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Chapter Text

Things have gotten worse under the waters.

Merfolk, mercurial, foolish, always thinking you can swim somewhere else if the tides change, hadn't spent enough attention on their governments. Thus, when Tigress Blue and her thugs had taken over...well, you hadn't been ready. No one had. Fleeing from the city had and hadn't helped.

It had in that retreating to small communities meant you weren't always under the watchful eye of the tiger sharks.

It hadn't because when one of the massive mermen descended on a group of merfolk, there were seldom enough around to fight them off.

Which is how you had ended up utterly alone.

For months now, the little sea shelf, dazzling with rainbows of coral and patches of carefully tended seaweed had been silent of mermaid song. The cave systems where your brethren had once made homes no longer held the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The otters that your kind had tended for generations chirped for playmates and met no answers. The beds of clam, abalone, muscles, the hunting fields of young tuna, all left alone.

You should move on. Half a hundred mermen dead and as many maids, madames and children stolen away by the tiger shark thugs, you should have moved on. Found somewhere else. Sometimes, you even tell yourself you'll do it; dart away in the dead of night and keep going until you find somewhere else...you won't. You won't make it across the barren flats outside your sea shelf to the next bit of cover by morning, and while you keep telling yourself that the tiger thugs must've moved on, you don't believe it. And sometimes you tell yourself that your natural camouflage, dark blue with speckled silver, would protect you, as it did when you were able to hide while everyone else was fighting, but you don't believe that either.

Still, you need to eat, so, when the last rays of daylight leave your waters chilled, you take your net and swim to the abalone flats. You're a little sick of shellfish by now, but you can't hunt tuna on your own and anything bigger would take more hunters.

Or, a bigger hunter.

*

Stunner Blue, younger brother to Tigress Blue, noticed an interesting little community a few months ago. It was good sport, hunting out the merfolk who lived there. The children could be put to use, raised under the authority of the Blues. The maids and dames have many uses. The men? Well, Tigress doesn't want a man who couldn't put up a fight, so if they won't survive a few rounds with her followers, she has no use for them aside from scavenger scrap. Still, Stunner had thought the sea shelf well set up, and he liked how close the tuna fields were. He can see setting up a base there. Maybe he'll get a few of the stolen children trained up as servants and run hunting training for new recruits. He just has to see if the place is as ideal as he remembers.

It's certainly convenient to travel to, as he manages to kill a young tuna, not big enough to show off, but more than enough for a few days of solo exploration, on the way. If he'd brought any guys along, obviously he'd have gone for the biggest one in the fields, gotta hold his own or Tigress'd be disappointed, but no point wasting the flesh right now.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spots a glimmer. Maybe a glass shard, nothing worth attention, except he sees the small flash again. He looks.

A small shadow. Maybe a manta, or an eel, gliding over the abalone beds. He should ignore it and just move on to the sea shelf, but...some instinct tells him he doesn't want to do that. Tigress would berate him if she found out he'd ignored an instinct, no matter how tired he was, so Stunner pauses, gazing downward.

A shark, maybe? Not a shark merfolk, but an actual shark? No, that's wrong, too. It takes Stunner a long minute to figure out what's wrong; the speckles aren't there to mimic the ocean floor, but the night sky. A pattern that either belongs in the deepest depths of the ocean, or...

Or to a mer.

He feels his lips pull back in a grin. Sport.

*

You could curse yourself a thousand times.

That was definitely a tiger shark merman swimming overhead. For now, you're hiding in the folds of the abalone beds, but you have to get back to the caves. In daylight, your coloring will stop being an advantage and turn to trouble. For now, you gather your hair tight to your head, doing everything you can to control what can be seen.

It's too late now. Even if he hasn't noticed you, you can't make a run across the flats tonight. Your best bet is to hide until tomorrow and then dash across as fast as you can. Hopefully, you'll find a volcanic fold or something and be able to hide there.

To do any of that, you'll need to eat. The four carefully selected abalone you've collected into your net won't be enough. Actually, more than that, if you're really going to swim for it, you don't know when you'll be able to hunt again.

To prepare, you start prying shellfish out of the beds with your knife. Half, you pry open right here, swallowing down as much meat as you can. The rest collect into your net.

*

Circling slowly above, Stunner can smell the panic. He can also catch the sweet scent of abalone flesh. He's been on the hunt for other merfolk enough to guess what you'll do; stuff yourself with as much as you can swallow then dash. He can't quite tell how big you are, but he occasionally catches a glimpse of huge, frightened night eyes and big fanning fins. He thinks he can make out a belt, but it's not decorated with pearls or shell like his, but with the dark bits of stone. It's just an interruption in the hypnotic silvery speckling among your dark scales. A nocturnal. Maybe even some deep sea ancestry in you. If that's the case, you'll avoid fleeing in the daylight not just because of predation, but because you'll burn easily.

He really wants to see you up close.

But he wouldn't be an apex predator if he weren't fully capable of patience.

Stunner circles the abalone beds carefully. Making the rounds twice, he smiles. You won't be able to find adequate cover from the sunlight anywhere there. Your best option is to retreat back to the sea shelf cave system.

Once he's sure there's no other good cover for you, Stunner goes to inspect the caves. They tell him more about you, or maybe about the community that once lived here.

In one room, he finds nuts. Some, he thinks can be found on the land nearby, cured walnuts and acorns. Others, specifically, the coconut, had to have come from much farther south. You band must've traded with land dwellers, forest nymphs, centaurs, fauns, maybe even humans. Other rooms told a similar story; one room containing neatly folded nets, strands nearly as invisible as spider silk, another showed knife sharpeners. Stunner doesn't think for a moment it all points to things you've done, but he certainly sees a vision of the life your community led.

There's no twinge of guilt, exactly. Well...maybe Stunner regrets that this community didn't just swear allegiance to Tigress. Trade relations with drylanders might've been nice. He certainly doesn't mind having been part of what destroyed life here.

The problem he's facing now is that you know these caves better than he does, and there's plenty of nooks and crannies you can get into that he can't.

At least...that's what he thinks.

Chapter Text

About an hour after dawn, when Stunner's sure you've had to come back to the caves or fry, he brings out the nets he found and goes to work. He's absolutely sure you won't just try to dash out the open, either to flee or go hunting, so he strings the nets out between rocks. Any channel big enough for you to for sure slip through on the sea shelf, he rigs up. It's a few hours work, satisfying him with the anticipation of a catch, then he lazily goes back to his favorite of the caves to get a bit of a snooze before his traps bear fruit.

But...even as Stunner's settling down, something's bothering him.

Maybe he's hungry. He rips a piece off his dead tuna and chews on the flesh.

No...something's still bothering him.

He draws water through his nose, hoping to settle himself and realizes what the problem is. There's no sweet scent of abalone flesh.

Stunner stiffens.

Suddenly awake, fully, he explores the caves.

No way you wouldn't reek of abalone. You're not in the caves.

*

Just before dawn, you'd steeled your nerves to stay out in the abalone beds, even during the day. To that end, you'd dedicated yourself to the fold in the beds, pulling out dozens of abalone, stuffing them in your net, feasting on them, even just throwing them out to the otters, before stuffing yourself in the hollow the act made.

It's tight and imperfect. Broken shells graze your arms and back, not drawing blood but rubbing raw scratches all along your skin. As the day goes on, you can feel speckles of burning flesh all over where the sunlight is getting to you. But, it's tolerable. Moreover, you'll have a much better chance of getting away once night falls from here, starting from the abalone beds instead of the caves.

Boredom is more dangerous. In the caves, you could comfortably sleep, play with a few toys, make art on the walls. Here, your fear and discomfort are keeping you wide awake. The light is hard on your eyes, but you gaze out. Otters are diving, collecting their own feast. They chirp back and forth to each other, and the sound makes you want to sing out to them.

Over your cave, there's a large, maintained fan coral, giving you enough shade that you can sit and sing to the otters sometimes. You used to do it all the time. You had contests with your neighbors to be their favorite. Loneliness squeezes your insides. Not just for the otters.

You're not supposed to be out here alone. You and the other maids and the children were sent to hide when your brother had spotted a pack of tiger shark mermen. All of you were supposed to all be out of reach and sight when the pack reached the sea shelf. You weren't ready to lose your brother, and an old mermadame had held you down in the crags until you'd stopped fighting to get to him, but even if he failed to protect everyone, it shouldn't have meant everyone was gone.

You have no clear memories of how it happened. How were all the others flushed out of the crags and corals? How had you escaped? Was it a fluke of your dark, silver speckled scales that had hidden you until the pack got bored and left? You had no idea. Thanks to the mermadame's determination to see you safe, you'd been so wedged into the crag it had taken more than a day to wriggle free, bruised and bleeding.

You'd found the remains of the mermen you'd known all your life, most beyond recognition. Maybe that was for the best; if you couldn't recognize your brother's body, maybe he'd escaped. In the lonely, mourning months that followed, you sometimes dreamed of him returning, triumphant or broken, and imagined the grand rebuilding of your community. After all; he could. If your brother is alive somewhere, his lesser sensitivity to light and more pebbly coloring, more reminiscent of the sea floor, means he could cross the flats. He didn't have the huge night eyes that made sunny days pound in your skull. He was never trapped on the sea shelf by the sun the way you are.

You shift a little to relieve the burning in your shoulder. Out on the abalone beds, a shadow glides silently. You know from the shape of it to go absolutely still.

*

Stunner draws water through his gills and is caught between several emotions at once. Crank. Irritation. Admiration. Thrill.

Obviously, Stunner Blue is cranky. He spent all of yesterday traveling, didn't really sleep all night and isn't liable to sleep through today either, because if he tries he'll miss you.

Irritation mostly answers to all the work he put into setting up nets where he thought you'd go.

He admires that you didn't do what he'd thought.

Most dangerously, Stunner is thrilled. The harder you prove to catch, the more delighted the tiger shark merman will be. He's not really gotten more than a glimpse of you, but he hopes to find a mermaid. It wouldn't bum him out terribly to find a merman, a good fight is always fun, and pretty is pretty. Tigress might not be interested, but some of Stunner's friends swing more towards men than maid. But...Stunner wants this catch for himself. Just like he wants the sea shelf for his use, he wants the mystery mer for his use.

After circling the abalone beds, Stunner concludes you must still be here...somewhere. There's no scent of abalone flesh moving away, and, with otters and a large octopus hunting abalone, there's plenty of sweetness in the water to hide you. Moreover, the rippling, highly textured surface of the beds make it hard to spot potential hiding places.

Stunner looks up. Above the water, the sky seems to be clear. Not a cloud to cast shadows that might hide you or protect you from the sun.

Stunner yawns. A long hunt ahead of him, but he's in the worst part of it; he's tired, but his prey's limitations means there'll be no sudden flight.

But then, a wicked idea occurs to him.

*

"Deep in the blue, beneath the sea, a palace glows, brilliantly."

Even in your hiding place, you stiffen.

"The court of mers, strong and calm, raises voice in joyous psalm."

His voice...the tiger shark thug must be singing.

"We are the ocean! We are in blue! We ride the waves and guide the storm winds through!"

Your brain itches in recognition of an instinctual need. Mers aren't meant to live in silence. You haven't sung in months. More, maybe. It's hard to tell; music was so common before everyone was killed or taken away. Did you join in singing the last day before those mermen came, or did you just listen? You don't know.

But you can't join now. Even as his beautiful, deep voice swells, you clap both hands over your mouth.

*

Stunner is gratified by the sea otters pausing in their gathering of shellfish to come investigate him. They chirp in pleasant harmony to his powerful voice, so he catches one in his arms and runs a hand down its back. Even as he brings it up to the water's surface so it can breathe, he smiles at his own cunning.

Oh sure, you probably won't break just for a few notes, but it will stress you out. And if you're stressed out...

Actually, a second thought occurs to him as the otter in his arms gulps a lungful of air. The otters around here aren't afraid of mers. The grin spreads his mouth as he begins the next refrain, and he brings the otter back down to the abalone with a single pass of his powerful tail.

As expected, the mammal is delighted to be brought right down and snuffles along the bed for a long moment, but then it pauses. Even over his own voice, Stunner can hear a concerned chirp. Suddenly, all the otters are making that noise, worriedly converging on a shadow in the abalone.

Chapter Text

The otters don't quite come to you, and that's the only reason you manage to squirm free and bolt before the tiger shark can get to you.  Free of your shadows, the sunlight fractures your vision and you've no idea where you're swimming beyond a few shadows and shapes.

*

Stunner sucks water and strikes his tail out at the water.  It's a bit strange to him, somewhere in the back of his brain, that the otters didn't go right to you when they realized your distress, and irksome that you'd used the brief confusion to get away, but it's also thrilling.

Out in the sunlight, you're shockingly fast.  Massive, fans of fins ensure that if it comes to a pure race, he's probably not going to catch you.  The articulation of each fin gives you maneuverability.  The size means you'll use almost no energy to just cover distance.

But this isn't a flat race.

Your movement, particularly the way you graze against the bed, suggests you can't see right now.

And can't tell where you're going.

As Stunner uses every muscle in his tail to keep from falling behind, he takes the chance to really look at you.

Your fins are big, but you are small.  Smaller even than he'd expected.  He can see what might be some burning on your back and fins, maybe some scrapes and bruising, too, but with all the movement, who could say.  Aside from that, you are beautiful.  Deep, dark blues shift over your tail, glittering with silver speckles in patterns he could lose himself in for days.

How fitting.  A stunning mermaid for Stunner Blue.

Stunner can feel his grin growing again.

*

All of the sudden, you can see nothing but shadow beneath you, and feel colder waters, too.

You take a chance and dive, hoping to find the edge of the abalone beds, and the sea shelf.

You could almost laugh with relief when you don't crash into rocks immediately.

In the darkness against the rocks, your eyes begin to adjust.  You can see!

Okay, focus!

A simple cave in the rocks will do you no good.  You need crags.  Small enough that the tiger shark can't get into them, but big enough for you to maneuver.  If you can find a small maze of a passage, you can lose him among the rocks and maybe escape somewhere else.

The decision isn't made by tactics, but by poor luck and inattention on your part.

Scared of being caught out in the open, you hug the cliff face.  Because of that, your abalone net catches on rocks and throws you into the wall.  A panicked glance back shows you no time to get further away.  You cut the net and slip into the nearest crack.

*

Stunner just catches your abalone net.  He's even nice enough to tuck the shellfish back inside.  He can be a gentleman to his mermaid.

Okay...if Tigress heard him say that out loud, she'd laugh so hard she'd burst a blood vessel.

His mermaid.  After just a few hours of hunt, who'd have thought he's decided on a mate.

But...looking at you?

Sure.

His dark vision's certainly not as good as yours but he can see you clearly.

The cave you've found is both irritating and glorious for his purpose.  He can't get in, but there is only one entrance and exit.  You're trapped, and you both know it.

"Hello, darling," Stunner says.

*

You drift to the back of the cave.  You've never seen a tiger shark merman up close, and you can't imagine how all of them could be so...big, but you're most shocked by how vivid his stripes are.  In all the stories, a tiger shark's stripes, even a tiger shark mer's stripes, are barely more than shading over the scales.  Just a little bit of coloring to look like light fracturing through water.

Not so for this hunter.  His stripes are vivid and clear, running all the way up his tail, continuing past where the scales end on his waste into his flesh, all up his sides and even onto his neck.  This is not a predator that needs to worry about where his next meal is coming from; this is the apex predator.  There are a few scars, here and there, on his chest and tail, but they're so thoroughly healed you wouldn't be able to see them at all if your eyes weren't so designed to see in thin light.

His face is a bit of a surprise.  You'd expected...well...maybe broad features?  More teeth, maybe?

No.

While there's nothing soft, he has strong features, and black eyes that make you almost wonder if your eyes really are black, but his grin is...infectious.

Almost.

"I am Stunner Blue, younger brother to Tigress Blue, empress of all the seas," says the merman, giving a courtly bow.

The name, Tigress Blue, makes your blood run cold.  If there's a single mer in all the seas who doesn't know the name, you envy them.  You shy further away and bare your teeth at him.

"Now now, mind your manners, darling.  I've introduced myself.  It's your turn."

You don't answer.  Obviously.

*

Stunner never really expected you to answer.  Not that it matters.  Observing you, he's pleased to see that you've gotten no serious burns during the day.  The scrapes and scratches displease him, as does a thin cut down your side, oozing blood, but it's not like anything can get to you with him around.  More importantly, your tail seems healthy and full.

After all, a mer's tail isn't just muscle and bone, it's also fat stores.

Stunner has no sense of any hollow patches under the scales, so he's content to continue playing games with you.

The tiger shark merman considers your abalone net, then pulls out a single shellfish.  He sucks the meat out of the shell and savors every last taste of it.  From what he can tell, you've got quite the eye for picking them.  Satisfied, he tosses the rest into the cave with you.  "Savor them, beauty mine, because that's the last you'll get to eat before you come out to me."

Chapter Text

Stunner circles the entrance of your little hidey hole from a deceptive distance.

You both know that if you try for it, he'll have you before you can even get out.  He's just far enough to tempt you to try, but just close enough that his size will decide everything.  

You settle back to wait.  He has to leave eventually.  You spent most of today and last night gorging yourself, and with your abalone net so graciously returned to you, you could wait days before hunting again.  Even if he leaves with daylight fully on the rocks, you can risk a little sun to slip into a different cave.

Hopefully.

In the meantime, adrenaline gone, the tiny burns from the day, the cut, the bruises and the scrapes and the raging headache from spending all day staring into light are all settling you at the bottom of the cave.  The walls are protecting you from the worst of the ocean chills, so far at least, but you still feel weak, raw and vulnerable.  You scrabble along your belt, hoping to have something, but all you have is your knife.  You pull it free and tuck it close at hand, but where there'll be no chance of cutting yourself by accident.  Then, you curl into yourself and settle to wait.  

*

Stunner knows he needs to rest.  As the last glitter of sunlight leaves the waters overhead, he can feel everything pressing down on his temples.  The long swim through open waters, the missed opportunity to nap when you'd defied expectations, the chase and several hours circling hadn't done him good.  And...moving or hunting, the cold night waters wouldn't bother him, but with everything else what he really wants is to curl up and rest.

He can't, though.  At least not yet.

The night is your time.  He can't risk his precaution yet, not when you won't be blinded by sunlight.  

"I met a young mermaid upon the reef,

Her smile enchanting and laugh a delight.

She stole my heart, the glorious thief,

She sang of beauty, her humor a fright."

Peeking into the cave, Stunner is almost giddy to find you had your hands firmly over your ears.  Some might've been insulted, their chosen mates refusing to listen to their song, but the tiger shark merman knows you're struggling not to be drawn in by his voice.  Many mers have heard him sing only in passing and begged to be his.  He has some idea of how long you've been alone out here, and no doubt that your need for...well, anyone is warring with your fear.  He has every intention of making glorious use of that desperation.

*

Damn merman won't stop singing.  The songs you know make your own need to sing itch inside your brain, chest and throat.  The ones you don't make your muscles fight to relax and your ears ache to listen.  There's nothing else in the cave, and nothing else you can hear outside the cave to focus on instead.  

As the night goes on, though, he stops singing love songs and glories of his sister, and starts on something much worse.

"A mermaid is pinned to the dryman's tree, 

Her scales scorched with thirsty air,

He grants relief with his tongue and glee,

Feasting upon her hidden lair."

This brand of song at least doesn't make you want to join in, and it certainly doesn't make you want to listen, but the worst part is that you can hear the smile in his voice.  He's delighting in the crude and crudely composed.

*

To Stunner, the first glimmers of daylight are a relief.  He was right; morning sunshine will bathe this cliff face in blinding light.

As the sun climbs to his optimal position, Stunner checks inside the cave.  You seem to be asleep on the floor, but well out of reach of more burns.  Good.

Stunner reaches to his belt for his secret weapon.  

The task takes him only a few quiet minutes.  Then he darts back to the caves where the community used to live.  If he's going to wait you out, he needs a few things.

*

It's probably the silence that wakes you up.

Blistering light bathes the floor of the cave a foot away from your tail fin, but you can't hear Stunner.

You're not exactly hungry, and you're sick of abalone, but you're nearly paranoid, so you slurp down the meat of one and break the shell in half.  Then, you go to the edge of the cave and toss one half of the shell out.

Nothing happens.  

Excited, you swim back to grab your knife and almost race towards the exit, but...

Something's wrong.

Your head aches and you're still worried about more burns, so you try to think of what's bothering you.  

Then you have it; you didn't hear the shell piece hitting rocks. 

Of course, it's always possible it just flew out into water and didn't hit anything before sand, but...that just doesn't seem likely.

Carefully, you drift towards the opening and squint your eyes as tightly shut as you can to see through the light.

There's something there...or...maybe not.  You can't quite tell, and you can't tell if it's the light or your paranoia tricking you.

Dreading the result, you aim your second shell piece right at the....something you think you saw.

The shard hits the something and drops a half inch before suspending.

Your stomach drops.  Against the dark shell, it's much easier to see a strand.

You reach out, very carefully, just to see if you're right.

Sure enough, your fingers touch the almost invisible netting.

It's loose in front of the cave, but you have no doubt the edges are tightly bound to the rock surface.

It's possible you'll be able to cut your way out with your knife if you get tangled, but only if you have enough time before he gets back.  

You retreat back into the cave to try and figure out your next move.  

Chapter Text

It's shocking how much Stunner has available to him. One would almost think that an entire community of mers used to live here.

...

Well, Stunner thinks he's funny.

Returning to find you still tucked in your little prison, huge eyes staring at him, Stunner strings up two more nets.  He's very aware of your shelling knife, stubby little thing never far from your hands, and the threat it could pose if you actually get the chance to use it, but he's not worried.

Feeling giddy and generous, he even tosses a jar of burn balm to you.  No need for you to suffer when you won't escape him, after all.  

After that...well, he might get a bit silly.  

In consideration of you, he sets up an awning to keep light further out of your hole.  Not close enough to interfere with the nets, of course.  And, he sets up a hunting seat on the cliffside.  No need for him to get exhausted waiting for you to break.

Before he settles in, he picks out a living cave, cleans it and sets it up as a little love nest.  Eventually, he'll have to take you back to the city.  Tigress will need him and he's certainly not letting you stay here by yourself.  In the meantime, though, he has no intention of letting you have delusions of independence.  

Everything prepared to his satisfaction, Stunner settles in his hunting seat with his tuna and is ready to wait.

*

His singing was bad.  The smell of tuna is much worse.

It's been months since you've eaten a proper fish.  Your diet these last few months has been abalone, clams and muscles.  For one glorious week, you had a lobster, and you'd reveled in every mouthful, but that was it.

Of course you had the nuts and kelp and all the other vegetation your community grew, but it wasn't enough.  Vegetation is nice, but a mer is an obligate carnivore; you need flesh.  

But you are also smaller than the vast majority of young tuna in the fields.  Sometimes, a little further out, there's more manageable game, like salmon, but you're not big enough to see off other predators that might come and steal such bounties from you.  

But you're so sick of shell fish.

And here's that big, infuriating tiger shark, devouring a tuna he killed himself.

All the more infuriating that he's a reasonably polite diner.  There's no satisfyingly brutal sound of tearing flesh or crude sound of smacking lips.  He's just carefully, daintily almost, eating a fish you've been dreaming of for months.  

Your eyes land on your abalone net, and you loath the very sight.  

*

Stunner is staring at the last few bites of fish in his hands and thinking.  With your size, he can make educated guesses as to what kinds of food you've been able to claim for yourself in however long you've been alone.  Hell, even if sardines or something came through, you didn't have the advantage of numbers necessary to hunt them.  "You know, lovely, I'll have to go hunting again, soon.  What do you think, should I catch a salmon or another tuna?  I haven't had salmon in a while.  Then again, squid might be nice.  Are there squid around here?"  He waits for you to answer, but, predictably, you don't.  "I saw an octopus yesterday.  It didn't seem to worried about me, so I assume you and yours didn't eat them.  How are the sea urchins around here?  I've never found one I thought was worth the work of cracking open, but my sister loves them."

He pauses.  Stunner's almost positive he heard a whimper.

So.

Another weakness.  Perhaps one greater than music.

Food.

Oh, he can make use of that.  The advantage of his size, skill and strength; any food he wants, he's more than capable of hunting.  Little things can be tricky, of course, but he's not much interested in impressing his mermaid with some guppy.  

*

Ten days.

Ten damned days.

Each day he brings back something else to strain your will.  

This time of year, he must have swum into fresh water to get a salmon, and the sent of salmon roe pounded in your head.  

A tarpon you can't believe he ate all by himself.  How?  Maybe he didn't...maybe if you just dare...just peek out, you'll see large scraps of fish you can take for yourself.

A king crab, the claw cracked open to a heavenly aroma.  

You haven't eaten in a week.  It's not that you're out of abalone, you've got...five, maybe, left.  But the thought of eating them when you know, know that something else is available turns your stomach.  

And it's everything else, too.

Your prolonged isolation makes you want, desperately the warmth, company and conversation of another mer. and he's right there.  His assurance that you're trapped even means he's happy to sleep right near you.

Hearing his sleeping breathing is perhaps the worst; his relaxation makes it so hard to keep up your guard.

You're half crazy with all of it.

Chapter Text

It's so late at night that it's early morning, and you're halfway starving.

It's the sent of drum fish that's broken you, and you're almost positive that he hasn't finished eating it.

Quietly as you can, you go to the entrance of your hole and close your fingers around the net.  Drawing taut into the cave, you hack out a large opening with your knife.  Then, carefully, you do the same with the next layer of netting, and the next, and the next.  Keeping your fins tucked close up against your body, you drift through the openings you made, hoping you've gotten them all.

There in the dark, you can see him sleeping on the hunting seat your brother used to use.  It pains you, but you don't have it in you to mourn right now.

Looking around, it almost kills you to see not a single scrap of fish left.

But...

Roe.

There's a lot of it caught on the crags of the cliff.

One eye on your hunter, you carefully gather up as much of the roe as you can, collecting a few into your mouth and eating.  One of the eggs pops in your mouth, flooding your taste buds with a glorious flavor you remember waiting all year for when you were little.  It's so wonderful a happy squeak escapes your nose.

You freeze.

In his seat, Stunner shifts and mutters a bit, but he doesn't surge after you.

Right.

No screw ups.

You continue gathering up as much of the roe as you can, but you also drift down the cliff side, looking for a more ideal hidey hole while the light suits you best.  The further you get from him, the more you know you could swim away and he could never catch you, and the more you relax.  As you collect too much roe to hold, you pop more and more into your mouth, savoring the flavors.  You could weep with...not even the taste, just the novelty.

It's not a clam.

It's not an oyster.

It's not a mussel.

It's not a fifty times damned abalone!

In this state you trust a shadow in the cliff side, right near the bottom where the stone meets the endless flats.  You figure you'll hide in there, wait out the storm of his rage and then flee across the flats at the first opportunity.

*

It took every scrap of self control Stunner possesses not chase after you the moment you emerged from the cave.  He'd almost screwed everything up when you made that squeak at the taste of the roe.  And watching you drift, silent and beautiful through the water, moving the way a mer like you was absolutely meant to move, made both of his claspers harden right up.  

The gasp drifts up the cliff, stifled but desperate, and tells him his hunt is at an end.  Quietly as he can, he swims down after you.

There, at the bottom of the cliff, you twist and squirm, trying to reach the net wrapped around your dorsal fin with your knife.

*

It was a moment of inattention.  Probably less.  And then, your dorsal fin felt like it was going to rip.

The sudden pain made you drop most of the roe.  Your hands, confused by conflicting needs of hunger and pain, didn't know what to do for a moment and went in both directions, one down to catch the falling fish eggs, the other back to grab the strands wrapped around your fin.

That moment of confusion tangled your wrist in the net as well.

The only good thing is that your dominant hand is still free to grab your knife out of your belt.

Or...it would be...if a much, much larger hand wasn't closing around your knife hilt instead.

You twist to try and see your attacker but are frozen by the agony of the net.

"You know, Love," says Stunner.  "I understand that reaction to roe.  In fact, here."  He clamps you to his side and shoves a fistful of fish eggs into your mouth.  Unfortunately, it's not your fistful, but his massive fistful.  You choke and struggle away from his hand as he cleanly slices the netting away from your fin.  Instead of relying on the nearly invisible netting to contain you, he pulls a more traditional, mer net from his belt, seizing both your arms forward and tangling you in it.  You thrash to pull away, but he's so much stronger there's really nothing you can do but keep trying.

"You really are beautiful when you move, you know," he says, dragging you along with him, back up the cliff face towards the living caves.  "And I've had so much fun playing games with you.  But it's time to be done.  Oh, and don't worry about all that netting.  I'll clean up once you're all settled in."

You stare up at him, feeling like a tiny ramora in his shadow. No...maybe not a ramora.  Most ramora aren't dragged along so that they keep bumping into a shark's claspers as they swim.  

And the state of those claspers, seemingly eager to poke, prick and prod, gives you little room to question his intentions.  

You try to pull away from yet another faceful of...eagerness and look up at his face.

He's still grinning.

It's still a game to him.

Or...maybe not...no, this isn't the game.  This is the prize for winning.  Or, at least part of it.  It would be easy enough for him to drag you along at his side.  Instead, he has you under him, fighting to keep some dignity.  

Back among the corals, he goes to the basking reef.  There, he shoves you in among the cleaner shrimps.  Thinking fast, you try to wriggle your fingers to attract them to the netting, but he's way ahead of you.  Your bound wrists are easily protected from the shrimp simply by him holding both wrists tightly in his hand.

He smiles down at you, wresting his weight on the back of your tail to keep you down.  With his free hand, he spreads your fins for the shrimp.  "There now, doesn't it feel good after so long to have them get you all prettied up?"

You grunt and squirm.  You've never been held down on a basking reef like this before.  Normally, the cleaner shrimp would feel like heaven, the moreso the longer you'd gone without.  Right now, being covered in them while he casually moves you around for their best access feels...exposed.  

Not to mention, he gropes and pinches and prods as he goes.  Once they've cleaned your skin from the waist up, he shifts so the cleaner shrimp can get to your tail, resting the weight of his claspers on the small of your back.

He leans down and puts his mouth against your hair.  "I think I'll start with the right one, just to be nice; it's smaller."

You jerk, aiming your skull for his nose. 

He laughs.  "Oh, don't worry, beauty.  I'll nail you with the left one too.  I mean, you're going to have to get used to both of them, after all."

Chapter Text

You pull and twist at your wrists, trying to get free.

The moment you were satisfyingly clean, Stunner had dragged you into this cave, once used to corral bait fish, pinned you on your back on soft bedding, and tied his nets off on the rocks.  Then, he left.

At this point, you know damn well your hands won't come free, the infuriating merman seems to have a skill for tangling things just right to prevent escape, but you have no choice but to keep trying.

What else can you do?  Give up?

If you give up...what does that make of the long months you spent alone?

*

There's nothing like a good cleaning after a satisfyingly long and difficult hunt.  

Stunner basks among the cleaner shrimp, reveling in their eagerness.  Without local mers, they've probably been going a bit hungry lately, so they've swarmed over him, granting him the most thorough cleaning of his life.

Of course, he could have just ignored hygiene, pinned you to the rocks and made his claim.  A few of his buddies have done that on claiming mates, but...

He's a prince.

Not a prince born, but made a prince by Tigress's conquests.  Tigress herself, on claiming several of her mates, prettied and primped, decorating herself with pearls and jewels.

He's not going that far.  There really is no need to be the dashing dream.  No, he's perfectly content to be a conqueror, but a conqueror in glory.  

Stunner rolls onto his back so the shrimp can scour his stomach, casually gripping his claspers.  A few eager shrimp collect the pre oozing from him, and their ticklish attentions make him laugh.

There's nothing wrong with a little bit of pre gaming; after all, he'd hate his first round with his new mate end too quickly.

*

You don't remember falling asleep, but you startle and thrash awake as a massive hand runs up your tail, roughing against the scales.  

The tiger shark merman leers down at you, but keeps a large bowl carefully balanced in his other hand.  Even after he tied you up in here, you can hardly believe he can fit all of him in this cave.  Maybe it is a tight fit, and he's genuinely forced right up against you.

Maybe he's just taking advantage.

Maybe both.  

"You didn't get a lot of roe earlier, did you?  Well, don't worry.  If you like, I can keep you fat on roe for the rest of your life.  For now, though, eat this."

You're just opening your mouth to make a no doubt cutting reply when he shoves something in.  You half choke while your tongue identifies the intrusion.  

Tarpin.

The oily bit of flesh practically melts in your mouth, coming apart so easily between your teeth.  It's a fight not to appreciate the mouthful.

Over the lip of the bowl, you can see other pieces of fish, waiting for you, and even pearls of different colored roe.  You were right; he hasn't eaten every scrap of fish he's hunted.  He might still have quite a bit more.  

But as he settles his weight on top of you, you know his attentions aren't about feeding you.

*

Stunner puts the bowl down, carefully out of any reach of your thrashing but well within his reach.  Between his netting holding your hands and arms in place and the weight of his tail keeping yours down, he's not terribly worried about your movements, but it would be a shame for you to knock over his offering.

Besides, rotting fish in the bedding would be disgusting.  

His hands free, Stunner's not shy about using them.

"Hmm, these will get bigger," he sings next to your ear, hefting your breasts.  "Soon, I expect..."  He smooths his hands down your sides and across your belly.  "This too."

He smothers you in his own torso, pressing absolutely close.  "But the best part is, no matter how much bigger, you'll stay tiny."

"I'm not that small!" you snap.  

"Ah, so you do have a voice.  Good.  Well, maybe you aren't that small, Love, but I'm certainly that big.  And you'll know exactly how big directly.  You feel it, don't you?"  Stunner shifts his hips, running his claspers up and down both of your sides.  

*

The movement brings your eyes down.  They're bigger than when he dragged you along against them.  And they hadn't been small before.

Well...before you'd thought of them as...proportional.  Reasonably sized for the tiger shark.  

Now...if this is reasonably sized, you're in big trouble.  

You squirm to get away from his probing hands.  "STOP!"

He laughs.  "Not a chance!  That's the trouble of you dragging the hunt on so long; I'm damn starving to get started!"

You feel it on the downwards stroke of his hands.  One of his fingers dips, just a little, into the slit between the scales.

His grin grows.  "Well, is that..."

You clench against him, but he repeats the motion and you know he's found it.  

"Yes it is!"

With two huge fingers, he spreads the slit open admiring the petals of flesh normally protected by scales.  One hand holds down your hip, the other explores your vagina, not quite dipping inside.  He's more interested in your clit, at the moment, his rough thumb pad turning dizzying circles around it.  "What a lovely smell...tell me, Sweetness, when was the last time someone played cave diver with you?  If your hands are all you're used to..." 

You force one eye open to look at his face.  His eyes are gazing over your head.  You look and see your clenched and straining fists, wrapped up in netting.  Suddenly, even though they've seemed... normal all your life, your hands seem tiny.  Dainty.

And the single finger starting to push inside is bigger than three of yours.

*

Every gasp and whimper as Stunner worms his fingers into your body makes every patient day more worth it.  

He hushes you and sooths and pets with his free hand mostly because he doesn't want you to pass out.  He's patient, working you open, first with one finger, then two, because he doesn't want you to pass out.  

Stunner Blue wants his brand new mate wide awake for everything he's about to put you through. 

And the satisfaction of feeling your body strain beneath him, your walls flutter and seize, your heaving breathing, it's all a delight to him.  "You're doing so well, Pretty.  Open your eyes; look, see I could almost fit three fingers in!"

The terror in your huge eyes sings in Stunner's blood, and he's almost tempted to follow through and put a third finger in.

But he's already decided that will be dreams for another day.  Instead, he keeps you speared on two as he shifts his tail, coiling tight around yours to line himself up.

"Remember what I told you?  I said I'd start with the right one," he whispers into your neck.  "I want you to see well and truly that I'm a man of my word."

*

Your gaze darts down.  Sure enough, even as he pulls his fingers out, the head of his right clasper is nudging into their place.  "Stop!  Please!"

"No."

With one roll of his hips, you're impaled in agony.  

It's too big, too much.  Your vision blurs and you can hear your own shriek.  After what feels like hours but certainly wasn't, you're almost surprised to realize you're still there.  Still beneath this gigantic merman.  Still throbbing with intrusion.

You look down, hoping to see that his fun will soon be over.

From what you can tell, from the way he's not even halfway inside, it very much won't be.

He wraps his arms around you, hugging you to his chest and plants kisses on your face and hair.  "Shh, shh, see?  It's okay.  Once you're used to this, this much won't mean a thing to you.  But let's enjoy this moment, when it's still a struggle for you to take me fully."  He nibbles a bit at your ear then whispers.  "But don't worry; it won't be like your struggles to escape.  You will succeed in fully taking my claspers into your tight little hole."

Chapter Text

A lot of Stunner's friends aren't fond of smaller mers as sexual partners.

They take too much preparation, you have to be careful where you bite and how hard, everything can break in the hands of a much larger and stronger shark.

For Stunner Blue, all of that adds to the thrill.

The bone deep certainty that you are helpless in his hands.  Your only chance was to hide from him, or outrun him or trick him before he caught you.  And now, the bulge slowly growing past your lower belly and working its way up towards your navel, the mass of his clasper disappearing into your body, his tail coiled tightly around yours, your torso gathered in his arms, you have no defense against any of that.

He could laugh at the whole thing.  

Nothing, not the fear other mers show him, not the way they flee, not breaking a would be defender in his own hands, not stealing children back to the city, nothing has ever made him feel so powerful as your trembling body and the tightness of your hole.  

*

"You're doing so well; look, you've almost got me all the way in."

You gasp for water as he gives three quick, shallow thrusts, each just a little bit deeper, but you refuse to look.  Hell, even if you could open your eyes right now, you're not sure you'd be able to focus enough to find out if he's telling the truth.  You know there has to be an end, a point at which either you've taken the whole thing or your body breaks, but right now, it's not coming.  It just feels like there will always be more of him.  

Then his mouth covers yours.

You squirm, trying to get away from him enough to breathe, trying to bite his tongue, his lips, anything soft enough for you to do damage.  It almost doesn't register when, with another thrust and a radiating, bruising feeling in your gut, his hips sit flush against yours.  It's not until he lets you suck in mouthfuls of water that your realize that hideous pressure and finally look down.

there's a distinctly shaped bulge in your belly to a bit above your navel.  Beneath that, he really is right against you.  You're almost more amazed than horrified.  

"Relax, Darling," he sings in your ear.  "Just think about the future.  Do you think I'll get a tiny tiger shark out of you, or maybe a giant nocturnal?"

You flinch.

His hand moves over your belly, pressing down on the bulge.  "Or, maybe I'll get a child with dark blue and silver like you, but the speckles are in strips instead of your lovely swirling pattern..."

*

It's easy to keep telling you filth, describing his grand visions for your future, dictated by him.  Stunner can't help thrusting a little harder each time you flinch, pawing more each time you squirm and giving you an extra little nip each time you try to hide your face from him.  But the way you shy away at the thought of your future children makes his left clasper ooze against your side and his right one throb inside your heat.  

Honestly, though, tiny or giant, tiger sharks or nocturnals, or whatever combination there of he might pull from your body, Stunner doesn't particularly care, so long as he can get progeny with your intelligence and persistence.

Oh, that's another idea for filth.  

Stunner grabs your chin and forces you to face him.  "You know, it was so clever of you to hollow out a hiding place in the abalone beds.  Threw me off the rhythm of the hunt completely..." Stunner groans as you clench.  "Oh, yes!  I'd already set up traps and was ready for a nap.  I'd have missed you completely if it weren't for my own luck.  And then, when you fled down the cliff it was only your own bad luck that stuck you in that cave; I couldn't have caught you otherwise."

*

If you had clear words in your brain right now, you'd be begging him to stop talking.  Give you a moment of rest, a moment of calm.  Let you pull together and focus.

But he doesn't.  Instead, he props himself above you on one arm, staring down at you with his black eyes, and reaches down to where you're both connected.  His fingers dig into your hip as his thumb circles your clit, the rough texture driving you crazy.  

The pounding, heating and numbing your insides.

The smell of him.

His warmth.

His fifty times damned voice.

And that thumb, circling heavy and rough around your clit.

It's no wonder the coil in your belly snaps.

Your nerve endings seizing, your body spent and trembling, you barely notice him roll his eyes back into his head like a proper shark, dropping down onto you again and biting into your shoulder.

It's a long moment before you even notice he's cum, too.

*

Stunner slowly relaxes his jaw.  Maybe later, you'll realize you should be grateful he didn't crush the bones in your shoulder with that bite.  Maybe you won't.  He doesn't actually care.

He inspects the bite marks carefully, assuring himself they'll leave a proper scar, before licking them until they stop bleeding.  Then, he starts gently lifting himself off of you.

There's not really a bulge in your belly anymore.  More, a bit of bloating.  He pulls out, but only the semen stuck to his clasper comes out.  The rest of the thick, virile spend will stay right where it is until it's pushed or scooped out.  

On that note...

*

You're so busy trying to calm down, you barely react to him uncoiling from around your tail, but the raw, empty ache of his clasper's absence makes it hard to pull water through your gills.  

It's only when he curls his tail around you the other way that you start to struggle again.  "What!  No!"

He lines up his left clasper with your gaping hole.  He told you earlier that it's bigger, but you hadn't noticed until now.

It is bigger.  Distinctly. 

"Stop!  You said..."

He covers your mouth with one hand.  "I said I'd use the smaller one first.  So, I did.  And look at it, my sweet angelfish, it's been so patient for you all this time."

He pushes in.

Chapter Text

Stunner grins down at you while the cleaner shrimp do their jobs.

The last dead skin from the your sunburns is polished of by eager, hungry crustaceans, leaving only his marks left.  Mottled bruises, bite marks, scratches.  Everything is his.

"You're doing much better with it, Darling," he crows, swirling your slit so the cleaner shrimp will properly scour you out.  

You glare at him, but turn your head away.  From what he could tell, you might just pass out before they even finish cleaning you.  That would be fine; after three days of possessing you in every way he can think of, he's finally run out of fish.  Once he's done with both of your baths, he'll tie you up in the nest and go hunting.  He could just go gather some clams or something, an easy errand worth a few minutes of his time, but he wants to impress you. 

He doesn't really need you to like or love him, but he does need you to be impressed and awed by him.

Tigress will be able to explain it if he asks.  Why doesn't he mind it if you continue staring up at the moon instead of him, but the idea that something else could make you flinch boils him with rage.

*

You're not staring up at the moon.

Well, for a minute, you were.  When he flipped you so the cleaner shrimp could do your stomach and under tail, it was big and bright overhead and something to look at that wasn't his smug face.

Now though...

Ducks.  

A flock of ducks is passing overhead, heading south.

Through all the distance and the poor lighting, you can't hear them and their shadows aren't reaching you, but you see them clearly.  Soon, they'll probably bed down for the night.  

Being a nocturnal, you've seldom seen flying ducks, even during migration season, but just from living here all your life you know that three things follow migrating ducks.

Autumn and winter storms.

Colder waters.

Migrating whales.  

You also know that the fish migrate before the ducks do.  The old salmon have already made their final treks inland, and the young salmon have already left for warmer waters. 

