions across a vast midnight sky and its aquamarine aura. The air was practically boundless, ready to disappear into nothingness among those stars, but it was there to create planet Imion as it was, pulled right in with everything.
Layla said, “If I knew a girl to the end of time, I wonder if we’d really get along? I wonder what to do about anything. How can you want forever with anyone? It sounds unbelievable.”
“I don’t.” Alia said.
“I want…” Layla squinted. “One life where I’m happy with anyone at all. Seriously happy. Truly so.”
“Not some girl you’ve known forever?”
“To the end of time? If she wanted to be here with me…”
“I don’t want to be.”
“You want to be somewhere else! I know.”
“I want to go out there among the stars,” said Alia. “I’d like to go with you.”
“Forever?” Layla was noticeably stressed.
“Not at all.”
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