I hoped that the person my spell had tracked would feel the same.
"Hey, Headmaster. What brings you here?" Jacinta asked as he ambled up, the ends of his tentacles dipping in and out of the sand.
His long platinum blond hair hung in straight tresses down his back, and he was dressed in a loose white shirt with a 'he/him' pronouns pin attached right above his heart. Liam had gifted him a set since his pronouns switched often, and he'd switched from his old stickers recently. The pin suited him well.
"Remember Zephyr mentioned finding a new resident last night? Well he did, and the person will most likely belong to the Ocean area, so he wanted to check with everyone first," Keoni answered before I could, and Jacinta's sharp blue eyes softened.
"I don't think anyone will have a problem with it, but you can ask. I'll gather everyone. Give me five."
I nodded as Jacinta took off, and Keoni led me to the edge of the water, where the waves brushed my toes every time they came closer.
"You know, if my hooves didn't keep sinking into this sand, I would've loved living here," Keoni mused, making me chuckle.
"I know what you mean. You could if you wanted to, you know. I can spell your hooves so they don't sink."
Keoni turned to me, his brows raised. "Really?"
I shrugged. "It's an easy spell."
Keoni smiled, then shook his head.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course," I murmured, sensing a change in his voice.
"Do you have a spell for finding a specific person?"
"It depends," I said as I thought about the various tracking spells I knew. "I can find someone by DNA, but not if I only have their name. I can find people of a particular species, but not a specific person within that species."
"Okay," he murmured thoughtfully, his gaze stuck on the fake horizon. "The DNA. Does it need to be an exact match? Like what if two siblings got separated and one of them came to you asking if you could find their brother? Could you do it with their DNA?"
I had a feeling I knew what he was actually asking about, but since he hadn't said it, I decided to play along.
"Yes, I can. I can track anyone directly related to someone. A parent or a sibling. Grandparents and grandkids are a hit or miss though."
"That's... cool," Keoni mumbled, and I smiled.
Stepping closer to him, I placed my hand on his cheek. "When you're ready, I'll help you find your father."
Keoni's gaze shot to mine, and he smiled before glancing away.
"All right, we're here!" Jacinta called from the right, and I removed my palm from Keoni's face as I glanced over to see the cecaelia wading through the water with a few people behind him.
Most of the Ocean residents lived exclusively in the water, but some, like Jacinta, ventured outside.
"Everyone, the headmaster had a question for you," Jacinta announced as he made his way to us, water trickling off histentacles. His shirt, thanks to a spell I'd put on all his clothes ages ago, remained dry.
I glanced behind him at the three other residents of Ocean. Jake, a hippocampus who only came out of the water for meal times, and Marios, a sea serpent who could shift into a human form but usually preferred not to and was currently poking his head out to talk to me. He was big, probably the biggest resident we had at the moment, but he was a softie at heart. Mira, the siren, was standing behind Jacinta, her hands clasped in front of her, half her face hidden behind her bluish-black hair.
"Hey, everyone. How do you feel about getting a new neighbor?" I asked without beating around the bush, since I knew at least two of them were itching to go back into the water.
Mira peered up from between strands of black, her deep blue eyes flickering from me to Jacinta. Her gaze returned to me after a moment, and she nodded, making me smile.
Jake and Marios took a beat longer to decide, but they also agreed without a protest.
"It'll be nice to have someone new around," Jake said, and despite the fact that it'd been close to two years since he moved here, it was still strange to hear a human language come out of his horse-like mouth.
"Looks like we have a consensus," Jacinta said with a grin, and I raised a brow at him.