This time of year...every year before, your community would be busy not so much hunting, but catching.  Storing young fish in corralling chambers in the caves where they'd be fed on scraps until they met their final use.  Crab and lobster hunts would begin pretty soon as the crustaceans flood the cliff side where you hid from Stunner, seeking shelter from the storms.  Squid come in following the crab.

You know what's seasonably available around here.  You know who to trade with inland, if you need to.  You know what to expect from the weather.

You glance at Stunner's smug face.

You have no intention of sharing anything.  

*

Stunner drags you back through the caverns and something catches.  You cry out as the netting pulls your arms down towards the floor of the cave.  He's almost certain he hears a clatter, but he can't tell what.

"Clumsy me.  Sorry, Dear, I should hold you closer," says Stunner.  He gives you a quick once over, hoping you didn't get scraped up again, but it genuinely just seems that the netting caught on a rock outcropping.  That shouldn't have happened.  Oh well, maybe you jerked to the side at the wrong moment.  It takes him a long, frustrating moment to pull you free, at which point he drags you up into his arms.  Too much to do in the morning to waste effort now embarrassing you.  Hell, if he's going hunting at dawn, he can't even really waste time having fun with you. 

Back in the little love nest, he carefully ties the netting back to the outcropping, then pulls you into his chest.  You really are so comfortable to hold.  You fit with your head just on his collarbone, just small enough to hold all of you, tail included, curled against his chest.  Sure, your bound, outstretched arms are a bit annoying, but he can make other arrangements once he figures out how to get you back to the city.  

"Mmmm...maybe I'll wrap your torso up in strings of pearls...really use all the wealth of the seas to trap you with me," he mutters, his eyes drifting shut.  "Or...maybe spelled cuffs.  That could work."  Stunner grins as your body stiffens in his hold.  

As his mind slips further towards sleep, he tries to think of what Tigress will think.  Of course, she won't care so long as her younger brother's new mate is properly prettied up when she needs to make an impression at court.  His older sister has fourteen mates, five maids, one non-binary and eight men.  Some are sharks, mates presented as equals who can stand their own with Tigress. 

Others are more like you; pets for her pleasure and control.  If Tigress Blue loves them, it is in the love of power.  Sometimes, she even has her largest, most brutal mates have at the smallest ones, just so she can prove her might by dominating them thereafter.  

She loves her children, and she loves Stunner, but those are beings raised to her ideals and in her image.  

Vaguely, Stunner wonders if he'll ever want a second mate.  Maybe it's the honeymoon phase, but he can't imagine another mer who could thrill him as much as you have.  He toys at the idea of his second mate playing with you for his pleasure.  Maybe holding you still and petting you while his claspers go to work, or maybe using their muscles to force you to top while he lounges.  There's some appeal to the idea of another mate, Stunner has to admit, but what would make that second mate worth his time and attention in their own right?

Although...

Maybe he doesn't have to go so far as a mate.  

If no other mer proves cunning and resilient enough to make him want to dominate, he can just use them for sex.  Have one of the pitiful little palace servants hold you down for him, even bounce around a round or two with them after he's done with you, but never bite.  Play with one for a few weeks, then another and toss them out to other tiger shark mers when he's done.  Watch them swell with children, but refuse to claim them or give them the rights of royalty because they were born to unworthy mothers.  Fill the slums of the capital with bastards, unfortunate children of maids too pathetic to keep.

Stunner's hands stroke over your belly as his thoughts finally swirl into dreams.

For now, at least, this will be the only source of Stunner Blue's children.

*

You can tell by the way his breathing has slowed that he's finally asleep. 

Very carefully, you curl your tail up, over the edge of the bedding, gently laying your caudal fin over the edge of bedding, right against the wall.  Watching your capter's face, you unfurl your fin as gently as you can.

Picking up things with your fins used to be a party trick; one of a few advantage to such massive, articulated fins no one expects, so it was always useful for a prank.  

Now, as the hunting knife you picked up earlier slips out of sight, you can't believe it.  You clench your eyes at a slight clatter, but the tiger shark seems to have exhausted himself as much as you, these last few days.  

You relax a bit.  You have a plan.  Okay, maybe not a great plan, but you do have one, and that's worth a lot.

Chapter Text

Early in the morning, Stunner goes through the caves again.  He's disappointed to find no spears, just a few spear heads, but not particularly surprised; the mers who once lived here probably used all the spears they had made up when they failed to defend themselves.  Still, a resolvable problem.  He salvages a pole from a hook tool normally used to guide the growth of seaweed and crafts himself a decent spear.

Not a great spear, at least not for his size, but usable.  Good enough to bring in some real game.  Maybe marlin or grouper.  Something that'll let him settle in with his reluctant little maid for a few weeks.

His spear ready, a second spearhead packed and a few clams in a shelling net for him to snack on during the hunt, he goes to make his farewell.

He could almost laugh at your scowl, but he kisses your brow anyway.  "I'll be back soon, love."

Then, he retreats, securing the little nesting cave with as much netting as he can.  

*

The moment he leaves you alone, even though you know he's still right there, tangling up your escape route with nets, you attack at the netting binding your hands, wrists and arms.  You're not worried about him trying to punish you, and you're pretty sure he's expecting it.

Without him yanking you this way and that, or re-tangling what you've pulled free, freeing your arms is a matter of patience and determination.  Unbothered by the idea of damaging teeth that will just grow back if it comes to it, you even bite at the netting, sometimes. 

After a few hours of false starts, you finally pull your left arm free.

Then, you hesitate.

Listening.  

Silence.

None of that damned tiger shark's singing.

None of him clattering around.  

No sounds of him eating.  

Carefully, you reach over the side of the bedding, stretching out as much as you can.  Gingerly, you feel around.  A slight prick, which oozes a dribble of blood, and you find it.  Pointing towards your hand, close enough to feel, but not close enough to grab.

You purse your lips and think, but every hypothetical tactic you can dream up to grab the knife feels...stupidly risky.

Instead, you sit up, facing your right arm and go to work, left handed, to free yourself.  It certainly goes much faster and, in minutes, you're free.

You massage your wrists, feeling grooves in the skin from being bound so long.  The numbing fades, to be replaced by aching pain.  You close your eyes through it for a minute, maybe two, then try to put it out of mind.  

Retrieving the knife makes it...more of a disappointment than you'd thought when you grabbed for it last night.  It's just a garden knife.  Oh well; it doesn't have to be a great knife, it just has to do one job.

You reach out for the netting intended to keep you trapped in this chamber and gingerly pull it towards you, carefully cutting it away.  Each layer you get shouldn't make you more paranoid, Stunner has to run out of nets eventually, but it does.  You keep your fins tucked tight against your body, walking your way around the caves on your hands instead.

Moving through the caves like this is slow, rough and tiring, but you put up with it.

Eventually, you're out, under your own fan coral.  You look at your cave, your cave.  Your home.  It doesn't seem like this has gotten more than a cursory inspection by Stunner.  In some ways, that's a relief; he hasn't tainted your home.

You dart inside.

This is a triple, nested chamber.  The inner most chamber entirely given over to your bed.  This small den has been your comfort ever since you and your brother settled here, with glittering rocks on the ceiling that he could never see, even in the best lighting, but look to your night eyes like shining stars you might actually catch in your hands.  You remember your brother lying with you there, asking you to describe your personal constellations and smiling with his eyes closed, as if he might one day open newly larger eyes and see them, too.  

You're tempted, just for a second, to go tuck in...one more time.

But...right now you need to leave.  And, if you indulge in that spot where the memory is so strong it sometimes feels like you could still curl up in his warmth, left over from when he slept during the night, you might lose your nerve.  

The second chamber is mostly where you both did day to day things.  You go through cubbies and drawers, grabbing everything that you can't bear to leave.  An obsidian pendant, passed down from your mother, a pearl hair comb your grandmother always used to put up your hair.  Little trinkets and treasures.  If you can wear them, you put them on.  If you can't, you set them aside.

In the outermost room is a rack of belts.  At the bottom is a bandoleer your brother sometimes used for week long hunts.  It won't balloon with water and slow you down like a bag, and you won't feel anxious about your treasures like you would in a shelling net.  You pack up the treasures inside, along with a shelling knife and a hunting knife.  You also grab a shelling net.  

Now, you pause.

There's hours of daylight left.  

Your best bet is to flee as soon as the sun even starts to set, when there's still plenty of burn-time left.

You can't just flee without food.

Well, you could.

Mers can go quite a while without feeding, so long as you gorge when you do feed.  The larger the mer, the longer, but you could still do two and a half weeks if you have to.  You can do it, however unpleasant it is.  

The trouble is, you've recently fasted.

Yes, Stunner has a fixation on making you eat, particularly food he provides, but that doesn't change that you barely ate anything while you were trying to wait him out on the cliff side for over a week.  You gorged before, but food's been a mouthful here and there ever since.  

The one good thing, you tell yourself, is you know Stunner's not going to have much luck hunting.  He's not going to be back for a while.

*

It strikes Stunner as odd, gliding over the tuna fields and finding...nothing.  Not that he was in the mood for tuna; he's already presented you with tuna.  Woohoo, he can catch a young tuna, like a thousand other tiger shark mermen.  Maybe an adult yellowfin would be worth his attention, but what he'd seen around here was only worth leisure.  

Still, he notices.

By midday, he's frowning.  There's...

Nothing.

In miles and miles, even traveling up a river inland, he's found nothing bigger than his fist.

It's looking more and more like this little hunting trip is going to take him further away.

He doesn't like that.  

Stunner considers his options.

He could dig out clams and other such for the two of you.

Unless he finds a few pearls, how useless.  It's not impressive to provide you with food he saw you providing for yourself.  Furthermore, unlike one big kill, he'd have to devote large parts of a number of days to clamming.  He guesses you'd take fifteen, maybe twenty large clams to be satisfied for a day.  He'd take about a hundred.  Minimum.  That's a long, repetitive, boring task to have to repeatedly go through.  Mussels, abalone, oysters, it all comes to the same problems; it won't impress and it's not big enough.  

He could set up fish traps.

That's more of a wistful consideration.  Nets, maybe, but actual traps, he's not well suited to.  He learned, of course, when he was younger and smaller.  He'd even enjoyed it; build a few traps, hide them in the right spot, swim away and come check when you're hungry; it's perfect for a young mer who'd rather be playing on the reef.  Unfortunately, then he'd gotten bigger...a lot bigger.  Fortunately, then he'd learned his love of the hunt.  Still, it would be nice to indulge old hobbies, except he doesn't know where to put them.  Anywhere could pull in a fish, eventually, but a place that will bring in a fish?  He hasn't a clue.  Not locally, anyway.  

He could circle the sea shelf and the surrounding flats in wider arcs and hope to get lucky.  

That seems like his best option, for now.  

He examines his tail.  It's thick with muscle and fat stores, smooth and powerful.  Unlike you, he hasn't fasted recently, at all.  He could go three or four weeks without a decent meal and stay the powerful hunter.  You, though...never mind that he's trying to get you pregnant, you've already fasted recently.  Sure, he force fed you every scrap he had left before going hunting, but that's not the same as properly gorging.  

Stunner spreads his fins and strikes out.

*

It usually takes four mers to wrestle the tarp into position to protect your fan coral in preparation for storm season.  It catches every bit of current and fights like crazy, making for a tiring morning or afternoon that no one would bother with if they hadn't liked you.

Swimming under it is almost impossible, and you resort to trying to walk across the seafloor on your hands.

In the caves, this was exhausting.

Out in the open, you're paranoid that something's going to pop out of the sand to swallow you whole.

Still, it's hours before sundown, and you have to do everything you can, now.  This is all you can do.

As you find them, you pry up lipids from the rocks.  Usually, these aren't worth more than a snack, but now every bite matters, and you suck out their flesh no matter how small.  

On the northernmost mussel beds of the sea fold, you begin in earnest, swallowing down two mussels for every one you store in your net.  You had been dreading this, but a few days of actual fish has softened your dislike of mollusk.  Now, it's all just food.  

A shadow crossing the beds makes you freeze.

For a breatheless moment, every muscle in your body coils to ditch the tarp and flee.

But it's too big.

You pull back the tarp and peer upwards, shading your eyes as best you can.

A blue whale.

Heading north.

You redouble your efforts, stashing more and more shells in your net, then ditch cover and break for the surface.  

*

Out in the barren ocean, Stunner considers the sky. 

He saw the whale earlier and paid it no mind.  Mers don't hunt whale.  Aside from the fact that it would take a ridiculous number and most of the meat would go to waste, the mer love of music makes the mere thought of killing such musical creatures abhorrent.  

No, Stunner doesn't care about that at all.

What he's interested in is the rolling bank of clouds.

He swims to the surface to look out.

With his head above water, Stunner can see that the bank of clouds heading towards the shore is deep, black and unbroken.  A very big storm is rolling in.  

This changes the options.

Swimming through open water during a storm is a really bad idea, but...

But he could use the cloud cover to bring you across the plains.  

It's been his problem for several days; it would take at least three days to take you across the flats, even at their narrowest point.  He was strong enough to do it, but the sunlight would blister you raw.  

Now, he has a chance.

He's strong enough and large enough to fight storm waves.  You will likely get battered and bruised, but that's much better than severe burning.  

He turns back towards the sea fold.

Chapter Text

You're relieved to see it's started raining as you approach the whale.  Overhead, the clouds are closing in fast, and that's the best you can do.

The whale itself...makes you nervous.

Swimming close to this giant is dangerous.  Blue whales, like all the baleen whales, don't hunt mers, so you're not worried about being eaten.  No, it's the sheer size that's a threat.  If you don't pay close attention, a single move of the fins or tail could kill you, not because the great one means you harm, but because you are so small, and it is so large. 

You go right up, next to the whale's eye, turning gentle spirals in the water to give the thing a sense of you.  Then, you press yourself against its skull, humming a few sweet notes.  The whale sings in turn, so you drop under its belly and glide along under it.  Just in case the sunshine breaks through the clouds.

*

Stunner was expecting a fight.  He was fully expecting to get back to his little love nest and find you free of the netting binding your arms.  It would be an enjoyable tussle later before he had you properly trussed up again and tied to his belt.  He even had an idea of how to spend the week of hard traveling back to the city with you firmly pressed between his claspers.  

What he was not expecting was finding his nets roughly cut away from the entrance and you gone.  

For a long moment, he could hardly believe what he was seeing.  

How long have you been loose?

Where are you?

He seizes a large scrap of netting and roars out of the caves.  One circle around the sea fold draws his attention to fresh clam meat and shows him the abandoned tarp.  You were here, definately, but where'd you go from there?  The smell is too strong for you to have been gone long.

He stares around, wildly.  You could be back in the cliffside caves, or out...

In the distance, he sees that whale he noticed earlier.  

Underneath the whale are maybe a dozen remora.  One seems darker and larger than the others.

Just like that, Stunner's perspective shifts and he knows that's no remora.  

He lashes out at the water, imagining what he'll do the moment he gets his hands on you.  

*

Listening to the whale sing into the deeps lulls at your mind.  With your large fins, keeping up is no trouble and requires very little stamina.

The worries you is the longer you keep up, the farther away from the shore you get.  

You know, with the storm coming on, that this is appropriate; cresting waves are dangerous, but it means there's nowhere for you to hide if you need to.

You give a last glance at the sea fold, which was your home for so long.  Distantly, you can see an angry merman headed your way, but you're not tremendously worried about that...not yet at least.

*

The average blue whale can covers 25 miles in a leisurely hour, and considerably more in a hurry.  The best tiger shark can put out a top speed of 20 miles an hour...very briefly.

Of course, Stunner is not a true shark, he's a mer, trained for Tigress Blue's army.  He is the fastest, the strongest and the most enduring shark mer aside from Tigress herself.

But the math is still working against him.  Especially in that the damn whale was well past the sea fold by the time he struck out after it.  

The important thing is that he can still see you.  Even with night coming on and his eyes not being nearly so good for the dark as yours, he can still follow along.  

*

You're starting to suspect keeping you abed by night and awake by day was more than just Stunner managing you to his convenience.  Awake all day, you're starting to tire, nodding off a bit.  It's the occasional roll of thunder and the frigid, stormy ocean keeping you awake right now.

Well, that, and the angry merman you can still catch a glimpse of.

There's nowhere below to hide, and with no cover at all, he could definitely catch you if you tried.  

Chapter Text

The storm, raging just above the water is so loud you can hardly hear the whale song. Sometimes, when you drift to far from the behemoth's wake, you're battered breathless by harsh waves. It's harsh and it all hurts.

More than anything, though, your pain reminds you, forcefully, of him.  The raw flesh of his bite mark in your shoulder, the throbbing of your pelvis, tender bruises all over.

Every time you feel your strength flagging, though, you look down and see him.  Sometimes, he's smiling.  Sometimes, he's glaring.

But he's always there.

For now, at least, it's enough to push on. 

*

The math still doesn't work for Stunner to catch you, but he's not as far behind as he should be.

It's because of the storm.

The blue whale is bound to the water's surface by its need to breathe air, trapping it, and you, in the turbulent waters of the surface.  Meanwhile, he's swimming in the calm waters just beneath the storm's reach.  It's straining to keep the pace for so long, but...well.

He's certainly got incentive to keep going.

His claspers are throbbing.  

The first hunt for you bred obsession.  This second hunt is only serving to deepen that.  

Stunner's got a dozen dreams swirling through his head, each one pushing him forward.  You, bound to a rock, your hole leaking his spend as Tigress's court tries to go on with business as usual.  You, feeding your children from swollen breasts even as your stomach grows again with yet another child.  Some faceless mermaid begging you for help getting her own child recognized as Stunner's, and your helpless refusal.  

The riches he will bind you in, the depravity he'll commit on your body, the glory to which he'll raise your children.  Oh yes, Stunner Blue has all the motivation he needs to keep going.  

*

The top of your tail fin is numb.  You'd drifted too far back beneath the whale and the concussion of its beat through the waters had caught you.  You checked and you don't think anything's broken, but it's worrying that the feeling hasn't come back.

But he's still there.  

Come on, there have to be a thousand mers who'd throw themselves at him, maybe even a few who genuinely like him.  Why's he got to hang his obsession on you?

Of course, if you have your way, you'll never find out.

Through the racket of the storm, something startles you.  You realize how close you were to just falling asleep by how suddenly awake you are.  

It's the whale.  It's paused.

It drifts forward just a bit for a long moment, before turning.  

You stare up at it, touching its belly. 

Thankfully, it doesn't turn too radically, doesn't give Stunner a chance, but you still have no choice but to try and keep up.  

*

Stunner sees the whale turning and starts calculating angles in his head, only to decide it's not turning enough to cut you off.  

Watching you, he can tell that just keeping up with the whale isn't trouble.  Fighting storm waters and maybe your own fatigue, that's where you're struggling.  

Stunner knows he can keep going as long as he has to.  In fact, he'd prefer it if the whale keeps going the rest of the night and into the day so that you'll exhaust yourself.  

Off to the distance, though, heading in the same direction as the whale, just keeping to the calmer waters below the storm, Stunner notices something.

Flying over the ocean floor, desperately fast.

A manta ray.

Stunner smiles to himself.  He knows what the whale is heading towards.

*

Something tiny snags in your hair.  It keeps wriggling and you desperately comb it out; a parasite cannot be allowed safe passage on your body, especially since you don't know when next you'll get to a basking reef.

Finally, your fingers close around the squirming thing and you bring it out for you to see.

Its a crustacean, barely the size of the end of your finger and almost totally see through.

Krill.  

You consider just eating the thing for a long moment, food is food, after all, but just one of these shrimp isn't a mouthful, let alone a meal, so you let it fall away into the water.

Looking ahead, the water seems clear for about a mile before it suddenly goes murky.  

Oh...

Oh, that could be a big problem.

You look down.  Yep, he's still there.  

And you're still wearing down.  

Just at the edge of your hearing, over the noise of the roiling sea and pounding rain, you hear something.

Song.

Not song from the whale providing you shelter.  Different.  

You look around, trying to pinpoint it, but...well, maybe it's on the other side of the cloud.

Okay.  

Chapter Text

Just inside the cloud, visibility drops to a few feet in every direction.  The water feels heavy, sticky and sluggish, the kind of thing that makes a mer desperate for a basking bed, swarmed with cleaner shrimp.  

You cup your mouth and nose in your hands, trying keep from breathing in the algae with the water.  

The whale, though, has no such problems.  It's jaw drops low, filling and filling and filling.

You glide over the top of the whale, just in case.

Right on queue, a large shadow passes through the water.  Through the murk you can barely make out enough to know it's him, but mers aren't easily mistaken for other things.  

*

Stunner frowns, then puts his head above water and spits out an algae filled gob.  Theoretically, algae field could be good hunting, but it's a bad idea for a thousand reasons.  Algae can cling to the skin and scales, slowing a mer down and tiring them out.  Algae can clog up a mer's breathing really fast and recovery can be long and difficult.  Yet, even though a mer can breathe air, at least for a while, it's a really bad idea for them to stay above water, even without the storm.

Algae attracts krill.

Krill attracts the filter feeders.

Filter feeders, baleen whales, mantas, so on, especially the giants, have no concern for mers in general, but accidents happen.

Stunner needs to find you and huddle you out of this soup. 

He drops back into the water.

Even in the murk, it's not hard to find the blue whale, but its movements are harder to read.  It's also hard to accurately read the size of the remora clinging to it.  A shadow he was sure had to be you just turns out to be a damned fish half as big as he thought.  

Stunner hisses his displeasure, and searches around.  If the whale weren't so busy moving, gulping down its prey, he'd simply spiral around it, alternating his speed until he tricked you.  But the movements make that a dangerous choice.  

A noise, muted by the murk and the storm overhead, barely enough to hear at all, alerts Stunner a half second before it's too late.

He dodges away just as another whale emerges from the gloom, mouth gaping wide.

*

This is getting dangerous.

A third whale, not a blue, you think, seems to be joining the fray.

You take the opportunity to dodge away from the blue whale, hoping Stunner doesn't notice the switch, but then you notice a fourth, far smaller, in the shadow of the third.  Smaller being the operative term.

A calf.

The calf must be very young, because it's unbothered with the feasting of its fellows and alternatively hugs the water's surface and its mother's belly.  Realistically, this calf is probably the safest place to be to not be sucked into a mouth or crushed by moving giants, but its relative calm also makes it a poor hiding choice.  

You dodge above it as you see Stunner's shadow passing through the water again.

To avoid the mouth of a whale, the protection of another is absolutely essential.

The best choice to avoid Stunner Blue would be to dodge away into the gloom, hope to find a different edge of the cloud and keep swimming on from there.

The best plan until daylight...

When the calf goes up to breathe, you tuck your head above water, too, and spit out as much of the algae as you can, heaving out sludge. 

Stunner's larger size means the algae isn't building up in his system as fast, probably.

You need another option.  

*

With so many filter feeders in one place, the water should be getting clearer, but Stunner can't tell that it is at all.  He can feel the algae clinging to his teeth, his skin, his face, his hair, his scales, his fins.  

Then again, the whales aren't really after the algae, but the krill forming the other major component of his discomfort.  He can feel them wriggling between his belt and his flesh, seeking shelter from the whales, wretched little things.

He passes a hand through his hair, dislodging fistfuls of the foul crustaceans.  

He's going to drag you out of this mire by your neck.  He's going to hold you down on the basking bed and force his claspers down your throat, one right after another, as the cleaner shrimp rid you both of this gunk.  He's going to drag you back to the city regardless of the sunlight, and treat your burns later when he's feeling more generous.  

He just needs a chance to spot you, but that's proving hard.  Between the algae and the krill, visibility and smell are worth nothing.  

*

Something hard, flat and thick with muscle slaps you in the face out of nowhere, and you grab onto something just to keep from drifting.

The edge of something.

It drags you right out of the mire.

Thankfully, not because it was thinking of you at all.

*

He can't stand it anymore.

After surfacing to spit for the fourth time and feeling his hair knot around some of the squirmy krill, Stunner has to pull free of the mire.

He strikes out and escapes the cloud for clear water, scraping globs of algae off his tail and hurling them into the dark.  He's going to find you.  He will, and when he does, he's going to make you suffer.  Maybe he'll find out just how much of his hand he can shove inside you...

Stunner's rage pauses.  At the edge of the cloud, a long stream of mantas are flying free.  

Why?

He tries to figure out a reason.

Actually, the heavy noise of rain seems to be abating.  

It was probably the storm that stirred up the cloud in the first place.  Made these nasty little things weighing him down.  Now the storm is fading, and the cloud is too.

But why would the mantas leave before the krill is all filtered out?

Stunner looks around and isn't entirely surprised to see great white sharks approaching.

Ah.

No threat to the whales, definately a threat to the mantas.

And a threat to you. 

It almost sends him into a panic, to go back in and find you, except...

One manta, coming out of the cloud just after the others, catches his attention. 

Fingers.

Tiny and holding on to the lip of one wing.

Fluttering just beneath the wings, he can see other fins.

One set clearly belongs to a few remora.

The other set is large, articulated and fanlike.

"Oh, Darling, I've found you."

Chapter Text

You know you've got too much algae and krill caught in your gills; you're gasping and dizzy with it.

Clinging to the manta's wing, just next to the body, with one hand, you gently pry the delicate flaps of your gills apart, gently scraping out as much of the gunk and squirming crustaceans as you dare.  You can't risk damaging the delicate filaments that let you breath.

You have no attention to pay to pursuit.

*

Stunner Blue is also suffering from the algae buildup in his system, but he's got other problems.  

His speed, matched against a blue whale?  He loses that race.

His speed, matched against a manta?  He's got much better odds.

Unfortunately, a great white shark also has far better odds against a manta.

No shark short of desperate will match itself against a mer of Stunner's size, or even a pack of smaller mers.

A couple of mantas and the exhausted, smaller mermaid clinging to one of their bellies?

Fair game to a couple of great white sharks.

Stunner, his chest tight with his restricted breathing, races alongside the sharks.

Grab you and pull you away?

No.  The shark is going teeth first and it's too likely your tail fins will be caught in the first mouthful.

Stunner cups his elbow in one hand and slams his shoulder into the side of the shark, throwing it off its course.

Coming up the other side, there's another.

Stunner hisses and heaves and slams into this one, too.

The third gets just past him, but Stunner reaches out and grabs it round the tail.

The rough scales burn against his hand, but still, Stunner yanks against the shark.  

The sharks, two a bit dazed, one with probably a fair bit of pain in its spine, turn to look at Stunner, and he can feel it.

These sharks aren't turning to him and seeing a threat, an apex predator.

They're seeing his heaving for breath and how much it hurt his shoulder to slam them away from the mantas.

Probably for the first time since he was a very young child, something is looking upon Stunner Blue and seeing potential prey.  

Stunner coughs up a glob of phlegm and algae, but he grins, grasping his spear tight in both hands.

"Alright; try it."

*

You pull water through your gills.  It stings and you can taste something like shrimp and....green at the back of your throat before the coughing pushes the glob out of your system.  

Your breathing eases, not much, but enough for you to start swishing your tail in time to the manta's movements, so you're at least not dragging it down. 

The water is getting clearer, clean with fractured moonlight.  

You keep going, clinging to the bottom of the manta.

You have no choice.

*

The smallest of the great whites is the predictable first to surge at Stunner.  

He catches it on the broadside of the spear, using the shaft to alter the direction of the momentum and throw it in a different direction.  

He can't lift the spear in time to catch the next shark, so he slams his fist into its nose, just enough off center to control its direction.

The third shark gives him just enough time to lift the spear.  

With that one movement, there's blood in the water, and Stunner hurls himself away from the shark.

In seconds, the other two sharks, hardly noticing they've changed prey, are after their injured fellow.

Stunner doesn't bother looking back.  He can see other sharks coming in out of his perriferal vision, and he knows that shark is not long for the world.

Now, to find his darling little mermaid.  You owe him your tail.

Chapter Text

You manage to cling to the manta through the night and the following day.

Your knuckles blister in sunlight, can feel the heat attacking your flesh, but either the manta's close proximity or the layer of algae and krill keep you from completely succumbing to the light.

It's about half way through the following night, when you're half delirious, that the manta makes a sharp turn and you slide free.

Into soft sands at the base of a pole.  

You blink, trying to make sense of what you're seeing.  

In front of you, embedded in the sand, is a stout pole, netting wrapped around and around it, bound in place and completely useless.  It's almost as if someone furled the net for the season.

You stare around you and quickly find another pole.  This one has nothing furled around it.

Someone did furl the first net.

You scrub at your face with your palm.

Ahead of you, the sands slope into rocks and coral, and beyond that, an island.

Perhaps its your exhaustion, light dazle or your oxygen deprivation, but it takes a long minute for you to realize you've found shelter.

You look up.  Two...maybe four hours before daylight.

It takes every scrap of will you have left to swim and climb up the slope.

*

Even Stunner Blue has his limits.

He's lost track of the mantas he was following.  While he has found...other mantas, seemingly heading the same direction, he has no idea if he's heading the right direction.  

He needs rest, a good cleaning and a filling meal. 

No mistake, he will find you and repay you for this hunt, but there's more wisdom in regrouping than bulling along.

*

To your absolute relief, you find a sheltered basking bed, just a little hollow among the coral, only just big enough for you.  With the last of your strength, you fold yourself into it and simply collapse.

It's a very long few minutes before cleaning shrimp emerge to begin their work; this population isn't used to having meals from mers this late in the season.

*

Stunner Blue stabs his spear into the sand repeatedly.  Once he's absolutely sure no nasty surprise is going to try, not succeed but try, to swallow him, he settles into the sand, thrashing around to scour himself off.  It's a trick he learned from other soldiers under Tigress Blue.  Not nearly so thorough or comfortable as the creatures that populate a basking bed, but it'll do in a pinch.  

The sand scrapes off algae and knocks off krill.  Not good enough, and he'll need to do something else about his gills, but it'll get him through his next step; scouting for food and somewhere to rest.  You might have a few clams with you, so you're ahead on that, but you're not a soldier; a little thing like you will need rest long before he does.  

Daylight is coming on fast.

Stunner decides to find somewhere to bed down for a few hours, then simultaneously hunt you and a meal.  

In the distance, he can see an island.  Good shelter for you and potential food.  It's also the only thing for quite a distance that might be shelter for you.  In the whole of the day, he hasn't seen so much as a bolder.

*

You stir, just a little, on the basking bed.  The waters are a bit chilled, so you're tempted to curl up tight in the warmth of your own flesh.  That won't work, though.  From what you can tell, there are shockingly few shrimps available, so, although they're all thorough, they're making slow progress up your tail.  

You prop yourself up and remove your bandoleer.  Most of the time, cleaning shrimp do leave belts and such alone, but you don't want to risk it.   You hiss at the sight of your hands, burnt, blistered, oozing.  Not as bad as they could be, so maybe you have some gratitude to give the algae that still coats you.  Not much, though, because even treating this is going to hurt.

You scoop up one of the shrimp and set it on your right hand.  The crustacean goes right to work, cleaning your broken skin of krill and algae and oozing puss.  It hurts.  A ticklish, moving hurt.  You can't even clench your hands, left one because it also hurts, and right one because you might desturb the cleaner shrimp.  It's several long minutes of that before your hand is clean.  You almost reach for the bandoleer then, but you see your left hand and realize you've got to do things in order, so you catch another shrimp, right handed, and wait while the two crustaceans work through almost white pain.  

When they've both moved on to your arms, you reach into your bandoleer and pull out a thin tin of sealing cream.  Exposing as little of what remains in the tin to water as you can, you crape out enough to rub over your hands.  Awful stuff, sealing cream, settling over your hands like a second layer of skin, but, it will do the job, protecting your burns from whatever might be in the water.  The pain is reduced to a dull throbbing, and you move on.  

With this, you pull out your shelling knife and eat up all of the clams you have left.  The cleaning shrimp will contain the smell, you just need to eat...something.  Anything so you can go back to sleep.  

Your next priority is your gills.  It's always a gamble, exposing the delicate filaments protected by skin to a cleaning shrimp, but you need to get them clean.  You carefully select the shrimp that cleaned your right hand, hoping that the meal its already had makes it...less hasty, and lift it to your neck.  First one slit, then another.  Occasionally, you feel a sharp, painful tug, tiny and excruciating, but it' little enough that you put up with it.  One slit done, you pull open the next.  Then the next.  Then the next.  Then, you carefully repeat the process to the other side of your neck.  The shrimp is just about done when you realize you're already on your side.  It's very comfortable, this basking bed...

*

There's obvious signs of mer around, but Stunner is surprised not to find the usual caves.  Oh, there's some, but most of the shelters seem to be huge round pots.  As in, pottery.  Protected by a large kelp forest.  He got to eat a cob of corn, once, and the cob stripped of its kernels looked much the same as the arrangement of pots; each hollow opening facing out from a central trunk.  The homes these create are surprisingly elaborate and he wonders how long they take to make.  And...where.  

And where are the mers who clearly live here in quite large numbers.  

Questions for another moment, maybe.  Stunner settles in to someone else's bed and drops almost right to sleep.  

Chapter Text

Stunner Blue dreams of being held by Tigress as she sings to him.  He vaguely knows he is dreaming, because he was already an adult when she made her conquest, and she certainly never held him as she sat on her throne, but he's not really bothered by the discrepancy.  

In front of the throne, life at court goes on.  Shy little water nymphs wait for Tigress's attention, a pair of tiger shark mer's wrestle for her entertainment and guards stand, mostly for appearances.

Tigress never needs anyone else's protection.  

As the wrestling match ends, a pair of mermen drag in a tangled net, dumping it on the ground.  You glare up through the netting.

"You want her, baby brother?" sings Tigress.  "Then, prove your might and seize her."

Stunner wakes up itchy.

He's tempted to go find a basking bed; there are or at least, were mers living around here, so there has to be a basking bed.  He remembers Tigress said that centuries ago, the war with the elves had destroyed a lot of basking beds, leading to the spread of sickness and parasites.  Mers and water nymphs alike have been protective of this critical piece of infrastructure ever since.  

But really, he's got things to do.

So, he heaves his aching body out of the pot home and begins scouting.

Outside, he's surprised by how cold the water's gotten, even in full daylight.  He wonders how you'll do with the cold, and hurries to look around.

The settlement is odd.

There's no sign of it having been abandoned...except that there's no one around.  There's no sign of violence, no marks of hastily packed or abandoned belongings.

Instead, it's more like...the whole place got put away.  Coastline nets, furled around some of their poles.  The outermost tangles of kelp on the forest protected by tarps.  Hell, in all the pot homes he looked into, rooms were tidy, drawers closed and everything settled.  It's all at odds with his experiences of a community fleeing or fighting for survival, so he can't think of what might've happened here.  

Not that it's any of his concern where everyone else is.  He only cares about two things right now...Okay, so he has distant other priorities, but his top two are you and finding something to eat.  

*

In your secluded basking bed, you dream of finding an octopus with some of the other mermaids you used to live with.  You let it coil its tentacles around and around you, just a bit, and let it snap up a shell directly from your hands.  Octopi are great to keep around; if dry landers will make good trade for the ink you can milk from a calm octopus.  Besides, they're funny.  

The sound of a rock clattering over the ground startles you awake.  For a moment, you think you hear a voice, and it almost wakes you properly, but you dismiss it as a bit of nightmare.

Your aching body hardly lets you lift your head, so you turn yourself over, allowing the cleaner shrimp access to your back, and go back to sleep.

*

Stunner blue hisses his displeasure.  He seems to have found the local basking beds, all secluded little dens with jagged ceilings and tight channels between them.  Its hard for a mer his size to maneuver and he knocked a shard free of the wall when he tried.  

It's only when he turns that he sees a wider opening, fit for his size.  "Okay, I'll be back here later.  I wonder why they wanted all their basking beds secluded like this."

*

You finally wake properly and file your problems.

One, you need food.

Two, your breathing has eased, but there's a muffling to it.  It's...slow.

You sit up and grab your brother's mirror out of the bandoleer.  To your dismay, looking in reveals that white algae are blooming in your gills.

You have an algae infection.  Left unchecked, it will strangle the filaments in your gills that filter oxygen out of the water and you'll die.  

You cradle your head in your hands, trying to remember what to do about this.

When you were little, your brother got a similar infection, though he'd never said exactly what he was doing that landed him so sick.  Your grandmother had treated the infection by repeatedly taking him inland, along the river, swimming him rapidly between salt, brackish and fresh water and back again to shock the algae and clear the infection.  There were other treatments, medicines he could have taken, or he could have hibernated on dry land, withering the algae, but this was the first thing to try.

*

Out along the sand banks, Stunner stabs downwards.  To his delight, he was right about the pattern and pulls up a large skate, thrashing desperately against him.  It'll be a good meal for the day.  Not enough to stop looking for food, of course, but enough that he can focus more on finding you.  

His mood sours at the thought.  He might be wrong.  You might not be here, around this island.  Hell, you might already be dead, sunburned on the sands somewhere, or eaten by a shark.  Or, you might be...somewhere else.  Anywhere else.  This island seems like the best shelter for you, but he's not sure.  

No.  No.

Finding you is possible.  He will do it.  

The odd thing is, it's not just pushing back doubts.  Somehow, he's actually certain he'll find you.  Soon.

And that lets him imagine what he'll do once he does.  

If it weren't for him, you might've lost a tail fin to those sharks, so maybe he should see if he can satisfy his claspers using your fins.  Or, maybe he'll pin you down in front of Tigress's new recruits, give them a proper sexual education.  Or...you seemed like you were ready to try and use that whale for shelter from the sun, maybe he should find out if his body is adiquate shelter; see if he can't hold you down, speared on him and find out if you're burned by the end of the day.  If you are, it's punishment.  If you're not, you'll have to be grateful to him.

He'll make you grateful to him.

And like that, Stunner Blue feels his smile returning.

*

Night finally falls, and you're surprised at the cold on emerging from the basking bed.  Anxious, you stick to the shadowy places as you circle the island, hoping not to be seen.  At one end of the island, right near a kelp forest filled with the oddest homes you've ever seen, you find the mouth of a river.

Chapter Text

Having circled the island twice, searching for you, logically, Stunner should start exploring other options. Maybe, you really are somewhere else, dying in the flats or dead in a shark's belly or even just...elsewhere. Ended up elsewhere.  He couldn't even say why he hasn't.  

Still, he settles into the den-like basking bed and waits for a very slow procession of shrimp to come clean him.

Very sluggish, considering there's no one around.

He yawns and stretches.

Then pauses.

On the ground between the openings of these odd basking beds is a shell.  

For a moment, he wonders if some mollusk was stupid enough to think this was a good place to set up, but...looking at it, it's just a shell.

One half of a clam shell.

After the rest of the tidy settlement, it's...wrong.  

Stunner Blue reaches over and picks it up.

The sweet smell of clam meat still clings to it.  

Stunner rolls onto his side, giving him just the right angle to see into one of the other beds.

There are three or four discarded shells in there.

And there's a slight smell of sealing cream, he's spent too much of his life as a soldier to not recognize that smell.  

And a familiar knife.

Stunner tries to maintain his cool, to wait out the cleaner shrimp.  After all, the knife isn't going anywhere.  Still, his patience cracks and he surges forward, seizing the shelling knife.

It's not quite the same one he remembers you using.  That knife is probably back in the other settlement exactly where he left it.  But the same people definitely made this one.

And, importantly, different people made the rest of this settlement.

Stunner settles back into his basking bed to wait out his cleaning properly.  You're here, somewhere.  And that means he has all the time in the world to catch you.

*

You're almost through the brackish water when the coughing spell hits you.  It feels like the algae is seizing in your gills, but you don't give up.  You're in practically fresh water when it happens again.  It's only then, seeing a few freshwater snails, that you realize you don't have your shelling knife.

Oh well.  If you pay attention later, you'll almost certainly find it again.  

You wait in the cold fresh water for a long moment before you check your brother's mirror again.  The algae in your gills is noticeably withering.

Good.  

Just as you're about to put the mirror away, you spot something behind you, about the length of one of your arms.  You go still, not turning at all, but reaching for the hunting knife.  With it firmly in your hands, you turn as fast as you can and stab.

The catfish thrashes against you, but you surprised it first and the kill is yours.  You consider eating it right there, but...well, in a river with one reasonably sized catfish, there's likely more, and some might be quite a bit bigger.

With that in mind, you surface.

The riverbanks here are covered with round stones and rise about six feet over the water's surface.  You'll be fine above water for a few hours, and the algae infection will be as hard done by out of water as it is changing salinity levels, so this is as good a place as any to take your meal.  

It's about half way through the fish, your mind wandering contentedly, that you notice a nearby building.  Well, quite a lot fo them, a small village maybe, but even with your limited knowledge of dryland buildings, this one is odd.

It's large and round, just about shaped like one of the river stones, and partially submerged in the river.  

Just like there was no one around in the ocean, there's seemingly no one around in the village.

Well...

From what you know, most dry-landers are decidedly not nocturnal, so maybe that isn't odd, except...usually, isn't there light in the windows or smoke from the chimneys?  There's...nothing suggesting this village is populated at all.

You finish up the last bites of fish, not wanting to waste any part of the meal, then slip back into the water, crossing the river to the odd, round building.

It's not only partially submerged, there's a river side opening.  You swim in through this tunnel and come up into a relatively warm and dry room.

Oh....

The spacious room is large and round, with the floor sloping out into walls and the walls sloping in to the ceiling.  In the walls are large cubbies, big enough for a person to lie down. 

And you know, because many people are lying down in these cubbies.  

Hibernants.

All mers and nymphs can hibernate.  You don't know how a nymph achieves this, but if a mer breathes air instead of water for long enough, their circulatory and respiratory systems slow.   After long enough, they simply drop to sleep. 

While an individual's reasons for hibernation range, there're basically only two reasons for an entire population to do it.  Either, seasonal food restrictions or trying to let their fish stocks recover.

Looking around, you're willing to bet it's the former.  Unlike mers, nymphs are proper omnivores; if fish is thin, they can just eat greens.  Also, there are probably three dozen families and twenty or so individuals in this building, but plenty of open cubbies where a larger population could hibernate.  It's too purposely, carefully built to be desperation.  

You think for a long minute, weighing and considering options, before you climb out of the water and drag your self over to one of the empty cubbies.  You wipe yourself down of water for a bit, write a note for when everyone wakes up, and climb in.  It's dry-lander bedding, blankets and pillows and such.  You play with a few trinkets from your bandoleer for a while, but it's not long at all before your eyes get heavy.  Maybe it's the restricted breathing of the last few days, or maybe just the....weeks of stress and brutality you've gone through, but you're already so tired.  And this bed is so warm.  

You rest your head, gazing without seeing across the room.  Almost directly across, you can see a young family, two adults and a young child, wrapped up in a large blanket.  The parents cradle their child between them.  You wonder what they're dreaming about, if your grandmother's stories of sympathetic hibernation dreams are true, then feel your eyelids drop.

Your last real thought is to wonder when you'll wake again.  

Chapter Text

For the first time in so long, you dream in music.

Glorious song rises from the deep and surrounds you, filling up what's been empty and soothing what's been hurt.  

A little boat you recognize is bobbing in the water above.

And there he is.

