The Place
The Coral Throne is a city that grew, and the growing is the city, and the city is the reef. The spires are coral, and the coral is grown, not built, and the growing takes a century, and the century is the time it takes for the reef to stop remembering the cut. The city rises forty meters from the floor of the sea, and the floor is a plain of white sand, and the white sand is the only thing in the city that is not alive. The light is the phosphorescence of the reef, blue-green and faint, and the blue-green is the color of the trade, and the trade is the pearl. The water is the city, and the city is the water, and the water is the sea, and the sea is the world, and the world is the silence. The sky is the surface, and the surface is a grey shimmer, and the grey shimmer is the only sky the city has, and the sky is the only thing the city does not keep. There is no landmark, because the city is the landmark, but there is one: the Throne, a spire of coral in the middle of the city, and the Throne is the oldest spire, and the oldest spire is the first word. What makes the Coral Throne itself is the memory: the reef remembers, and the remembering is the scale, and the scale is the pearl, and the pearl is the price.
How They Live
The Merfolk keep this place in the growing, and the growing is the day, and the day is the trade. They do not build, they grow, and the growing is done by the reef, and the reef is kept by the merfolk, and the keeping is the trade, and the trade is the economy. Light is the phosphorescence, blue-green and faint, and the blue-green is the color of the trade, and the trade is the pearl, and the pearl is the price. Food is the reef: the coral, the fish, the pearl, and the trade, and the trade is the meal, and the meal is the kept. Water is the sea, and the sea is the city, and the city drinks and trades and remembers in the same blue-green shimmer. The defense is the reef itself, and the reef is the city, and the city is the world, and a visitor who swims in the reef is already in the trade's path, and the trade is the alarm and the welcome and the sentence. The day is measured by the pearl, which is also the calendar, because the reef is the only clock the sea needs. Every pearl is a promise, and the promise is the trade, and the trade is the memory, and the memory is the scale, and the scale is the price.
People
Home of the Merfolk, whose thrones are counted by spire. Twelve spires at the last count, and the count is kept in the scale, and the scale does not lie. The pearl-keepers lead, and rank is decided by the trade, because the trade is the only thing the reef respects. No surface swimmer is welcome, and the swimmer is not needed, because the city has a trade, and the trade has a price, and the price has a ledger. A human diver who has ever been in the city calls it the only market where the breath is the currency, which is to say the only market where you pay to breathe.
In Stories
The place where the reef is the only honest promise, and the promise is the trade, and the trade is the pearl, and the pearl is the end. Uaellaen has traded here once, for a pearl that held a memory he did not want. The merfolk took his silence as payment, and the silence was the first thing he has ever paid with that he could not buy back.