Fathomfolk

Tiankawi is a semi-submerged city split by law. Humans live in the dry towers above, while the fathomfolk (sirens, seawitches, kelpies, kappa and other water-dwelling peoples) are confined to the flooded streets below.

Mira, a half-siren, is the first of her people to command the city's border guard. She works inside the system to ease conditions for the fathomfolk, yet neither humans nor fathomfolk fully trust her, and she knows it. Her position gets shakier when the exiled water-dragon princess Nami, headstrong and unwelcome, arrives in Tiankawi under Mira's watch.

Then extremists sabotage a city festival. The crackdown that follows strips fathomfolk of their rights and pushes Tiankawi toward open conflict. Mira and Nami must decide how far they will go, and what they will risk, to bring about change.

This is political fantasy that draws on East and Southeast Asian mythology. Its concerns are xenophobia, assimilation and revolution, and the mermaids and other sea peoples sit at the center of those struggles. Expect a city under mounting pressure, with the stakes rising from uneasy duty toward rebellion.