Your brother.  His speckled, sandy patterned tail swishes contentedly back and forth so he can lean over the prow of the boat and flirt with the little nymph he's supposed to be trading with.

You wonder which one it is.  While he's been flirting for months with anything on two legs, he does have his favorites.  Lately, it's been the brother/sister pair, Titus and Pearl.

Normally, you'd be annoyed with him; Titus and Pearl live on a different island.  He'd have to leave everyone else behind if he's really thinking of pursuing them.  And leaving would be very difficult for you.  Not to mention, you don't want to.

For some reason though, you just...don't feel irritated.  You're not afraid he'll leave you and never come back.  You're not wishing that some pretty little mer will come along and bewitch him into staying home.  

In the shade of your fan coral, you watch without a single concern and your mind returns to the song surrounding you.

You don't know it.

"Sing of life in the deep, sing of waters shining.

Lift your voice, from mer's keep, your heart still refining.

We live and so continue, though wars come and come again.

We'll rise and laugh anew, when the storm does end."

You're sure you don't know it...and yet...it feels familiar.  A rallying song, you think.  Maybe not.  

Turning your attention away from the song and your brother, you can see otters playing in the distance.  Someone seems to be laughing.  Oddly, the view from the mouth of your caves is different from what you've always known but...familiar.  And you feel like, if you turn, you'll see everyone going about their normal day.  You can almost see flashes of light off colorful tail fins out of the corner of your eye.

For some reason, though, you don't turn.

You can't.

No, you won't.

Aside from your brother, laughing with his current crush, there's an edge of disquiet pressing against the inside of your skull.

What if you turn and there really is no one there?

You know...but you don't want to.  Let this dream stay a dream as long as it can.

*

Stunner Blue can feel the problems piling on as the days turn to weeks.

He still can't find you.

He knows you're here, somewhere, but he's found fewer and fewer signs.

The clam shells were, for sure, a sign of your presence.  They're the same species he nabbed for a hunting snack before you escaped him.  He's found a few shellfish beds around this island, but this particular species is not among them.  At this point, he's even trecked across the flats to other islands and he knows damn well that this species can't have come from anywhere else nearby.

The knife, too, has to have come from your island.  It has a hilt that curves into a comfortable shape for your size of hand and embedded obsidian decoration.  The local mers seem to favor a straight hilt with more carving decoration, and while they seem to trade quite a bit with dry landers, even the dry landers seem different from the ones local to your island, if their traded tools are to be believed.

And that now long gone smell of sealing cream.  

But those are just the problems with finding you.  He has other issues.

The water is rapidly getting quite a bit colder.  Not a terrible issue for a shark of his size, he has the fat stores in his tail to keep warm, except...

Well, the more his fat stores are used to maintain his body temperature, the more he needs to eat...

And he's found very little to eat.  

In fact, that was as much what drove him to another island as looking for you.  At least in the shelter of another island he found some lobster.  Here?  The skate he ate already a month ago was the closest to actual food he's found.  

And his final problem; he needs to return home.

Tigress will need him, soon.

The new moon starts tonight.

He has to return to the city before it becomes the full moon once more. 

Realistically, that gives him five days to find, capture and find a way to transport you without you dying in sunlight.  

Circling the island is getting him nowhere.  He needs a new idea.

As he returns, once more, to his borrowed home, he feels a chill in the water and turns.

The mouth of the island river.  

A cursory exploration early in his search led him to the conclusion that there's no satisfying hiding place in the river for you.  Maybe it's time for a re evaluation.  

Chapter Text

There are more people around.  You can tell.  Lots of people going about their lives in the caves behind you...except you're not really sure they're caves.

Not that it matters.  It's a comfort to know that there are people.  Mers and nymphs, you think.  You're still afraid to look.  In case they disappear.  Instead, you watch your brother playing with the otters.  

You feel the weight of someone's presence behind you.

"You're hurt."

The voice is one you're sure you've never heard before, but it feels familiar.  Like someone you know even though you're sure you've never met them.

"It's fine," you say.

"Is it?"

"It's getting better."

Whoever it is is quiet for a long minute.

"You're lonely."

You shrug.  "It's fine."

"That loneliness?  No.  It's not."

That surprises you.  It's true, of course.  Mers aren't meant to be alone.  Maybe for a few days or weeks, maybe for a hunt or so, but it's been so much more than that for you.

Even though...you can't really focus on the time you've spent alone for some reason.  It's...out of reach.

You watch your brother, trying to figure out why you feel like you've been alone for a long while.  It can't be; he's right there, blowing bubbles at a curious otter.

"What happened to him?" asks the voice.

Cold drops into your stomach.  What happe...no.  Nothing happened to him.  He's right there...

He's right there.

"I...I didn't see what happened to him.  I just know he was trying to protect everyone..."  The words clog in your throat.  It's like your brother gets...further away as they come out.  

A strong hand touches your shoulder.

You hardly turn, trying to keep an eye on your brother, but he's fading into sunlight.  "Come inside.  Everyone's waiting to meet you."

"But...everyone knows me, don't they?  Wait...this isn't..." the confusion breaks.  No.  No one here knows you.  Because this isn't your reef.

"It's alright.  We've all been waiting to meet you."

You curl in on yourself.  Your brother is right there.  You could go back to the pleasant dreams of him playing with sea otters and flirting with nymphs and telling funny stories about his hunts that always end up getting the fish by accident...but deep down, you know it's just memories. 

He'll never touch you. 

He's not the hand on your shoulder right now.

An arm wraps around your shoulders and holds you through the moment. 

"Are you ready?"

You look up to see the narrow face of a willowy nymph.  She looks...calm.  Patient.  Dependable.

You swallow.  "I don't know."

She tilts her head and watches you.

You shudder.  "But I...I want to be."

She smiles, and you let her finally turn you around.   

*

Stunner glides up the river and sees...nothing.  It's utterly empty and frozen at the edges.  It feels like an utterly useless exercise.  There's nowhere to hide here and nothing to eat.  Furthermore, the ice makes for dangerous shards, that often break away and float downriver.

It's in trying to figure out a way around a temporary dam of these shards that he sticks his head above water.  The chill cuts through him and stays in his throat.  How do dry landers stand how cold the air gets?

But that's when he sees the village.  Buried in snow and quiet.

He huffs in frustration.  It could be that you're hiding in one of those buildings, hibernating, but getting to them will be a long, cold chore through the snow.

There's just one building in easy reach of the river, a large, round thing.  It's a good enough place to start.

*

Real introductions will wait. 

They'll have to wait until the spring thaw breaks the river banks and wakes everyone.  It is only the powerful mind, like Dapple, who's brought you in, that can distinctly communicate.  Sometimes, powerful emotions and thoughts and dreams can be shared, and that's how everyone knew you were here.  Dapple speculates that if all thoughts could be freely shared by everyone, the whole community would simply fade into each other.  It is in the vagueness of other people in this state that a sense of self is maintained.

From the vague sense of...loving teasing you get from the others, this seems to be a common thing with Dapple.  Still, you find yourself rapidly becoming close with everyone.  You join in unfamiliar songs with them, settle and get the vague nonsense of their dreams.  You watch nonsense spats formed around conflicting dream logic worked out through community. You feel a closeness with others, mers and nymphs, that's been absent so long that its restoration almost cuts.  

Sometimes, you still get dreams of your brother or your grandmother, or the neighbors you used to live with, or the people you used to trade with, or the otters you used to play with...but losing yourself in those dreams doesn't feel quite so much like the only way to keep breathing.  

You're still shy of them.  It's like you've been alone so long you've forgotten how to feel comfortable in a community.

But, you're getting better.  

*

The odd, circular building is so encased in ice that it takes most of a day for Stunner to force his way in through the riverside entrance.  When he finally does, he's disappointed.  Just hibernants.  How...pathetic. 

Still, it's a larger population, over all, than he was expecting.  Even with everyone's heartbeat slowed, there's so many hear that the room is pleasantly warm in spite of the rising ice outside.  Maybe when Tigress no longer needs him for the year, he'll get some of his buddies together and raid this place.  There's a few tough looking mers around and nymphs are always a fun challenge.  

He's turning to leave when he spots another occupied cubby, away from the others.  Only a bit of mer tail is visible, free of the blankets.

Dark blue and swirling with hypnotic silver speckling.

Stunner pulls himself to the alcove, and pulls the blanket down from the face.

He grins.  "There you are, beauty."

Chapter Text

Stunner Blue's head fills so full of possibilities he has to stop to breathe for a moment.

The top most ideas have to wait; no matter how much he wants to climb on top of you and satisfy his own desires, it's not practical.  Temporarily increasing his heart rate and breathing like that will only reduce the time until he drops into hibernation, and he has no idea how or when he'd emerge.  

Also, through his admiration and thrill at finding you, his path out is filling up with ice again.  Right now, he can still bull his way out.  While he's confident he always could if it was just a matter of time and work, the possibility of dropping into hibernation changes the rules too much.

And there's the other reality; his limited time to get you back to the city.

Stunner strokes your face, considering his options, before he places a kiss on your forehead.  "Be back soon."

*

"Is something wrong?" asks Dapple.

You look up.  "I feel like...someone touched my face?"

Dapple frowns, but the moment passes and you both return to pleasant dreams.

*

To Stunner's surprise, it's fairly easy for him to move over the snow.  Bitter cold, but easy.  His tail is wide enough that he hardly breaks through the surface and can just...slide along, so it takes him barely a minute to go from the river to the dry land village.

Probably where most of the Nymphs live.

The houses are...well, it's not like Stunner knows all that much about nymph houses.  Most of these are one or two stories tall, with a half floor in their roofs and arranged in little arcs of four and five homes.  In the arc is a large outdoor kitchen, seemingly shared between all four. 

Stunner's had cooked food before, of course.  Before his sister's conquest, it was imperative that everyone get every calorie a kill had to offer every single time, and Tigress used her pet nymphs and their cooking to make it happen.  These days, the Empress only thinks of a few things as worth cooking, but she still keeps a kitchen and dry lander servants for those few things.  Stunner finds cooked food nostalgic, a lot of the time, but there's pride to be found in being above his lean years, so, he rarely indulges.  

Up here, with no one watching, Stunner Blue is tempted...

No.

Things to do, people to conquer.  No time for frivolous memories.  

At the end of one of the little arcs of houses is a shed.  Inside, there's quite a lot that's potentially useful.  

Stunner grins; he has his plan to bring you home.  

*

"Ow."

"What's wrong?" asks Dapple.  

You stare.  "I don't know...it just feels like...someone's grabbed me?"

Dapple turns to you.  She watches you a long moment while you try to figure out why it feels like something's grabbed your arms and is using them to haul you up.  "...Might...might something be happening to your body?"

For a long moment, you have no idea what she's asking you.  Your body?  This is your body, and no one's touching...

Oh.

"This...this is the dream," you say, trying to pull out of thinking of this as...everything.

*

Dapple, far more used to the ideas of hibernation than you, is already calculating.  She doesn't exactly know specifics, those are hard to communicate in this state, but she knows you've fled from...something.  Maybe someone?  She's not sure.

She's just about decided on a course of action when she notices that you're fading.  This doesn't strike her at first, other than your distress and the frustration of knowing you'll be alone, at least for a bit, but then she realizes it's not that you're waking up. 

You're not waking up.  

*

Forcing his way in through the land side entrance was an irritating few hours, with many treks back to the river so to clear away the possibility of hibernation from his system, but it's all worth it to see you wrapped up in blankets, safe, dry and unable to wake up or defend yourself, and tucked into the rain barrel.  Getting the rain barrel out onto the raft he's built is a lot of frustrating work, but now, with a few ropes to pull the raft with, he's on his way home.  He'll have you tucked away and in spelled cuffs before you can do a single thing about it.  

And to the touchy little subject of hibernation having a few abortive properties, that's fine.  If you were pregnant before and aren't now, it's a resolvable issue; he still has his claspers, after all.

*

Mers and nymphs often live side by side, in mixed communities.  They can even bear children together, though the child of a mer/nymph pairing will always be either a nymph or a mer.  Every little mer or nymph knows that it's the resultant population stability on both parts that thwarted the elven conquest so long ago.

But while mers and nymphs are so close, there's a lot that most of either group doesn't know about the other.

For example; a mer enters hibernation by staying out of the water long enough.  That's not how nymph hibernation works.  Why would it be?  Nymphs are as much beings of the land as they are of the water.

So, although it takes a few hours, a nymph can wake without being re-submerged in water.

On a shelf in the hibernation lodge, where she was, til now, so comfortably snuggled up with three sisters, Dapple opens her eyes.

Chapter Text

You've heard of some beings keeping small fish as pets in a bowl.

This, cut off from the dreams of other hibernants, swirling in distressed circles and waiting for whatever's coming at whims far beyond your control, this must be what that feels like.  

If you focus, really focus, you can feel your body, curled up and...contained inside tight layers of blankets.  

But it keeps slipping away, leaving you with...nothing.  

And yet, you can't drift back into a real dream of your own.  Wistful memories of your brother and home have abandoned you.  The dreams and presence of others, before so healing, in absence become distress.  

*

Part of becoming a member of Tigress Blue's army involves dragging a boat across rough waters from below.

It's difficult, frustrating work, but it builds strength and stamina and ensures that anyone can do work managing supply chains.  

As stunner battles waves to keep his improvised raft with a full barrel on top afloat and moving in the direction he wants, he devises edits to the training.  Yes, obviously a proper boat is ideal, and he wishes for one almost constantly, but clearly better training would use a fragile raft instead.  

It really would be easier to drag you along in a net, but...

Aside from exposing you to sunlight, he's got a few ideas boiling in his head about how to pay you back for the month and change he spent hunting for you.  

Those ideas keep his grin wide, even as the rough waves force him to beach on the raft and reinforce it.  They keep his claspers eager when his shoulders burn from tugging his ropes.  They keep him awake even when his body screams to sleep.

As slow going as it is, he's going to be back in the city just in time.  

Tigress will understand.  Hell, she'll probably have a solution to bringing Stunner's pretty little mate into the dry rooms underwater without waking you.

"Just wait, Darling.  I'll surround you in the conquest treasures.  You'll never live another day without seeing my raiding trophies.  My friends, my servants, my  conquests, you'll never meet another person who's not some how mine...well, unless they belong to Tigress."  The thought makes him laugh.  As if Tigress would ever save you from him.

*

With the few hours it took Dapple to wake, she was almost afraid your abductor would be gone before she could even figure out a direction.

Luckily, between it being faster to run through the woods than to travel down river and the high vantage point provided by some cliff side shores and the raft slowing him down, she spots the ridiculous raft before it clears the horizon.  

Part of her does panic a little that they'll somehow turn, go a different direction, but Dapple knows better than to leave empty handed, and runs back to the village.  Two of her sisters are stirring in the lodge, showing signs that they'll wake soon.  The other one old enough to be any help is a mermaid, and won't wake on her own.  Dapple writes a note with instructions and a directions, particularly to wake their father, and leaves it on her own pillow.

She's about to leave the lodge when she notices something.

An abandoned bandoleer.

It looks familiar, though she knows she's never actually seen it before.  Well, not while awake.  Sometimes, she caught sight of it in your dreams, occasionally on that merman, occasionally with you.  The dark bead work in angular patterns isn't native to this island, so it has to be yours.  

Dapple picks it up and straps it on without a thought.

It already has a hunting knife, equally not of this place, but Dapple fetches a speargun and two spears.  The weight makes her, reluctantly, only take one spear, though.  She can't have the other slow her down. 

Then she's off.  

For a moment, running to the cliff, she panics because she can't see the raft anymore, so she doesn't hesitate in diving into the freezing waters.  

It never occurs to her that she's doing something crazy for a stranger.  You're not a stranger, really; the two of you have shared dreams.  She may not know your name, but she's experienced too many of your emotions to abandon you.

Not that she would have anyway.

Someone in her knowledge is in distress.  If Dapple has the ability to help, she'll help.

It really is that simple.  

Chapter Text

Your dreamless hibernation has become...smaller.

Maybe before, back in the lodge, there was an edge to the dreams, hell not even the dreams, just the vague state of being in between the dreams everyone shared.  If there was then, you know you'd probably never have found it.

Maybe alone, if you weren't so distressed, the edges wouldn't be tightening around you.  Maybe it would have stayed big enough that you'd have stayed comfortable. 

Now, there's absolutely an edge.  

It no longer feels like you're swimming in circles in a bowl, because being a fish in a bowl would still have room to swim in circles.  

There's no room, now.  You feel trapped inside your own body that won't move or wake up. 

You've got no choice but to pray for rain, and further that that would be enough to wake you.

*

On average, a mer is a faster swimmer than a nymph.  

Of course, there are exceptions, always.  A trained nymph will always outclass an amateur mer, and there are physical wonders who break expectations.

Still, a mer will usually outrace a nymph in the water.  The advantages of the specialization.  

So, it's a relief when Dapple pops her head above the water and sees circling seabirds.  Any boat or piece of flotsam and there they are, sure as the sun and tide.  

A few hours later, she can see it, a stupid little raft with one of the village rain barrels atop...

Moving.

A moderate pace for a boat, a miraculous pace for a raft.

Dapple ducks back under the water and tries to catch up.

A few hours later, she's startled into keeping her distance.

Dapple's seen big mers before.  Her own father, she's always classed as huge.

The merman dragging the raft along isn't just big, he's monstrous.  Massive.  

And, even from this distance, clearly a tiger shark.  

It's the raft that's slowed him down enough for her to catch up.  Nothing else.

Dapple hefts her speargun and knows it won't work.  She can't take this beast out herself.  

Not in a direct fight.

Dapple considers.

She's not worried about being spotted from this distance; nymphs, close to the surface, have pretty good underwater camouflage.  Even if that beast looks her way, he'll probably just see light splintering through the water.  Closer to the sea floor, she'd be obvious, here she's confident of being safe.

Could she take him out with her sisters and papa?  

Even if they could, it would be a close fight, and they'd all be sure to be injured.

No.  She needs a different plan.  

And that plan needs to start with food.  It's been months since Dapple's last calorie, and the sprints and swim since have only heightened her need for anything.

That serves the start of her plan; she needs food, and the merman will, too.

Soon.  

*

The sight of a familiar landmark and the crescent moon rising overhead both sing in Stunner's blood.  Ten days left to get to the city, and he can probably manage in six...

Or, he can rest at the next island, maybe even find something to eat, and get there in five.  

Rest and food will bring him stronger and faster...

And it would mean he won't embarrass Tigress by turning up scrawny.  

Stunner makes his decision and heads towards the island.  

It's really more of an ocean mount.

On the water's surface?  Nothing more than a few barren rocks with waves beating against them. 

Under the water...well, it's little more than that, really...

On the sea floor, there's the remains of the nocturnal's road, still destroyed from the failed elvish conquest.  Who knows, maybe there was a time this mountain was planned to be a reef, a new community.

The dreams of long gone generations.

Now, it's little different from some rubble at the base of the mountain.

Except that, in the rocks and crags are millions of lobsters.  

It's almost too easy; stick a spear in any mass and come up with a meal.  Good feeding, on this island and a few others in the region.  A few years ago, this time of year would see dozens of mers from nearby islands hunting for their fill.  Now, it's practically private hunting grounds for Stunner and his buddies.  This island isn't that comfortable, though, so they're probably at one of the other ocean mounts.

Stunner comes up with three large lobsters and gorges himself.  He's determined to come into court looking pristine.  

*

Dapple circles the island carefully, before using her speargun to snag a modest sized lobster.  She hides in the crags as near to the merman as she dares to eat it, too.  She won't spread the smell and raise his suspicions.  

This close, he seems...familiar.  Like the vague nightmares she sometimes got from you.  Nothing about him, not the way he sings little songs, not the way he simply tosses the parts of the lobster he's not interested in back down into the masses of them, seems odd with the context of your dreams.  Frustratingly, instead of trying to find somewhere to sleep, he loops the ropes from the raft into a sort of hammock and settles in.  

Still, the raft is close to the island...

Chapter Text

Only the barest tip of the ocean mount breaks the waves at high tide, and Dapple clings to it until the waters recede.  The stone is jagged and uncomfortable under her feet, but she carefully balances until she's close enough to gently step out onto the raft.

Her foot instantly goes through a hole.

Dapple freezes, hoping the tiger shark hasn't woken.

When nothing grabs her leg or bursts out of the water, she relaxes, just a bit, and pulls her foot free.

The raft is slipshod, but the barrel is firmly bound in place.  More over, it's too big to just tip even if it were on dry land.

Dapple pulls the blankets inside apart to see you.  It's her first look.  You're fairly pretty, but even in hibernation, you look exhausted.  Dapple wonders if she's surprised or not to find a nocturnal.  She closes the blankets back over your head.

After implementing a back up plan, she begins.  Carefully, quietly and gently as she can, Dapple begins sawing through the bindings of rope with her hunting knife.  One at a time, ruining the raft's integrity.  

*

Between several days of exhausting travel and a full belly, Stunner Blue is well and thoroughly asleep.

Through a quirk of his position in his make shift hammock, he does feel the vibrations through the ropes...against his right clasper.  Dreams turn rapidly to you and the endless possibilities once he has you snugly settled in at home.  Particularly, he remembers one of his buddies talking about starving a couple of cleaner shrimp, then unleashing them on a mate during sex to enjoy their ticklish attentions in different ways.  Most cleaning shrimp and similar don't like sudden movements, but those had been so desperate they weren't bothered with the very real danger of being crushed.  

Stunner can see the appeal, but...well, he doesn't think dead shrimp would add to his fun.  

What finally wakes him is the niggling realization that while his right clasper is being stimulated, his left one is...not.  An accident of positioning put the tip of the right one against a rope while the left one is left neglected.  

Barely and blearily awake, for a moment Stunner simply wraps his hands around both, eager to simply use up his energy and go back to sleep...but the ropes start rubbing against his wrist.  Irritated, his attentions climb the rope all the way to the raft...

Which is breaking up.

Very suddenly awake, Stunner pulls free of the hammock and roars to the surface.

*

Looking down to saw at the knots is why Dapple sees him in time to leap free of the raft.

But, while she gets free, a massive hand comes up and siezes her arm as she prances away along the rocks.  

A moment of blinding pain later, she's in the air.  

She smacks into the water's surface a moment later, too stunned to try and move again.  Maybe if she holds back every scream and simply floats, he'll leave her floating.  

No such luck.

*

The way the stupid little nymph's arm hangs limp tells Stunner it's dislocated.

Good.  

He tosses her twice more into the air to vent his feelings before he turns his attentions to the raft.

On looking, you're still limp in the barrel.  That's about the only good news.  He has to perch the thing precariously on the rocks, dare to abandon it for an hour so he can rebuild the thing back to stability.  The ropes that four times cursed nymph cut are too short, now, to do anything the easy way, so he uses her hunting knife to hack grooves into the logs and branches, fitting them together like a puzzle instead.  It's probably more stable, now, and it's probably how he ought to have done it in the first place.  

Finally, that done, he carefully puts the barrel back on top, retying his ropes to keep it stable.

Stunner sighs with relief.  Nothing will go wrong.

Now it's not temper that turns his attentions back to the nymph.

It's just his own capacity for spite.

He has just a bit of extra rope.

For a minute, he considers the possibilities of dragging the impertinent nymph back to the city.  For his own amusements...

No.  

No, this brat who would dare try to steal what's his doesn't sing through his blood the way you do.  And the idea of humiliating both of you by pinning the nymph down in front of you doesn't quite appeal.  She feels too much like a rival for him to want to dominate her that way.

So, for his friends perhaps...

No.

No, anything that will challenge him will likely again.

And, while Stunner Blue will accept a thousand kinds of challenge with a smile, you are not a line he'll allow crossed.  

Instead, he grabs the nymph's feet and drags her down towards the sea floor.

*

Lobsters are food.

Mers, nymphs and anything else that hunts the seas can agree on that.

Lobsters are food.

But...while the crustaceans are universal meals, that's kind of how they see everything else, too.  

So, when the tiger shark merman ties Dapple's feet to an outcropping of rock not in the swarm of lobsters, but near it, she fights to pull herself back to sense.

"I'll leave you your hands free, just to be nice," he laughs in her face.

The throbbing, swelling pain that is her limp right arm tells Dapple he's very right to think that's not going to be any of her advantage.  

*

Inside the barrel, a trickle of moisture runs across your left gill.  It's not a lot, just a damp rag dripping water over your mouth.  Certainly not enough to wake you up, yet.

More importantly, it wasn't enough for Stunner to notice.

Chapter Text

Well...the major advantage of the last few hours, the raft isn't as hard to pull.  He really should have taken more time to build it in the first place.

The part of his brain satisfied with his revenge on that nymph allows Stunner to recognize that.

The rest of him, still working off the anger of something encroaching on his territory, swims in near silence.

There's no imagining of things he could have done instead to make that nymph suffer.

There's no musings about how to play with you.

There's no pondering of what his future children will be like.  

In silence, the miles disappear against his fins.  

He sees them in his periphery before they really reveal themselves.

Three other tiger shark mers.  

His twin niece and nephew, Periwinkle and Azure Blue, and their trainer, Thunder, a rough and tumble mer Stunner's known all his life.  

Stunner forces down his anger and sweeps up the two teenagers, eldest of Tigress's children.  "Hello, fry."

Peri squirms against her brother before she gets sufficient movement to headbutt Stunner.  "We're not fry, fool!"

Stunner laughs, but manages not to let go of either.  "Oh?  Still look like you belong in the nursery to me!"

Azure bites his arm.

Stunner was expecting it and feigns great pain.  And, indeed, it probably would be if he weren't a tiger shark mer.  Truthfully, Periwinkle's headbutt did more damage.  "Curse you, Azure Blue!"

Azure and Peri both flt away from him in the water, adopting...well, ridiculous ideas of what a shark's guard should look like.  

Thunder growls above them both.  "Loosen up that tail, prince.  You can't get the speed going if you're stiff like that.  Princess, sharpen your lines."

Of the two, it's clear Peri has the better knack for their Thunder's directions.  Azure seems to react to them by swishing his tail back and forth before stiffening in a different pose.  

Everyone's always seen that Princess Periwinkle Blue has more the knack for violence and tactics than her brother.  And she finds joy in fighting.  

But Tigress wants to see how far her eldest daughter will make it, and so makes a point of praising Azure even when he's subpar, but only praising Peri when she's exceptional.  

As for Azure...

What a waste of a teenage tiger shark mer.  Particularly one who sooo resembles Tigress.  He joins in with Peri's training only because she's doing it, accepts meager, empty praise and does no more.  There's no ambition, no curiosity, no hunger for more.  Worse, it's not like he's got a hunger for more in other areas of his life.  Even a novel meal can't drive him to be a better hunter, because he'll be fed either way.  Even a great treasure can't roust him from his bedding, because he'll be rich either way.  Even the presence of rivals can't make him fight harder.

A boy worthy, only, of being a sacrifice for his sister's potential.  

Both teens charge him.

Stunner shoves Azure down in the water, a violent jerk that leaves the boy stunned, but dodges Peri.  She's pretty smart, one hand darting out to grab at his dorsal fin, missing, but circling back around for another charge.  Her black eyes are moving, taking in the details, and on her second miss, a hand darts out in a different direction, grabbing onto the raft ropes.

Stunner stops playing, instantly, grabbing his niece.  "Now, now, you leave that alone."

Azure looks up the ropes.  "What is it?  You find something interesting?"

"Interesting and mine."

*

Ordinarily, a little trickle of water would not be enough to rouse a mer from hibernation.

In fact, what's beginning to pull you consciousness back is a little more complicated than that.

Dapple wrapped your gills, mouth and nose in soaked rags.  

The process isn't fast.  Even being submerged wouldn't have been. 

But your desperation and fear is helping. 

For just a moment, your eyes flutter open to the darkness inside the barrel, and your tail flexes.  You try to hold onto it, grasp at it.

Then your eyes drop closed again.

*

Dapple has spent an hour or longer staying as absolutely still as she can, her eyes on the swarms of lobster.

She has no knife or spear in reach, so she can't duck down to cut her feet free.

One arm is useless and seizing with pain.

Dapple forces her breathing to steady.  This'll be the third time she's tried.  She really does need to get away from these lobsters, now.

The nymph folds at the knee and curls around her feet to grasp the bindings one handed.  Her right arm sort of...floats at her side, throbbing more with every movement she makes.

One handed, the knots don't yield. 

Some of the lobsters notice the movement and turn towards her.  Claws raised.

Dapple shows them teeth.  

Lobsters fully understand the idea of a potential food source being both bigger than them and still able to fight.

The problems will come when these lobsters realize how many of them there are.

Chapter Text

The way back to the city is slowed, first by Stunner's eldest two niblings and their trainer, and very shortly after by his buddies.  All of them are feasting on lobster from nearby islands, though one, Hail, is dragging along a large tuna that's nearly dead from exhaustion.

Hail shrugs with a grin.  "Figure I can throw it to the scrappers and see how long it lasts."

Stunner laughs and accepts half a lobster.  "I'd like to watch, but I've got things to do when I get back."

"Might have something to do with this?"  Capable makes no move to touch the raft or it's ropes.

Stunner smiles.  "Personal treat."

"Treasure?" asks Hail.

Loz considers the raft and shakes her head.  "Gotta be a person...maybe a human?"  She grins at Stunner.  "Careful, handsome.  Humans don't hibernate, they just starve."

Stunner considers the mer.  "You painted your tail?"

Loz runs a hand down her sides.  "I like pinstripes.  And so does Tigress.  Might not last a week, but it'll be a nice surprise.  Come now, baby brother, what's in the barrel."

It's self control, only, that keeps Stunner's grin from shrinking.  Loz was his childhood friend, they grew up together.  There was a time, very briefly, that he considered whether she'd be a good mate.

Then, when Tigress had thrown the first competition for potential mates, Loz had entered and won.  Then, Loz had adopted a lot of the ways Tigress interacted with Stunner. 

From Tigress, baby brother is just true.  He is many years younger than his sister.

From Loz, it's infuriating.

Capable senses the mood shift and rolls in gentle spirals.  "Come on, Lozzy, Stunner'll show us in good time."  He throws himself over Stunner's shoulders.  "Just a hint, though, right?  Little maid or've you got yourself a man stuffed in there?"

Stunner laughs.  "You're not stealing what's mine, Cap."

Capable pouts.  "Who said anything about stealing from you?  I mean...just look at this very nibble-able neck you've got here.  I wouldn't mind a bite..."

Stunner shrugs him off.  

Capable laughs and swims ahead.

"It's still a ways back," says Loz.  "You want a hand with that?"

"I'm not accepting Hail being volunteered by you," says Stunner.  "Like I said, this is mine."

*

You can hear voices.  They're muffled through the blankets and barrel and because you're not in the water.  You think you can hear laughter.  

Though the blankets protect you, you can see daylight through the cracks in the barrel.  

This slow coming back to yourself allows you to stay calm and refrain from thrashing around, but it's fragile.  The cloth around your face and neck, slowly bringing you back to conscience, is also drying out.

But, moving too soon will only make waste.

You close your eyes, not to sleep, but to keep from getting another headache from the light.  

*

Dapple struggles not to flinch as the lobsters edge nearer.  If she can just get her feet free, she can swim away, maybe find help.  

But the lobsters are getting more curious, more sure of a meal.

And they're coming closer.  

The ropes around her feet are very well tied. 

A knife, or even two hands, and she could free herself, easily.

Picking at them with one hand?

Dapple presses her eyes closed for a long moment, then glares at the nearest lobster.  "Don't you dare think I won't eat you if you get any closer, lunch meat!"

If lobsters understood speech, and if this one was on its own, and if she was free and her arm wasn't dislocated, it would certainly believe her.  Hell, even one of those things being true, and this lobster would scuttle for a hiding place and not think twice about getting closer.

Unfortunate, then, what the actual facts of the situation are.  

*

Reasonably, what Dapple has already forgotten, is that she had her sisters wake her father.  

Dapple's father, Civil, a merman with fins like a sailfish and a rippling blue pattern all down his tail, is much faster than his nymph daughter.  Faster than most mers, really.  Before he fell for a pretty nymph on the shore, he used to love showing off his speed and power, testing it against his fellows.  Now, following after his eldest child, it's not competition or self-adoration driving him.

It's fear.  

He's probably never swam so fast in his life.

This is why, a full day behind her, he's nonetheless found the sea mount.  

Pausing here was supposed to be a break so he could get a proper meal before he keeps going.

And this is why, while circling the masses of lobster, looking for a reasonable pick, he spots his daughter.

In a much worse position than he expected to find her. 

Civil shouts, then dives.  

Chapter Text

Before the Elven War, there were three great cities of the mer.

Aurora Deep, Current's Rise and Shallows Heart.

The elves destroyed most of the reefs off Shallows Heart, and these days it's more of a nymph city than a mer city.  

Aurora Deep...well, it does still exist, after a fashion...

Current's Rise...well...

From afar, it looks like a bustling place.

If only it were that simple.

*

The pack of tiger shark mers glide through the city, not directly to the grand palace, for two reasons.  

Reason number one?  The stadium.

In the bowels of a large stadium are the imprisoned "scrappers".  Mers who fought to protect their communities and settlements and put up a good enough fight to capture instead of just killing.  Mostly mermen, they're each promised one of two conditions to leave.  The first, is to win one hundred matches, so far accomplished by no one.  The second is to kill another mer, usually from their own community, in Tigress's name, so far done by a grand total of ten out of several hundred.  

Many...most of the scrappers are no longer in good condition by the time they've been there a few months.  Damaged and maimed fins, malnutrition, scars, infections and parasites.  One of the pressures Tigress uses to break them down is only giving the lot of them one basking bed.  That one bed is swarmed with overfed cleaner fish and shrimp, but...there's just not enough room for the vast numbers to all be cleaned during a day, or even a week.  Another pressure?  Limited food.

And so, Hail releases his tuna into the fighting cage, telling stadium officials to take good care of it until tomorrow evening, and to make an event out of letting the most starved scrappers go after it.

Reason number two?  Stunner's raft.

Stunner waits patiently above the city for the rest of his friends to head to the palace with his explicit instructions.

*

Just as the sun sets, you peek over the lip of the barrel and into the water.

The other tiger shark mers seem to be gone, leaving only Stunner. 

Time to move.

You carefully squirm through the masses of blanket as the sky darkens, trying not to shake the raft too much.  

A nearly full moon rises and you're finally poised on the lip.

You glance at the water.

No time but now.

*

A splash some ten feet away from him wouldn't normally draw Stunner's attention unless he was hunting, but he's a bit bored, so his gaze flicks over.

It takes a long minute to understand what he's seeing.

Huge, articulated fins on a dark blue tail, speckled with silver.

Swimming away from him.

With a roar of realization, Stunner gives chase.

*

Every breath of water chases away your fatigue, bringing you back to life.

Every sweep of your tail drives you forward at a pace you know he can't match.  If you can keep ahead long enough for him to fall behind, you'll be clear to find somewhere to hide.

And, with a city of millions beneath you, there has to be somewhere to hide where he can't find you.

For just a moment, you feel his fingers graze your tail.

But he doesn't get a hold. 

*

For Civil, it's a quick bit of knife work and Dapple is free.  That's easy enough.

Bringing her back to the surface, onto the rocks so she can be free of the water for a bit, that's easy.

Sitting on her back so he can leverage her arm back into its socket...that's difficult.

Not least because he knows he's hurting her.

She's good about it, biting into the hilt of his knife, hers already lost, and keeping from screaming.

When it finally pops into place, she lies there, panting, as Civil sits to one side, watching over her.

The arm may be the worst of it, but her back is covered in bruises.  

"We'll wait for your sisters," says Civil.  "Then we're going home."

Dapple's eyes pop open and she stares at her father.  "What?  No."

Civil stares her down.  

Dapple stares right back.  "She's still been kidnapped!  I almost had her free!"

"You were almost killed."

"You saw her dreams!"

Civil tries to keep his voice level.  "She has nothing to do with us."

"You saw her dreams!"

"Dapple, she has nothing to do with us and you almost got killed for a stranger!"

"You're trying to tell me you didn't feel her fear?"

"Of course I felt it!  And I know it hurts everyone else just like it hurt you and me to share dreams with someone who was ripped away like that!  But she's a stranger, and we have to prioritize our own."

Dapple's jaw works for a moment, and Civil hopes she'll stop arguing.  His mate and children are his life.  

"That man who took her, he's a tiger shark mer," says Dapple.

"All the more reason not to draw attention to ourselves."

"You think we haven't?"

Civil blinks.  "Pardon?  They have no reason to pay attention to us.  Especially not if we don't try to rescue someone from them."

"You saw her dreams.  The ones she was keeping down, right?  The ones that were memories.  The ones she kept hiding from."

"Dapple, I..."

"Do you really think her island did anything to draw attention to themselves?  Why did the tiger shark mers even attack them?"

"Could be a lot of things, labor or specialized skills..."

"So you don't know."

"Dapple."

"No, you don't know why they were attacked, so you have no idea what to do or not to do to keep our island safe.  What if there was absolutely no reason to attack them?  Nothing to defend, nothing to gain?  They just did it to."

"They wouldn't..."

"How do you know?  You have no clue what they would or wouldn't do, and that's the point!"

Civil bites back a thousand retorts, breathes in deeply through his nose, and endeavors to keep his voice even.  "You are not dying for a mermaid who's name you don't even know."

Dapple stands on the rocks, her shoulders square, her eyes fierce in the moonlight.  "I'm not out to die...but if we won't fight for a nameless stranger now, we can't rely on anyone else fighting when it's us facing their spears."

Chapter Text

Looking up from the city, seeing the abandoned raft, the enraged and in pursuit Stunner Blue and a tiny thing like you fleeing...well, it certainly tells a story.  

*

Your sight is still splintered by the dying sun, you can still feel your flesh heat in its light.  

But, clear sea in front of you, no net to catch on the rocks, no storm to roil the seas, he'll never catch you.

He can't catch you.

You're more built for speed than he is, after all...

It's just a rippling of water that ends the chase.

Out of nowhere, a massive mermaid wraps both strong arms around your body.

You thrash and wriggle against her even as she pulls you both to a stop and turns to face Stunner Blue.

*

Stunner stops, his chest heaving with shock.  

Tigress Blue pins him in open water with her even black gaze, you struggling against her.  "Problems, baby brother?"

*

Dapple and one of her sisters, Marri, swim towards the city.  Well...Dapple is hugging Marri's shoulders while the mermaid drives the pair forward with her powerful tail.

The other two sisters who'd come agreed to go home with Civil.

"Papa looked mad," says Marri after a long silence.

"I think he is," says Dapple.  "You think he's right?"

"I..." Marri frowns.  "I think...us being younger and not having mates or anything, makes it easier..."

Dapple waits, but Marri drops back into silence.  Silence is...well, not easy, but it's certainly easier than finding a conversation.

It's not like Dapple doesn't understand her father, she just thinks he's wrong.  And she understands Minnow, the youngest Civil's adult children, returning because she still...wants to be a child.  Someone who can let the adults make the decisions.  Especially when things are scary.

And...they are.

Blanche?

Dapple has hopes that, for the third daughter of the family, it's not about returning to the island, either for their father or for fear of making a choice.  She hopes her younger sister is actually going back to gather resources.  

Dapple shakes off the thoughts and presses her forehead against Marri's shoulders.

The mermaid glances at her nymph sister.  "We should rest before we get to the city.  You need to heal."

"What?  But she..."

"Dapple, it's a city of many millions, and we're a day or more behind.  We're not catching up with them."

"We have no idea what he'll do to..."

"Dapple...I'm not giving up on saving her.  Obviously, I'm not, or I wouldn't be helping you now except to drag you home.  I'm just saying we have to take the time to do this smart.  You tried doing it fast already and almost got killed."

The nymph wants to argue, but her back and arm are still throbbing and seizing with pain.  She lost your hunting knife, too, leaving her with the spear and speargun she dropped when that merman attacked her.  

Marri, by contrast, has three spears and a speargun and two hunting knives.  For now, as the mermaid is carrying everything anyway, she hasn't handed over one of the knives.  "What did she look like, anyway?  Did you get to see her?"

"She's a nocturnal," says Dapple.

"You thought we were gonna catch up with them and just rescue a nocturnal?  That takes planning!"

"There were blankets in the barrel he stole her in, we could have..."

"You can't make a quick escape dragging a blanket through the water!"

"Marri, we don't know what he'll do..."

"Dapple, every failure will just make it harder to save her!  Look...we don't even know what the city is like...and we don't even know who he is."

Dapple knows that Civil was wrong...but she also knows Marri is right...she just doesn't like it.

Marri sighs.  "Dapple, if we see a chance, obviously we'll take it...it's just...not likely to be a random chance."

Chapter Text

Tigress gathers your hair in one hand and turns your head, not roughly, but forcefully, so she can look at your face.

"What an adorable little mate you've chosen, Stunner," she says.  Her gaze isn't quite curious...maybe?  Analyzing?  You are not a question to be answered as much as a problem to be solved.  "But it doesn't seem you've spent much time with her yet..."  Her nails run up your neck, on along the mating scar he forced on you.  "What, do you just not like biting that much?"

For the first time since his forced presence in your life, Stunner is near enough to see he's not smiling.  He's glaring.  It lasts only a moment before he forces...well, it comes out as a grimace.  "My little beauty likes the chase, Tigress."

"So I saw."  Tigress considers you for a moment longer, then holds you out, her hand still firmly tangled in your hair, holding you in place by your head.  "You'll take her back to the city, with no net, no ropes, no cuffs.  Prove you can control your mate before someone else does in your stead, Stunner Blue."

*

Stunner feels you flinch in his tight grip and can only find satisfaction.  He holds you against his chest, your arms forcibly crossed over your body, wrists in his hands.  He can almost feel the bones creaking beneath the skin, can see blossoming bruises, and still, he feels nothing but rage.

How dare you embarrass him in front of Tigress?

It's almost worse that Tigress leads the way back to the palace, not a single backwards glance.  Even her entourage, scrambling to keep up with their empress, gives him no scrap of attention.  Loz spirals around the larger mermaid, showing off her painted tail.  The twins show dignity in a way that only one manages without their mother present, and their trainer keeps a respectful distance.  The dozen or so mers and nymphs that always have something for her to make a decision on are, as usual, too busy struggling to match her pace, too slow to rush and too fast to idle.  

Surrounding everyone at a distance, Tigress's guard.  Mostly for display, of course.  Anything that could actually threaten Tigress Blue could slaughter all of them.  

Far below, the few nymphs and mers Of Current's Rise who can hide in their homes.  

The vast majority, stolen children under the...care of Tigress's army, the scrappers trapped in the stadium and, most of all, the workers bound in spelled cuffs, forced to build Tigress's city to new glory do their best to simply...continue on.  Keep working, keep carrying out errands, keep training.

Anything to avoid drawing attention. 

Ahead, just a bit away from the city, is the palace.

The epicenter of the work.

A few years ago, there was no palace.  Just the ruins of old reefs and the nocturnal road destroyed by the elves.  The remnants of a place that was once thriving community and hunting ground and the maintained tunnels that connected different settlements so that nocturnals could travel even during the day.  

All made ruins in the name of a long failed conquest.  

