Grim opened up the book and placed it against a rock, holding it open. He spoke in its language, Greek.
“To the Nereides, daughters of Nereus, resident in caves merged deep in sea, sporting through the waves; fifty inspired Nymphs Of the Sea (Nymphai Einalioi), who through the main delight to follow in the Tritones’ train, rejoicing close behind their arms to keep; whose forms half wide are nourished by the deep, with other Nymphai of different degree, leaping and wandering through the liquid sea. Bright, watery dolphins, sonorous and gay, well-pleased to sport with Bacchanalian play; Nymphai beauteous-eyed, whom sacrifice delights, give plenteous wealth, and bless our mystic rites.”
As he sang the hymn, he could see beyond that dolphins were coming up for air, and romping in the small harbor. He stopped, looking out at the sea, and could hear the laughter of the Nereides, calling to him, beckoning to him.
He stepped to the spot where the water met the shore, and called, “Dynamene, I beckon thee, I do summon, stir, and call thee hence.”
Again, mocking laughter from the sea, and the dolphins flew up in the air, gyrating and playing. To anyone else, it would be amusing, and fun to watch. Grim could not laugh, he had to be serious.
“Dynamene! I summon thee hence!”
A dolphin jumped high, and splashed down, and something dropped at his feet. He looked down to see a woman, topless except for a few bits of seaweed covering certain nether parts. She struggled up, her feet on the shore, and she shivered, her nipples hardening as if cold. “You summon me to this Earth,” she said in a small voice, glowering at him. However, the waves crashed harder, perilously close to his open book.
“I have a place for you,” Grim said, “A place in my home, just for you and any of your sisters.”
“In exchange?”
“For the use of you at times when I so need it.”
“You do know what I am?” She left the earth and swam out to sea a little, covering herself up to her neck, glancing out at the dolphins who hovered three strides away.
“I will not bind you. This is of your free will, Dynamene.”
She whipped her head around and stared at Grim. “You will not bind me?”
“How can I bind the sea?” Besides, that would piss of Posideon, and I don’t want to drown in my own fluids. “I only ask.”
“You are a strange wizard,” said Dynamene, swimming out further. “We shall think upon your offer.” A dolphin appeared, within reach of Grim, and another naked Nereid was on it, this one with a spear pointing directly at Grim. Dynamene climbed onto the back of the dolphin and headed back out to sea, along with the school of prancing dolphins.
Grim retrieved his book from the edge of the shore. It had been splashed a bit, some of the ink had run, but its spell had done its work. The spell invoked, he hoped, the natural curiosity of the Nereid.
Grim checked his wards on the outside of his home. He had summoned a natural spring inside the grove in his home. First, he summoned a stone dam that was invisible to all who saw, keeping the natural spring water three quarters within the warehouse. Then he caused a stone ramp to open to the sea below. This ramp was probably big enough for two dolphins, and he made it so that the water flowed upward, into the warehouse.
He put wards on the ramp so that no humans could find their way in, and neither could any with any malevolent intent. Curiosity was allowed, as that was the natural way of Nereids.
When he finished, he was coated in a thick sheen of sweat, as if he had done a half hour of relentless training with Kael, or a round of bed with Scott. He stripped down and sat up against the dam, the sea water cooling him down.
He felt something tickling his feet, and saw that it was a fish. He moved, and the fish darted away. He chuckled, and raised himself from the salt water. He thought he could see a woman’s face in the water, and then nothing.
Well, if they come, they’ll come. He went to go take a shower.