I have covered a great many strange things for this board, but I did not expect to be reporting that the deep has filed a grievance. After the great tank on the Silverwolf High stage gave way during Deepsong and put the whole auditorium under water, the whales who come up every season to sing have brought a formal complaint against the school. Their case, carried to us through the Song Society’s liaison to the deep, is simple. The signature leap that cracked the tank is the very leap the concert is built around, the one the notices cheerfully promise will soak the front rows every year. If the tank could not hold a leap, the pod says, then the equipment was faulty, the singer was put in danger, and the school that took the coin and floods the stage each year is the party that must answer for it.

The compensation that the whales are asking for is not coin, which is little use to a whale, but a promise. They want the great tank rebuilt to a standard the pod itself will inspect, and they want it written down that no whale will be brought up onto that stage to sing until the tank has passed said inspection. Until then, they say, the deep will keep its song. Silverwolf High, still closed while the lower floors dry out, has not yet answered the complaint, and the Song Society will say only that it is reviewing the matter.