And now, through the labors of her conquered people, the monument of Tigress's empire stands tall.

A coral base, cultivated through skill and sorcery, rises in graceful, maintained arcs.  Giant glass spirals, catching currents and directing the flow of water, while maintaining sight lines for the guards. 

In the depths are even dry rooms, places to cook and forge and hibernate because they are carefully, skillfully, monumentally kept as air pockets. Maintaining a dry room big enough to qualify as a den at this depth is a feet worthy of legend, but this palace has a dozen big enough to call ballrooms.  

Stunner Blue forces a smile as he gets closer.  No one needs to know he's angry.  Especially in that he's always so happy to return here.

Returning with a mate should be...is a triumph.  No matter how much of a brat you are.

*

Dapple almost refuses the lobster Marri brings her.  Something about knowing she was in a position to be eaten alive by crustaceans a day ago makes it hard to stomach the thought of touching one.

But...calories win out.

The sisters eat their meals on the rocks of an island a few hours away from being able to see the city and stare at the sky together.

"Was she pretty?" asks Marri.

"Yes.  I thought she was, anyway," says Dapple.  

"How long you think...she was alone?  Before she found us, I mean..."

"Who knows."

Marri settles in a tide pool, fluttery, dainty fins forming shimmering vales around her in the moonlight.  "Why d'you think he took her?  You think she did something..."

"Marri..." Dapple pauses, then settles as out of the wind as she can.  "I...I don't know what his reasons were...but I don't think they matter.  Asking ourselves if he had a reason, or why he did it means we think there's something she could have done to deserve it...And having seen her dreams, no one deserves that."

Marri nods.  "I guess...I guess I think too much like Papa...like we can avoid our island ending up like her home if we act right."

Dapple smiles, just a little, reaching over and tracing her sister's scales for a moment.  "I'm glad you can catch yourself."

Marri shifts, trying to get comfortable.  "She'd be awake right now...hunting, maybe, if things were normal for her."

Dapple feels the thought catch.  If things were normal...

If things were normal, she'd be hibernating through the winter, sharing dreams with everyone.  You would be far away, with your own family, in your own home.  Dapple runs her fingers over the beadwork of the bandoleer...your bandoleer.  The things from home you couldn't give up are in the pockets, she knows that.  She just hasn't had time to really examine them.  Get to know you, not just through your dreams, but through your possessions.  She wants to, too.  

But...how long have things not been normal, really?  How long has the ocean feared a tiger shark mer?  A decade, maybe?  A bit more?  Dapple was a child, still, when things were last normal.  The only thing that's changed these last months is that her home island can no longer pretend things are happening as usual.  

She can no longer pretend that things are going on as usual.  

Chapter Text

Through a tight tunnel beneath Stunner's rooms in the palace is a small, two celled dungeon.  Theoretically, it's there to question assassins...but any assassin that could actually pose a threat to the prince is too dangerous to capture.  Besides, there was only one of that variety; a human who...well, they did come close, but defending himself most unfortunately damaged the water breathing spell.

That particular breed of dry lander really does drown fast.

No...most of the occupants of these two cells have been...fun.

A particularly memorable nymph, a few mers...Some had lived long enough to be sent to the stadium as scrappers.  Most had left these cells as chum.

Now, one cell has been cleaned and fitted with some bedding.  Not a lot.

A child startles away from the cells, a box in hands.

"Stay where you are," snaps Stunner, shoving you into the cleaned cell.  

The child doesn't move another inch.

Free of his grip, you lash out at Stunner, but he's already locked the gate, and put the key on a chain around his neck.  "Sorry, love, but it'll take a bit for the spelled cuffs to be ready.  You'll just have to stay here until they are."

He rounds on the child.  "What's that?"

The merchild shyly lifts the lid.  "C...cleaner wrasse?"

A dozen or so tiny fish swirl inside the box.

Stunner's tempted to just send the child away, but...  "Fine."

At a sharp, commanding whistle, the wrasse rise from the box and swarm you.

You try to keep from flinching.  Wrasse serve a similar function as cleaner shrimp, you know...you've just never been on a basking bed that had wrasse before.  The eager little things don't move like shrimp, either.  

The child watches, wide eyed.  You know they're seeing bruises blooming more clearly on your skin the more the cleaner wrasse pull away dead.  You want to tell them they won't be subject to the same, but...

You don't know that.  At all.

Stunner turns to the tunnel back into his rooms.  "When they're done with her, bring her something to eat.  I don't care what."

*

A dozen or so mers and nymphs are waiting for Stunner's attentions in his rooms.  It's every self control he has not to dash their heads against the rocks and leave them for chum on the plains.  Instead, he settles in his private basking bed and listens as they give him reports.  

The full moon celebration in five days, that's expected.  He tells the wispy little mermaid to anchor un-spelled cuffs in his palanquin, because they don't need to be magic if you just have to stay where he put you for a few hours, and orders belts and jewelry for both of you.  A reedy little androgynous mer asks if he wants a similar cuff situation for the banquet, but Stunner shakes his head. 

Declaring you unequivocally his for everyone to see?  Yes.

Risking you embarrassing him in front of Tigress again, so soon after this?  No.

The burly mermaid in charge of the spell forges asks for details on the spelled cuffs he wants.  Fitted to you, obviously, and bound to him.  Because Stunner doesn't mind chasing you around, enjoys it, but doesn't want to entertain the option of you escaping ever again.  The maid nods, asking if he wants a secondary binding to his rooms, so he has somewhere he can leave you if he's got more important things to do.  That seems like a fine idea, so Stunner agrees.  

Chief of staff is next.  "You said you want alterations for your rooms?  Into a nursery?"

"Yes."

The pathetic nymph hesitates.  "How...urgent is it?"

Stunner doesn't want to admit you might not even be pregnant, might never have been, so he stares the Chief of Staff down until the nymph bobs a bow and scurries out.

Two smaller, dainty mermaids, probably still girls, probably stolen from their homes as children, present themselves.  "Her majesty sent us to be attendants to your mate," they say in unison.  

"Come back, evening tomorrow," Stunner snaps.

Both bob a bit of a bow and are gone.  No fuss, no bother.  As quiet as the conquered ought to be.  Utterly uninteresting.

And deep down, although he's furious...he does like that you're still struggling against him.  There'd be no fun if you'd simply melted to his whims.  

A pair of nymphs enter, fitting a gate over the tunnel into the small dungeon.  Stunner grins.  He asked for that, and is glad that there's no need to interact with these fools.  Job done and they're gone, ensuring your stay in that cell won't be interrupted by any of your bids for freedom.

He leans back, letting tiny cleaner fish and shrimps, ones he knows go about through all the private basking beds of the royal quarters, clean him as thoroughly as they can, waiting for the endless servants to finish their fifty times damned jobs so he can calm down.

*

The child finally whistles, calling the wrasse back to the box.  "Um...are you alright?"

You don't answer, curling into yourself on the bedding.  

"Um...my name's Reed...I think...I don't know...no one knows me from...you know...before..."

You don't answer.  It's not that you don't appreciate that Reed is trying to be kind, it's just...

"Um...I'm getting you food, now...okay?"

You force yourself to hum a little, to ease the child.  Reed doesn't deserve to be here either.

*

Reed darts out of that dungeon, clutching the wrasse box tight.  They dodge through the grownups fussing at Prince Stunner, through tunnels and corridors before arriving at the butcher.  A dozen or so young mers are busy disecting large fish for the banquet.  Some of the meat is going to the dry room kitchens, some is being extracted as unappetizing scrap to be thrown to stored fish awaiting their own doom, some is delicately set aside in cabinets to protect them from scavengers.  Particular delicacies, like the roe, are treated with gentle care.  Urchins collected from the kelp forests are piled up in covered pails so they won't escape before they can feed the empress.  

In the hustle and bustle, no one notices Reed at all.  No surprise; Reed isn't expected to grow up to be very big, and they don't have a brightly colored tail, and they're only eight.  While Reed is considered lucky to be doing work around the palace instead of being thrown to the army, it's not as though there's a tremendous amount for them to do.  Larger and more expirienced hands are more useful.

But this benign neglect allows Reed to move in a way other people don't often notice.

For instance, no one notices Reed swiping a bowl stacked with salmon fillet.

And no one notices Reed tucking the box of wrasse under a stack of bowls.

*

Dapple hugs Marri tight.  "You think that's it?  The city?"

Marri shrugs.  "Maybe...we won't know for a few more hours at least...hey sis?  I don't think we should be approaching from...I dunno, out in the open like this?  I mean...it feels...vulnerable."

Dapple nods.  "I think the stories said there's a big kelp forest in the north...and we're approaching from the north anyway, so why don't we enter from there?"

Marri nods.  She swishes her tail faster, eager to arrive already.

Even though neither of them is really ready for the city they're coming to.

Chapter Text

Reed is relieved that Prince Stunner is still occupied with vassals and servants when they return from the kitchens, and slips past the new gate into the small dungeon with the bowl of salmon.  

They don't have the key to unlock the cell, so they put the bowl through the bars, as close to you as possible.

Reed, built for a reef in the bright day, can barely see you in the dark.  "Mmm...hi.  I brought you food...look!"

They think they catch a glimpse of your eyes opening, reflecting the nonexistent light like mirrors, but it's hard to tell.  

All they can clearly see of you are those silver speckles along your tail.  Like a swirl of stars...

Reed has so rarely seen stars.  They think they were born in the mangrove shallows, but they don't know anyone who could say.  They do remember, distinctly, sitting in the shallows in the arms of someone who loved them, staring up at the sky, so big it felt close even though it was far away.  

Reed hears the bowl move in the dark, but can't see.  They finger their colorful pectoral fins awkwardly.  Truthfully, especially compared to you, Reed is a bit plain.

Oh, a very colorful tail, bright with sharp stripes in purple and pink and yellow, but short, round fins.  A delightful tail, almost like a work of art.  But their face?  Positively ordinary.  Cute in the way most children are cute and nothing at all beyond that.  

And they're fascinated with you.  

*

You accept the bowl because you're starving.  You haven't eaten in...well, you have no idea how long it's been.  That catfish was the last thing you ate and that might be months ago, for all you know.

Besides, if you're ever to find a way out of this, you need to have the strength to act on chance.    

This lighting is just right for you, and you watch the child...Reed, they introduced themselves as.  Pretty colors, fins designed to turn tight circles, and...nothing else.  You wonder if they'll be as big as you when they grow up.  You wonder what it's been like to grow up here...in this place...

You're in Current's Rise...

The thought is so strange.  

There's a clanging beyond the tunnel, and the child flinches.  "I've got to go..."

You hand back the empty bowl and watch them leave.

*

For Reed, the day moves slowly.  They help a few others polish the glass spirals, pose in silence as another servant is beaten for some failure or other as a warning to everyone else.  

Honestly, as something small serving the massive tiger shark mers, and not being especially lovely, Reed goes around as invisible despite their bright colors.  

And so, when they're dismissed for the day, they slip out, unnoticed, with the box of wrasse.  

*

Marri stops.

"What is it?" asks Dapple.

"You hear that?"

Dapple listens.  "I don't hear anything..."

Marri frowns.  "Dapple...when is our island ever quiet?"

"When we're all hibernatin...oh."

The sisters look at each other, then gaze through the fronds of kelp, both listening hard.  

Mers and nymphs sing.  Not just sing, they whistle, they play instruments, they...well, they tend to be very noisy peoples, over all.  Maybe not while hunting, but otherwise?  Music, left right and center.

And yet, even when both sisters know they're very close to the city, they can't hear it.  

No song.

Just...ocean.

Marri slows down.  "I...I don't want to just...let's slow down, okay?"

Dapple nods, letting go of her sister's shoulders. 

The mermaid may be faster, but the nymph is the elder.

Dapple leads the way through the tangles.  

*

The city is always awake, in some form, but there's a destinct shift as sunlight leaves.  Forced laborers return to...well, not homes, exactly.  Just dens, really, most of them with gates the soldiers can close to trap the laborers inside.  A few nocturnals are forced laborers, but they mostly work in buildings rather than out in the open.  

No, at night, most of everyone seen out and about in the city are legitimate residents and soldiers.  Mers and nymphs who have homes becuase they would live here regardless of Tigress or her army.  

But, even staring out at them, Stunner's not interested in what little dramas are happening.  He's simply managing his anger.  

Taking his temper out on you is fine to him, but killing you is right out.

Every damned servant is finally out of his rooms, leaving him alone.

Satisfied that he's at least calm enough not to break your neck, Stunner turns to a large mirror in his rooms.  He runs one hand through his hair, checks that everything is perfect, and practices a little bit of a smile.  Something he can keep up until he's having fun again.

He runs a firm grip up both of his claspers, stirring his excitement, and opens the gate into the dungeon.

Not for long, of course.  Can't risk you trying another escape right now.  Besides, the gate's lock has such a satisfying thunk when the key turns, so authoritative, so final.  Who would want to leave it open?

"Oh, Darling," Stunner sings into the dark as he continues through the tunnel.  "Here I come."

Chapter Text

Top of every list of things that make life unfair; Stunner Blue has a rich, powerful voice.  

If the world were truly good and fair, he wouldn't be able to carry a tune or hold a pitch.  He'd have a week diaphragm and wispy nothings for vocal cords.  

But no.

Instead his glorious, musical baritone bounces around the walls and vibrates in your bones.  

You want to curl into yourself and ignore him, but you can't.

Because he's approaching your cell.

And he's not going to let you ignore him.

*

It's interesting to think, you can probably see him clear as day...clearer, considering what your vision must be, but aside from the swirling silver pattern of your tail, he can only see you as a shadow in the cell.  

Right now you're flitting back and forth, the silver flecks dazzling in the dark.  Probably what they're meant for, really; enchanting gullible fish into letting their guard down.

"I hope you had a nice meal, Love, because you need your energy tonight."  Stunner opens the gate one handed and his hand darts out just in time to grab you.  He's only a little surprised that he's snatched you by the arm instead of the neck, but now it doesn't matter.  "Now now.  You and me?  We're gonna have a lovely evening.  After all, you've deprived me of so many.  And you know, I don't mind that."  The massive merman seizes you by the back of the neck, only just careful enough not to block your gills, and forces you face first into the bedding.  "But you are going to have to answer for your little stunt in front of Tigress."

*

The first blow catches you off guard.  The scales of your posterior do protect you...somewhat, spreading out the impact so it's not so sharp...but it is bruising non the less.

"I have missed having you beneath me, Dearest," he breathes as he strikes again.  He's sitting on your tail again, holding you down.  Worse, you can feel his claspers hardening and growing against your sides.  "Ah ah ah, Love.  If you squirm too much, I might hit you somewhere else by accident, and your belly is not to be touched this way...no...your stomach has a job to do..."

*

For Stunner Blue, painting the back of your tail in perfect bruises is so satisfying.  Not only does he get to work out the physicality of his anger, but he's sure that anyone who sees you won't be able to mistake what's happened.  Not that he really wants anyone else to see you until they have to...

He smooths down your dorsal fin, holding it in place as he smacks you just over the root.  Your cry of pain brings a real grin to his face.  If your dorsal fin hurts, that's fine so long as there's no permanent damage.  And the way you jerked rubbed your side against his right clasper just right....so he smacks you again.

And again.

Soon, your cries dull to whimpers, but that's no fun.

So he flips you over, his tail curling tight around you.

You claw at his face with your hands, the irritating thing about them being free, but also the fun part.  He doesn't really mind because he can always lean back far enough that you can't reach his eyes without sacrificing his mastery over you; the advantage of being so much bigger than you.

So, ignoring your thrashing, he finds the slit in your scales, swirling around your entrance with his fingers while he considers.  "You know...the first time, I prepared you, oh so carefully, and I even started with my right clasper..."  His eyes flick up to yours, which he can barely see as reflections in the dark.  "I don't think I'm bothering with that today."

*

It aches to be held down on your bruising tail, but then he forces two of his massive fingers into you, prying you apart with no patience whatsoever.

It burns.

You try to scream, but there's not enough breath in you to force out sound.

Still, it only lasts a moment before you feel his whole body move, putting the tip of his left clasper right there, right ready to...

You seize it in both hands, trying to forcibly keep it out.

At this, Stunner laughs above you.  "Silly Darling."  And with one hand practically crushing both of yours in his grip, he yanks his clasper free and shoves it inside.  

For one glorious moment...maybe a minute, maybe a lifetime, the pain doesn't even register.  It's as though, in making space for himself, Stunner forced out every nerve ending.  Or, maybe your body, despite no longer being used to him, remembers enough from the days he spent owning you back on your sea fold to protect you.

But the breathless moment inevitably ends.

First, the burning of being stretched too much too fast.

Then, the radiating bruising feeling of being impaled.  

Then, he starts pulling out, and out and out.  He reminds you of how big he is just by how much there is to remove.

*

"What?  Nothing to say, love?" Stunner says.  He smirks, releasing your hands because he knows it's too much for you to process.  Instead, he drops his torso down onto you, gathering you in his arms and holding you tight to his chest.  "Too bad, because I've got so much ready for you."  With that, he drives himself back in.  "I've got that pregnancy I promised you, right here.  Apparently, some of the drylanders...maybe the humans, actually have a toy that can be used to keep sperm inside.  Maybe I can get one and stuff you so full of myself no one will know the difference between that and being ready to burst with my children...And I'm so, so ready to see a fresher mark on your pretty neck.  How dull I've let my mating mark become, Sweetheart.  Never again, I promise."  Stunner times his thrusts to match the rhythms of his speech.  Or...maybe I should decorate more of you with my teeth."

With that in mind, he curls up over you, a madening display of flexibility, and practically swallows your right breast, rubbing his teeth into the flesh where it swells from your chest.

*

You struggle to pull yourself to sanity and smack at Stunner's face, anything to keep him from biting you this way with his teeth you so well remember.

It's no good.

His jaw clenches.

It's not deep enough to rip in, but you feel each tooth breaking skin, and you can feel his tongue flicking at each little swell of blood.

Only gently enough to not maim you, he pulls free, laughing as he runs his fingers over the marks.  "Oh, don't worry precious.  I'll make it even," he says, palming your other breast.  

He pins one of your hands down and gets right in your face.  "I'll make sure there's no way to look at you, for anyone, without knowing you're mine."

Chapter Text

The worst thing just might be the fact that you know, know, that you can see everything much better than Stunner can, here in the dark.  

Throbbing, burning, bruising, pulsing, thrusting pain, but knowing what's coming is so much worse than it all being a constant surprise.

You can see the little flickers of expression as some new depravity occurs to him.  You can see how he revels in every flinch and shudder you can't hold down.  You can see his face and hands and see him decide exactly when to bite.

And you can't fight him off, no matter what you see happening.

He's just...too much bigger than you.  Too much stronger...too much built for violence.

Clawing at his eyes doesn't work because he can roll them back, like sharks have done for eons to protect their eyes.  A lucky blow to his jaw does dislodge a tooth, but who cares?  All mers regrow teeth, and you'll never be able bash out enough now to slow him down.  Hitting him, anywhere, is just not enough.

If only you could be somewhere else.  Somewhere where you don't have to feel him still above you, filling you up until you bloat, or see his head coming down and know he's about to bite your neck again.

*

By the luck of timing, Dapple and Marri arrive in the city after dark.  There are a few tiger shark mers around, keeping watch, but the thing that surprises them most is that...most of the mers keeping an eye on things, wearing the belts and arms of Tigress Blue?

They're not tiger sharks.

Most of them are medium to large build, with a few on scale or larger than the average among the tiger shark mers, but rather than the distinctive, almost singular appearance of a striped shark tail, these are...normal.

As in to say, they're mixed.

Oh, some have tails that could almost pass for as a replica as a specific kind of fish, genetic flukes reflecting ancestors from the ancient past, but most are simply...there.  Colors, fin shapes, sizes, whatever pulled from the grab bag of traits of thoroughly mixed histories. 

Some are even nocturnals, with huge eyes, delicate flesh and dark scales, sometimes swirled with colors, sometimes not.

For a long moment, maybe a minute, Dapple tries to tell herself these are just the younger soldiers, stolen children raised by the army, so they'll all be adolescents or...well, young, but...no.

Oh, sure, some are.  Scrawny and overstretched, not built into their size at all, are clearly teenagers barely old enough to go hunting on their own. 

But the most robust, the best fed?

The best armed?

All adults.  Many her father's age or older.  

The thought makes her sick.

The scattered tiger shark mer through the crowd, going about daily life with their head down?  That makes sense.   Anyone else joining?

Marri has more practical thoughts.  "We have to find...I don't know, a cave we can use?  We need somewhere to stay..."

Dapple nods, but neither is really sure how to proceed.  Who, in this nearly silent crowd, do they even ask?

*

Reed, sent on their usual errand for the time of day, grabs the box of wrasse and scurries into the night.  No one looks twice or thinks to ask what the box is.  Or, maybe they do and don't care.

The child is cautious but optomistic.  There'll be trouble if someone discovers that they've stolen from the palace they work in, but...who would ask?  And it's easy enough to just say they've been sent on an errand they don't understand by someone they don't know.  As long as the mystery someone is large and has a speargun, no one's going to hassle a child.

But Reed doesn't carry the box like it's a part of an errand, because it isn't.  Instead, they carry it like a precious treasure.  

Where the city folk and their silence might be unsual to some, Reed is utterly used to it.  It gives them not a single reason to pause as they make the long swim for tiny fins.

To the stadium.  

Reed ignores the crowd of tiger shark mers and similar placing bets and whooping, instead swimming up the side.  At one window, into the depths of the place, there's a gap.  A young merman...really an oversized boy, is waiting just beyond the bars.

"Here," says Reed, passing over the box.

"Thanks," says the boy.

"You catch that cookie cutter?"

"We caught five of them.  There might be more..."

Reed shudders.  They've seen the perfectly round scars created by the arm sized shark...well, arm sized for them.  "You think someone deliberately put them there?"

"Who could say.  Anyway, thanks."

Reed hesitates.  "Is he..."

The boy smiles, tight and uncomfortable.  "Yes.  He'll be fighting."

Reed thanks them, leaving the box and joins a crowd of mers entering the normal gates of the stadium.

It's not a full night, by any means, and the crowds are mostly spars.

Reed catches a lot of strange looks, a small child entering alone, but they don't care.

In the center of the arena, supported by heavy chains is a massive cage. 

But Reed isn't there to see the unfortunate end of the tuna swimming distressed circles around this cage.

They're there to see a merman they hope, dream really, might be their father.  

Chapter Text

Reed ignores the rowdy military mers filling up one corner of the stadium.  

Everyone can tell by the jewels they wear, these are part of Tigress Blue's inner circle.  

Working in the palace, Reed knows that doesn't mean much.  Most of the people considered "part of the empress's inner circle" have little or nothing to do with the Empress herself, who mostly makes mates of her most valuable supporters.

No, most are closer to Stunner Blue than Tigress.

That doesn't mean they're not powerful, nor that their power doesn't make them dangerous to others.  The best thing to be said about them is that they only have the Empress's tacit approval.

Which is why they now get to indulge at the expense of that poor tuna.  

And two dozen of the most starved scrappers the stadium has to offer.  

Scrawny mers and nymphs who don't have knives or spears or nets or anything else to hurry the end of the poor fish.  

Reed tries to ignore it.  The child tries not to imagine what they'd do if they'd been trapped for months in the stadium, without enough food, without a proper den and bedding, without enough basking beds and with a cookie cutter shark hiding in there somewhere, taking chunks out of everyone left right and center, forced to fight for the entertainment of the people who'd put them there.

And then be offered a tuna.

At least it is a tuna, this time.

The last time the palace rabble rousers pulled a stunt like this, it was just one salmon.  At least this tuna can feed all of the scrappers set upon it, and not just the luckiest few.  

But Reed isn't really interested in this part.

When, at last, the last scraps of...chum, are removed from the cage, other scrappers are brought out for bouts.

Demonstrations of why each was worthy of keeping alive.

Sometimes, one of the tiger sharks enters with one of the scrappers, an exercise of domination.

When a particular merman, plain faced with a brightly colored tail with short fins comes out, Reed goes absolutely still.  

He looks tired, and has a raw, circular wound in his tail, but he swims with his shoulders straight and has actually maimed two tiger shark mers who've tried to put him in his place.

And, seeing the resemblance, desperate for a family and home, Reed always comes to watch this merman whenever they get the chance.  

*

Neither sister has much an idea of where to go or what to do, so Dapple, who needs more rest from her injuries, waits in the stadium while Marri explores.

The fate of that tuna turns the nymph's stomach.  So does the desperation that brought it on.  

A few bouts pass, some seeming like fair contests of power between two fighters, many seeming like a tiger shark mer getting the opportunity to bully the weak and starved.

Some ways away, Dapple sees a merchild sitting on their own, but thinks nothing of them until she sees a merman with a nearly identical, just adult, tail, enter the cage.  

The other merman pushed into the cage, though...

"Dapple, i think, I've found..."

"Wait, Marri, look."

"Dapple, I really just want to leave fast."

"No, look at him.  I swear he's familiar."

Marri looks at the mer.

His build suggests he'd be long and lean no matter what, with a coloration like the sandy sea floor on his tail.  A man, sure, but young.

And beaten down.

Marri pauses.  "No...no, we've never met him before..."

"Right.  We've never met him before."

"But he is familiar..."

Dapple exchanges looks with her sister.

"You don't think..."

"All the pleasant dreams she had..."

Marri bites her lip.  "I don't...Dapple, I don't know what we can do..."

*

Stunner wants very badly to curl around your beaten and battered body, curl up with his tiny little mate for a good rest.

But he can't be sure you'll stay unconscious for as long as he'll sleep.  

So he rises from the bedding, leaving your limp frame, and swims through the gate.  On his way out of your cell, he notices the other one in his little dungeon.  "Maybe another time, we can have a few guests, love," he laughs to himself.  Still, he carefully locks you inside.  "See you tomorrow, darling.  

*

When you hear the outer gate latching, you carefully begin flexing.  First, each finger, carefully flexed and unflexed.  Then your arms, then your shoulders.  As you go, testing your own body, more and more hurts, but never from the movement.  Your stomach and the back of your tail are easily the worst, but you satisfy yourself that nothing is broken.

"I'll figure this out.  This isn't going to be forever.  This isn't forever..."

Chapter Text

Reed leaves after the fight with their presumed father.  Back in the palace, they're rushed into the junior dorms by a blind mermadame.

"That's the last one."

Reed settles into their den, looking out into the larger room beyond.

Three or four dozen children are also settling into their shallow dens.

Reed barely listens to the first story given to the children tonight.  As always, it's about the glories of Tigress Blue.  It's not that Reed doubts or has any particular critiques of the Empress, they wouldn't know where to begin at that, it's just...

Well...there don't seem to be that many.

Or...maybe it's not that there are few, as much as it is that the ones that are tend to bleed together.

The starved city of Aurora Deep.

The six older sisters who sacrificed themselves for Tigress's strength and glory.

The power Tigress raised.

The conquest of Current's Rise.

Followed, of course, by many other conquests, not meaningfully different enough to for Reed to remember what each one was called.

"And now, you children are lucky enough to be beautiful, and for your protection, Tigress has seen fit to raise you in her court.  You must always be grateful, darlings, because humans and elves like to steal away little lovelies like you as pets."

Reed, numb to this claim, yawns and turns over, looking at a little girl, snuffling into her fins.  From one of the conquests over the winter, still not used to the dorm.  Reed almost hopes she believes that line, about how lucky everyone is to be in Tigress's court.  It must be easier to believe it than it is to hope a random scrapper is family.  

It must be easier than knowing that the children around this dorm have been collected as potential beauties so that Tigress's loyalists have first dibs.

Reed polishes one of their scales in the dark.  Maybe it is luckier to be here.  Other collected children are raised by the army, after all.

The blind mermadame lets the silly thing telling Tigress stories finish up and leave, then sits in the same spot.

"Might I tell you all a story?"

Most of the children of the dorm perk up at this.

"What kind of story?"

"Tell about the ancients!" someone calls.

"Really?  The ancients?"

"You know everything, so tell us about the ancients!"

The mermadame hums a bit.  The notes, low, lulling, luminescent, vibrate in Reed's bones and call to something primal at their core.

"Once upon a time, when mers and nymphs were new, there were many tribes each closely resembling a singular kind of fish.  These ancients, kept destinct by the isolation of the deep seas, looked almost nothing like we do now.  Then, when the oceans drained into shallows, the tribes interacted more.  Some tried to keep distinct, but those quickly fell away.

"Only one tribe, isolated by the shallows rather than unified by them, had the numbers to survive."

"The tiger shark mers!" someone calls in the dark room.

"That's right.  The tiger shark mers were trapped in their inland sea, but they had enough of their own numbers and enough hunting to survive.  The only such isolated tribe to endure."

"What about the nocturnals?"

"The nocturnals are not a tribe, darlings.  They are the descendants of many dozen different tribes, some who would emerge from their dens during the night, and some who would never have left the deep sea if the oceans hadn't drained."  The mermadame waits a long moment, but no one calls out another comment, so she continues.  "Eventually, of course, the oceans returned.  The deep sea again strove to isolate us into tribes and the tiger sharks mers are returned to the rest of the world.  But still, they preferred their city, Aurora Deep to the rest of the world.  Still, they engaged in trade and diplomacy and were not unfriendly with the rest...it was the war with the elves that turned us hungry."

Reed shudders.  In their head, they don't really know what "hungry" means.  Not when the mermadame says it like that, anyway.  Deep down, though...they do.  They know they've seen it.  The want for something they need but can't get that turns a mer desperate.  Isn't that what they've seen every time they've gone to the stadium?

"Before the war, whether the sea be depths or shallows, whether we be tribes or united, we had enough.  We maintained our reefs and our kelp forests and our shelfish beds and we would always have enough.  The foolish elves and their human soldiers, on conquest, had found the other peoples easy to disrupt with simple death.  A few centaurs killed and their herd can be considered conquered.  We are not so weak to things that can drown.  Petty in their impotence, the elves lashed out at us by attacking our reefs, our shell beds, our kelp forests."

Reed frowns.  They've heard this story before, and this part never makes sense.  "Why didn't we rebuild?"

"Pardon?"

"I mean...we can build reefs, can't we?  That's how they're building the palace...and with a sorcerer or two..."

The blind mermadame shrugs.  "Chasing the elves out of the ocean was more important."

"They didn't just destroy hunting grounds," calls someone else.  "They destroyed basking beds...people got sick off that, so they had to take care of that, right?"

"Faster to bring kelp forests back!"

The room devolves into chaos as different children call out about what should have been priority, but reed curls into themselves, wondering about it all.  Food and hygiene would have been the most important thing to restore, right?  Reefs, with both hunting grounds and basking beds, seem like the most efficient things to make that happen.  

So, why hadn't the ancients?

*

Stunner's dreams are very rudely interrupted when his niblings flood his room.  

Outside his nice, comfortable den, he can hear clumbsy fins crashing around.  It's very tempting to just let the adolescents and children go on, get bored and leave, but when he hears them exclaim about the gate over the dungeon, he knows he has to act.

Silently as he can, he emerges from the den.

Five children of radically different size are investigating the gate.

"Looks new," says Periwinkle.  

"Let's see what's inside!" says Cobalt.

Stunner doesn't notice all the children pause, some with their heads cocked to one side before he snatches all of them.  "RHHAAAA!!!!"

The children shriek and giggle.  One little finsnapper bares fangs and wraps both arms tight around their uncle's neck.   The five tackle their uncle in turn, all their brief curiosity forgotten.

*

You'd heard children at the gate.

On a whim, you sang.

The first few notes from your body in...who knows how long.

Just a common, lilting tune you remember from your sea fold.  

You were gratified for that moment when they all went silent.

Then the sound of delighted shrieks and chaos.  

Still, you might have an idea of how to proceed.  

Chapter Text

Draped in a gaggle of giggling children, Stunner emerges from the palace depths into clear water.  

Clear, bright, sunny water.

For a moment, the gigantic tiger shark merman almost appreciates your difficulties with sunlight.  

Or...well, he thinks he does.

A sharp elbow of squirming niece distracts him from his self congratulatory empathy.  He roars faux pain and reaches back to seize the impertinent little mer to young to be called maid.  "Cerulean!  That was my head!"

The little girl bares teeth before dissolving into fits of laughter.  

Periwinkle pulls free.  "Uncle!  Nanny says you have a mate now!"

Stunner smiles.  "She's right."

The children practically claw their way to look at their uncle.

"Is it a maid or a man?  Tulu said you might like men..."

"Is it true your mate is a nocturnal?"

"Did you find them on conquest?"

"Will you have children soon?"

"What's their name?"

Before Stunner can even sort the barrage of questions, a shadow passes over the group.

All the children look up to see Thunder.  

Thunder gives a nod to Stunner.  "Your highness."  Then he gives a sharp whistle and the children line up.  "Princess.  I believe you wanted to show your uncle what you've learned over the last few months?"

Periwinkle swells with pride and grabs the proffered spear.  

Stunner follows through the water lazily, casually ooing and ahing at the right moments when his eldest niece looks to him for praise.  When his other niblings join in, running exercises and formations as Thunder directs, Stunner keeps all appearances of diligent attention. 

Really, he's still thinking about his den.  His nice, comfortable den.  And how, soon enough, he'll have you in his den, bound in spelled cuffs.

*

It takes Marri a lot of work to convince Dapple to leave the stadium for the day.  "We can't figure out if you're right about him right now," hisses Marri.  "We both need rest and food.  Dapple, come!"

"We need to..."

"Dapple, how are we even going to get to speak to him?"

That finally slows the nymph sister.  "I..."

"Come on.  I've found us a place to stay...hurry up, apparently the laborers are coming out soon."

"Who?'

Marri casts back a look that freezes in Dapple's blood.  "...The ones they steal...not the ones they kill or put in the stadium, but...everyone else..."

Dapple stares at her sister.  "...Oh..."

*

All over the city, in shallow dens protected only by gates, mers and nymphs begin to stir.  

Most are bound in spelled cuffs that allow them to move around their delicate work of nurturing the new reefs and kelp forests and shellfish beds without dragging around heavy chains that could damage new coral.  The ones that work in the spell forges or on new spears and such, though, are just bound in chains.  No need to put in the complex work of a spell on someone who just has to move a hundred feet between den and labor.  

These mers and nymphs work on ten day cycles.  Nine days, they labor under the watchful eyes of task masters quick to prod them on with jellyfish spears if they slow or swat them with rods if they get out of line.  The tenth day of their cycle, they're given time in a basking bed and...a bit of rest. 

These laborers are always a bit hungry, really, but they generally eat a lot of shellfish.  In fact, it's one of the things used to motivate good work rather than punish poor; better work means more food.

Tigress is very particular about how laborers are managed, not because she cares about them, she doesn't, but because of the work.

An army needs to be fed.

An army spending most of its time hunting is not building an empire.

Tigress Blue's empire will not be built of starved ruins.

It really is that simple.

Above the stirring laborer's dens, before the gates unlock for the many millions of stolen people to begin work for the day, the city residents are in a hurry to get their chores and errands done and be home.  

*

Marri guides the way through twisted residential areas to a grotto open to daylight and peppered with caves.  "We're in that one," she says, pointing.  "We have to rotate these frames by one every day and check on the madame who lives in that one.  Make sure she's eating...get her to a basking bed about every other day.  Make sure the flow is going through her caves right so she doesn't get oxygen starved."

Dapple nods, examining the frames.  Three levels of shellfish set on wood frames.  "What are they?"

"The family farms pearls."

"Oh..."

Marri drifts into the borrowed cave.  "Dapple, you coming?"

"I...I didn't realize how bad it is..."

"Hmm?  Dapple, please, we can talk about it inside."

Dapple sighs and follows her sister.  

*

Listening very carefully for the slightest sound someone outside the dungeon, you swim tight, fast circles through your cell.  Your tail and stomach hurt as much as anything, but you don't stop.

You have no other way to get stronger in these confines.

And you need to be strong enough if...when you ever get the chance. 

Chapter Text

Dapple wakes up gasping for oxygen.

Nymphs are as much beings of the water as they are beings of dry land, but she's never slept underwater before.

How is it Marri is nicely nestled in the den next to her?  How can she stand to sleep like this?  How does their mother stand to sleep this way next to Civil?

Dapple reaches out of the den and waves her hand a few times to bring more oxygen rich water into the den.  She breathes in relief.

The other thing she hopes she'll get used to?  Light streaming in from the entrance of the cave.  

There are a few nocturnals on their island, but Dapple and her family are generally...well, diurnal.  

Here in the city, the family the sisters are staying with have advised them very strenuously that they should avoid the forced laborers by staying in during the day and doing their business at night.

It's no use.

Dapple eases out of the den into the larger cave beyond.  Not very big, not that the sisters hope to need it for long.  A few cabinets and drawers, a mirror.  Dapple is pleased that her bruises are less livid, except for around her arm.  It looks less like something attacked her than it does like a hunting accident.  

The grotto is quiet, most of the family sleeping.  An ancient mermadame, scales cloudy and flesh too big for her frame, is perched on a hunting seat in the sunlight.  "Couldn't sleep?"

"I...I'm usually up and down with the sun."

The mermadame nods.  "I've been the same my whole life.  The witch's goons have changed just about everything else about how we live, they'll not take my daylight from me."

Dapple kicks out at the water and swims up to her.  "Is it wise to call..."

"Might not be," she grins.  "But you don't seem the sort to sing like her pet."

Dapple is so startled by that that she can't help but laugh.

"You seen 'em yet?"

"Who?"

"The forced laborers."

"We're allowed to..."

"Smart mermaid like Tigress, she doesn't have to make rules.  She knows most'll keep their heads down so long as they're not getting the worst of it.  Besides.  Moon's tomorrow, so most of them's not out working on new things as much as hurrying to finish and tidy.  Best time to get a sense of...how many there are."

Dapple considers for a long moment, then strikes out at the water.

Just past the mouth of the cavern entrance, poised high on a bluff over the mass of city, she sees them.  

Millions.

Millions of nymphs and mers...working. 

No play.

No song.

No hunt.

No craft.

No laughter.

Just working.  

It's a long moment before Dapple can even focus with so many. It's hard to see individuals and not swarms over the distant palace, or over the reefs or kelp.

Then, she looks down.

In the avenue below, too, they work.  And, closer on, she can see details.  

Some have bruised backs, tails and legs.  Many look under-slept and most underfed.

"Quite a lot, aren't there?"

Dapple flinches and looks at the mermadame.  "How...how long has this been what...this looks like?"

"A decade?  Maybe?  More of 'em every year."

"I didn't know there were so many mers and nymphs in all the world..."

"You think that's even most of us?  Bah.  Nah, most're still out on islands and reefs far away.  Them's building quite the city back, but they won't manage to get everyone, just you watch.  'Build us back to the ancients' glory'?  You mark my words, they could gather everyone, everywhere, and this city will still never stand glorious over the ancients as long as it stands silent."

Dapple tries to smile at the thought.  "But...if it was fuller of people than this...when the elves attacked..."

"What?  Of course it wasn't."

"Pardon?"

"Child..."  The mermadame bites back quite a bit of venom, then sighs.  "I was told, long ago, that it takes five cubic meters of well maintained ocean or island to feed a nymph for a year."

Dapple shrugs.  If she thinks to her family gardens at home...that's probably about as much ground as her mother strives to maintain for per child.

"It takes fifty meters of well maintained ground to feed a mer for the year.  On average.  I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be more for them giant tiger sharks."

"That's a lot of ocean..."

"We're predators, child.  You nymphs have the luxury of being able to survive on other things if you need to, but us mers must have meat.  Oh, sure, you can shrink the amount an individual needs through knowledgeable cooperation, but...look around.  Do you see enough kelp forest to feed everyone?  Enough clam beds?  Enough reef?"

"I guess not...did the elves really destroy so much?"

"Not hardly.  Oh, they destroyed a lot, but...well, even at their peak, all three of our cities together didn't hold a fifth of our total population.  And, at least in Current's Rise, the population was always transient.  Sure, some stay year round, but most'd come and go with the seasons.  Nah, the worst the elves did to the city was destroying the Nocturnal roads."

"So the nocturnals couldn't come and go?"

"Hmm...oh...yes...but...the roads also served well as fish nursery...shelter for the smaller things so they could grow into good hunting."

Dapple frowns.  "It doesn't look like any of them...down there...is working on the nocturnal roads..."

"Why would they?  Tigress Blue...she's a smart one, from what I've seen...but she's got plenty to please who aren't.  Them's not focused on the small, interconnected things that come together to make a big change.  Them's focused on what they can see.  Besides, the nocturnals're pretty easy to keep in one place.  Forced to work during the day?  Better stay in their labor assingments or they'll burn right up."

"...Are the ruins of the roads still around?"

"Some...why?"

*

A very bright, sunny day playing with his niblings should end with feeling your soft body beneath his, so Stunner's non to pleased to see the maids Tigress sent to look after you waiting outside his rooms.  "What!"

Neither girl flinches.  "Her majesty told us your mate should be moved to the palanquin at dawn."

"My mate is a nocturnal."

Both girls show him the solution.  Stunner hisses his displeasure, but leads them in.  "I'll let you into her cell, but the outer gate will be locked until it's time for us to go, you understand?"

*

Both girls stay with you, and you're so nonplussed that you...let them do what ever.

A box of wrasse carried by one girl cleans you up, and the pair spend hours combing over you with creams to ease your aches and pains, but more importantly, lessen the look of bruises.  They comb out your hair and thread it through with obsidian and quarts beads.  A delicate, thoroughly useless belt, but glorious in the workmanship.

Even the cuffs, which you accept only to keep them out of trouble...and maybe to make Stunner underestimate you, are beautiful.  

Not spelled cuffs.

These two are connected by a meter of intricate chains.

Then, just before dawn, the pair lifts out a massive mesh vale glittering with black pearls.

Chapter Text

The royal palanquins are neutrally buoyant...when loaded up with royals and riches.

Unfortunately, that's the best that can be said about them.

By dawn, six of the palanquins, bearing the members of Tigress's court whose only claim to importance is...that they're part of the court, are already loaded up for the long ascent through the city in celebration of the year's final full moon.  

Already, the city's forced laborers are posed in neat, ordered throngs, watching the procession, held in place by their cuffs, spelled and chained alike.  At noon, the military ranks, including the child soldiers, will be poised to watch.  At dusk, an elite unit will move through the residential caves and force the common people to watch.  

Stunner's palanquin will be third from the end of the procession.  Just ahead of the princes and princesses, and then Tigress with her mates.  

His throne is built like a chaise long, ready for him to stretch out.  It's slightly bigger, this year, with a thick stone ring set into the floor.

This is where you're bound.  

The two servants take quite a bit of time adjusting your vale so you won't burn, which...well, you catch sight of yourself in the reflective edges of the palanquin ahead and you look more like a human mourner than a mer.  

Once the girls are sure you'll be safe through the day, they artistically arrange spelled tube worms, long strands of pearls and gleaming mats of mother of pearl.

On the other palanquins, similar servants decorate and arrange.  Some courtier several ahead scolds their daughter and has her carefully posed just as a guard of four mermen take the palanquin up on their shoulders and begin the measured swim to the surface.   On the palanquin behind you, the princes and princesses are conducted by a stern looking tiger shark merman.

