The next day started relatively early in the morning for the Hegins. Not according to their usual awakening, but according to others. The Athamanas and their team usually get up at daybreak, so now that it was a little later, when they opened their eyes, some of them were even surprised. However, this did not stop the team from following Foreign Minister Kiwa in the Sea Pearl Palace for their breakfast.
It must be admitted that they had not seen a feast as big as this one for a long time. Even at the festive dinner organized by the danovuses in Szelevu a few days ago, there were not as many kinds of food as at this breakfast. Achilleus, for example, ate so much thanks to this that he could not be moved from his chair until Mittar arrived, and even then only by Benkó kicking him off the chair in the tenfold sense of the word.
So it was no wonder that the Motumisz boy followed the Minister President of Deadworld Trench and the Warm Sea Association, grumbling a little and rubbing his bottom. As expected, Llyr also joined today's welcome tour, although he tried to walk at the very back of the group with Kiwa and not in front with the President. Even if, Mittar regularly glanced at him. Even the stupid one could see that the former Foreign Minister of the Cold Sea was deliberately ignoring the other man.
So Mittar had to focus on the tour. First, he led the group to the gate where Llyr had led them into Deadworld Trench the previous day. The last time they had passed under the gate, the group had not even paid attention to the structure itself, but now they had time to look at the gate that had been carved from stone and patterned after corals.
"Our best stonemasons did it, if we were on the surface, I would have asked someone to paint it, but down here the buildings are colored differently and when I had this done, I didn't know about this little thing yet." Mittar explained enthusiastically when Achilleus praised the carvings.
"Your father didn't tell you about it?" Rahul asked curiously, to which Tele Tete rolled his eyes.
"Marianne is his wife, you can't even talk next to that woman." The older hegin grimaced.
"This has nothing to do with mother." The Warm Sea president chuckled. "Father doesn't like to talk about the part of his life before he came to the surface. He hasn't come back since he first left the Warm Sea. And it's been about five hundred years, if not more." The man waved a hand.
"Then how did you know he came from here?" Citar tilted his head to the side as he asked.
"My father doesn't like to mention where he came from, but under the sea the news still spreads. When I first came down here, they still considered him a traitor, but they knew his name." Mittar explained as he led the group further towards the statue in the main square, which, as it turned out, was indeed Mathias the blacksmith from Floating Barracks.
"It must have been no small task to change the people's opinion." Wandi noted, who, unlike his companions, was not watching the statue, but the undersea-walkers bustling around them, as if waiting for someone to attack them in the back. What is not at all strange about the danovuses, their kind learns early on that an attack can come from the most unexpected places and unlike the Zovárds, who always eagerly await attacks and are disappointed if they don't come, they prefer to anticipate even the first move.
"It wasn't easy, but a lot can change in fifty years. By the time I started to gather the undersea-walkers to build Deadworld Trench into a real big city, I had already managed to change the undersea-walkers' opinions in most places." The president smiled.
"Would it be very rude if I asked why they considered him a traitor?" Teveli inquired as they continued to follow Mittar through the streets of Deadworld Trench.
"It's no secret." Mittar shrugged. "When Dad was young, the Warm Sea undersea-walkers lived in very closed communities. They hardly had any contact with outsiders. Dad's family was one of the few who sometimes left the sea to sell their wares on the surface. Dad took a liking to blacksmithing on one such occasion. However, surface occupations, as they were called, were not accepted among undersea-walkers, so Dad was ostracized and banished from his home. But father was always as tough as the metal he worked with, he found his way." Mittar told the story in a nutshell.
"Can we see what's behind that arch?" Achilleus asked enthusiastically, pointing towards the aforementioned structure, which was decorated with marble patterns.
"The theater, but you can. Kiwa, do I remember correctly that they have a new performance tonight?" The man turned to his foreign minister and secretary.
"Yes, you remember correctly, Mr. President. If my memory serves me correctly, it's called Journey to the Coral Reef, but they must have put up a notice board." Kiwa explained, which was enough for the group to quicken their steps and hurry towards the theater.
"Wow, look at that, what the skies above and gems bellow this is!" Achilleus gaped when he saw the structure.
The theater was built into a crater-like depression. Each seat was hand-carved out of the rock and each had a depression that could fit a pillow. These pillows were kept in a house on one side of the entrance arch and were distributed to the audience one by one during each performance, then collected when they left. The stage itself was at the very bottom of the crater, and at the moment it had colorful corals on it, but this always changed depending on what kind of performance was being held in the theater.
"The play is being performed down there." Mittar pointed to the stage.
"If it's that far away, you can't hear much of the performance." Benkó noted with a grimace, but all that achieved was to make the undersea-walkers start giggling.
"Give me a minute.' Mittar smiled, then hurried down the stairs that led to the stage. "Believe me, young man, you can hear everything perfectly." He said with a wide grin.
"This is amazing!" Benkó's eyes widened.
"You can try it if you want." Kiwa offered and the team didn't need more than that, a few immediately followed Mittar to try to speak from below.
"Sometimes I forget that they are still almost children." Tele Tete shook his head as he watched the team, who were now shouting to each other here and there, with a half smile on his lips.
"Sometimes it's not just the children who need the game. Go try it too." Kamu noted.
"You're not coming?" Tele Tete looked back suspiciously at his relative.
"This isn't the first time I've been to a theater like this. If they're so stunned by this, they'll be speechless when they see the performance. If we can see it." The Immortal Mist's head turned to the Warm Sea Foreign Minister, smiling.
"Of course, you'll all be invited. The President wouldn't miss the performance anyway." Kiwa said seriously before continuing to watch the team playing.