Among the most perplexing of the paired species, the Lureback Pairfish exists in continuous duet.
The smaller, delicate “front” body drifts near the surface,
fluttering like a lure or fragment of light,
while its heavier counterpart swims below,
joined by invisible strands of living nerve.
When the lure-half is seized — whether by predator or hook —
the larger body ascends at once,
lifting both to safety or to capture.
Neither can live without the other; neither seems aware of its own dependency.
Observers dispute whether this being possesses two minds
or one consciousness stretched across the shimmer of the waterline.
Its eyes blink in alternate rhythms,
as if two dreams shared a single breath.
“Between the seen and the submerged, thought converses with itself.”
The Maharajagar 