You don't look as Stunner settles directly behind you.  You don't acknowledge the arm he slings around you.  You barely blink as a trio of small nymphs sit on the lip of the palanquin and begin singing.

To think...you can stay still and calm with someone singing nearby...

*

Dapple's first thought on being told they have to watch the court's attention was, "Why?"

After several hours of watching each of the palanquins pass, each one carried by soldiers and escorted by servants and entertainers, she knows exactly why.  Especially looking around and realizing how much of the army is still available to be among the crowds...

And yet...

It is a vast army, certainly, and the vast majority may not be the massive tiger shark mers, but they do outsize the average.  

But for every soldier standing guard or escorting, there are easily two or three dozen residents.

Many dozen in chains.

*

Reed is perched on the roof of the court herald's palanquin, strumming a lute in sequence with five other children.  

The youngest children of the palace are all at the end of the parade route, waiting to watch the Final Moon ceremony, and Reed fervently wishes they could be there like they were two years ago.  They could wait, there...yes, for an entire day and half the night, but they could just...listen.  

This parade is one of the few times that the city comes alive with music, and it always tugs at something inside Reed.

They wonder what it's like, to have music all the time.  Reed's heard some of the old folk talking about the city's silence like it's a sickness.  They almost forget the quiet sometimes, but this parade and the accompanying music always make it ring in their ears for weeks.

But as the herald's palanquin rounds the last bend, right beneath the water's surface, Reed has a good look down at the widening spirals of the other ones...it is magnificent.  There are so many palanquins in the massive city.

*

Waiting for his to get moving, Stunner is bored.  Primped, polished and bejeweled, he has no concern about failing to meet expectations, especially with the four spears added to the decor, but...

Well, he'd rather be back in his rooms right now.

With you.

He pulls you into his chest, careful not to dislodge your vale.  "After tonight, I'll have you all to myself for a full week, Love.  Promise, I'll pay you every attention you're owed."  He draws circles on your stomach with one finger.  "I wonder...Tigress has had a few pairs of twins...maybe you'll give me twins.  Though...if they took after me, you'd hardly be able to move if that happened...Not that you need to move anymore.  No...I'll take good care of you..."

You're stiff against him.  

Stunner grins.  "It's hours up to the surface.  The entire parade was designed to get Tigress to the end of the route a half hour before midnight...you know..."

*

In your vale and chains, you hear that, "You know..." and your stomach drops.

Then you hear the whisper right in your ear.  "Keep quiet, darling...you wouldn't want anyone to notice."

He pulls you so close to him that the chains hold your arms straight down.

Then he slips one hand under the vale, searching for the slit in your scales.

"Stop."

"Hush, dear.  Don't want anyone to notice...after all...who would stop me?"

"You would do that out among all these people?"

"Hmm?  Oh, of course not.  I'm just making sure you'll be ready when we get back to my rooms after the ceremony is over."

Chapter Text

Civil sits on the rocky shore, facing south.  He shivers in the open air and hugs his head against his lap, trying desperately to ignore the full moon overhead.  

What in the red hells was he supposed to do?  He couldn't have stopped Dapple or Marri.  Sure, he could have dragged them both home, but...then what?  He couldn't hold the pair prisoner all winter; their island is bereft of food this time of year.

It's why everyone hibernates.

It's why he's sitting in the cold air, trying to induce his own hibernation.

Two delicate hands drape a warm, dry blanket over him.

Civil catches Kalli's hands before she pulls away, pressing a kiss each to both of her palms.  

He can feel her smile against his neck.  "Still the romantic.  Have you eaten anything?"

"The girls and I gorged on lobster before we came back."  Civil leans back so his head is resting against her collarbone.  "How...The children..."

She smiles, gorgeous in the moonlight.  "All fine.  Their dreams are lost in song, for now..." She pauses.  "The children are."

Civil frowns turning to his mate.  "Kalli..."

"Blanche is not a child."

His blood goes cold, and he surges forward.  "Blanche..."

"Enough..."  Kalli presses her forehead to his, surprising him with gentle tears.

A smile, too.

A sad one.  Well, maybe not...just sad.

Civil turns, wrapping his mate in his own warm embrace.  She settles in his arms, snuggled right in his safe protection.

His protection.

It's right that Kalli be in his protection.

Just like it's right that all his children be in his protection.

Kalli sighs.  "It's hard not to think of them all as my babies.  Dapple, Marina, Blanche...Soon enough, Minnow, just you watch...or she'll let Elti get ahead of her.  I want..."  She gives a helpless little laugh that tugs at Civil's heart, and he holds her tighter.  "I want everything.   In selfishness, I want, always, to cradle them in my arms, to hold them tight and chase away their nightmares.  But I also want to see them grow, hear their changing opinions and keep this...this pride of who they've all become."

"I want them to stay children so I don't have to be scared they're going out to get themselves killed," says Civil.  "And for what?  Thrice damned heroics?"

Kalli laughs, reaching one hand to caress his face.  "Things change, love.  You know they do.  And they have to."

*

Stunner sighs.  "You know, Darling, next time, I should gag you before we appear in public.  Then I could play with your breasts instead of using my hand to keep you quiet like this."

You bite the heal of his hand.  Not hard enough to break skin, but certainly enough to let him know your exact feelings about being held still, in his damned embrace, as he stuffs his second finger into your hole.

"Oh.  You wound me," he says, more smirk than ever in his voice.  He uses his two fingers to pry.

You can almost appreciate the pain of a mollusk being pried from its shell, the further apart he stretches your walls.  You can barely hear the music that surrounds you both, barely see the crowds even as the sun sets and the moon begins to rise.  If the palanquin is moving, you have no way to measure.

Certainly not as his huge, rough padded thumb circles your clit.

*

The longer the parade goes on, the more aware of just how many palanquins are passing is Dapple.  "How much longer..."

"Til the end?" asks the old mermadame.  "Well...let's see...that looks...Ah, I think we're almost past the inner circle.  So, the next one'll be Stunner Blue, then the royal brats, then the empress and her mates."

"Is it safe to be calling her children brats?" asks Marri.

"No one can hear us in this."

Dapple certainly believes that.  She can certainly feel the pain in her shoulder from waiting so long, and the fatigue from the time of day.

And then...she sees something that makes her utterly forget her injuries and figuring out how to sleep under water.

"Hmm...I didn't know he'd have a mate, now..." mutters the mermadame.

Dapple feels her eyes go round.

There he is.

The merman who attacked her.  

"Dapple?  Are you alright?" asks Marri.

Dapple stares as the palanquin passes.  She remembers those vivid stripes.  She remembers that grin as he left her there among the lobsters to die.  Even in the fear and pain, his face is burned into her memory, and no jewels or cape or...or damned glory will ever let her mistake him.  "...That's...Stunner Blue?"  She asks, barely able to breathe.

"Hmm?  Oh, yes."

"Dapple, what's happening?  Are you okay?" asks Marri.

"That's him...the one who..."  Dapple snaps her mouth shut and stares at the tiny figure in front of the gigantic merman.  "Madame?  Why would his mate be veiled like that?  I can barely see her."

"Oh...She must be a nocturnal.  With the sunset coming on, they might take it off soon.  Well!  Would you look at that!  I think they have the dear chained to the palanquin!"

Dapple puts one hand over her mouth.

She's found you.  

It's everything in her power not to swim after you.  To try and pry you out of the merman's arms and flee, right this second.  An impossible thing midst this crowd and all the military everywhere.

To think.  Your abductor is younger brother to Tigress Blue. 

Chapter Text

Marri stares at Dapple, then looks to the palanquin, still drifting by.  "Dapple...If it were a random soldier...or even someone from one of the palanquins in front...maybe we could rescue her...but...Stunner Blue?"

Dapple bites her lip, hating the reality coming out of her sister's mouth.  "She's so...small..."

"Probably not smaller than you, really...I mean...look at the size of him..."

Dapple does see the size of him.  You look like a toy in his arms...you're much smaller than many of the tiger shark merchildren on floats that have already gone by.  To think of you...trapped in his hands, like your nightmares come to...

Dapple blinks, forcing down the horror and focusing.

She can't see Stunner Blue's hands.

The dying daylight is not what Dapple's eyes are built for, and the texture of the black pearl covered veil seems to be designed to trick the eye anyway, but...she looks very carefully.

The shape around the head is wrong...

And the shape around your lap...

Dapple's lip curls as she gets an idea of what might be happening, even here...in all this public.  

She wonders how many others might have noticed.  How many people in these crowds have realized what's happening, but are ignoring it.  Because it's dangerous to realize.  Because they, like her, know they can't do anything.  

Because it's better to keep heads down and listen to the pretty music.  

The injustice of it all is just compounded by the fact that Stunner Blue is handsome...

In frustration, Dapple turns her head away from the palanquin, looking past the next one where children she knows aren't responsible for any of this but can't help but hate because...well, how could they not grow to be like Stunner Blue?

No.  Dapple can't look at them.  She's too used to innocent children.  Normal children.  Like her younger sisters.  Like her baby brother.  Like the dozens of children she knows from her island. 

If she looks at the royal children, some gigantic, large or even...almost medium sized, she might see that they're...normal, too.  That, though the eldest have clearly trained in a bit of combat, they're still adolescents and children.  That they don't fully understand; everything is just an exciting game.  Just like the youngest of her sisters don't understand that carefully maintaining the kelp forest around their island is a matter of maintaining their homes and hunting, but still find it somewhat fun.

To those children on the penultimate palanquin...maybe this is just a fun event.  Maybe they look forward to it all year.  Or, maybe they're bored and wishing they could go back to their toys and games.

Normal...for now.

How long is it, really, before the eldest of those children are part of the conquests?

No.  Dapple turns her face to the last palanquin because she cannot stand the thought.

And when it comes, clearly, into view, she gasps.

*

Tigress Blue is surrounded by her mates. 

Loz, with her pinstripe painted tail, is draped dramatically on the arm of the throne.  She is a tiger shark mer in her own right, not the least bit small or dainty, and beautiful in her own right.

A nymph with terracotta colored skin flecked with gold and green, sits cross legged, basking in the dying sunlight, his body draped in jewels.

Some are small, not big or even medium, just small, and those four seem the most battered, almost subservient to the rest, even though one has a swollen, pregnant belly that is frequently caressed by the others.  

One way and another, all fourteen are beautiful.  All of them could order an island raided or spared in the course of a conversation.  All of them are decorated.

None of them compare to the Empress herself.

Easily the largest mermaid anyone will ever see.

Her stripes are as vivid as her brother's, but...there's something else to them.  Somehow, her stripes make her shimmer in the water; there are moments when she's entirely invisible when the light hits her just right, then terrifyingly, unquestionably visible.  A mother of pearl circlet studded with precious pearls pulls her hair away from her face, but lets it float in wild curls otherwise.  She is simply jeweled, a necklace, a bracelet, two rings and a belt, because she doesn't need to be more extravagant; who could ever mistake the fact that they are in the presence of Tigress Blue?

An even, black gaze drifts over the crowd.

And, under that gaze, everyone feels seen.  The smallest children in the shadows of the army, the most pathetic maids in spelled cuffs.  Hell, even the scrappers, still locked in the stadium.

Even Dapple and Marri feel specifically seen by that black gaze drifting over the crowds.

*

Dapple finds it hard to draw breath.  What if that mermaid is looking at her?  What if she sees the bruises and swollen shoulder and realizes that it was Stunner blue that did that?  What if she notices the resentment and anger and everything else boiling in the pit of Dapple's stomach?

Then, another thought hits Dapple.

What if Tigress Blue sees Marri?

Dapple tries, desperately to rationalize.  This is a crowd of millions.  Marri has pretty colors and her fins are lovely, sheer things that shimmer in any light, but there are other beauties...dozens just watching from the residential bluffs.  

Still, Dapple moves, ever so slightly, just in front of Marri.  Not enough to notice her movement, she hopes, but enough that no one can get a clear view of her younger sister from the palanquin.

She can feel her heart.

One beat

Two.

The palanquin in it's path is level with them. 

Four.

Five.

The Tigress Blue's face is turned in her direction.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

One of Tigress's mates moves.

Eleven.

Twelve.

Thirteen.

Tigress waves over one of the attendants.

Fifteen.

Sixteen.

Seventeen.

Eighteen.

Nineteen.

The attendant says something to the guards carrying the palanquin.

Twenty.

Twenty-one.

Twenty-two.

Twenty-three.

Twenty-four.

Tigress's head turns, just slightly, but clearly looking somewhere else.

Very suddenly, as the palanquin moves on, Dapple gasps for water, realizing how little she's been taking in.

Marri's grips Dapple's arm, trembling.  

Dapple realizes that, all around them, dozens are likewise shaken.

Somehow, in the moment, the sun has completely set, leaving only moonlight to shimmer in the water.  

Dapple stares after the palanquin, still shaking.

She feels it.

Deep in her bones.

What it means to face up against Tigress Blue and her empire.

What it would mean to try and rescue you.

She curls up, hugging herself.

But she sees...down below.

In the city of millions.

Millions.

Her fear changes.  She's not sure what it's becoming, but it's hard as steel and the furthest thing from her mind is returning home.  

Chapter Text

The page sent by Tigress catches up to Stunner's palanquin, much to his annoyance.

"Her majesty would remind you that the sun is down," says the little thing.

Stunner maintains his smile, but you can feel his fingers flex with his irritation.  "Yes...yes, of course."  He dismisses the page and leans forward, putting his mouth right against you.  "We'll continue our little game later, Love."

With that, his hands loosen, and you drop a little away from him.  Just enough to cross your hands over your lap.

Just in time, too.

Stunner lifts away the heavy veil.

You can feel so many eyes on you.  The crowds this close to the water's surface are all staring at you intently.  These aren't ordinary people, these are...well, the beneficiaries of Tigress's empire.

The families of military officials, tail kissers and lucky scavengers.  

The people who, more even than the military or even her inner circle, will protect Tigress and even Stunner if it comes to it.

They don't look at you like Stunner's victim.  Many look jealous as they stare at you.  Some stare at you like they would some grand treasure.

Not a person.  Not...not someone taken from home.

Not someone whose only remaining possession is your mother's obsidian pendent necklace.  The attendants hadn't been happy that you wouldn't let them replace it with something grander, but...well, you've lost everything else.  Your bandoleer filled with the things you fled with from home, your knives...everything is gone.  You held on to that necklace when they dressed you with everything you are.

Not someone who's covered in bruises and scabs.  They don't see the aches and pains of every movement you make.

No, as Stunner leans back in his throne, sexually frustrated but smug, all they see is a pretty, lucky nocturnal.  

Lucky for anyone who actually wants to be on this palanquin.

Above you, you hear the roof breaking the water's surface.  The whole structure shudders and almost fights against the bearers as they push it upwards.  Droplets rain down and patter against the water the further up it goes.

And...just liek that, you're breaking the water's surface.  It's a very different feeling from breaking the surface on your own movements.  You gasp, not fully prepared to start breathing air.

The palanquin bearers carefully position it in formation with the rest, attaching it to the others with lines as subtly as they can so the figure won't be disrupted.

The musicians out in the open air are all singing and playing to the same, eerie, rising tune.  A thousand voices with the ocean reflecting their music.  It's not really a song; you can't hear words.

But it echoes in your chest and it feels as though the moon overhead is being precisely positioned by the music itself.

In your head, you know, of course, that the moon will rise and set on its own power, careless of the many mers and nymphs and whatever else staring up at it tonight, just as any other night.

But...surely, it will, at midnight, be precisely over the center of the palanquin formation because the music called it there...

Several minutes later, the royal children's palanquin breaks water and is joined to the formation.  The children's voices join the song.  

Then, at last, the final palanquin.

To your surprise, it doesn't rest in the center of the formation, instead joining it, leaving a perfect disk of smooth water reflecting the white moon like a mirror.

As the disk of ocean fully fills with light, Tigress Blue lifts her crescent spear, moving to the edge of her palanquin.  In her hands it looks...normal.  Aside from the shape of the blade, it looks...proportional with her frame; in other words, it's massive.  You're near enough to see the spells inscribed in the blade and handle.  

The music hushes, but it still vibrates all around you.

Tigress rests the reflective blade of the spear on the surface of the water, sending perfect arcs of ripples across.  "We sing to you, the final moon of the year," she says, her powerful voice carrying over the music.  

From where you sit, the Empress's eyes...

Her eyes, which you know are as black as her brother's...

They seem to glow white.

As perfectly as the silver disk of water, they reflect the light of the moon.  

"And as your sister moon before you, already thirteen before, you see a grander empire than you did last year."  A strange, secretive smile arcs Tigress's mouth.  "Just as your sister moon, thirteen behind you, will see a grander empire yet."

The spells along the crescent spear seem to take in all the moonlight collecting in the disk of water.

All eyes on the empress, you make your own wish to the moon in the dark.

May no future moon see Tigress Blue's empire so grand as it is now.

*

The effect of the palanquins on the surface is to so perfectly blacken the ocean and so spectacularly frame the light as to make it feel like the water's surface is the sky holding a much more massive moon so much closer.  

It's...awesome.

Dapple always rolled her eyes when she heard stories of Tigress bringing the sky down to the sea, but...now...

The residents are all returning to their homes.  Many do practice final moon rights themselves but...well, for most mers and nymphs, it's a private ceremony.  Annual hibernants like Dapple and Marri don't really celebrate because they aren't usually awake for it, but the ritual precedes a mourning period for the year that has passed that will last until new moon, when the celebration of the new year will begin.  

Families who celebrate will usually share memories of the year while basking in moonlight together.  The happy, the joyous, the glorious, the bitter, the strange, the painful.

Dapple and Marri settle in the grotto with the family they're staying with and join in.

But...

But the close feeling moon...

The thing that would be awe inspiring, a magnificent achievement of planning, imagination and cunning...

It serves only to remind everyone of how powerful Tigress Blue is.

How strange to think of mers and nymphs who're shy of the moon.

Chapter Text

The heavy spells on Tigress's spear keep the disk of water filled with moonlight until dawn.

As the first sunbeams break up the moonlight at last, the palanquins are disconnected from their lines, and the bearers begin pulling them back underwater.  

Sometime during the night, Stunner was called to Tigress's palanquin leaving you grateful to be alone.

Well...alone...ish...

The four blank-faced palanquin bearers, stare down anyone who might approach you except for a few attendants, and the three nymphs sitting on the lip continue singing without looking at you.

But from everywhere around you, you can feel the curious stares.

You want to duck back under the veil, but it's out of reach.

Thankfully, one of the attendants, a pretty mermaid, hands it back to you as the moonlight breaks up and the palanquin and the chains that bind you to it drag you back underwater.

The attendant shifts uncomfortably.  "What about his highness?"

You glare at her through the veil.

"His highness will be attending the banquet.  Her highness won't be."

It startles you to realize that you're the one referred to as "her highness".  

"But she's his mate."

"She's to be returned to his rooms."

The girl surprises you by scowling directly at you.  It lasts only a moment before she puts on a pleasant smile and helps you make sure you're covered.  And then you realize; she wants to go to the banquet.

*

Lae was ecstatic to be assigned to Stunner Blue's palanquin.  Stunner Blue!  A prince of the empire! 

Truth be told, she'd have been thrilled even if he weren't a prince.  His infectious smile, his strength, his hunting prowess...

That glorious voice...

Oh yes. 

Lae prepared for this.  She primped and agonized over how to style herself.  Cleaned and polished until her tail practically glows crimson with her almost sheer gold fins, her skin looks morning dew soft and her hair floats in a cloud.  After hours of contemplating her trinkets, she chose her best belt threaded with sapphire beads, her hair draped with a gleaming net of blue pearls. 

Yes.  Lae was ready to catch the eye. 

She'd ignored rumors of Stunner Blue having a new mate so hard she'd almost been ignorant of the fact.

The sight of...you, at the time just a shape in a dark veil of black pearls, had punctured some of her excitement, but she'd rallied quickly.  

After all, Tigress has quite a few mates and may have one or two more by the end of the day.  

So, Lae endeavored to be gracious.  And...well, Lae may only be medium sized, over all, but you're small.  It's encouraging, really; there was some speculation that Stunner would only be interested in large mers and bigger.  Besides, when it comes to Tigress's mates, there's a clear hierarchy where in the largest are favored more as equals than the smallest.

Lae decided to be benevolent with you.  Obviously, you'll always be Stunner Blue's first mate, and she'll win his favor for later by being absolutely diligent in your care now.

When the veil was pulled off...well, that did something to her confidence.

She didn't see the bruises, and certainly not the chains.  She saw the pretty, dark blue tail speckled with silver like stars, the gigantic, articulated fins, the lovely face with the huge black eyes...

And Lae heard the gasps from the crowd.

Everyone was expecting a nocturnal.  Of course they were.  How could they not with that veil...

No one was ready for...this nocturnal.

You are beautiful.  

Lae rationalizes.  Anyone would be beautiful with royal attendants carefully and skillfully readying them for an event.  

And...you don't smile.  Not even once as the night went on.  Lae knows; she watched you all night.  

Which is how she saw every time Stunner Blue pet your hair or caressed your face.  If she saw you flinch away from him, she was too caught up in her own jealous heartbreak to notice.  

It took her almost til dawn to push back her own burning feelings and start plotting again.  

No.  She'll not be deterred.  Lae knows she is beautiful, just...differently beautiful to you.  Your hands posed so demurely in your lap, your steady, forward gaze, you are everything the night beauty.  This moonlight, of course, is what suits you best.  Lae is meant for daylight.  She could almost curse her own choice of ornaments for the evening; blue!  Everything is blue!  What was she thinking?  She should have chosen golds and reds, maybe purples, something to compliment rather than contrast. 

Then, she calmed down.  No.  She couldn't change her styling then.  It won't matter in the long run; everyone was looking at you.  Not her, you.  And so, if she changes things up, something to make her, say, a beauty of noon rather than midnight, she can still make an impression.

And then Stunner left his palanquin for the empress's.  

Lae argued but was silenced.

Which leaves her now...the errand girl meant to take you home.  

Part of her wants to sulk.  To curl up in a ball and pretend she's anywhere else.

Part of her wants to give up on Stunner Blue entirely.  Heartbreak wants to abandon him to you and go find someone who's somehow better.  Who knows, maybe she'll join the tournament and catch Tigress's attentions...

But at her core, Lae is born of stubbornness.  

She's set her eye on Stunner Blue.  She'll have Stunner Blue.

And...you are her inroad.

That's just how it is.  

Chapter Text

Despite her disappointment, Lae is diligent in returning you to Stunner's rooms.  She asks the room attendants, the two girls who will escort you back into your cell, if they need any help, but both wave her off.

She doesn't seem to have noticed the chains at all.  

You don't have the energy to marvel at...well, the cluelessness?  The obliviousness?

You've been awake for so long.  Part of the day before yesterday, then yesternight, then all day and night tonight.  You can barely sit upright long enough to eat a small meal of tarpon roe while the two attendants gently pull the beads out of your hair.  They have wrasse go over you one more time, then apply sealing cream to your healing wounds. 

Then, blissfully, they leave you alone.  

The bedding is mostly giant, cultivated sponge.  You pull the lip of the sponge over your body, trusting the porous surface to allow water to circulate even as it keeps you warm.  And then, happy to have whatever time you do alone in this cell, you fall asleep.

*

The banquet takes place in one of the dryroom ballrooms.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

The first reason, probably least important, is the collection of delegates.  A couple of elves, a gaggle of humans, a few centaurs and a faun.  They all need to breathe, and the delicate water breathing spell that allowed them to come to Tigress's court is long broken.

They're essentially prisoners.

The second reason is to allow different kinds of food, and even drinks to be served.  It's impossible to serve wine underwater, the stuff would just float away.  Try to serve a cake?  Enjoy the soggy crumbs quickly, before it dissolves entirely.

The third reason is to curb the rowdy spirits of Tigress's circle.  Breathing air instead of water turns a mer towards hibernation, and it's impossible to fight while trying to stay awake.  

Once the banquet is over, they can all go enjoy the fights in the stadium tonight, but for now they can stay in their seats and enjoy the feast.  

And, in some ways, Stunner does enjoy the feast.  He likes the carefully roasted beef, crackling with flavor and dripping with fat, an import courtesy of one of the human delegates.  He enjoys thanking the human while forcing the man to realize just how small humans are compared to a mer like Stunner.  He enjoys listening to a distressed little faun ask Tigress how long before the water breathing spell can be restored so they can all go home, all to be blown off because it is low priority to the empress.  He enjoys the excitable prattling of his niblings, dominated by Periwinkle.

And he enjoys the wine.  

But, though he does have his fun, he'd rather be back in the cell, stuffing you full.

Unfortunate that he won't be able to for quite a while.

*

Dapple knows she needs to sleep.  Her body is exhausted.  She needs rest to heal.  She won't be effective if she doesn't rest.

More over, anything she can do needs to be well thought out, so she can't do anything right now.

She just can't do it.

Her mind is boiling with thoughts, fears and ideas.

And...the gut dropping disgust, pity and fear for what's happening to you.  

She doesn't really know specifics, you pushed those dreams so far back into your mind that it's just...an instinctual knowledge that you're being...

Dapple turns over, trying to bury her face in her sister's hair.  

"Think of something else.  Think of anything else..." she whispers to herself.

An image in her mind of his grin, so clear in front of her, whips her eyes open.  

Dapple waves her hand to bring more oxygenated water to her, then gives up and pulls herself partway out of the den, heaving for breath in the small cave.

It's as she's trying to settle back down that her eyes land on it.

Your bandoleer.

But in your dreams, you were never the one wearing it.

Her mind flashes to the merman she saw in the stadium.  The one with the tail like the sandy ocean floor.

She bites her lip, then eases back into the den.  "Get some sleep, Dapple.  You can't do anything until you rest."

*

Reed is happy to finally be dismissed back to the dorms.  They would go to the stadium, but the merman they think might be their father won't be fighting tonight.

Oh, there might be a scrapper round or two, just to excite the crowd, but that's not the entertainment on the schedule.

No.  Tonight is the start of the New Year's tournament.  

Hopeful members of the court, military and who knows who else will present themselves in the stadium and promise to do their best to bring glory to the Empress.  

There is an official prize, a goblet full of one hundred fine pearls.

Everyone knows, that's not why anyone competes.  

No, what's really on offer doesn't even really require winning the tournament.  

Anyone who catches Tigress's attentions might be made into her mate by the end of the tournament.  

She doesn't choose a new mate every year.  Of course she doesn't; she only has fourteen mates.  Most years, in fact, she doesn't.

But she does, sometimes.  And she could.  

Of course, she could choose a new mate from anywhere, at any time, but no one really hopes to catch her eye during normal life.

Reed rubs their face, turns over and tries not to think about the possibility that that merman who might be their father could be one of the scrappers sent out to entertain the crowd before everything gets started.

Tonight will be opening ceremonies, and the full court will be in attendance.  It won't leave any room for ordinary people to go unnoticed.  And...if someone notices Reed and looks into them, they might start asking questions about why one of the palace orphans is hanging around the stadium.  If they decide that merman is Reed's father, Reed could be used to threaten him, or restricted to the palace, or...who knows.  The stadium scrappers pride themselves on their resilience and resistance against Tigress's empire.  Reed can't stand the idea that they might be what makes that proud merman finally break and bow to the Empress.

*

When the palace orphans become adults, they're given their own rooms.  At this point, they shift from being palace orphans to being palace strays.

Bargaining chips for Tigress to keep her followers loyal.

"Look at the little beauty?  Wouldn't you want them for a servant?  Or even, a mate?"

The rooms aren't very large, though the dens are usually too roomy for the stray.

Big enough for a tiger shark mer.

Lae's room is, predictably, still a disaster.

Until she catches someone's eye, she's technically a palace servant, but the strays get all kinds of little gifts to make sure they stay pretty.  Lae, pretty enough to get attention, but too temperamental to keep it, has gotten all sorts of admirers for just long enough to get some ornament or other.  

Most of those ornaments aren't exactly put away, and Lae huffs in frustration that, as usual, no one did it for her.  She puts her blue pearl hair net and her sapphire belt into a drawer in frustration, and haphazardly gathers up the rest to dump on the vanity in front of the mirror, only pausing to consider a bright orange belt, made from the shell of a young spiny oyster, against her scales.  

It's not quite right.  

A floaty veil, quite unlike the one you wore, woven in all the colors of the sunset, meant to be held in place by a glittering hair comb and two bracelets catches her attention next.  "I thought this came with a sash belt," Lae mutters.  Sorting through in search of the thing, she carelessly recreates the mess on the floor.

Still, when she finds the sash and a ruby necklace and spins once in front of the mirror, she's quite satisfied enough with the look.  

Very flamboyant

Very day.

Very her.

Nothing like your demure nocturnal look.

With that, and not a single thought more about the mess on the floor of her room, Lae darts out, headed towards the kitchens.  A large bowl of roe as snacks for the tournament; surely that will catch the attention of Stunner Blue.

And once from there, surely he can't help but notice her.

Chapter Text

The royal box in the stadium usually has huge fans hiding it from public view.  After all, this lounge may only be occupied by members of Tigress's family.  The entourage is only allowed admitance if they are accompanying Tigress, her mates, her children or Stunner.

Technically, now, you and your servants could enter this box if you pleased, but not today.

Before the fans are folded away, Tigress's mates carefully pose themselves around her.

Loz, as usual, drapes herself across the empress's lap like a pet.  She smiles at Stunner, in a smaller throne to one side.  "Having fun, baby brother?  So good of you to do your duties and come today instead of denning up with your pretty mate."

"I saw her when you pulled off the veil," says one of the others.  "Quite the catch."

Stunner waves off some hooting and hollering, trying to be...friendly enough, even though he's irritated.

Suddenly, a bowl appears at his elbow.

Stunner looks at the roe and raises an eyebrow at the mermaid who brought it. 

"A snack, your highness," she says. All of her iridescent fins are spread at odd angles as though as posed as her hands.

"I've eaten more than enough at the banquet," says Stunner.   He hardly thinks a moment about the bowl that will surely just vanish, except...

"Well, is there anything I can do?"

A niggling suspicion builds in Stunner's skull and he considers her for a long moment.  "Go, help open the fans."

She wilts, just a second, then takes the bowl and darts off.  Almost predictably, she takes pose not at the top of the leftmost fan, out of the way like a normal servant would, but in the center, right at the seam where both come together.  

Stunner grins.  Oh, look.  A game.  

A little wannabe pet.  

Not quite as good as the sport you represent, but certainly some fun.  

*

At the empress's command, the fans open, revealing the perfect tableau of her entourage.  All around the stadium, no one can help but see Tigress, her mates, her brother, their entourage.  Everyone perfectly posed so that no one, not the four or five dozen fighters waiting inside the cage, not the little nothings peaking around corners, not the rowdy spectators, can doubt, even for a moment, who they are.

The royal herald is just finishing the opening speech, welcoming the contestants and wishing them all to impress the empress.  Tigress lifts her hand to allow the tournament to begin, and all of them give a cheer.

*

A dozen bouts gone by and Stunner is very glad his throne is so supportive.  Midnight to dawn above water, the day practically spent in the dry room, he never quite got to the point of hibernation, but combined with just...normal fatigue, and he wants badly to sleep where he sits.

He won't though.

Because Tigress won't.

This is merely the first round bouts, but she will be here all night, wide awake and watching.  She may not choose a mate this tournament, but she'll fulfill her promise of watching, looking for anyone worthy of her notice.  Maybe she'll sleep a bit during the day, if nothing important demands her attention.  No matter what, though, no matter how long she's awake, she'll never show a hint of weakness.

And so, Stunner resists the urge to yawn or doze.

Every once in a while, he comments on one of the fighters, if one shows particular skill or novelty, but mostly he tries to keep himself poised by watching the antics of the pretty little mermaid trying to catch his eye.

Oh sure, she backed off with the roe, just, but she's back in no time with some other effort to catch his eye.  A toy for boredom, interesting anecdotes about one of the contestants below, announcements of someone with a report.

She occasionally shows just enough attention to one Tigress's mates to just avoid coming off as disrespectful.  Just. 

He's not the only one who's noticed the crush.  Loz whispered in Tigress's ear about it, then giggled.

But Loz, selfish, jealous hearted mermaid that she is, is keen to distract Tigress from anyone who might take more of her time.

Stunner's mind isn't actually on playing with this flamboyant nothing.

No.

He's thinking of you.

Well.

He's thinking of ways he'd meant to torment you before you escaped him at the seafold.  Like making another mermaid hold you still for his fun.

And seeing this little thing, who clearly wants him, it just seems more fun to him.

Bring the red tailed thing in, tempting her with ideas of sex, only to use her for sex with his actual mate...yes...he'd enjoy crushing her crush that way.  Maybe, let the mermaid mess up, lock her in the other cell in the dungeon, and ignore her as he goes at you all night long.  Hell, he could even tumble the little red tail a time or two, once you're so visibly swollen with his children there's no danger of anyone else's arriving first.

Besides, though his anger at you for embarrassing him in front of his sister is abated, he still needs to make sure you never do such a thing again.  

Ah...but it's not worth it if you think nothing of this mermaid.  If you are ambivalent to her, her presence and participation won't properly humiliate you.  If you don't care about her, him tossing her aside once she's no longer petty amusement won't mean anything.   "Hey, you...what's your name?"

The mermaid looks up at him, fluttering her lashes.  "Lae."

"You've been so attentive...after the new year's first moon, you'll be assigned, permanently, to my mate."

Lae's face flutters between hope and disappointment and resolve in a matter of moments.  How cute.  Pathetic, but cute.  "Thank you, your highness."

"Oh, but you won't answer to her, you'll answer to me."

"Of course, your highness!"

"Oh, be a pearl and go find out what that contestant's name is, will you?"

"Absolutely!  Right away!"

And she's gone in a flutter of bubbles.

Loz stretches and smirks at Stunner.  "You're a big meanie playing games with that poor, crushing little thing, aren't you."

"Well, it's not like she's going to make good fun all on her own."

Chapter Text

When the family they're staying with sees Dapple and how exhausted she is, the mermadame takes her to the water's surface with some sleeping medicine, then tucks her back into the den with a massive flat of ocean spunge.

"I'm not used to sleeping under water..."

"I've known a few like you.  Island nymphs often need some adjustment, but you need to rest.  If not for your sake, then for your sister's."

"It keeps feeling like I'm gasping in dead water."

"I promise you're not.  It really is something you can get used to."

Dapple blinks at the mermadame, trying to keep her in focus, but the days of exhaustion and the medicine are doing their jobs and her eyes go heavy.  The sponge almost has the weight of a good blanket like she'd sleep with at home.  

Maybe it's not just feeling like she's gasping for breath.  Maybe it's as much missing the feeling of a warm, dry bed.

Of course, mers and water dwelling nymphs don't sleep in bed.  A complete door risks oxygen deprived waters, making a very real danger of suffocation, but the opening could allow any number of parasites or predators to enter.  Some things can be done; more powerful mers tend to build refined circulation channels through their homes, and there's good sense in keeping an octopus as a pet to protect a sleeping family from pests, but this leads most to sleep in smaller dens, only big enough for those who will use them.  They also serve to insulate heat, leaving them nice and warm, so very few use things like the flat sponges as blankets.

Dapple's thoughts muddy and turn into distressed dreams, but at last, she sleeps.

*

Marri, who spent most of the day successfully sleeping, staying put in bed, even for her sister, is more than she can bear.  That and the anxious need to do something, and she makes sure to rotate the shellfish racks, then goes to explore.  

Most of her sisters would have regretted exploring almost immediately.  It's nerve-wracking to go about one's business under the watch of soldiers, but Marri, more of the loner among her sisters, is used to being alone in a crowd.

Besides, they won't accomplish anything staying still.

Marri knows Dapple still has the goal of saving you, with only vague thoughts of what that will take or how it will happen.  As soon as Dapple recognized you, though...well, as soon as she recognized Stunner Blue, Marri realized that will have to wait.

She won't say it to Dapple, but it may be possible they'll never be able to save you.  

But...

The city that rises from the depths of the ocean and never quite pierces the waves?  The masses trapped in shallow dens with no protection from parasites, predators and weather save for gates that keep them in there?  Who knows how many islands and reefs yet to be conquered and the scraps from those that have been?  There has to be something to do for all of them. 

Marri circles the city twice, letting her mind go quiet so she can take in everything.  The families seeing off hunting parties, all set to go a long ways out from the city to bring back food.  Honeycombs of artificial dens, locked with gates and no...homes to speak of.  Soldiers watching over tight shellfish beds.

Her eyes linger on the few nocturnals in the crowd.  Usually, about a quarter of the population is nocturnal.  Here?  Maybe they've stayed home for the evening, though that seems like an odd possibility.  Most here have sun-blistered backs, some of it more resembling compounding scars than healing wounds.  Most seem scrawny.

Actually, once Marri notices that most of the nocturnals are scrawny, she notices that it's not just them.

Almost everyone is scrawny.

Aside from the soldiers, everyone who isn't one of the large or giant mers seems to be underfed.

Marri considers and realizes at once what the problem is.

Large mers, and the bigger ones, too, may need as much food relative to their size as the others, but they can go longer without as long as they can make a big enough meal when they finally do eat.

With that thought in hand, and the awareness that she, herself, is not terribly big.

She returns to the grotto with that thought in mind.

Dapple, thankfully, seems to actually be asleep.  The mermadame, to, is denned up in her cave.  So, Dapple approaches Bower, the mermadame's daughter, currently splitting open muscles for pearls and meat.  "May I help?"

"What?  Oh, of course.  Be careful about the shells; we can trade them at the continent if they're in good shape.

Marri takes a shelling knife and begins dutifully splitting the shells.  The family has been pearl farming for ages, and it almost astounds Marri how consistently she gets beautiful pearls from each shell.  Still, she shells for several minutes in silence, working up the words to ask what she needs to know.  "There's not much hunting near the city, is there?"

"Almost nothing for quite a ways out.  Half the army's job is going out after food for the forced laborers, at this point."

Marri nods, thinking.  "Is it just that there's too many, or..."

"Oh, it's always been like this."  Bower thinks for a long moment.  "I think...when I was little, before the conquest started, yes the city was smaller, but there still wasn't much hunting close at hand.  Mama tells stories about how, even in the old days, most of the population was transient; they'd come for a season and leave.  But...well, the only real hunting nearby, ever, is the deeps, and only the nocturnals can hunt there."

"The deeps?  You mean like the deep ocean?"

"Don't get your hopes up, love.  They're more than a day's journey away at the best of times.  And that's thin hunting except near the methane vents, which are dangerous.  The nocturnals watch the sky very carefully for opportunities to come and go from there, and mostly they only find enough each for themselves.  A lot of them get injured, or even killed.  Sometimes they catch a giant squid or some such, but more often a giant squid catches them."

Marri lapses into silence for a bit.  "So...building more reef would help things around here?"

"Maybe...eventually?"

Marri nods.  "Who would I ask?  Is there anyone who knows how?"

"I'd ask Mama.  She may know someone."

Marri nods.  It's not a plan, of course it's not, but if only the military and the biggest mers and nymphs are well fed, of course they'll have no opposition.

Chapter Text

You stir, at last, in your sleep to the sound of young voices and a little bit of clanging.

"I told you, there's just a little dungeon down there!  Uncle doesn't even keep anyone in there when he's not around."

"But uncle's back, and there's never been this gate here before..."

"We're gonna get in trouble!"

The third voice is such an irritating whine you almost want to curl up smaller under the sponge and go back to sleep.

But...

You pull sit up, looking around.  Picking your acoustics carefully, you begin to sing.  

*

"Behind the rain, the moon still rises."

All five young princes freeze.

"Beneath the ice, the fish still swim."

Cobalt gently drifts to the floor, listening hard, ignoring his other brothers all around.

"We must believe, to scorn the guises.

"The seas won't always be so grim."

*

Your voice is rusty, not so sweet or strong as it once was.  How could it be?  It's been so long since you've sung.

Still.

Your voice comes clear and haunting with the sound reflecting walls of your prison, and you're gratified to hear the children stop talking or bickering or moving.

A proper siren's voice, your grandmother had always said; the kind to make dry landers crash their boats and drown.  

But...although you well remember the tune, you don't remember the rest of the song, so you just sing the melody without worrying about the words. 

*

Thunder, a proper member of Tigress's circle, not one of Stunner's friends or the empress's mates, frowns when evening comes and half the princes are missing.  

He's irritated to find them exactly where he expected to.

Stunner's rooms.

"You're late," he growls at the five missing princes.  "Extra training for a week."

One of the princes grabs Thunder's arm.  "Master, we've heard something!"

Thunder's eyes flick towards the gate and his lip curls, but he bites back a myriad of thoughts.  "To the training grounds!  All of you!  Now!"

The princes snap out of their music induced revery and complain bitterly all the way.

Thunder pauses at the threshold.

He's tempted, oh so tempted, to rip the gate off the wall and let you out.  He knows you're down there, Stunner Blue's oh so lauded mate.

A brutalized toy.

But he knows you'll never make it out of the palace before you're caught again.

And then things would be worse for you.

And, to Thunder, the princes and princesses, the influence he can exert upon them, the hope of steering them away from their uncle's influence, are far more important than some random victim.

Not that he doesn't feel guilty.

But Thunder is well used to swallowing his guilt at this point.  

*

You hear the childish voices steered away and shrug, tucking back under the sponge. 

It's not like you expected one pretty song to secure your freedom.

*

Daylight finally breaks over the waters, and Dapple wakes up, fully rested for the first time in a while.  Marri presents her with a bowl of muscle meat, but then is busy talking to a scruffy merman.  

Dapple barely listens, still trying to pars the dreams from the night before.

"It takes a right bit of work to do," says the merman.

"But it can be done," says Marri.

"Suuure it can.  Course it can.  Been done before, be done again.  You won't see meat for years, though..." the man trails off.  "'Ell...maybe not close on, anyway.  'S best to build from existing than build new."

"Build what?" asks Dapple.

"Ice up that spine, you sun-dried scrap," says the family's mermadame.  "You're looking cowardly.  Girl's got ambitions!"

Dapple looks from Marri's set face back to the mermadame.

The merman sets his shoulders.  "You need to soak your head before the ideas turn to dust on the wind, un-tuned old dolphin.  It's not worth the work!"

"Maybe not immediately," says Marri.  "But if it makes for richer hunting over the next few years."

"Girly, even master sorcerers take decades to cultivate reefs."

"That's not quite what I'm after, though."

"Listen to the girl.  She's got a good idea.  Just figure out who'll dredge up the skills if she asks."

"Banshe's have better voices and more sense than you!  I'll admit the little maid's got an interesting thought, but it takes years, and that's not time she'll spend hunting!"

"Just think about it," says Marri.

Dapple can hear how level her sister's voice is and wonders what's so important that Marri hasn't gotten as frustrated with the old man as the mermadame.  

The argument goes on for quite a while before the man finally throws up his hands and agrees to find someone for Marri and leaves in a huff.

"Kept your temper well," says the Mermadame, accepting her own breakfast.  "And I think you're right."

"Right about what?" asks Dapple.

Marri's eyes flash towards her sister and she gives a subtle shake of her head.  

The sisters mostly spend the rest of the day in silence, helping the family with various chores.  Dapple brooding on what to do while Marri broods on...whatever it is.

Just as the sunsets, though, Marri leads Dapple out of the city, past the masses going about errands and newyears cellebrations, and past the mers and nymphs leaving for or returning from hunts.

Ahead of them is...

Nothing.

Just the plains.

Well, not just.

Marri points at a rock.  A distance away, right along a line, is another rock.  And another furhter on.  "Look."

"What am I seeing?"

"It's the remains of the nocturnal road...well, one of them.  In places, there's more left...here though, the currents have entirely broken them up."  Marri folds her arms.  "The madame says that if you follow these old ruins you'll always reach somewhere.  This set leads to an ocean mount where people used to go crabbing...but...it's not like the roads were ever just roads.  And when the roads were strong, there was decent hunting even here in the plains..."

Dapple stares.  She can see them.  In some places, there are two rocks instead of one, on either side of what used to be a tunnel.  Before the elven conquests, everyone would have used the roads, because they provided shelter from predators as well as the sun. 

And...other things used them, too. 

Fish fry hatched in their shelter

Corral anchored and formed new reefs on them.

Seaweed forests anchored to them and grew thick.  

Sheltered from rougher currents by the roads, these plains would have been alive with sea grass instead of buried in sand.  

"Dapple...I want to reestablish the nocturnal roads."

Chapter Text

There are very few words to describe how fundamentally disappointing it is for dawn to arrive, there to be no servants with reports for his attention, for him to be free from the obligations of public appearances, the primping, the prepping, the posing, and yet know it's an extremely bad idea for him to go after you.

For Stunner, seeing the gate into the dungeon and knowing that he's too tired to enter, that you're enough better rested that you might just slip through his fingers, embarrass him and taint his fun with real anger...

He turns to the servants just outside his rooms.  "If anyone, my niblings, a servant, a report, anyone enters my rooms before noon tomorrow, they'd better have a command from Tigress or their head will be good food for the seagulls."

None of the attendants so much as blink or cower.  It brings a bit of a wistful thought to his mind; they might be better sport than that little red-tailed thing.  How much would it take to break their...

No.  Stunner yawns and stretches as he drifts into his den.  No use wasting the eager to please.  Besides, Tigress might be furious if he messes around with maids and men who simply do their jobs and do them well; that sort tends to be the butterfly that makes a tsunami later.  

Besides, what he really wants right now, other than sleep, is to hear your screams.

Or your sobs.

Actually, he doesn't know what sound you'll make when he's finally successful, when you are clearly, undeniably pregnant with his child.

But the imaginings bring a few more teeth to his smile as he drifts off to sleep.

*

Tigress's chambers are massive.  One room is dedicated to her den, large enough to accommodate many mermaids, but with an entrance only just big enough for her to squeeze through.  Each of her mates has their own room, of course, much smaller, with individual dens, though each could accommodate the empress if she was in a mood.  A small nursery where the royal children live for the first year of life, now only occupied by one little princess, but soon to be home to at least one more, if the heavily pregnant Ranni is any indication.  A private basking bed.  A dry room reception.  A lounge.

Tigress, entering with her mates, grabs Ranni, the tiny thing, and pulls her in for a long, lingering kiss.  "You did well today.  You don't have to make another public appearance until the little one is borne and you healed."

Ranni sighs, dropping her head to Tigress's collarbone.  "Thank you."

Loz poses dramatically outside Tigress's room, not quite crossing the line by entering ahead of Tigress, but certainly pushing things.  "Come oooon, Tigress, Ranni's been pregnant before."

Tigress's eyes linger a moment on her most jealous-heated mate, and she doesn't let Ranni leave.  Instead, she drops one hand down to the smaller mermaid's waist, cupping the massive belly.

"Tigress," whimpers Ranni.

"Tigress," whines Loz.  

"I'll see you to your den, Ranni."

Loz pouts, moving to her own private den.

"Where are you going?"

Loz freezes, her eyes raising to Tigress's hopefully.  

"Stay right there.  Cashal.  Tone.  Nicki.  Wait for me with Loz."

Loz's face flutters between expressions.  On the one hand, she doesn't like that she'll have to share Tigress, apparently.

On the other...

Tigress doesn't rush Ranni to her den, instead taking time to make sure the little thing is comfortable, warm and safe.

Well, as comfortable as she could be, considering how large the child probably is.

Tone might be the father.  Of course, it might also be Oil.  Hell, it might even be Cashal.

None of them were gentle with Ranni.  Why would they have been?  Tigress hadn't wanted them to be gentle at the time.

The only person Ranni can expect to be sexually gentle with her is Tigress, and only at Tigress's whims.

Which brings her attentions back to Loz.  

Leaving Ranni tucked away, nice and safe, Tigress looms over the mates she called out for today.  She snakes one arm out and snatches up Nicki, who obediently wraps their tail around her waist.  "You know, Loz," says Tigress, leading the way into her den.  "It seems to me, that Ranni's proven more my mate than you have."

Loz's eyes widen and then darken with rage.  "What?"

"Oh yes...After all, Loz has given me three children...so far.  And a fourth on the way...Meanwhile, you've never even been pregnant."

Loz's gaze darts down to her own belly.

Still flat.

"I suppose I haven't."

Tigress settles into the bedding, Nicki already enthusiastically opening the slit in her scales and lapping at her folds.  Tone and Cashal approach cautiously, ready to do whatever their empress commands.

But Loz hesitates.

"Come here, Loz."

Loz swallows and goes, Lying next to the empress, her head on the larger mermaid's shoulder.  

Tigress secures the other tiger shark mermaid at her side with one hand.  "Tone," she says to the gigantic nymph.  "Cashal," to the tiger shark merman.  "I don't think I want either of us to enter the new year with flat bellies."

Cashal, newest of Tigress's mates, grasps his claspers, trying to excite himself.

Tone tilts his head, proudly posed.  "And what about Nicki?"

Nicki looks up from the empress's vagina, casting a rude gesture at Tone, then busily returns to licking.

Tigress sighs.  "By all means, if you can get them pregnant.  You're free to try.  A little attention to Loz, please, Nicki."

Nicki doesn't stop licking the empress, but nimble fingers quickly find the Loz's slit and gently spread it wide, slipping two fingers into the hole.

Of course, Nicki being only a mid-sized mer, and Loz being a giant tiger shark, it's not much work before Nicki can slip a third, then fourth finger into the hole.  They're about to see if they can tuck their full hand inside before they're pulled away entirely by Tone, replacing them with the tip of their clasper.  Fine enough; the funny thing about nymphs having legs is that the men have their entire genitalia external, and Nicki likes playing with Tone's balls as much as Loz's hole.  They're less pleased with being pushed aside from Tigress by Cashal, giving a retaliatory nip to his clasper.

Tigress sooths Nicki by pulling them to suckle at her breasts.  Dry, of course, it's been a while since she's been pregnant herself, but Nicki is satisfied with the knowledge that they might soon swell.

Loz's head drops back, and she turns to look at Tigress.  Her worries ease.

Of course, she'll do anything for the attention of this magnificent mermaid.  She always would.  

And...well, there's something thrilling about the idea of being there, participating, when the empress gets pregnant.

Chapter Text

Becomming a personal servant under Stunner Blue's authority doesn't magically clean her room or give her a servant of her own, so Lae, of course, returns to her room to a mess.  

Her mouth tightens at the sight.

First she was rejected by guards at the prince's chambers, even though she'd secured several sunfish fillets, then she was scolded by the matron for her own mess that effects no one but her.

"Clean it up, you dream-addled mermaid!"

Still, there is something to most of her bobbles being on the floor instead of in their drawers and cabinets.

Lae patiently sorts her ornaments by tone.

Anything suitably day gets set aside on her vanity.

Anything too much so night gets carefully sorted away in the back of her drawers and cabinets.  Carefully, of course.

She may need them one day.

Matron always emphasizes that the servants should take careful care of any trinket they're given.  Theft is one of the few things that'll lead the old mermadame from just yelling to actually smacking an unruly servant.  Lae can hear the lecture in the back of her mind as she cleans.

"You never know what treasure will protect you if you end up in trouble, foolish girl!  How dare you let them drop to the floor!"

*

Dapple finished her chores with the family and decided to explore a bit, but...it's disturbing just how many people are forced laborers.

She wants to just...think about Marri's idea.

It's a good idea, of course it is, but...

It's going to take so long.  

Dapple wants to do...something.  Now.

But...is there anything she can do?

She drifts through the city, wandering, watching.  And suddenly, finds herself next to the stadium.

Towards the base, where it rises from the seafloor, there are gated windows.  Not that Dapple believes she can get through the gates, set firmly into the wall.

No.

Dapple's remembering a familiar stranger's face.

She goes along the windows, cautiously.

But, this time of day, no one's watching her.  Forced laborers go about their tasks, heads down.  Guards, mostly young, are more interested in chatting to each other and occasionally wrestling than watching for disquiet.

Her lip curls the moment she sees the first of the scrappers.

They're all curled up on thin slabs of sponge, out in the open of their prison.

Maybe the gates over the windows protect them from predators, but being out in the open like that?

She's not surprised the first time she sees the perfectly round wound, mark of a cookie cutter shark.

On dozens of them.

In fact, while most of the scrappers are trying to sleep, a few are patrolling the isolated corners with...sticks.

Not spears.

Not traps.

Not so much as a hunting knife.  

Just sticks.

Thick enough to maybe serve as a child's hunting spear, and ground to points at one end, but...

Not particularly useful.

But...

One of the scrappers carefully probing isolated corners has a tail with a sandy pattern like the sea floor.

"Hey," hisses Dapple.

The merman flinches and looks towards the window.  He's pretty, definitely underfed, underslept, covered in bruises and there's a healing wound just over his dorsal fin from a cookie cutter, and...though he's not a nocturnal, there's certainly something of you in his face.  A bit too big to be called medium, but too small to be large.  

"Yes, you," says Dapple.

His lip curls and he's just waving her off when she lifts the bandoleer.  He frowns, then his eyes widen and he looks around.  Seeing no one paying attention, he comes closer. 

The closer he comes, the more he recognizes it.  The bead-work, the wearing and repairs just where it tended to rest over his dorsal fin.  He turns suspicious eyes on Dapple.  "Where'd you get that?"

"I think I got it from your sister."

His eyes go round, and a name Dapple doesn't quite catch passes from his lips.  Then his face hardens.  "Where...who are you?"

Dapple looks around, then tucks tightly into the window and whispers everything she knows about this.  How you, a stranger, joined her island's hibernation dreams, only to be stolen away, everything she remembers of your dreams, everything of chasing after you and realizing who has you.

Dapple does her absolute best to ignore her own emotions and pain in the mess, makes no mention of her father's refusal to help, just tries to describe you.

The merman, on his side of the window, curls, with his back to the window, listening hard.  

"And she dreamed of me?"

"She dreamed of lots of things.  It always felt like she was burying worse things in dreams of you."

The merman tucks his head in his arms, passing a hand through his hair.  "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Dapple doesn't answer.

She doesn't know.  

"I did everything in my power to protect my sister...and maybe I couldn't do anything more for her, but at least she wasn't here...now you're telling me she is...in the hands of the witch's brother..."

Dapple frowns, trying to focus.  "You're hurt."

The merman laughs bitterly.  "Hmm?  Usually...most of us are."

Dapple digs around in the bandoleer and produces a tin of sealing cream, passing it through the gate.  "Will this help?"

"A bit..." the merman shrugs.  

"You've been trying to catch cookie cutter sharks?"

"Yeah...We've caught eight so far.  Maybe we've got all of them, but...we thought that when we caught three.  They're eating us alive."

"I could get you a knife..."

"What, no!"

"You need..."

"Listen to me, if they catch us with a knife, they'll force the youngest of us into the stadium for loyalty bouts."

"Loyalty..."

"The witch makes whoever's in there fight until only one is left alive.  That one gets to leave and join the army, but..."  He grimaces.  "Last time, they picked the fifty youngest, all of them were still adolescents, and made them fight until only one was left."

Dapple casts an eye around the chamber and realizes that she can see it.  The youngest of the scrappers are usually wrapped up together in multiple layers of sponge, while the oldest surround them, deliberately not covered.

Bait for the cookie cutters so the youngest won't get bit.

"So...what do I do?"

The merman thinks for a long moment.  "Ideally, I'd ask you to get us an octopus...but we're too hungry..."

Dapple feels her stomach drop.  She's never seen an octopus that wasn't kept as a beloved pet, there to keep pests out of mer caves, but...she does understand...or, maybe she doesn't. 

Dapple has never been so hungry as to consider eating an octopus.

"If...if you could get us cured water reeds..."

"Reeds?"

"Or even split bamboo stalks.  Something they won't get mad at us for having but that we can use...maybe to make proper dens, maybe to make traps..."

Dapple calculates. 

The city doesn't quite breach the waves, so there's nowhere nearby to get cured water reeds or bamboo stalks...well, maybe if she finds flotsam, but that'll surely be claimed by someone bigger and stronger.  "It would take me several days...maybe even a week..."

His lip curls.  "Oh...gee, I was sure you'd have it right on you.  Truly, we'll surely have caught all of the cookie cutters by the time you get back."

"Fine.  I get it.  Yeah.  I just have to tell my sister, then..."

"Careful.  However much you get, it's too valueable for people to ignore.  You'll have to get enough for you to trade with other people on top of anything you bring to us."

Dapple nods.

Then she hessitates.

"What...what's your name?"

He looks at her.  "Quartz."

"I'll bring them as quickly as I can, Quartz."

Chapter Text

Marri stirs and mutters incoherent irritation when Dapple comes back to their den.  

"I found him, I found Quartz!"

Dapple's little sister curls into a tighter ball.  "'o's Quatz..."

"Her brother!  The one she dreamed about."

Finally convinced her sister won't leave her alone, Marri flops out of the ball and looks at her.  "Who's brother...Wait...Her brother...That nocturnal's?"

Dapple nods and explains everything.

Marri watches her carefully.  "In order to get that much bamboo or water reed, you're gonna need a boat..."

"Right...I have no idea where to get a boat...I guess I could go back home to get one..."

"That's two weeks away, not including finding somewhere to find what you need," Marri frowns, thinking.  "Yeah, let's do it."

"What?"

"In order to build back the nocturnal roads, we're going to need rocks, like a lot of rocks, so we can root new coral and guide its formation.  Aside from that, from what I've been told, there's a lot of waiting around for the coral to do...well, coral type things, so I'd have plenty of time to go somewhere and gather reeds or bamboo, especially if we start in the right direction.  We were all talking and we think it would be best to go towards Laviet Island to start, because it has good hunting ground and we can do a lot to build it up so it stays good hunting even as the nocturnal road starts bringing a massive number of people in, but the other thought was Mt. Cavier, because it has enough rocks to start."

"Why not just do both?"

"We need to know our idea will work, Dapple."

"Other than Rocks, what's the advantage of Mt. Cavier?"

Marri stares her sister down.  "It has enough rocks for the work.  No particular hunting ground, but it is pretty close to the lobster gathers."

Dapple shudders, trying to think objectively over the memory of waiting for lobsters to eat her.  "I say you start with Mt. Cavier.  The lobster gathers are on the way home, right?  And if people know it's temporary hunting until spring, they're not gonna over-hunt everything all the time."

Marri thinks, then nods.  "It would preserve Laviet for now...We'll need some of that bamboo stalk, too, to build frames and such."

Dapple nods.  "I'll set out tomorrow...Once I get to the lobster gathers, I'll gorge on everything I can, then go home for the boat.

"I'll see if I can't talk everyone into Mt. Cavier.

*

Freshly groomed from the servants' basking beds, Lae presents herself in front of her mirror.

Tomorrow, noon.

That's the soonest she can try to see you or Stunner Blue.

The thought both raises her rage and brings on relief at the same time.

She might not be able to make her impression yet, but she has plenty of time to prepare.  And, so long as there's no storm, she'll have the perfect chance to present herself as the daylight beauty.

*

Stunner is only half surprised to have slept through the day.  The setting sun's light streams through his rooms, warming him as he settles in his basking bed.

And no impudent messenger or guard or servant has interrupted him.

With any sense, none will.

By now, Tigress is surely returned to the stadium, watching the second day of bouts, but there's no irritating opening ceremony demanding everyone's attendance.  

Stunner is interested to see parts of the competition, but not yet.  If someone was going to make an impression so early, they would have made it last night.

No.

Tonight, Stunner has a particular interest.  

Still full from the banquet and feeling playful, Stunner stretches hums a few notes before raising his voice.

"Little mermaid on the rocks,

"Little mermaid in the sea,

"Wonder if I look at clocks,

"What it takes to make you scream."

*

You hear his voice and curl tighter under the sponge.  

In your head, you know it will offer you no protection.

You know it won't even slow him down.

You can hear the outer gate opening, then slamming closed, followed by the THUNK of the lock.  You can hear his bone rattling deep melody coming closer.

A little flutter of his massive tail raises bubbles.  

A pause.

A tiny laugh.  Mocking, sympathetic.  Understanding.

He probably can't see, you know that.  He can't see as well in the dark as you can, but you wonder if he can hear your pounding heart.  Is the merman enough like a real shark that he can sense electricity?  You don't know.

The scratching of a key against a lock.

The thunk of the lock turning.

The creak of the gate opening wide.

You can feel him near, like a pressure in the water. 

Then, the weight of his hand...

Somehow, he missed, his hand is not on you, just the expanse of sponge just next to you.

And then, in panic and relief, you make a mistake, fleeing the sponge.

In a flutter of bubbles where he can't see properly, you just dodge his grasp.  There's only one way out that you can see, up a narrow tunnel...

Right into a the locked gate.

You shove at it, desperate for an out that won't come.

And then, his massive hand plants just at your shoulder blades, shoving you forward so you're pressed against it.

"That wasn't very nice," laughs Stunner.  "Here we were going to have a lovely evening together, Darling, but you had to be a brat."  Stunner blue raises his other hand, taking careful aim.  "Well, it's not like I mind adding a few more bruises to your pretty tail."

Chapter Text

You scrabble at the gate, looking for anything you can use to get it open, even as you're forced so hard against it that you can feel the grating bruising into your face, chest and arms.  

Smack!

You bite back the cry, trying to keep it in.

Smack!

There!  A hole big enough for Stunners hand to get through.  Not quite big enough for your head, so definitely not big enough for you to escape, but....

Smack!

And there's a mouth against your ear.

"You know, love, I don't have to be nice enough to bring you back to the bedding.  I could take you right here."

You cringe away from the feeling of both his claspers, heavy against your sides.  

"Mmm...We do have the entire night..."

Smack!

"I suppose I don't have to cum inside you every single time...I could just rub off right here..."

Your skin crawls and you try to squirm away from his claspers, ridges catching against your scales.

Smack!

"Hmm...but...you are ever so much warmer on the inside..."

Smack!

Your scrabbling hand catches on something inside the gate and you rerflexively twist.

The movement spills you both out into Stunner's general quarters.  Instead of trying to right yourself immediately, you continue the rolling motion until you're right way up, with your caudal fins behind you and lash out in the water.

For one moment, a glorious moment, you're free of him.

Maybe it would otherwise be pointless.

Maybe you never knew enough about the palace and would instantly be cornered or caught by some servant or guard.

But the maybe's don't matter, because Stunner's hand shoots out and tangles in your hair.

Smack!

Smack!

Smack!

Stunner flips you belly up, the weight of him on top of you, his heavy tail coiling around yours.  "You just keep testing me today, Angelfish.  And it is fun, I'll admit, but...we all have to learn our place eventually."

He finds your slit so easily, so effortlessly, barely rimming your entrance before the heavy weight of his right clasper is pushing in.

And...

It doesn't hurt.

Oh, there's an edge of possible pain, the fear or habituation that, any moment now, if he's a little too rough or if he'd started tonight with the left one, you'd be in pain. 

And there's the dull ache of old bruises.

But...

His entry.

His clasper coming in and in and in, then making the long pull out before returning?

Your body seems to be getting used to this.

Your stomach drops with the realization.  You can hardly draw in water, barely pull in the oxygen needed to stay alive.

In a panic, you swipe at his face.

*

Stunner flinches his face away from your reach.  There's a tiny trail of blood floating away in the water; two or three of your nails caught his cheek.  He grabs your neck, just carefully enough not to strangle your gills, and forces you away.  With his other hand, he touches the wounds on his face, then admires the little smears of blood on his finger pads.  

On the floor, you're clawing at his wrist, still squirming to try and escape.

Stunner chuckles.  "Now now, love.  You wouldn't want to ruin my face, would you?"  He touches the healing scabs around the base of your breast.  "I've left your face pretty, after all, I do expect you to return the favor.  Actually, I wanted to try something."  Keeping you pinned by the neck and with his clasper inside you, he puts his thumb to your clit.  "I want to see if I can make you cum so much you make me.  It would have been nice if we had bedding for this, but...well, this is what you get for failing to behave."

*

His tough skin protects him from the worst of your nails, but still a lacework of scratches and cuts follow your fingers over his wrist as you try to free yourself. 

Because his thumb turns tight rings over your clit, but it's so big that there's no moment of relief.

It keeps building.

And building.

You can't get away from it.

And then it snaps. 

For a moment, maybe an eternity, you can't see.

You can't hear.

All you can do is feel.

The tight, heavy coil of his massive tail around yours.

His left clasper chafing against your side.

The bulk of his right clasper pressing against your walls, pushing your belly out.

His hand at your neck, flexing and un-flexing over and over, awkwardly positioned so as not to suffocate you.

Dull bruises and and prickles of healing wounds.

Nerve endings.

For that instant, maybe that lifetime, you feel your nerve endings so clearly, so electric with...sensation, you could count them.

It may be brief, it may be forever, but in that moment you can't get away from yourself, from your own body.

*

Stunner stares down at you.

He was hoping for a few screams, but he only got whimpers, but that's about...all his disappointment, really.

He's not at all disappointed by the rise of blood from his wrist, both your hands clenching your nails so deeply into his flesh.  It's the first likely scarring he's gotten from you.  Maybe it's not a mating mark, but it should still be treasured.

Oh, he hasn't cum yet, but the clenching and trembling of your body did make him buck into you a little bit.  That breakdown of his control, all from you.

He keeps turning his thumb over your clit even as your trembling subsides. 

After all, the experiment must continue.

Chapter Text

Five.

Five orgasms.

That's how many you had before Stunner's self control snapped.

From there, it took barely three thrusts before his spend erupted inside you.

That left you bloated and exhausted, overwhelmed by spasms of electricity.  

Unfortunately, as always, he had his second clasper.

Thankfully, no games this time. 

Well...not until after.

*

It should be satisfying at last, to see you glazed, stuffed with his sperm and hovering just above consciousness.

But all Stunner can think of is that gate that should have kept you contained but didn't.

Maybe it's simply because the outer gate was installed in a rush.

But if you've done it once...

Stunner Blue gathers you up in his arms, entertained by your struggles to struggle, and looks around his rooms, finally coming upon some of his training gear.

Specifically, quite a bit of rope and cord.

The rope is instantly dismissed; he's allowed to mark your skin, not splintering fibers.

The cord though, woven of fine mainland silk and soft as hair...

That'll do.  

At least until the spelled cuffs are done.  

Not trusting even you, even with your glassy eyes, he sits on your tail, braiding an intricate pattern over your torso and upper arms, flipping you onto your back and weaving it over your shoulders before joining it together over your wrists behind your back.  Then he braids the cording down the length of your tail, pinning down your dorsal and pectoral fins and perfectly framing the slit in your scales, large enough and solidly placed enough to still allow him easy entrance.  

Theoretically, you can still swim, but without those three fins you can't steer through the water.  

You're absolutely helpless like this.

Stunner grins.  "You're beautiful, Love."

In a bit of flexibility he wasn't expecting, your head comes up and collides with his nose.

Stunner laughs, gathering you up.  "Oh, don't worry love, you can go back to sleep."  He carries you through his rooms, dodging your tail as you try to hit him, over and places you, lovingly, in his den.  He considers the extra lengths of cord before tossing it aside.

He learned to tie knots in Tigress's military, and he's confident that nothing short of a knife will get you loose.  

Before noon, he'll put you back in your cell, just in case, but for now he's going to enjoy his first round with you in his own den.  "Oh look, Darling, my right clasper is perking back up.  Now don't worry, I don't mind if you pass out.  You did very well, earlier, so I can handle the rest of the evening."

*

Reed stirs in their den in the early morning but tries to just curl up and go back to sleep.

Almost no one in the junior dorms is awake yet, so it's not unreasonable to just go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, Reed's den is just close enough to the servant's rooms to hear an argument between one of the guards and a mermaid.

Not an uncommon sort of argument to hear, really.  Maid tells man to leave, man too full of himself insists on coming into the maid's room for reasons Reed, specifically, is not supposed to know.

It happens all the time in the palace.  Not always between maid and man, but always between weak and powerful.

Sometimes the weak gets lucky and someone with power and a little sympathy comes through and tells the guard off.  

Usually, it's Thunder, when that happens.

Reed tries to curl into a tight enough ball that they can't hear the distress they can't relieve, when they feel that low voice in their bones.

It's too deep to specifically hear what the tiger shark merman says to the guard, but it rattles like comfort through the walls and floors.  A moment later, Reed hears the higher, grateful tones of the mermaid.  

Reed peeks out of their den, watching through the entrance as Thunder passes, slow and silent through the halls, heading towards the princes and princesses' quarters.

The little merchild burrows into their bedding.  "Everyone's safe...no one's being hurt."

Even without specifics, they know that's not true, but they keep chanting it to themselves anyway.

*

Morning light warming the Stadium prison windows is the second mark for the scrappers that the night is over.  The first was when the roar of the crowds watching fools compete for Tigress's attentions subsided.

Four of the youngest watch for the rare patrol as, behind a stack of sleeping sponges, the grubbiest and grimiest of the scrappers open the stolen wrasse box.

A sharp whistle, as quiet as the scrappers can manage, calls the tiny fish to their task.  They swarm out of the box, surrounding the five mers and the nymph.

It's not as good as a basking bed, and the fish are already bloated and overfed from the last few days, but...

Between the precious box, a tin of sealing cream that's getting passed around, and the rest from not being in bouts every day because of the competition, many of the scrappers are starting to look healthier.

Now, if only they could be sure they've caught all the cookie cutter sharks.

Quartz helps a plain-faced scrapper with a colorful tail and short, round fins shake out sleeping sponge, going through each one by one.  

"If we had enough water reeds, we could make screens to put over the windows.  It'd keep things out..."

Quartz hums in agreement.

Really, there are a lot of solutions to their problems.

More basking beds, or more boxes full of wrasse, and they won't be sick all the time.

More food, and they won't be sick all the time.  

More food, and they'll be stronger.

More or thicker sponges and they'll be stronger.

Proper dens and they'll be stronger.

Screens over the windows and they'll not have to worry that more cookie cutters will always get in even if they're hunted out.  

There are so many possible solutions...

And they won't come.

Oh sure, that nymph made promises, and maybe she'll keep them.  Maybe she'll show up with cured reeds or bamboo, and the scrappers will have a bit of relief from their problems.  It happens sometimes; someone from the outside, sometimes a family member or an admirer from the bouts, starts bringing little gifts.  Things that genuinely do ease the suffering of the scrappers.  Like the child that brought the box of wrasse.

The problem is, there are only a few dozen such outside allies, and there are hundreds of scrappers.  

Mers and nymphs alike, there's not enough food to go around.

The bedding is pathetic, the shelter laughable.  Everyone gets just enough food to survive, but...if there's one thing there's never enough of in Current's Rise, it's food, so no one has enough to spare in gifts.  

But...well, Quartz is only engaging in this defeatist spiral of thoughts because of the other thoughts that keep invading his head.

His sister...here...

Not just in the city...

In the palace...

At the mercy of the royal family.  

He wraps the thinnest, most ragged sponge around the rest to keep them in as good a condition as possible, and tries, desperately, to bury all thoughts of what might be happening to you.

Chapter Text

Once Dapple leaves, Marri spends her time not doing chores sitting on the residential bluffs with her new teachers.

Cultivating coral requires hard labor and patience.

And a very specific type of magic.  

So, Marri sits with her almost white shard of coral while the dozen or so bickering old mers each give her what they think are precise instructions.

"From deep in your belly, now!"

"The maid knows how to sing, fool, that's not the tricky part!"

"This is siren singing.  You start with the basics, then build out!"

Siren singing.

Every little mer or nymph gets told, at least once, that they've got a siren's voice, but on a remote island, the compliment is as far as it goes. 

The voice that will make dry lander sailors crash upon the rocks.

The voice that'll make the otters and dolphins and whales stop to listen.

The voice that could raise or calm a storm.

Marri wonders if there was a time all mers and nymphs, even on remote islands, knew that their voices were the source of potential magic.  

"Now, hum.  Low.  The lowest note you can, dear," says Marri's only patient instructor.

Marri does, trying to maintain it as much as possible.

"Let the note vibrate through your bones and touch it to the coral."

The little shard feels almost lifeless in her hands.

To think.  There would be a time that Marri could feel the life or death in a piece of coral.  She could always see it, of course, but feeling it?  Totally new.

"Now, do you feel it paying attention to you?"

"Just nod, don't let your note drop!"

Marri nods.

"Good, now, gradually let your note rise."

"Not too quickly now!"

"Have patience, dear."

As Marri's note rises, she can feel it.  The life in her hands blooms in response.

She struggles to maintain her control over the note.

The life is fragile.  There is no such thing as rising her note too slowly, but for this tiny shard, raise it too fast and it'll over strain and die.

She's already killed four shards of coral.

She doesn't want this one to die, too.  

So, she maintains a low note for as long as she doesn't need to gulp in water, then, with the next breath, carries one note higher.  

"Good.  Good with your patience.  Remember, there was just a touch of life left in this one."

Just one note higher.

Marri can feel curious eyes.

They watch the bickering lesson at a respectful distance.  A dozen or so, drawn out of their homes by...music.  Any music, watching.  Between shards, she counted four children, a hand full of adolescents, and two adults.  More than yesterday.

The music is enough to keep them coming back, however slow it is, and the crowd has grown a little each day she's been at this, but...

Today is the first day she's worked with the shards instead of having what, at first, had felt like redundant singing lessons.  Each time a shard dies, her teachers just hand her another, completely unbothered, but one member of her crowd leaves.

Just one note higher.

"Stay in tune!  No dissonance!"

These people want...something.

The more they watch, the more they want.

And each failure, however natural it is, disappoints someone."

"Come on, girl, you can do this."

Just one note higher.

Please.

Marri has always thought of herself as the patient one.  The one among her many sisters who could always manage her excitement, keep a cool head and find the best path.  The one who wouldn't go haring off without thinking.

This, trying to bring this little shard of coral to life, is showing her exactly how narrow her idea of patience actually is.

"Now, in your next breath, the five note run."

Marri draws in as much oxygen as she can and sings the slow melody.

"Stop."

Marri opens her eyes, looking at the mermadame before her.  "What?"

"Stop singing.  Look."

Marri looks down in her hands, already feeling her stomach drop.

Except...

In her hands is not the bleached white, mostly dead shard of coral.

Instead...

An almost imperceptable, pale pink flush is blooming inside the shard.  

Marri feels the smile before she can stop it.

"Carefully, now, girl, place it in the basket."

"Don't rotate it!"

Marri nods, cupping her hands to protect the shard against any current and places the shard in the nearly flat basket, anchored to the sea floor with rocks.  It's in full sunlight, too.

Her teachers join hands with each other around her.  Each one hums a little note until they harmonize out a short, choppy melody.

"New hope, new life,"

"Rise up, take root,"

"Welcome, and again,"

"Overcome strife."

A little prayer in music, a prayer in magic.

Then they break apart, and Marri's handed another shard.

"Give us one more success, then don't say or sing another word or note for the rest of the day."

"Excuse me."

The teachers turn to a small mer, a boy just past his voice finished dropping.

"Yes, what?" says the least patient of the teachers.

"...May I try, too?"

Some of the teachers look pleased, some startled, some stubborn.

The most gentle smiles.  "Sure.  Marri, wait a moment; we'll run him through some drills, then have you both harmonize to try together."

And like that, almost a dozen mers and nymphs are asking to try.  Teachers, truculent and generous alike, arrange everyone in a circle, and begin the lesson almost from scratch.

Marri takes three tries, and three more dead shards, before she puts another shard that might live in a different basket to take in the daylight, and no one else manages today, but...it's a start.

She'd been starting to worry that Dapple would be gone and come again with the boat before she would have a single success to show, Have no work done towards the nocturnal roads.

Now though, especially with so many joining the practice.

"We could really do it," Marri whispers to herself.

"You were told to keep quiet, girl!  Your voice is for singing!"

Chapter Text

Swimming all the way to her island from the city, alone...

This is the second stupidest thing Dapple has ever done.

Okay, maybe not, but...

She can feel her own vulnerability.

One nymph in the vast ocean.  

Her hands are tight around her spear gun the whole way.

She strains her ears the whole way.  

A storm hits halfway there and she's lucky enough to be near a seamount where she can take shelter.  

She stays there for a day because it's one of the lobster gathers, and a meal is a meal.  She's starting to control her anxiety around the stupid crustaceans.

Starting...

The last time she swam alone through open water she was in such a panic and hurry, trying to catch up with you and your abductor, that she fully forgot how stupid it is.

Now...

She can't help but feel the constant, nagging vastness around her.  

Every direction from which a threat could rise.

A pod of orcas.

A shark.

Parasites.

She'll be glad for a night or two at home, in her own bed, and to return with a boat.

With the supplies she can fit in a boat.

With the shelter.

Dapple tries not to wonder if any of her sisters are awake, waiting for her.

Any of the others.

They might've gone back to hibernation.  

Dismissed the distressed dreams of a stranger and fallen back to sleep.  

Dapple wants to believe better of her sisters, but...

She also wanted to believe better of her father.

And she understands.  

The ocean grows colder and colder the further north she goes, and Dapple makes a point of remembering some good, heavy blankets.  

She tries to avoid thoughts of you, because...

Well, it makes her feel helpless to think of you.

The idea that there really is nothing she can do for you.

At least now.

Marri's nocturnal roads will help...if you can get far enough away from the royal family to use them.

And that's an if.

But...the very nature of the roads means you'll be track-able.  Just follow the road...

No, Dapple has to avoid thoughts of the very person who inspired her to go this far, and further.

Because, even if she can't help you, she can help others.

So, she deliberately turns her thoughts to the scrappers.  

To Quartz.

He's right about cured reeds or bamboo being useful, but there has to be more that can be done.

There has to.

*

Tigress tolerates two weeks of his absence before she sends a few guards to drag Stunner out of his rooms.

This, finally, leaves you alone.

Battered, bruised, overstuffed, and alone.

Still tied up, but inside your cell at last.

Damn everything under the moon, you really are starting to think of it as yours.  The one place in this madness where you might have a few hours of rest and quiet.  

You still can't effectively swim with your fins pinned down, but...

Once again, you've got a knife.

Your pectoral fins aren't quite enough dexterous to position it, but you burrow down through the layers of sponge, so you can well be sure to hide it.  

Then, you settle into the warmth.  

Oh, sure, it would be wonderful to dream of freedom, but...

It won't work.

The knife won't get you out of this cell.

It won't get you through the outer gate.

It won't get you out of the palace.

It won't kill Stunner Blue.

You're not likely to get a random chance, so you need to build one.

And that means being patient.

Not throwing away resources on sudden illusory opportunities.  

No matter how much your arms ache from the cord, no matter how battered and exhausted you always feel, no matter how satisfying it is to dream of stabbing Stunner Blue, you're determined to maintain your patience.

*

Reed very carefully selects the box filled with the most wrasse possible, then goes about their chores, bringing it down into the dungeon.

The child is distressed that it takes a guard hauling you up, because you can't manage yourself enough to float bound up as you are, but they whistle for the wrasse to clean you up.

Then, as before, they oh so innocently, don't put the box away.  

As happy a kind of chatter as ever does accompanies their daily chores.  There's a feast coming up, hosted for the tournament's end.  Fewer of the guards are around, off to hunt so there'll be enough food, and that always makes the servants of the palace relax a little.

No being stuck with endless demands from a bully who isn't the boss but can't be refused.

No catering to loudmouths who have their own dining room. 

No being cornered so that everyone else has to just duck their heads and ignore it.

And the feast will be good.

The anticipation of overstuffed bellies makes for a lot of excitement among servants who usually only have just enough.  Of servants who are always told how lucky they are to have so much.  

What Reed is actually looking forward to, though, isn't the feast.

It's for the normal bouts to start back up.

To see that merman who might be their father again.

Even at a distance.

Even for so few moments.

Chapter Text

While a thorough education, the pride of every teacher, requires a coral sorcerer to learn every part of the process, it's natural for different voices to be better at different parts.

For Marri, the basic, foundational part, bringing the dying back to life, is exceedingly difficult, because she doesn't have a low voice.  Unlike a mezzo like her, a bass or baritone is best suited to the task of bringing bleached shards of coral to a touch of pink, and then to stability.

Her voice is best suited for night.

Not when coral is trying to take in as much sunlight as possible, but when the coral is battling for territory.  

At night, when the coral tendrils expand, searching to grow.

That's why all of the living coral shards are kept in separate baskets, to keep them from destroying each other.

Instead, to promote their growth, the baskets are filled with volcanic sand.

As the group learning to grow coral expands, the number of basketted shards grows, they take shape.

One little boy is absolutely devastated when all three of his shards, so patiently sung back to life through a voice not yet meant to be deep, begin to flush, not pink, but green, but he's settled when he learns that it's simply a different kind of coral.  He's excited to learn that he can bring about this different blush of color, but the teachers are quick to warn him that he's not best suited, now, to bringing the dying back to life.

A nymph maid with a high soprano voice only barely succeeds in bringing the dead back to life once, and is justifiably protective of her little thing.  

A trio of merman excel at this, enjoying harmonizing their voices together with two baritones and a bass, calling back to life many dozen of the shards, but flounder almost completely when it comes to singing through their expansions at night.

Still, every part must be learned for mastery.

Finally, the ten or twenty baskets full, the teachers lead their growing group of students through choirs, rising and falling voices in earth-rending harmonies in a circle around the strongest of the shards, each one noticeably growing through the day and night under this enthusiastic aid.

Soon, many of the once-shards are heavy enough to hold their baskets down in the water that they don't need to be tied with rocks, and everyone is told to stop adding sand to those baskets. 

Marri is particularly proud of one of hers.

A velvet soft thing, brilliant with reds, ridged and concave.

Perfect for a basking bed, if it continues to grow like this. 

She almost wants to wait for Dapple to come back, to show her older sister what she's accomplished, but the teachers tell her off for that.

The coral is strong enough, but still light weight enough, to transport.  They have to act.  Now.

A dozen of the now twenty strong class, the youngest or the ones with the most trouble, and five of the ten teachers, stay, working to bring more shards to life and build their strength.

Everyone else hangs the baskets from a wide, flatbottomed boat, borrowed from a proud grandmother of one of the youngest voices, and piles it with all the supplies they can manage, and sets out for Mt. Cavier.  

Laviet Island was a soar temptation, but in the end, the teachers agreed with Marri; the rocky seamount, even if the nearby hunting was only temporary, was just a better place to start.  

"Besides," says Vert, a large merman with a long, green tail and a flat ridge of a dorsal fin that runs almost the full length.  "If we do it right, we'll build hunting, right?"

"Might not happen as fast as you want," mutters the grumpiest teacher.  

Vert hardly listens, to busy trying to impress everyone with his strength.  He's been telling everyone for three days running that he'll do all the work of pulling the boat.

Almost everyone else just rolls their eyes and mimes grabbing extra rope.

Actually, he's not really trying to impress everyone.

Mostly Marri.

Marri can see it.

Quite often.

And...

She gets nothing out of it.

He's impressed with her, but she's not with him.

She wonders if that's strange.

Maybe, if they'd grown up on the same island together, she'd have more opinions, think better of him.  Maybe if everything weren't a quiet form of rebellion she dare not say out loud, or if she was confident he felt the same, he'd seem less like...nothing.

She tries to put the thoughts aside and focus on the job in hand.

Instead, she fixes a hunting seat to the bottom of the boat, helping the mermadame from the family she's staying with into it for the journey.

Bower folds her arms, watching.  "I'm not stopping you, Mother."

The mermadame shakes her fist.  "Who asked you to!"

"Have fun, Mother."

"I will!"

"Don't get in the way."

"Hummph!"

Bower shakes her head, then turns to Marri.  "Here.  We made up a few lobster traps, so you don't have to go catch them with spears all the time.  That way's bound to draw in predators."

Marri smiles.  "Thanks."

"And thanks for getting Mother's blood pumping.  She'll be a handful, but it's better for her to be excited like this than just...swimming around muttering...safer, too.  I always worry someone'll overhear."

Marri nods.  "I'm always worried about that with Dapple."

Bower watches Marri for a long moment.  "I'll look after your sister when she comes back.  Keep her out of trouble."

"Thanks...hopefully, she'll bring back...more..."  Marri frowns as the possibilities hit; Dapple coming back alone, Dapple with half their island, Dapple with one or two more sisters.

Bower nods.  "You're good for your sister...sense and stability.  But...don't discourage her righteousness.  We all need that.  All of us."

"I get that, but I...I want my big sister to live."

Bower hugs Marri.  "And I want my mother to live.  But, I also want her to feel proud of herself.  To not be so disgusted, and grieving of our home.  I want her to be able to sleep without guilty nightmares waking her up every hour.  Maybe the defiance is dangerous, but it's necessary for her to continue being herself.  We're not meant to wake up, keep our heads down, do our chores and go back to our dens, you know.  We're meant to have things we live for.  Life, joy, pride, accomplishment."  Bower pulls back and cups Marri's face.  "You take care of my mother.  You get your reef and road started.  Come back soon, and we'll try to have a few cleaner shrimp for you when you go out again."

Marri nods, then swims up to join the others, and begin their journey.  

Chapter Text

Reed is relieved to trade the wrasse box with the scrappers for the old one.  It's just as little to sneak the old one back into the palace as it was to sneak either of them out.

No one will notice.

Reed has learned that.

Reed may well grow into a fantastic beauty one day, their plain face blooming into loveliness, their colorful tail shaming those of their peers.

For now, they're still a young child, capable of some chores, but not most.

Still, they have a pleasant voice, so spend most of their time maintaining the palace basking beds.

So, Reed sits in a little alcove and opens the box.

The fat little wrasse follow a low whistle and disappear into cracks.  

Over all, this will be good for the basking bed.  The overfed wrasse will likely spawn when the moon is full again.

Reed waits a good, long minute, then opens their mouth.

"Blue streak, gold streak harmonies,

Little fish, whittle away at all disease.

Come from your cracks if you please,

Show me how your little mouth feeds."

Dozens of wrasse, trained true, and maybe, hopefully, acting on a little bit of magic in Reed's voice, emerge from the cracks. 

The child continues singing, drawing out more of them, carefully selecting two dozen of the smallest and scrawniest.

The palace, with its abundance of basking beds, is probably the only place in the whole of Current's rise that has underfed cleaner fish and shrimp.

Reed's sellections are all gathered into the box.

Then, with the end of their song and a sharp whistle, the other fish are sent back into the cracks.

And Reed hurries to the your dungeon. 

Partly, they have to make sure the wrasse eat before they cannibalize.  

Partly, they're enchanted by the pretty nocturnal...

Even if they're increasingly worried about you.

*

The evening bouts bore Stunner out of his mind.

He hasn't seen a single fighter trying to catch his sister's attention who seems worthy of it.

No one worthy of the mighty Tigress Blue.

Worse he's clearly not the only one bored.

Luz, preening for the empress's attentions producing none, turns to Stunner.  "So, baby brother, how's your little nocturnal?"

"Delightful."

Luz, fiend that she is, smells drama.  "What's this!  A lover's spat, baby brother?  Gosh, but you two haven't been together a season!"

"I'm not irritated with my mate.  I'm irritated with being here."

"Ah...the thrill of new love," sighs Nicki.  "Perhaps we'll know it again, this season."

Luz casts a poisonous look at the much smaller mer, before returning her attentions to Stunner.

To his surprise...it doesn't bother him.

Luz used to be a jellyfish caught in his belt; her very presence irritating and painful.  He'd tell himself that he'd accepted and understood her pursuits of his sister, but deep down he still resented it.  Why did his childhood friend choose Tigress instead?  Why did she ever after get to tease him without fear of retaliation?  

Why did she get to have Tigress's attentions?

Not that he wanted that kind of attention from Tigress, of course not, but...it did irritate him.

Today, though, every taunt and tease slips right off.

Instead, it's a bit of amusement to call his attentions away from the boring bouts.  Much like the little red tailed mermaid whose name he's already forgotten.  

Maybe it's you.  Having a nice, warm hole to come home to after a dull day may make many differences.

*

Lae avoids the forges.

Aside from them being a long swim through guard dense areas, the waters are hot.  The dryroom where dozens of mers and nymphs work day and night are hot. 

And loud.

But...as an errand for Stunner Blue?  Sure.

She endures the city and palace passages, dodges flirtatious guards with grabbing hands, tolerates the hot water and emerges in a shallow room.  The water is just deep enough for a tiger shark mer to comfortably exist in this room, before it opens up into a dry room.  

"Keep out of the way, red!"

Lae flattens against the wall as a large, bow legged nymph walks across the shallow floor, weighed down by wrapped silver bars in their arms.  "Excuse me!"

"What, girl?"

"His highness had an order.  He was wondering if it's ready."

"Oh, them...yes, tell him to bring his mate around evening tomorrow.  We want to put them on when the moon is dark."

Lae isn't pleased to learn this is for his mate, whatever it is, but thanks the nymph and backs out.  

Of course, Lae knows the bulk of the spell forges' work involves cuffs, but...well, her happy dreams of what Stunner might be like as a mate allows her to forget that on her way back to the stadium.  Maybe he's asked for a spell to protect you through daylight!  Or, there's a rumor going around that no one's heard you speak or sing because you can't, maybe it's something for that.

Mostly, Lae's been ignoring most rumors.

She's ignored rumors that the royal children have heard singing coming from the dungeons in Stunner's rooms because she's not thinking of the possibility that you're down there.

Not that she's the only one who's not connected that rumor to you.  Many in the palace think that the prince has caught himself a spy or an assassin.  You're obviously not seen out and about because...well, you're a nocturnal, probably nervous about daylight in an unfamiliar place.

The few servants who actually know, don't speak.

It's like a lot of unpleasant things around the palace; everyone who doesn't know happily speculates, and everyone who does tries to ignore it.

Chapter Text

The frigid water is becoming a problem.

Dapple can tell because she can't feel the tips of her fingers or toes and it hurts to breathe.  She decides to break the water's surface, even though the air will be colder, just to see if she can find somewhere to shelter while she waits out the cold snap.

Kicking her legs furiously, she manages to get her full torso into the air, and she's surprised.

In the distance is a familiar but alien shore.

She realizes she's never once seen her home island in the winter.

But it at least answers her question about where she can shelter.

She ducks back into the water and swims faster.

Home.

There'll be some jerky in her family's cottage, some flour in the cabinets.  Very little firewood, probably, but there'll be blankets and shelter from the wind and waves.  

She can rest a few days in the familiar.

And...

Deep down, she hopes her island, her family, maybe just a few of her sisters, are awake, ready to help her.

*

Marri circles Mt. Cavier twice around the base before she chooses a spot halfway up, out of the currents.  She loops two ropes onto rock outcroppings, setting herself within the worker's harness, then braces against it so she can use a large, round drill to bore into the stones.  

She tires herself, boring four of these holes, each as deep and as wide around as her arm, into the mountainside.  One of her teachers comes up and inspects the openings.  "Perfect.  Vert!"

Vert and some of the others swim up.  They wrestle two bamboo stalks into the holes so that they cross over each other.  Once the stalks are secure with water cement, they cautiously release their hold on the stalks.

To everyone's relief, the stalks neither pull out nor crack.

Marri helps bring the baskets that will act as temporary dens up while others begin layering reed mats, rocks and cement around the small structure they've created.  The baskets line the wall furthest to the opening they leave and that opening is only big enough for the largest who will use this little cave.

About five of these small shelters dot the mountainside, close enough for two mers to guard them all from predators, but far enough apart that a rock slide won't affect them all.  

Sparse and stark quarters, perhaps, but they are only for the season.  Short of a mass influx of life, it's not like the group can stay once the lobster gathers disperse and their hunting leaves.

Besides, they can build more and more complicated caves next year.  

For now, several of the party swim off to the lobster gathers with the traps, eager to get started feeding the group, while everyone else starts planning the road and a small reef along the mountain.

The work starts as moving rocks.

Over and over. 

Large rocks must be moved to protect the burgeoning reefs and road from strong currents and storms.  This makes for a tedious, repetitive task; rocks large enough to be of use must also be staked in place, lest they be washed into inconvenient places.

Marri mostly contributes to staking them in place.  They don't actually do that much, they don't have the numbers or supplies to do much, just ten yards on either side of the expected five yards of road.

Much like the temporary shelter, the basic layer of the road is made tall bamboo stalks.  Marri scoops away as much sand as she can before anchoring herself and drilling four holes.  The two closest to the sea mount get two massive stalks of bamboo, while the two furthest get three each, all cemented firmly into place.

Four of the stalks are pulled and tied together from all four corners so that they make an X.  The two remaining at the base of the mount are tied together into a simple arc, and the same for two from the other holes.  The remaining are left alone, to be made into Xs further along the road.  Unlike the shelters, no one is particularly worried if these crack before they've finished their purpose.  

A few of the growing shards of coral are planted near the base of the bamboo stalks, and another where the bamboo crosses.  Another shard each is planted on the shelters, and another structure is built to be a future basking bed.  Most of it is hard coral that may not be what the road or reef are ultimately made of, in the end, everyone knows that, but will form the basis for other kinds in the future.  

With that, the hard work that's all labor, is done.  Tired as everyone is, they sit down and sing as a choir, raising the strength of the corals they've planted, all their hopes and dreams.  They wish for the future.

Then, well and truly exhausted, they retire to their temporary dens.

*

You know you have one problem that will come crashing down on your head tonight, you just know it.

But...it might not be all you're facing.

The spelled cuffs are ready for you.

Not that you can fight that.  You're not even sure you should.  At the moment, tied up and always in Stunner's rooms, you can't build any opportunities.  Once he's sure you're secure, Stunner Blue might let down his guard, and you'll have to be allowed more freedom than you are now, actually tied up and always put away, locked in this dungeon.  If there's a way to bind people with spelled cuffs, there's a way to unbind them.

You're sure.

It has to be...

But the other potential problem is twisting your insides.

It could just be that you've eaten a lot lately.  Whatever you could say about...everything, however little food most everyone else you've seen is getting, you have eaten a lot lately. 

For you, it was a matter of building strength, making sure that your cunning won't be failed by physical instability, so you've eaten everything you were given, no matter how much it hurt to let other people feed you with your arms bound behind your back.

It could also just be anxiety.  That hard...mass...right in your stomach...

You won't admit it.

You won't let yourself believe it.

You can't...

You already know.

It's been his goal right from the start.

But...

You might not be able to do anything to stop it or change the fact, but you can keep your pregnancy hidden from Stunner Blue as long as possible.  

It may be all you can do, but you will hold this rebellion against him.  

Chapter Text

Once upon a time, there was a little village called Current's Rise.

Through a combination of the geography forcing fast moving currents up and the heat of geothermal vents at the outer part of the village, deep sea currents would rise in a dome around the village.  The radical temperature fluctuations of deep sea cold meeting geo thermal, meeting sunlight, then returning to the depths created rich hunting and easy trade routs for the mers and nymphs who lived there.  

And so, the village grew.

Because this was before even the ancients, before the elves so much as had an empire, the first interactions these mers and nymphs had with elves were fairly peaceful.  They shared knowledge.  Methods.

Magics.

The elves could not fully recreate the vocal magic the mers and nymphs produce so easily, and to them it became little more than fancy trickery and illusion, but...

Mers and nymphs could use the elves engraving magic.

A stone carved with magic will continue its purpose no matter who carved the spell.

Etched iron will hold true no matter who did the etchings.

And, with the thermal vents right there at the edge of Current's Rise...

Which became the spell forges.

And so, the growing town came to be a city.

Not just a place where every member hunted their own prey.

Not just a place where things came and went on trade routs.

A place where goods could be produced.

When the seas receded and inter island trading came, for such a time, so much easier, the mers and nymphs found they could dredge minerals from the vents and sort them.

When the seas returned, the vents grew even hotter, the forges more useful.

When the elven empire rose to attack them, destroyed the hunting grounds, the basking beds, the reef and kelp forests, they could not destroy the spell forges.

For, despite their understanding of engraving magic, they could not understand the construction of the spell forges, so uniquely marine as they were.  The vents could not be plugged up, for the earth will crack somewhere else.  

And so, Current's Rise was never fully abandoned.

Because the spell forges were still there.

Still useful.

*

Under the authority of Tigress Blue, the spell forges have only expanded.  

Why would she stay and build her empire from Aurora Deep, a dying place that can no longer feed her army, when Current's Rise has the spell forges?  Why would she try to build back Aurora Deep from the almost nothing it's become when Current's Rise has the spell forges?

And for the knowledgeable hands that work them, she's left the authentic residents of Current's rise largely unchanged.

She hasn't attacked or eradicated them.  She hasn't enslaved them.  She hasn't stolen their children.

And the forge workers are always first in line to be fed when the soldiers and guards return from a hunt.  

If, sometimes, the spell smiths feel...bad...uncomfortable...guilty with the spelled cuffs they craft to keep Tigress's slaves in line, it's quickly buried under the relief of seeing their children fed.  Of knowing they will continue to have full bellies.  

It's quickly buried by coming home and lying in a rich basking bed.  Of knowing they don't have to worry about sickness or parasites.

It's buried by seeing only the palace strays, lovely children kept healthy under Tigress's authority.

It's ignored by having a bluff of residential caves where they can't see the masses of stolen people, laboring in chains they made.

Tallara, a buff mermaid with heat roughened skin hardly blinks when Stunner brings you before her.  

She doesn't care when your arms are wrestled out and locked down to the pedestal anvil.  

While she is careful not to burn you with the hot metal or hit you with her hammer, she doesn't flinch at your screams with both so close.

And...in an evening, your wrists and forearms are sealed inside beautiful, spiraling silver cuffs.  

Finally released from the pedestal, you test yourself.  There's no pain of straining burns, nor bruising from the hammer.  The cuffs do limit your movements, just a bit, but they're mostly comfortable.

You can see the delicate spells in the surface of the silver.

Well...delicate looking.  They're probably not the least bit delicate.

Not that you know. 

You've never learned to use magic.

The worst part is that they're pretty.  They could just be decoration.  The spells are almost invisible unless someone is close enough and knows they're there.

The part of her task that directly involves you done, Tallara turns to Stunner.  "Here.  We'll come in later and seal the larger spell into your floor.  Use this til then and everywhere else."

Stunner examines the pendant, then turns an approving grin on Tallara, but...she's already gone. 

Back to her work.

With a bit of a shrug, he slips the chain over his head.  "Come along, Darling."

He's not touching you.  Not dragging you along.

There's no rope.

No nets.

It's just the damned cuffs dragging you forward.

Stunner laughs in delight.  "Oh, love.  This is perfect!  Come along; I've been eager for a real date with you!"

You flinch away from him, but the cuffs pull you closer to him.

And they'll keep you there.

Chapter Text

The air around her home island is so frigid, Dapple is forced to swim up the river.

Not that that's very effective.

In the deepest places, it's still mostly water, but there are many places where the current is lanced through with deadly ice shards, and she has to climb out, navigate through the chilled air, and then find a way back into the water to get to the village.

When spring comes again the salmon will hatch in the sheltered headwaters, freshwater crabs and other native species will dig their way out of the muck, and the reefs around the island will bloom with young fish.  The mers will set up nets to catch bigger fish, the nymphs will tend their gardens, and the whole place will come to life with birdsong.

For now, it's ice and waist high snow.

But, to Dapple's surprise, she can see smoke rising from her chimney.

Just as she's reaching for the handle, the front door opens.

Dapple smiles.  "Mamma."

Kalli smiles at her eldest, wrapping her daughter in a blanket that's clearly been warmed by the fire and a hug.  "Let's get you fed, love."

Dapple comes inside to the smell of baked bread and the sound of two sisters chattering.  Maybe it's not a the full welcome of an entire family she'd hoped for, but it's far more than she expected.

*

"Hey, Quartz...they're looking for some to do an opening bout."

Quartz hardly blinks.  Of course they are.  Always.  "You know who's watching?"

The battered nymph shrugs.  "Them from the witch's court."

One of the other scrappers, staring through the gate into the fighting cage whistles.  "Hoy, it's the witch's brother...he's got someone with him..."

Quartz has enough self control not to take a sharp breath, but he goes to look.

Even with the distance, the empress and her brother are so large they're clearly recognizable.

The mermaid in Stunner's wake, though...

Quartz can make out very few details, but they quicken in his blood.

A nocturnal.

From the way you're moving, you're clearly wearing spelled cuffs.  Scrappers learn very quickly to recognize that movement; like a mer is being dragged along by the wrists while their tail tries to keep them upright.  

There's nothing else he can make out from this distance.

Quartz hesitates.

He could ignore that nymph.

If he decides she was mistaken, or lying, he can retreat back into the depths of the stadium and pretend his sister is...well, not here.  Not bound in this damned city.  You could be someone else, some unfortunate nocturnal from some other island.

But...he has to know.  

"Yeah...I could use the exercise," says Quartz, hoping dreadfully that he sounds numb.  

He wants desperately for today to end with him feeling numb again.  For you to be some stranger.

*

There's no seat for you in the royal box, so you're dragged into Stunner's lap.

Frustrated, you flex your shoulders to ease the remnants of strain.  You also subtly shift your tail, pushing his hand ever so slightly so it's not resting on your stomach.

Just enough for him not to notice.

Unfortunate, though, that you're still sat between both his claspers.  

You ignore the hooting and hollaring of the soldiers in the crowd, you ignore sly looks and crass comments from Tigress's mates.

You can't ignore the entrance of the Empress herself.  

She doesn't glance in your direction at all, and you're grateful for that.

Because...well, her attention feels like death.  

A small nymph announces that the opening entertainment is ready.  Two fighters emerge into the cage.  You're not interested at all, looking for some way to get out of here and back to your cell, somewhere you can be alone, but...

You catch a flash of a sandy tail, like the ocean floor, and your eyes follow the familiar sight up the length of a newly skinny body to a face you know well.

You meet familiar black eyes set in a face that most people never notice is much like yours.

Of course they never notice.

He's not a nocturnal; he doesn't have the gigantic night eyes you do.

You suck water, but bite your tongue.

He's alive...

He's alive.

*

Quartz can feel his stomach drop and soar at the same time.

It's you.

You're alive!

You're caught...

You're healthy!

You're in the arms of that gigantic merman.

Sickening, really.  

He meets your gigantic eyes and wants so to give you some encouragement, to go to you and tell you everything will be alright, to smile...

He doesn't know if he still remembers how to smile.

And he feels every hope close in on him.

The spelled iron that makes up the cage around him, the only way out back through a gate.  Through that gate, he can go into the scrapper's prison or...well, there's no way for him to use the other gate, which could theoretically let him out, back into the normal world.  

He can see Tigress Blue's court surrounding you.

He can see the crowd of rowdy fools eager for a show.

He can feel how achy his movements have become in the months with little food.

He can already feel the impending bruises and lacerations that will take too long to heal.

He can feel the straining scab from a cookie cutter on the back of his tail.

"Ready, Quartz?" asks his opponent in a dead voice.  

Quartz sucks water.  "...Yeah...let's get this over with."

Chapter Text

The long swim and the cold have taken it out of Dapple, so she eats the stew placed before her before she tucks into bed, barely managing to assure Kalli that Marri is alright, or at least was when she left.  Still, she goes to sleep above water, with her mother stroking her hair and humming a sweet tune.  

Safe in her familiar home, she rests easily for the first time in a while.  

*

The scrappers know very well to pay attention to their fights.

Though they always avoid hurting each other, failing to be entertaining has consequences.

Like a rowdy soldier in the crowd deciding they want to enter the cage and have a go themselves.

That always leads to injuries.  A few times, it's even resulted in deaths.  And no consequences for the soldier.  

Quartz knows this.  He knows this from dozens of fights he's gone through already.  He knows it from the one critical injury he's gotten since waking up trapped in the stadium prison, a friendly gift from a tiger shark mer.

But...

He's struggling to maintain his attention on the fight.

You're there.

Absolutely still.

He's not sure you've even breathed since you both recognized each other.  

He reels away from a blow, shaking his head for focus; focus on the fight so you don't have to see him hurt.

*

Stunner basked in the crass compliments for a long while, but he's halfway through the opening entertainment bout before he's already bored with his "date".

He wants to play.

With you.

So still in his lap.

Are you interested by the fights?

He'll see if he can't get you to watch him wrestle with his buddies later, show off what real combat looks like.

Dreams for later.

The only thing keeping his hand from slipping towards the slit in your scales is Tigress.

Even if you were veiled right now, Tigress is close enough to smell it if he messed with you.  And...she'd be furious if he distracted her from her goal today.

And Stunner refuses to enrage Tigress.

*

The Empress frowns, her fingers tracing patterns on Nicki's back.

She'd shewed Loz away from her, irritated with the constant jealousy, but she likes having Nicki nearby, or even in her lap.  Nicki knows their place, respects the attention Tigress pays others.

But Tigress is only touching Nicki, not paying them any attention.

This bout is not between the contestants who will emerge soon.  It's just the scrappers.

Still...

That one with the sandy seafloor tail.  A good coloration for a hunter on the plains, really.  

He looks...

Familiar...

Tigress considers his face, sure that's the source of her instinct. 

Things tend to fall into place for Tigress Blue, and one of her mates makes a comment, allowing her to turn her head, ever so slightly.

To see you.

Tigress can tell that the thing most people notice about your pretty face is your huge night eyes.  The scrapper doesn't have a nocturnal's eyes, of course, but...well, Tigress wouldn't be an empress if she didn't see everything.

As if to confirm her suspicions, you're stalk still, staring at the scrapper.

Tigress turns back to the fight, smiling to herself.  She waves the little nymph announcer closer.  "Find me the names of both these combatants...bring them to me at noon," she whispers.  

The nymph nods.

Nicki looks up through brilliant blue eyes.  "Problems?"

"Not at all...just...insurance."

*

When Quartz was a little boy, he saw a pod of orcas hunt.

As grandmother always warned him, he hid in the rocks and waited for them to pass by, staying as quiet as he could while they attacked a school of fish.  

But he watched.

He watched how they used bubbles to confuse the school.

How they slapped the fish with their tail fins to stun them.  

How so much of the hunt looked like play.

The experience stayed with him as he grew up, learned to hunt himself.  He learned to do his own versions of what the orcas did.  He'd sweep his tail up through the seafloor sands to raise a confusing cloud around a dangerous bit of prey so it wouldn't know where to attack.  He sang bouncy songs in canyons to confuse prey about where he was.  He made as much of all of it into a game as he could, partly to keep himself from hating the work of it, but mostly because...why not?  A mer is a predator, too, just like the orcas.  It's natural to want to enjoy the process of bringing up food.

The same instincts inform how he fights.

How he's fighting now.

In fact, in the last few months, many of the tiger sharks and soldiers have come to like watching him, specifically, fight.  It was a problem when that one broke his ribs, but it means that there's often more food on offer to tempt him out of the prison and into the stadium cage.

More than ever, Quartz wants this fight to look like a game.  Maybe not one where he's having fun, he doesn't want to look callus or like he enjoys what's become of him.

But if it looks like a game, maybe you won't be so distressed.

He swims a wide circle around the cage, opposite side from his opponent, listening to the crowd's taunts.  

Then, a flash of tail.

Quartz swims a spiral, passing just out of reach before slapping them in the face with his tail fins.

They hit the metal bars to cheers, shaking their heads to clear the daze.  

Quartz breathes deeply.  Hoping the fight is over.  Hoping his opponent stays down.  Hoping they're fine and can keep going until the competition is back on so there's no chance of soldiers "having a go".  

Hoping today ends quickly so he can dream of escaping.  

Chapter Text

For Tigress Blue, the scrappers represent many layers of problems and solutions.

The first problem; Aurora Deep was starving, sick, isolated and rampant with senseless violence.  It killed her older sisters among many, many others.

Solution?  Organize everyone who will into an army and rid herself of any who won't.

Problem two; fundamentally, her army can't feed itself. The core, tiger shark mers from Aurora Deep, never learned how to cultivate a reef, they can't maintain a shellfish bed, they can't grow a kelp forest.  They can hunt and they can fight.  This problem may have caused or worsened the first problem, the tiger shark mers who once held that expertise sacrificed to the war with the elves, and the foundation they ought to have left behind destroyed in the same conflict.  

Solution?  Absorb mers and nymphs who do know how to cultivate and maintain and grow.  

Problem three; most outsiders don't want to leave their communities and teach those skills, compounded by Aurora Deep so fundamentally lacking in such resources that each one is depleated by the time someone begins to build it.  

Solution?  Absorb islands and their populations.  Particularly ones that do have strong foundations.  Scatter soldiers that are willing to learn among them as well as ones that aren't, pull hungry mouths away from Aurora Deep and send back knowledgeable people with full bellies.

Problem four; many islands and their residents don't want to be absorbed.

Paired with problem five; young mers join an army because they want to be soldiers.  Sure, some just want a full belly where they're unused to it, but as many more join for the chance at organized violence.

Solution?  Conquest.  If they won't join her empire willingly, force the issue.  

And so on it goes.

The scrappers of the stadium prison are a problem built upon the teetering pile.  Dedicated mers and nymphs who are strong and smart and loyal...just not to Tigress Blue.  Potential talent she's loathed to waist but is not available to her.

And...by now, there are nearly a thousand of them.

The scrappers do a fair job of maintaining internal loyalties; they already lack for food and shelter and basking beds, no need to waste what they do have on a changing tide, so to speak.  Any who look, to the scrappers, like they'll turn to Tigress often find themselves starved out, at best.  

Sometimes, through the loyalty bouts, she culls the numbers, but...well...

It's a lot of lost potential, just culling them.  Honestly, she'd rather young soldiers cut their teeth on the scrappers than just killing them outright.  

These are, after all, island defenders who managed to put up a decent fight.  

But how to turn them...

On very rare occasions, she's turned a scrapper by holding a hostage.  Often a child.  

But...Current's Rise is filled with slaves taken from random islands.  They never claim connection to the scrappers and the scrappers return the favor. 

It's a bit amusing...it goes against all her experiences.   Tigress grew up believing a hungry enough mouth would do anything for food.  A sick enough patient would do anything to live.  A desperate enough person would turn to anyone who looked like they could save them.  

But...considering she has an empire of many millions, and the scrappers make up less than a thousand, she still considers it an exceptional quality.  Not prevalent enough among the general population to be a problem.

*

Quartz stretches as he swims through the gate.  He won, but now Azmo got in a good hit towards the end.

Still, now they'll both be fed; incentive for fighting.  

He'll just be fed more; incentive for winning.

Not that Quartz particularly wanted extra food.  Mostly, he didn't want you to worry about him.  

"It'll be clams, probably," says Azmo.

Quartz hums.  It can be hard for the scrappers to make conversation.

Just inside the gate into the prison is a small room split into two cells.  Not big enough to be comfortable for any length of time, but good enough for eating a meal.

Quartz and Azmo enter each without a word.

The gates close them in.

And Quartz blinks.

Instead of the expected pile of clams, or oysters, or snails, or whatever else was ready on hand, both he and Azmo are served large lobsters.

Two for Azmo.

Four for Quartz.

Both mers look at each other.

Even for Azmo, it's enough to be considered a gorging meal.  Maybe only barely, but it's still far more than he had any right to expect.  Enough for him to gain back some weight and strength.  

For Quartz?  It's definitely a gorging meal.  

"Um..." Azmo raises a hand towards the guard.  "What's going..."

The guard sneers.  "What, you want less food?"

"He wants an explanation," says Quartz in a flat voice.  

The guard shrugs.  "Orders from the royal box."

Quartz bites back any response.  Was it you?  If you're Stunner Blue's mate, you certainly have the power, but...would you make such a dangerous move?

"Who?" asks Azmo.

"Empress wants to see you both.  Officials want you fed and cleaned up first so you don't embarrass us."

Quartz doesn't know if he should be relieved or not.

Still...he's not in a position to refuse food.

*

Stunner is bored. 

Quickly enough, the bout gave way to the competition, and he resents that.  If it were a normal day in the stadium, the bouts just happening to calm rowdy soldiers on their day off, Stunner could enter the cage himself, have a few rounds with whatever scrapper was healthy enough to make an effort.

But...no.  Not today.  

He's tempted to stay after dawn, when the competition recesses for the evening, go a few rounds, but if he waits to long, you'll be stuck here all through the day.  

And he wants to play with you.  

But he can't.

Because Tigress won't tolerate it if he doesn't hold the image of dignity and power she's cultivated.  

So, even with you in his lap, positioned so perfectly between his claspers, he doesn't buck his hips.  He doesn't finger your hole.  He doesn't play with your breasts.  

He just daydreams about it.

Chapter Text

Quartz and Azmo are both patient as the prison warden locks their wrists into chained cuffs.  Not spelled cuffs; no need to waste such things on what will probably be a very brief excursion.

Azmo stares up the entire trek tot he palace, entirely inattentive to the tiger shark mermen dragging him along.  He's just...taking in daylight.  What's the point of looking around at the level of the seafloor now?

Quartz...

He's resentful of the sky.  Why does it have to be daylight right now?  Why can't he see a few more stars?

But...in his gut, he's not afraid he's about to die.

He's afraid of other things.

What if the Empress makes him an offer?  It doesn't have to be real, it just has to look like he's considering it and the others in the stadium prison might turn on him.

What if she actually does?  What if it has something to do with you?  Could he really turn away from such an offer?

What if it's the opposite?  She's not making an offer to him at all?  What if it's about you?

The thought of it makes him sick.

*

Marri sits on a rock over the lobster gathers and gorges.

It was a revaluation, realizing that, in the time since she and Dapple arrived in Current's Rise, she may never have gone without food, but she's never really been full, either.

Now, she sits with a good third of the camp feasting on as many lobsters as they can spear.  

And...Vert slides up next to her on the rocks.  "You know, I've never known a mer who always eats above water when she can."

Marri doesn't answer, trying to focus on cracking open a claw.

The old mermadame, who mostly eats next to Marri so she won't be alone, scowls.  "Young stripe; yer s'posed to be down there checking the traps."

"I mean...I did that two minutes ago..."

"You see how fast they catch and you're not going to check?  What, you wanna be here all day?"

"I...well..."

"Git!"

Vert wilts, just a bit, but dives back into the water.

Marri hands the opened claw over to the mermadame and starts cracking another one.  

The mermadame basks a bit, enjoying the sunshine as she sucks out the meat.  "Good one, this."

Marri nods.  "You're looking better."

"Mmmm.  It's been a long time since I could gorge.  Had to make sure the grandchildren got theirs and...well, there's not always enough food to go around."

"We'll bring some lobsters with us when we go back...for the families."

"Good girl."

Marri starts on the next lobster.

In theory, it will make a difference.  At least for their families.

At the moment, the plan is for everyone to work on rotating shifts, growing the nocturnal road and surrounding reefs, and hunting the lobsters to gorge.  Once the lobsters begin to thin out with the season, they'll all work to catch as many live lobsters as they can and bring them back to their families in the city.  Then, two weeks in the city to grow more coral shards, then bring them to Laviet Island.  

Then, they'll repeat the process.

Build the reefs around the island, build some small shelters, begin the nocturnal roads, and hunt.

Then, when they've made noticeable progress, catch as much as they can and bring it back.

Move on to the next location on the list.  

The hope is that the obvious health of the group and their families will draw more mers and nymphs to them, even though everyone knows progress on the nocturnal roads will take a long time and a lot of work. 

Even though they know that work won't do everything.

Though the vocal magic does a lot, makes noticeable progress in the reefs by the day, it's still slow and chancy, and some of it will always take time.  

But Marri's trying not to be bothered by it.

Mostly, she's trying to ignore Vert.

By this time, she's fairly sure he's not rebellious against Tigress Blue and her empire.  He just liked the music and saw a chance to show off.  Maybe, he thinks Marri is pretty.

Of course, she hasn't asked him; no one's particularly spoken about growing the roads as a rebellion, just...something that has to happen.

The mermadame interrupts her thoughts.  "You saw it, this morning, before we came out here?"

Marri swallows a large flake of lobster meat.  "Saw what?"

"Didn't you?" the mermadame grins.  "In the shadows of the rocks we moved."

Marri thinks.  "What, the coral growing?"

"No, the sea grass!"

"I thought that was just...I dunno, an algae bloom..."

"No...definite blades.  It's gonna be grass."

Marri makes a sound in her throat.

It could be sea grass.  Everyone knows that the whole plane between Mt. Cavier and the city used to be sea grass meadows.  People have tried to reestablish the meadows for centuries, but while a field of the stuff is resilient against just about everything, it's almost impossible to get one started.

And...if blocking the current from ripping out the young blades is all it takes...well, they'll certainly have something to show.  

Sea grass means urchins, mollusks, turtles, fish fry...not everything will become good hunting, but everything that can support hunting.  

Sea grass, on its own, slows currents, leading to calmer storms and tides, meaning less damage to established reefs around the city and safer swimming to nearby islands.  

The sands that now occupy the plain, uncontested, are the perfect grounds for swallower fish.  Even ones big enough to eat a mer can nestle down and wait, making dangerous traps for everyone, but... such hunters tend to struggle in meadows, and the predators that do stalk meadows generally have a better selection than local mers and nymphs.  

And, when it grows thick, nocturnals can swim through it.  Maybe not for the full day, it moves too much for that, but certainly for an hour or so.  

Not to mention, the great variety of grasses produces quite a few medicines.  

It's hard not to see the bloom of green in the shadows of the rocks they moved to protect the nocturnal road and get excited.  To hope they've found the solution to an entirely different problem.

Marri is resisting that excitement, though.

Because she doesn't want to over promise and then lose helpers when she's proven wrong.

And, she doesn't want anyone distracted from what they're out here to do.  

Chapter Text

Tigress doesn't use the throne room except for events and displays of power.  Even for a massive mermaid like her, it's too...big for day use.  Beautiful as it should be for her empire, but to many corners where someone can shy out of view.

No.

Tigress prefers her private reception.  Not in the least because of the screen.

The thin screen is invisible from one side, but looks like a glorious painting of her eldest sister from the other.

And so, in peace, Tigress is able to observe her guests.

One is the prison warden from the stadium, a little things-to-do kind of nymph, fidgets at the edge of a lounger.  Behind him, two guards each flank two chained up mermen.

One, the loser of the day's fight...well, he's just here so Tigress can hide her hand.  People can guess at what she's after all they want, but she prefers to keep people from knowing.

The other merman...

Yes...

Up close like this, Tigress can definitely see the resemblance in the face.

More than that, though, she sees that his fins are less massive in comparison to his body than yours, but they're still large, articulated and fan-like.  His tail runs sandy colors and textures, but there's a familiar pattern in the swirling speckles that make that sandy texture.

Very much like the swirling, hypnotic patterns of silver that mark you.  

But...maybe that really is what's doing it.

Tigress can't tell that a single other person has noticed the resemblance.  For most of her court?  Fine.  Who would really be paying attention to you?

For Stunner?

Insulting.

Shameful.

Offensive to her raising of him.  

But...she can understand it.

The different coloration, the way his eyes and fins are...more in scale with his body in a way that is expected in mers than you; it all comes together to make a different aura.

Not to mention; you've been regularly fed as long as Stunner's had a hold of you.

This merman has eaten quite a lot, just recently, but probably only scraps otherwise, for months, leaving his body over lean and his belly a bit bloated.

Tigress takes another minute to process, paying some actual attention to the other prisoner, mostly to be sure of no surprises, then retreats from the screen and turns the corner.

*

Even if Quartz and Azmo survive this, the warden might not.

The fidgety thing can't settle and wait, first checking that the two scrappers are properly bound in chains, then fussing over the guards' bandoleers, then fussing over himself, then sitting perfectly still...for ten seconds.

It would be funny if Quartz weren't trying so hard to sink into numbness.

If he can be numb, he doesn't have to be scared.  If he can be numb, his face won't react, no matter what he's about to face.  

If he can be numb, he won't frighten you, if you're about to be in here.

If he can be numb, he won't look forward to seeing you.  This little giddiness that you're alive won't crack his facade.

If he can be numb, he doesn't have to feel the devastation of knowing he's failed you.  

Funny.  A few days ago, it was so easy to be numb...or, rather, it was hard to feel any emotions at all.  

Now...

He wonders what Azmo is thinking.  They don't know each other well, but they've seen each other around the stadium prison.  As much as he's liked anything these last few months, Quartz has appreciated working with the other merman on certain chores, like hunting the cookie cutters, together.  He's noticed Azmo flinch at the sound of children crying outside the windows, looking like it's every instinct to keep from going to comfort the child. 

Is there someone Azmo is missing, Quartz wonders.   

How is Azmo surviving this moment where all they can do is wait? 

Is he trying to be numb, too?

A shadow coming in from the corridor precedes the massive mermaid empress.

Quartz hears a gasp, and he can't tell if it's coming from him, Azmo or the warden.

Tigress Blue is truly impressive.

*

Stunner finishes a romp with his darling little mate and, to your dismay, doesn't put you back in the dungeon.

No, instead he keeps you in his arms, still stuffed full.

Why would he be bothered with sending you back to the dungeon right this minute?

The cuffs won't let you go anywhere farther than a few meters from his pendant.

You reach for it.

If you just yank...

He'll grab you in a heartbeat.  

For however tempting it is, with that stupid thing practically in your face, it's too easy to predict the outcome of actually doing it.  

At least for now, he's too aware of the stupid thing.  

Just like you're aware of the knot in your stomach.

You want so desperately for it to be anxiety, or over eating, or just being sick.  

You're willing to try and pass it off as those things.

But...well.

No.  No.  No use thinking about it.  There's nothing you can do right now except hold true to your decision to hide it.  

But...distressing thoughts won't leave you alone.

Quartz is alive.

And he's seen you.

You're not sure how to feel about that.  

It's a relief that he's alive, of course.

It's...it's awful to know that his efforts to keep you safe have failed.

And you don't even get the luxury of pretending he doesn't know.  He doesn't get to believe he saved you.

You put your hands over your face, hoping that somehow, this doesn't break Quartz.  That somehow, in the end, you can both go back to being happy.  

Chapter Text

Quartz and Azlo have maybe six seconds to take in the mermaid before them.

Massive.

Of course, they've always known she's big, but...well, there's a very real difference between seeing it through the spelled bars of the fighting cage and being so close.

Beautiful.

At the core of every scrapper is the desperate hope that maybe it's not true.  Maybe the stories of loveliness are exaggeration or fabrication.  Both mermen before her feel the sinking pit in their stomachs that they can't ignore it; Tigress Blue is beautiful.

Dangerous.

It's visible in the absolutely faint scars on her arms, evidence that there once was something that could threaten her.  Something that could fight her on almost even terms.  Once.  Now, there's not.

And watching them.

Six seconds to take in all of that.

Then, the guards behind them grab both scrappers by the backs of their heads and force them to the ground.

"Your majesty!" says the warden with a sweeping bow.

*

Tigress listens to babblings about offenses the two scrappers might've made, apologies, promises of retribution.  The silly nymph seems in a hurry to say every word in his head, glorifying her, deriding the scrappers, and making promises Tigress will happily take advantage of in the future.  

The only concerning thing is that the guards seem to both be ready to cut the scrappers' necks right here.

So, as she settles on her lounger, she lifts one hand to silence everyone.  "No offenses have been made.  I simply wished to congratulate these two for doing what all of the competition this year has failed to do; they've caught my attention."

*

Quartz can hear his own heartbeats, deafening in the silence.

Through a happenstance of angles, he can see Azlo.  Both of them have the skin of their cheekbones scraping against the floor, held there until...who knows, and they can see each other.

Azlo looks dismayed.  

Quartz wonders what he looks like. 

Can Azlo see the terror that you might see this?

Can Azlo see the anxious pit of worry that they'll be sent back to the prison after this, to be abandoned and ostracized by the other scrappers?

The rising worry that they won't be?

Can Azlo see how desperately Quartz is clinging to numbness?

"Bring them both up, I want to see their faces."

As roughly as Quartz was held to the ground, he's now dragged up.  

Slowly, the empress's lip curls.  "Not keeping them quite healthy, are you?"

Quartz vaguely watches the warden's head cock in confusion.  "What?  But..."

"No no.  Must keep the prison under control, I understand...But...surely a gift won't make a problem."  At the wave of her hand, a large merman comes in with two marlins.  They're both dead, but there's barely a break in the scales at the back of their heads; a quick blow, each, did this.  "As a reward for entertaining me, you two may bring these back to the prison."

Quartz stares at the fish, feeling a sinking in his gut.

A lot of mers and nymphs can eat off a marlin.

A lot.

In one meal, a couple dozen, easily.

Not almost a thousand, though.  

But, if he and Azlo can be reasonable, hold to the usual of having a little extra, feed the youngest first, they might...

"From now on, any fighters who can entertain me properly will get extra like this."

And there it is.

Today, Quartz and Azlo will follow the prisoner norms, maintain the unified front that made them a thorn in the side of every royal in this city.

Tomorrow, the fighters might continue to hold the norms.

And the next day.

Eventually, though, someone...someone stupid or reckless or new or malicious or desperate...won't.  And once the fractures and factions start, can it be caught?

And...how soon after before this mermaid...this witch takes advantage of the factions?

Quartz is about to do the smart thing, reject the gift, but...

He's seen too many scrappers starving.  It's only a mark of the brutality of their punishments that the loyalty bouts have killed as many.  He can't bring himself to refuse this opportunity to feed a few of them a bit more.  

Still, as Tigress dismisses them, Quartz can feel her eyes on him.

Not Azlo.

He tries to tell himself that it's just her usual effect; she always makes everyone feel seen.

Hell, he's felt seen by her before...

It's never been like this.

*

The empress alone, Nicki comes in.  "That one...he looks like Stunner's..."

"I'm aware," says Tigress, drawing patterns in the water with one finger. 

Nicki settles on the lounger next to their empress.  "Then...why?"

Tigress smiles.  "For now...my baby brother isn't the biggest problem on my list.  And...don't you want to see what she does if given the chance?"

Nicki curls onto Tigress's lap like a pet.  Tigress runs a hand up and down her mate's spine.  "Who's been biting your back, darling?"

"Oh...Loz."  Nicki stretches and curls into a different pose.  "Never over your marks, but she always seems to want your things...not as her's, I guess, but...to be beneath her?"

"Hmm...well, don't be afraid to bite back...I swear I have to teach that maid manners every few months."

*

Quartz and Azlo don't, either of them, respond to the warden's chatter on the way back to the stadium.

Quartz...

Well, once upon a time, Quartz was a rambunctious little thing.  He remembers getting reamed for trouble with his grandmother every other week.  He remembers flirting with anyone who'd stay still long enough for him to smile.  

He doesn't particularly remember knowing real anger as a child.

Oh, he knew it enough to understand its existence, and to recognize it.

Even in defending his home, and failing, anger was only a small part of the tapestry of emotions.

In the subsequent months?  Numbness.

Now though...

Just quietly enough that it might not actually come out of his mouth, but forceful enough to take root in his soul, Quartz lets the words slip.  "I won't let that witch beat me."

Chapter Text

Waking up in a warm, dry bed with her two of her sisters, Blanche and Elti, eases Dapple in a way she can't fully process.

Still, it's a disappointment, though not a surprise, that Minnow isn't here, too.  

The bed is warm, but, overall, the cottage is not.

Dapple stretches in the chill, then grabs one of the blankets on the outside and wraps up before going downstairs.

The ground floor of the cabin is warm stone, easing on the feet.  At one end of the room, it drops off into a shallow pool into the room Civil and Kalli share during the summer months. 

Even with the layers of building and cave protecting the water here, it's still chilled.

Kalli is by the fireplace, but she's not stoking up a fire.  Instead, she's twining together a small bundle of herbs.

"What's that?" asks Dapple.

Kalli holds up a few paper thin scales in her hand.  "Shedscale."

Dapple takes up one of the scales.  Dark blue with a fleck of silver right at the edge.  None of the scales Kalli is bundling into the herbs is fully silver, but several are fully blue and all are just a little bit dull.  Most mers shed a bit while hybernating, so Dapple's used to finding these brittle things, but she doesn't recognize these...

Then her mind flashes to you.  "What, you think these belong to her?"

"I found them in the bed she was using," says Kalli.  "It's enough for some charms."

"You think it'll...I mean...Mama, it's not like she's spending a whole lot of time above water..."

Kalli levels Dapple with a look.  "Love...I can't go gallivanting off to help you and your sisters, I still have children, but I can put smoke charms into the world.  Maybe it never does anything, and if so there'll never be anything bad by it, but it can do good if it gets the chance."

Dapple swallows, then settles.

For the most part, mers don't engage in smoke magic.  Even with a more terrestrial lifestyle, very few nymphs engage with it either.

But...it's one of the very few kinds of magic that can be entirely instructional.  

Follow a recipe, and the spell will do what it's meant to, even if it's not as powerful as it could have been with a master.  

Kalli has never been a master, always more of a dabbler.  Mostly, she's always cast spells to protect the garden, spells to turn luck in favor of hunts, little rain spells and such.  Nothing big.  Nothing so precise.

This time...Dapple's rather amazed by the ingredients her mother's putting into the bundles.  A large book is open to a complicated recipe.  

Garden sage, yes, that makes sense.  Cleansing.

Some mints for clear senses.

North moss; guidance.

A dozen herbs, mosses and more from land and sea.

And, in each bundle, a scale or hair from the daughter Kalli wants to protect.  Hairs from Dapple, Blanche and Minnow, a few shedscales from Marri.

And your shedscales.  

That bundle is bigger and more complicated than Dapple has ever seen.

One by one, Kalli poses the tight bundles in candle holders on the hearth, so the smoke can escape out the chimney.

Acting on instinct, Dapple sings a few notes, just as her mother has always done when lighting such charms.

One by one, the bundles each flare in a bright, short-lived flame, before the heat sinks into the heart of them and just smokes.  

Both nymphs watch the swirls and furls of smoke, singing quietly to themselves, thinking of what they have to do.

For a moment, one of the furls of smoke looks very much like Marri sitting on some rocks.  Not in color, of course, but in shapes.  Not just a mermaid, but a very specific mermaid.

Then, another furl looks like Blanche.

Another one looks like Elti.

Dapple's not very surprised to see herself in another swirl.

They wait on the largest bundle for a long minute.  

Finally, they see the swirl take shape.  Dapple realizes that she's seen your face, briefly, and gotten a sense of you from dreams, but she's never fully seen you.  The closest was realizing that the veiled mermaid was you.

Huge night eyes.

Massive, articulated fins.

You look so...tired in the smoke.

Dapple watches you as long as your image lasts.

Then, like all these spells, the smoke changes.

Instead, smoke sprites form.

Two escape into the cottage, darting upstairs.

One goes right to Dapple, and she breathes that one in with as little coughing as she can manage.

The other two dart up the chimney and out of the house.  

According to the book, once the sprites have formed and left to their tasks, the bundles can be doused and used later, but Kalli leaves them burning.

She always does.

Just in case.

Dapple tries not to cough out the magic, but accepts the cup of water she's passed.  "Thank you."

"Help me make breakfast, then tell me your plans, love."

*

Reed hides in the palace for most of the day.

They saw that group with the two imprisoned scrappers.

One, a sandy thing Reed doesn't personally know.

The other merman...

With brilliant stripes of color up his tail, and short, round fins and a plain face...

Reed tucks their head into their lap.  "No one's looking for me.  I'm not important..."

Some part of Reed, though, wishes, desperately, that they could have met that merman.  Wishes they could have spoken with him.  Gotten to know him, and themself, through the conversation. 

It would be so wonderful to actually meet the merman they think might be their father after all...

Chapter Text

The two dead marlins sparked the first major conversation the scrappers have had amongst each other in months.  

In the depths of the prison, they all sit in a circle, deciding what to do.

It quickly becomes obvious that, if the royals are going to drop bombs like this, they can't just let whoever's willing to volunteer go into bouts; anyone who might go must be intelligent enough and trusted enough not to do something stupid when they come back.

One of the two marlins is passed out among the scrawniest and sickest of the scrappers.  The other one is passed around the youngest of the scrappers.  

Everyone knows it's fragile.  Everyone knows this means that the structures the scrappers themselves use to manage each other may no longer be enough.

Quartz, of course, is angry, but...

Thanks to the lobsters and the gorging he got earlier, he's not as chilled as he's been for months when he curls up to sleep.  He can think more clearly, too.  

And his thoughts turn to that nymph.  The one who...might bring back bamboo or cured reeds.  If she does, he has a clear connection to the outside.

If he has a connection to the outside, he can start causing trouble.

*

After much arguing, it's decided that Dapple can't take a boat from their home island.  Most of their island does only small trading with other islands, so their boats are mostly meant to bring supplies up and down river.  They won't hold enough cargo to be useful and they won't take ocean swells and storms.

So, Dapple and her sisters gather as many treasures as they can before swimming together to the mainland.

A village of fauns and centaurs that mers and even most nymphs wouldn't normally bother with is happy to trade a boat and a large stalk of cured water reeds and split bamboo for the pearls.  

The boat was built of a massive tree, with a heavy dugout hull and outrigger and one sail.  Meant to withstand rough seas, good for cargo, possible to sail solo, but not meant to go fast, Dapple is warned.  The locals mostly used it to gather up driftwood and seaweed.

The villagers are happy for the pearls, but they do warn Dapple that they probably aren't her best source for the reeds and bamboo all the time.

The sisters thank them and make their way home.  It's certainly slower than swimming, but the solid weight does ease fears of orca pods.

As night comes on and they know they'll be out over night, the three sisters tuck into the cabin.  It's rather spare, but it's designed for a much larger centaur, so there's plenty of room to make something more homey.  

"We'll see if mama has some spare blankets for this bed," says Blanche.  

"Yeah, can't have you freezing," says Elti.

"What, me?"  Dapple looks at her.  "You're not..."

Elti and Blanche share a look.

"Um...Dapple..." says Blanche.

"You already said there's not much we can just do..."

"Right," says Blanche.

"And someone's gotta gather reeds and bamboo so you can keep trading them.  Maybe rocks, too."

Blanche swallows.  "And someone's gotta make sure our island isn't next."

Dapple swallows a solid lump in her throat.  "Oh..."

Both her younger sisters hug her tight. 

"This isn't us being shy of reality like Papa," whispers Elti.  "And we don't want to leave you and Marri to do everything alone, either...but we're not gonna accomplish anything if we don't plan it out."

"I'll be home, making sure you don't have to worry about that next."

"I'll go with you this run so we can trade a ton of pearls and other sea treasures and I can get my own boat," says Elti.  "Then, I'll make sure you don't have to waste time gathering more reeds and bamboo."

"And I'll work at convincing Papa and Minnow," says Blanche, her expression darkening.

"And if you tell me stories about how bad it is, I'll spread them around," says Elti.  "Or...they don't even have to be stories about how bad things are.  Maybe just stories about...what everyone can be doing, cause it's not like everyone is best suited to fighting."

Dapple tries to accept her sisters' logic.  They're right.  She knows they're right.  Not everything can be about violence against violence.  Not everyone can go to the city, especially not with how many people are already going hungry there.

Still, it's strange to realize that...this...being on her own, maybe even most of the time...after a lifetime of always being with her sisters most of the time...it's odd.

*

It's a relief to finally be left alone.

With the spell seal put into his floor, Stunner is finally comfortable just leaving you in his quarters.  

You know he's starting to get bored.  While he well enjoys tormenting you, he'd probably be happier doing so...somewhere else.  The only things to do around the city are work, go out hunting, and go to the stadium.

Hunting requires leaving by quite a ways.

Normal entertainments, theater and music and such, are, for whatever reason, absent.

And the stadium...well, as far as you can tell, it provides one amusement; violence.

Not that you think your tormentor doesn't enjoy violence; he's a connoisseur.  But...his enthusiasm for the idea of a date sure dried up fast when he was faced with the only one available being the stadium.

In the safety of solitude, you go into his basking bed and vomit.  

The cleaner shrimp and a few wrasse are delighted by the meal.

You're just relieved the nausea didn't hit at an inconvenient time.  

And still, in front of the mirror, there's nothing to see.  You can look and still tell yourself it's just a bit of food poisoning.

"That's fine...please stay as small as you can for as long as you can," you whisper.  

Chapter Text

For about two weeks, you hide and ignore your growing...situation.  

Instead, you learn the patterns of your prison.

As the moon fades to black and then returns, Stunner has less of his nights to himself.  Sometimes he drags you along, but your presence is distracting and frustrating.  He has to attend the competition as it progresses each night, but he'd far rather be tormenting you.

If he does drag you along, the two of you will barely be sequestered in his rooms away from dawn light before he's on you, usually leaving more vicious bruises than before.

If he doesn't, he'll usually return and go to sleep, your torment will wait until he wakes for the day.  It will be softer, less hungry.  Less damaging to your body.

Not easier to bear, though.

On the nights you have been dragged along, you've watched early for any signs of your brother, any signs that it might not be Quartz, but...well...

While it's disappointing not to see him, you are glad he's smart or lucky enough not to show himself where Stunner might get a good look at him.  

Most of those nights you have to swallow Stunner prodding and teasing you all night while that red mermaid, Lae, you think her name is, casts you jealous looks and the rest of Tigress's court makes comments.  

If you're left behind, though...

Well.

A tiger shark mer isn't necessarily an un-stealthy creature, but in the palace, where the ones trying to be stealthy are mostly the unskilled youths, there's a weight to their movements that fully lets you know when they're near.

No, in the palace, near Stunner's rooms, the adult tiger sharks move with ease, the servants move in silence...

And the young princes and princesses move around in a mockery of stealth.  

You listen hard, just out of sight from the corridor.  When you're sure it's the children, their minders somewhere else entirely, you sing in as soft a voice as you know will carry.  

*

Still not feeling easy, but trying to get on with chores, Reed turns a corner only to see the royal children huddled outside a new gate outside Stunner Blue's rooms.  Those ones've all been frustrated at being denied their uncle, every servant in the palace knows that, but right now, they're still.

After a moment, Reed hears why.  

"Braid your hair, lest it be cut,

Tuck your tail, don't you get caught.

On the land, the elf lords strut.

In the sea, won't be for naught."

The short, choppy tune in a soft voice pricks at something Reed's sure they remember.  A song...they don't think they've heard it in the servant's dorms...no, this memory feels older.

Reed closes their eyes and draws the tune in.

It's...light.

A memory of light.

Being held in someone's arms.

Shallow water, they think.

A taste like...like...not salt water...fresh water, maybe?

Endless swirls and whirls of water reeds.

Occasional glimpses of fish...

A moving boulder?  No, somehow, the thing blinks.

Reed tries, desperately, to hold onto the feeling, to the little strands of memory, trying to knit it together into something else, but...

Well, the tone is out of sync.

In the little bit of memory, the song was almost teasing, like playing a game.

Now...well, the singer sounds sincere.  

And, worst of all, suddenly the song stops.

All the royals flinch in the quiet, redoubling their efforts to get through the gates when a massive shadow falls on them.

Thunder glares at them.  "He had a gate installed for some privacy and you can't respect that?"

One of the children pouts.  "He's not even here right now.  He's off at the competition..."

"All the more reason you shouldn't be in his rooms.  Push on, scraps."

The princes and princesses grumble amongst each other.

Reed stays frozen in place, hoping the massive merman won't notice them.

But, inevitably, grey eyes find the child.  "Here to clean?"

Reed swallows and nods.

Thunder glances back towards the rooms, then puts a hand to Reed's back, guiding them away gently.  "Not right now, little one.  I'll make sure you have a group for when he gets back so you're not in there alone."

Reed nods, but glances back at the gate.  "You think she's ever sung for him?"

Thunder's mouth thins.  "No."

*

Her heavy new boat is surprisingly easy to sail, even alone.

Dapple is fully aware that, when she brings Elti home to get her own boat, things won't be so easy anymore, or at least not as fast.  With two nymphs working, they can keep the boat sailing day and night and it only takes two weeks to sail back to Current's Rise.

Once Elti is gone...well, Dapple will have to do all the work herself.  It'll take considerably longer.  

Elti has plenty of suggestions of how Dapple might find a helper, maybe recruiting one of their younger sisters, but Dapple mostly just listens to it like chatter.

She can read Elti's nervous mood.

How much it all feels like the world is so fast changing.

But...well, it's not so much fast changing as it is that the consequences of building presence of Tigress Blue's empire has finally landed on them.

When they arrive at the tiny anchoring rock that accounts for nearly two hundred boats above Current's Rise, Dapple tells Elti to watch things before diving down.

It's...well, a relief to see that things haven't noticeably worsened, at least from above.  That things might be bad but they are stable enough in their state that it's not going to slip with her leaving and coming back.  

Deep down, Dapple knows that's probably just wishful thinking.  

Dapple turns towards the residential bluffs and goes in search of Bower.  

Chapter Text

The sudden cramp hits you just as Stunner finishes up.

It feels like it seizes your already bruised insides and twists.  

The massive merman doesn't even seem to notice; he's too used to you being in pain because of him, so he just rubs his hands along your back before turning over and going to sleep.

You force yourself to breathe through the pain until it fades.

Then, you lie there, staring out at the rooms.

If you try to get up, to go down to the cell where you can at least be alone, you know Stunner will use his damn pendant to seal you at his side.

But you wish you knew what he suspects.  

*

Only a few weeks has made surprising difference to Mt. Cavier.

Well.

Of course it's not the miraculous transformation everyone dreamed of.  It's no gigantic reef filled with life.

But, linking all the temporary dens and the beginnings of the road is an unbroken line of coral.  Not a lot.  Just a little.

And, in the shelter of rocks and a little bit of road, there's a definite patch of sea grass.  Not a lot; a single turtle could probably eat all of it in a week.

But it's something.  

The last thing Marri does before she goes to help pack up the baskets from the temporary shelters is root some sponges.

Dead sponge sheets can be very useful, but living sponges are often the root of life, providing shelter and food for so much.  Also, the toxins sponges use to defend themselves are an important source for several medicines, not just used by mers and nymphs.

The arc of nocturnal road isn't much shelter at all, obviously, but it's solid and big enough to swim through for any size of mer.  They're no longer worried the bamboo will snap and the arc will collapse.  No, they could probably even remove the bamboo, if it weren't so encased in coral.  

But, it's time to leave.  

The lobster gathers are absolutely over.  The group catches just a few more of them before they're just...gone.  It's time to pack up their boat and head back to the city.  See friends and family, feed friends and family, take part in new year's practices...

Check in on how things are doing.

In some ways, Marri wishes she could stay longer, see the coral progress.

In others...

"Hey, Marri!"

She breathes through her nose, patiently wrestling a basket out of the makeshift cave.  "Vert..."  

"Hey, so...we're going back to the city...you wanna hang out?  We'll be in time for the festival the royals throw at the first moon of the year."

Marri forces a tight smile.  "Really, I'm just going to spend some time with my sister before we go out again."

"We'll be there for a couple of weeks; surely you don't need to spend all your time..."

The mermadame, carrying a small load of supplies, swims by.  "Jr, you'd be a better catch if you helped with the work instead of just flirting."

Marri chokes on a laugh.  She wrests the basket out and shoves it into his arms.  "Take that up to the boat, will you?"

She darts back into the cave before he can answer.

The tight matrix of basket dens, packed in close enough that everyone could share body heat while still having some privacy, was about the only thing that made this artificial cave comfortable, but they must now be disassembled.

No one believes the burgeoning reefs will grow all that much in the absence of mers and nymphs, but there's always the chance that...something will find the caves and take up residence.  It will be easier to tell if the caves are otherwise empty.  

Besides, the baskets can be used elsewhere.  Like...Laviet Island.

With a heave, Marri forces another basket through the mouth of the cave.

*

Lae smiles at her work.

What started the day as a simple, water silk net, lightweight and delicate-looking, is now a glorious veil of lace and pearls.  Heavy enough to not be carried away by the current, but light weight enough to be comfortable.

And...it's big.

A nocturnal the size of a tiger shark mer could probably comfortably hide beneath this.  

The dorm matron insisted on teaching every maid how to make lace, and it's often used as...well, patience practice for a certain temperament.  

After all, there's no rushing lace.

Lae just so happened to be one of the rare strays growing up in the palace who always needed a check on her patience, so, over the years, she's made quite a lot of it.  Three lengths of lace, one with a pattern of waxing and waning moons, one with a pattern of spirals and one with a pattern like a kelp forest, were her choice for this particular project.  

She doesn't this is a waste just because she made it for you.  That lace may be the work of years, but she'll have Stunner know that she's absolutely looking out for his mate.  After all, this veil is more than worthy of a courting gift.  Even a courting gift meant for royalty is rarely so fine.

In fact, she's prepared quite a lot for you for the first moon festival.

She absolutely wants everyone, particularly Stunner Blue, to see you and her and make their own comparisons.  Fine silver bangles, delicate pearls, the demure veil.  Yes, you will be the beauty of the night for all to see.

And Lae, in her very carefully chosen golds and rubies, all of a similar style to yours, just...more flashy, more flamboyant, will ever so carefully not cross the line.  Never outshine you, just...invite the comparison.  Invite the attention.  

Lae is practically giddy as she swims off to find the matron, show her the veil and get the approval.  

Before she gets to the Matron's study, though, she passes the servant's lounge and stops.

Mercy is crying.

Lae bites her lip, willing herself to ignore the tight pain in her chest and just swim past.

Mercy isn't a friend and won't welcome Lae's sympathy.  

Still, in the quiet, Lae can't help but wish better for the other mermaid.

Everyone knows Mercy's been sold off.  After the first full moon of the year, she'll go live with...General Ivan.

If General Ivan were a good man...

If anyone believed Ivan were a loyal man...

If he didn't have a habit of antagonizing people who will retaliate some day...

But he's none of those things.  He's just useful enough that Tigress was willing to sell him a palace stray to keep his favor, for now.  In the brief time before the Empress inevitably reduces him to chum, he'll be loud, belligerent and inconsiderate in his home.  

And then, after the last scraps are eaten by scavengers, Mercy will be alone.

Possibly with a pregnancy or child.

With only the skills she learned in the palace to try and feed herself.

Cleaning, lace making, maybe taking care of a basking bed or kitchen work...

Lae swallows hard.

She doesn't want that for Mercy.

But she really doesn't want that for herself.  

Chapter Text

Bower comes up to the surface to see bails of cured reeds and stacks of bamboo.  She then flutters back down to her cave and comes back up with a small purse of pearls.  After a little dickering, mostly for show, she leaves with a small bundle of reeds and an armload of bamboo so she can build another wrack of muscle beds for the family.

That's all it takes.

The five pearls are barely in the lock box under the bed before five other mers are clamoring for attention. 

By the end of the day, Dapple and Elti have a massive stash of treasures in place of most of their bamboo and reeds.

Pearls, sand dollars, coral jewels, skeletal sea stars, cleaned shells, basalt shards, platinum coins left over from the elven wars, sea glass, jade and jasper.  The things most likely to invite trouble are stashed in the safe, the sand dollars, the pearls, coins, jade and jasper, but...well, not everything is liable to fit, and so cleaned shells, sea glass, basalt and such are stored in nets hanging from the ceiling of the cabin.  

When things are finally starting to calm down, Dapple signals to Elti, who nods, and dives overboard with two bundles of cured water reeds just as the sun's going down.

In the confusion of forced laborers going back to their dens and the influx of people into the stadium, it's nothing for Dapple to circle, looking into the windows for a familiar face.

Which mostly shows her that there's been a strange mood shift inside the stadium.

Finally, she spots him.  "Quartz!" 

The merman turns, focuses on her and blinks.  "Oh...you came."

"Yes, look!"

There's not enough room through the bars of the window to just pass through the bails, so they pass through a handful at a time.  After very little time, some of the other scrappers come over to help, secreting the reeds away into the prison.

"You don't look so...well...I mean, you look better than you did last time," says Dapple, still keeping an eye out.

"Yeah..."

Dapple tries to catch his tone.  "You didn't think I'd come back?"

"Hmm?  Oh...most people who come making promises don't."

"That's awful."

Quartz shrugs.  "The world outside the stadium is a big place."

They two lapse into silence for a long time, putting the last handful of reeds from the first bail and several from the second through the window.

"You were right."

"What?"

"It was her...my sister."

Dapple looks at him.  "You thought I might be lying?"

Quartz lances the nymph with a look.  "Do you assume everything bad that happens is malice?  Sure, the thought that you could be lying was in my head, but more prominent were thoughts that you might be mistaken, the idea that you were wrong about that mermaid, or about me.  Malice..."  The merman bites back a lot.  "If we assume everything is malice...well...it doesn't work.  Because everything good that happens isn't altruism."

"What do you mean...good?"

"I got to gorge a few weeks ago."

"That's good!"

"Sure...for me.  In that moment.  Yes."

It's a long moment before Quartz finally explains himself.

Dapple frowns.  "I mean...I can see why more of you getting the witch's attentions is bad, but if it means you get more food over all..."

"We always knew our internal loyalty was delicate.  Of course we did; more of us have died from sickness and starvation than have died as punishment."

"So you get more food and fewer..."

"Because someone has to decide how the extra is distributed."

"Oh..."

"The unity of the scrappers is important.  We're all one group.  And...in some ways, that will remain so...but...once the cracks form, once it's not just the scrappers, but...I don't know, scrappers from that region or with that rank...once lines form..." Quartz swallows.  "The worst we've faced, so far, is the loyalty bouts.  They take the youngest fifty into the cage and only let one out alive.  That one gets taken into the army.  They only ever do that to punish us for...having things they don't want us to have, mostly...and I've only seen it once.  Some of the ones here who've been here longest say it only happens once every few years.  That's with the way things were.  When everyone holds the lines to protect everyone else as best we can.  But...what if we were all in groups and knew the youngest weren't in ours.  Listen to me!  The youngest kid here is ten years old!"

Dapple stares at him, then glances around at the mers and nymphs coming to secret the reeds back into the prison.

These are mostly the strongest and healthiest.

And she'd been ignoring size, because mers and nymphs have enormous range in size.

But...

Now that she's really looking.

Most of the mers and nymphs helping Quartz are...

Children.

"Oh..."  Dapple swallows.  "Why..."

"Young mouths have as sharp teeth when they have something to protect, a lot of the time."  Quartz frowns and snags one of the children by the arm, whispering quick instructions.

The merchild, probably already bigger than Dapple even though he can't be more than eleven and looks well younger than his adolescent growths, listens and nods, before darting out.

"What..."

Quartz turns back to Dapple.  "No matter what happens, don't you bring reeds or anything to anyone else."

"I mean...sure...but...what good will that do?"

"The witch won't bother giving us everything we need.  Nah, she'll just keep on with food.  But if I'm the only source of other things, like...say, window screens to protect us from parasites and traps to catch the cookie cutters before they bite?  Maybe I can hold it together."

Dapple nods.

Quartz passes a hand over his face.  "So...who all'd you trade with?"

"What...mostly people from the residentials.  Maybe one or two soldiers.  I don't think there was anyone from the palace..."

"There wouldn't be, that lot let the soldiers get what they need for everything.  Any other news."

Dapple grasps around for anything she actually knows before landing on her sisters, what they plan to do.

Quartz nods when he hears about Blanche.  "Tell her to take advantage of the island.  Even the nymphs among the soldiers aren't used to fighting on land.  If she can pull the fighting inland, you'll have an advantage."

"Did you do that when your island was attacked?"

"We don't come from an island," says Quartz.  "Just a sea fold.  Anything else?"

"Well, my sister Marri is trying to reestablish the Nocturnal Roads."

Quartz looks at Dapple sharply.  "She's what?"

"Yeah...she says..."

"Nah, don't care about that...is it gonna work?"

"I don't know...she's still out...I think the plan is to do structure work, come back and then go to a different spot to do more.  It should be in the next week or so, I think..."

"Could you keep me informed of how that's going, please?"

"Sure."

Quartz nods, pulling the last bit of reed through the window.  "And...Dapple...thank you."

Dapple blinks.  "Sure."

Chapter Text

Quartz sits in a circle with several of the youngest scrappers over the stone floor.  He presses the heel of his palm roughly against a few reeds and rolls through the entire length of his hand, creating a coarse twine.  Then, he repeats the motion.  About halfway along the bundle, he ads a few stalks to the end.

The children repeat the motion as best they can.  Some of them would have done similar back home, though they'd probably have used...more refined methods.

In fact, it used to be one of Quartz's chores.  Because you couldn't travel, he'd go to a nearby island to trade for things like cured reeds...except, most of the time he wasn't actually bringing home reeds.

As part of the deal, he'd spend several hours beating reeds into fibers while a steady, chatty old nymph madame spun the fibers into thread.  After enough reeds were beaten into fibers, he'd go home with the agreed upon amount of thread.

At home, the threads could be woven into a net for small fish, or woven into strong cords in order to make a stronger net, or anything else.  

At the time, Quartz thought of it mostly as...chores.  Things that had to be done.

In retrospect, he realizes that he always liked it.

He liked the swim to the island, where he'd usually barter with fish or pearls.  He enjoyed lightly teasing the two nymph brothers about how they were two lazy to go find their own pearls only for them to tease him about cutting his own reeds.  The physicality of beating reeds was...well, that was just work, but he enjoyed the old Nymph madame's company and conversation.  

He liked the way you would always be waiting for him, sat out beneath your fan coral.  Oh, he knew that you didn't wait out there all day for him, but he teased you as though you had.  

He always complained, but he also loved that Grandmother would lightly scold him for being mean to his sister.

And he loved watching the two of you together, your clever hands going at the threads until you had what you wanted.

Weaving may not be magic, but it sure does look like it when people like you do it.

Quartz swallows his memories.  This method was one he'd only ever used when he couldn't be bothered to spend the day on the island beating reeds.  While he's grateful, now, that he learned this trick, rolling the reeds on the floor to make twine, he wonders why he was so...temperamental about it sometimes...teenage tantrums, maybe.  The twine is...serviceable, but not hard wearing.

But...two bails of water reeds is both...quite a lot, and very little, all at the same time.  It could meaningfully change things, if the scrappers are clever about how they use them.  

It took most of a day to agree that, although this wouldn't deal with all, or even most of the problems, it would have the greatest impact over all.  The thing everyone would be most grateful for, even if that nymph never comes back with another bail of reeds. 

As the group rolls the reeds, Quartz gives gentle corrections.  "Use the length of your hand.  Yes, you do have to pick up your hand; if you roll back the other way you'll undo your work and make the fibers more brittle.  Use the weight of your body, not the force of your muscles; here, it's easier if you sit forward...yes, just like that."

The youngest boy is almost as big as Quartz, but anyone can see it in his face and build; he's a child.  A lump forms in Quartz's throat every time he sees the boy, now having the best luck in rolling the twine.

It's worse to know that he wasn't always the youngest.

Really, he's the youngest still alive.  

It's a spiral of thoughts Quartz can't get away from.  This merchild's best hope to make it to adulthood is that another load of children is made into scrappers.  If that happens, then, he might not be caught up if another loyalty bout is called.  

Everyone protects the young ones out of the hope...the hope that maybe they'll get out some day...hopefully.

Another scrapper, a young girl, begins to weave the longest lengths together into cylinder-shaped net.  Only about wide enough for her own arm to get through, but...for this, it doesn't need to be bigger.  She has hands just like yours, Quartz decides; skillful and clever enough to convince him that weaving is magic. 

Past the last window, against the far wall of the room, two mers argue over the last part of their plan.

Lime and volcanic ash.  

The warden and guards care a lot...about very few things, really.

Any hint of a weapon inside the prison?  That's punished severely.  

The thought that supplies from the prison expansion have been stolen?  Not a thought or care in the world.  

With the proximity of the forges, volcanic ash is common.

With the sheer number of forced laborers in the city, the production of lime is easy.

Combine the two in salt water, and it very quickly becomes cement.

The two scrappers work quickly to raise a lip of cement off the floor, with very clear anchoring points.  They do the same off the walls and ceiling.

It's...odd work.

While Quartz, of course, does his best to keep talking, keep giving advise and encouragement to the scrappers around him, the prevailing sound is silence.  The work is necessary, maybe even easy, and will make things better, if only by a bit.

But it's hard to keep up sound.

The moment one of the tubes of netting is big enough, it's filled with ash and strung diagonally across the square of cement lip.  Over hours, the netted ash forms a solid lattice over the opening.  Once everyone is sure and satisfied, they treat it with lime.  

In a matter of minutes, a hard cement lattice protects the opening.  Big enough for the selected mers and nymphs to fit through the openings, just.  

Now comes the source of most of the arguments.  How to make the dens.

A large flat of sponge is curled into a cylinder using the cement lattice to keep it in shape.  More ashes and lime are used to support it from the bottom, to make sure that it's hardening correctly, the boy who will use this den stays inside the sponge until the curing cement becomes too hot.  Then, packing the void in between with cement, the next cell of the lattice gets its furled sponge.  And the next.  With the bottom row filling out, the voids up the side are packed with cement and the row over top begins.

On and on they continue until two dozen dens, proper dens, are before them, all along one wall, with a large cubby of stone at the top for storing extra sponges.  

The like-sized children are the biggest beneficiaries, of course.  They get dens warmed by mutual body heat, much safer from potential parasites or cookie cutter sharks.  They won't burn off most of their body-fat staying warm while they sleep, and they'll get a fuller rest.

But...they aren't the only ones who will benefit.

These children can now rest in more of the vertical space that makes up the prison, so they no longer take up floor space, leaving more room in the over-crowded prison for everyone else, and slowing some of the spread of parasites.  There's a safe place to store some of the sponges, now, too.  

There's not nearly enough left of the bails to make another wall of dens, so the last of the reeds are woven, as flat reeds, into screens to put over the two windows closest to the dens.  It might be the curing cement, or even the working bodies, but Quartz fancies that it does make things feel...warmer.  

At the insistence of the children, Quartz sleeps near them that night, out on the floor with a line of others there to discourage attacks on the children by being easier prey.  He feels...good, mostly, about the work.  

For a few minutes, he just hopes that the nymph will bring more reeds so they can do more of this.

But then...he thinks about some of the other things she's said.  About a sister rebuilding the nocturnal roads.

There's an idea niggling at the back of his mind.

Chapter Text

Almost predictably, the competition ends and Tigress hasn't found anyone worthy of her attentions.

Oh, sure, plenty of powerful warriors, a plethora worthy of ranks within her army.  A few victors and finalists earn their pearls and bobbles and the feast will certainly follow.

But there's no one worthy of the empress prettying herself up to commemorate a lucky, new mate.

Stunner tollerates Loz's exhuberant triumph for a few hours before he goes to his rooms to watch you, mostly through mirrors, as servants ready you for the feast.

He couldn't say what he's watching for, exactly.  It might just be that his attentions are always drifting towards you these days.

*

You can feel his eyes on you.

Again.

By tradition, the mirror in your dressing corner will never reflect the mirror on Stunner's vanity, so you don't have to meet his gaze, but you can still feel it.

At least you can pretend you're not looking at your stomach.

You'd be doing that even if he weren't there.

Because...well, why should you trust the servants braiding back your hair?

It's not that you dislike them, or that they've given you particular reason to be suspicious.  It's that you know, if it comes to it, they have far more to fear or gain from Stunner than you.  Sure, if they figure out what you're looking at, they might ignore it and keep on with their day...

But they also might not.

Also...you can feel...something.  Right behind your teeth.  A light pressure against your tongue and breathing.  

At Lae's entrance, you hardly blink. 

Almost to your surprise, she barely shows off before Stunner, instead coming right to you.  With the two servants Tigress assigned to you, she unfolds a massive, intricate veil.  

The skill that went into it?  There's no room for complaint; it is beautifully worked.

The size, though...

"Oh, once I got started making it, I couldn't bring myself to stop!" she giggles, eyes cast towards Stunner.  "I mean, you really are so pretty...A simple veil wouldn't have been worthy."

The silence stretches a moment.

She's waiting for Stunner to respond.

Stunner doesn't care about her.

You sigh and gesture towards the other servants to arrange it.  

Lae looks disapointed for exactly a second before she's right at it.

Luckily, it's arranged in such a way that it can be pinned to the crown of your head with only a mass the length of your body in front and the rest drifting in a train behind you.  It'll keep eyes off you.  Hands, too, at least a little.

Which is good; you don't want to be seen or touched.

Still inconvenient; it's in the way of your fins, but...manageable.

With the help of a servant.  

You could almost admire how ready Lae is to volunteer as the servant.

"She's ready," says one of the servants.

"Not quite," says Stunner.  He grabs a box that's been on his vanity all day.  Flipping it open, he reveals two delicate circlets carved of mother of pearl.  He ignores the larger one, but looms over you to place the smaller one on your head, over the veil.  

You force yourself not to flinch.  

Through the lace and mesh of the veil, you glare at him.

He ensures that it's placed, just so, before returning to the box, fixing the larger one on his own head in the mirror.  "Now, we can go."  He offers you an arm while touching that damned pendant.

The cuff forces your arm up and over.  

You hate to admit it, swimming through the corridors, but with the unwieldy veil, his help is necessary.  Lae's, too, drifting along just behind you.

Though...you can see it out the corner of your eye.

Every turn of a corridor, Stunner briefly lashes out with his tail, catching the other mermaid.  

Mostly in the side.

Once in the face.

The corridor before you all reach the feast hall, you pull away from Stunner a bit.  "Lae...one moment."

The mermaid huffs and freezes under your attention.

Stunner stiffens and tries to grab you, but you slip free of your grasp and reach out to her.

Carefully, you tuck a few stray locks of hair back into place and you subtly shift her position so that she'll be less in between you and Stunner.  Maybe she doesn't like you.  Maybe she wishes to be in your place.  Maybe Stunner is glaring at her.  It's just...

In this place...you can see no more immediate rebellion than being kind to this mermaid...anyone.  You have no resources of your own, hardly the freedom to gather resources, but you can still be kind to someone.  

Still, while you revel in the moment, you quickly turn back to Stunner.

No need to get her hurt by antagonizing him.

The doors on the feast hall open, and you regret even more being stuck here.

There's smells...lots of them...everywhere.

You swim to your seat, pulling yourself out of the water and the medley of smells and noise gets...bigger.  More.  More variety, more of it.  

The pressure against the back of your throat intensifies.

It's fortunate people mostly compliment you as a way of starting conversation with Stunner, because you just feel...sick.

Everything sticky and overly hot and achy and...it's too much.

Someone, you can't tell who in the noise, offers you something...a seared oyster, you think.  You raise your hand to refuse it, and...

The world goes sideways.  

You feel your body impact against the water, only somewhat softened by the veil.  As you try to make sense of light and colors and the rest, you feel massive hands close around you.

Your last coherent, irritating sight is of Stunner Blue grinning above you.  

Chapter Text

In half a minute, all of Stunner's murderous rage towards the red-tailed mermaid servant faded.

He pulls the ostentatious veil aside to reveal your flushed skin that's chilled to the touch.  The one open eye follows him for just a second before rolling back into your head.  

Tigress dismisses him from across the table and he gathers you up into his arms and leaves.

Sure enough, an hour later, Ove, a blind mermadame Tigress trusts as a midwife, confirms the happy news.  

"Pregnant," breathes Stunner.  His face hurts from his wide grin and he doesn't care.  "How far along?"

Ove hesitates a long moment, her hand moving back and forth along your belly.  "Hard to tell...She's so small...and you're so large...it could be that the little one is growing big and is a week along, or it could be growing small and is a month or even two along.  Or...anywhere in between, really."

Stunner passes a hand over your side.  His one disappointment... "Nothing's showing yet..."

Ove hums but doesn't answer the comment.  "I'll have a servant bring some nausea medications by for you...and something for headaches."

Stunner barely responds, staring down at you, asleep at the edge of his den.  He roughs his hand against the grain of your scales, then smooths it up your side before hefting your breast.  As far as he can tell, it's not yet bigger.  Over all, you might be a bit heftier, but it's all accountable through simple food.  There's nothing to see, yet, that marks his child growing in your belly.

But...what if it was your intention?

His grin loses a few teeth on either side.  

Stunner is certain you've been hiding this...but...for how long?  A few days?  Longer?

Now, he's irritated.  

He scoops you up and swims back down into the dungeon.

He looks around as he settles you in your cell.

It...it's not much, really.  A stack of flat sponges...for however furious he is, it's hardly a worthy bed for the mother of his child.

He glances at your face.  Before Ove came to confirm what Stunner suspected, a healer treated the fever and nausea before dosing you with sleeping medications.  Stunner has been assured you'll be out for several hours at least.  

He pulls one of the flat sponges into the other cell and settles you onto it, for now, being sure to lock the gate just in case you wake up earlier than expected.

Up in his own room he finds...everything.

The massive, beautiful shell of a giant clam, big enough even for Stunner to shelter in it's depths.  It's been just...there, alone in his store room for years because it was an impressive win in a tournament, but no real use otherwise.  Now he forces it down into the dungeon, wrestling it around corners and shoving until, with a screech of shell against stone, it pops through.  He forces it into your cell, where it takes up most of the space, and hefts the sponges into it.

As he's moving them, something clatters to the ground.

It's hard for Stunner to see in the dim lighting, but he feels around the floor for a long moment.

He finds the knife blade first, but not edge first.  He feels his way to the handle and picks it up.  Stunner examines it for a long moment.  "My, Darling, how did you do that?"

You don't answer.  He doubts you would, even if you were awake, and...it's not really important...just one more reason to punish you, really.  

He finishes positioning the shell halve,  one part forming a bowl on the ground, the other mostly serving as a headboard, before filling it with the flat sponges.  

Even with you oh so delicately posed inside your new bed, it's not satisfying, so Stunner goes back up to look around for more he can do to make it special.

There, he comes across the massive veil you were wearing.  

Ridiculous as a veil.

As bed hangings?

From his hunting gear, he produces a piton he usually uses to position nets.  With it, he hangs the veil over your head, draping the edges over the sides of the shell.

His dark vision isn't nearly so good as yours, surely, but the reflective surface inside the shell and the veil gives a haunting, beautiful look to the set up.  

And you're there.

So defenseless.

Stunner comes in, closing and locking the gate behind him.  

He roughs his hands up your scales mostly because he finds it a comforting routine; he hardly needs to search for the slit in your scales anymore.  "What am I to do, dearest?" he asks, swirling the petals of skin out of his way so he can play with your hole.  "You've been hiding things...I don't think a good spanking is enough to express my disappointment."

You don't respond.  You can't; you're unconscious.  

Not that Stunner Blue minds.

*

The swirling void finally comes together into consciousness and you already know you don't want to be awake.  

It takes a moment to recognize the rhythmic intrusion and retreat, the pressure and bloating of Stunner having spent hours having his fun.

His tail strangling around yours.  

His hands on your sides.

The high building in your stomach.

If only you could fall back into the void.  

But, with your head against the bedding, the hair clip is digging into the back of your skull, and...well, it's something you actually can deal with.  

You open your eyes.

He's grinning above you.  "Hello, Love."  His thrust of emphasis makes you wince.  "Oh, was that a little painful.  I'm sorry.  I'm just so," thrust.  "Damn," thrust.  "Frustrated.  Can you imagine why?"

You don't bother trying to answer, just trying to get enough strength to prop up on your elbows.  

Stunner pouts, but strokes your stomach with one hand.  "Just how long has the little one been growing, Beauty?  Do you even know?"

You gasp for water, still dazed and weak from the sickness and medications.

"And then I found your knife."

Ice blooms in your veins.  You don't look at him, staring anywhere else.  He found it?  Yous stare around, trying to place where you are.

"I keep doing things so I can trust you for a few hours, and you keep betraying that trust."

"You could have had anyone else!" you snap.

Stunner's hand comes around your neck, pushing you back down into the bedding.  "Who else is there?"

"What..."

"Oh sure, there are a thousand who'd conquer islands for a chance to curl into my den, but no one challenges me like you do.  What could anyone else offer my future child?  Beauty?  You're beautiful, I'm beautiful, it's not uncommon.  Worth a few hours at most before it's boring.  Intelligence?  Just the same; plenty of people are smart.  But you...you have nerve!  Daring!  The ability to see opportunity and take it!  You led me on the best hunt of my life!"  He strokes your gills with his thumb while his other hand strokes your belly.  "And I'll have all of it for my children, just you watch, Love.  This one, and every one that comes after."

Chapter Text

Every day for a week, Stunner brings you up from your cell for no more than an hour.  The midwife comes to check on you, still unable to decide how long you've been pregnant, you get a few medicines for nausea and the fever that's still not going away.  You get some time in the basking bed.  You get a gorging meal.  

Then it's back into your cell.  Always with another "gift".  Strands of pearls now climb the bars of your cell like ivy, a bouquet of flowering tube-worms let their petals drift in the current, thicker sponges form your bed.

He's...gentler.  It's not about you, but the little one growing in your stomach, but Stunner is noticeably careful not to physically hurt you these days.

But he's still irritated.

Not just with your continued defiance, but with the fact that it's still not showing.  

He wants your belly to grow.

He wants your breasts to grow.

He wants your body to weaken, becoming more dependent on him.

Well...with the fever, you are a bit weak already, but that's not the kind of weakness he wants, really.  

*

Reed slips out of the palace with just a bit more than the usual box.

The major advantage of the construction on Stunner Blue's quarters; lots of extra that can go missing with no one noticing.

And with the recent feast, the guards are even less attentive of a little mer child than usual.  

The basket is heavy and a bit of a struggle to swim with, but they manage.

At the window, of course, is Reed's usual friend...and someone else.

A lean merman Reed's seen a few times before. 

The man briefly introduces himself as "Quartz" but mostly just helps pull supplies through the window.

Reed's friend clears his throat.  "Hey...Reed?  You work in the palace, right?"

Reed nods, passing through a condensed brick of volcanic ashes.  

"You see the royals sometimes, right?"

"I avoid it."

"But you do?"

"Sure...sometimes."

"You ever seen Stunner Blue's mate?"

"Sure.  Pretty nocturnal."

Something draws Reed's attention to Quartz, but they're not sure what.  It was a flash of...intensity?  Like a thunderstorm close up and out of the water.

"How...how is she?" asks Reed's friend.

"Huh?"

"If it'll get you in trouble..."

"Nah...everyone knows.  She's pregnant."

For reasons Reed can't parse, the word hangs in the water for a long moment.

"Pregnant," repeats Quartz.

"Yeah..." says Reed.  "She...she got sick with it at the First Moon Feast.  I think the madame is still keeping the fever down with medicines, but it doesn't go away."

"She's that sick?"

Reed shrugs.  "Mostly, she just seems to sleep."

"Is she starving?"

"Not hardly.  I think his highness force feeds her a lot of the time."

Something moves in Reed's periphery.  They glance around, tucking into the window to keep out of sight of a soldier's patrol.  

There's a voice, Quartz, Reed thinks, right against their ear.  "Is anything else happening with her?"

"Mmm...I think she sings to the royal children...you know, from out of sight.  At least, she did before she got sick.  Some of 'em are half mad to get to her sometimes.  But...she doesn't sing to his highness...everyone knows she hardly says a word to him.  Oh!  And he has her back in the cells."

"Cells?"

"I dunno...cells beneath his rooms.  Like, where they've got you, only he's got a bit nicer a set up for her."

The two mermen are quiet for a long moment.

Then, they pass back the box of fat wrasse. 

Quartz presses Reed's hands.  "Thanks."

"Reed...please don't tell anyone we asked."

Reed nods.  

Because the merchild knows well better than telling anyone about their relationship with the scrappers.

*

Quartz watches the child swim off, then picks up the bricks of ashes to stash them deep in the prison.  "That child...Azlo."

"Azlo knows," says the other scrapper.

"Then..."

"Come on, Quartz; think about it.  What can Azlo do for them from in here?  And...what if he does reach out, form a bond, and then he dies?  What good would that do for Reed?"

"You don't think you're doing about the same?"

The scrapper sighs.  "I understand Azlo's choice...I just don't think he's right.  I think it would do a lot of good for Reed to know their people.  And...I've been trying to tell them how to set a trap.  How to shell.  Little things to survive if they decide to flee.  That can only be good for them, right?"

Quartz raises an eyebrow.

The other scrapper hugs the fresh box of wrasse tighter.  "And...yes, we need Reed's help, okay?  What are you complaining about?  You got what you wanted from them, too, didn't you?"

Quartz sighs and nods.

*

Lae breathes deep, puts on a smile, and swims into Stunner's quarters.

For the first time since the feast.  

It takes a bit of nerve; the look on Stunner's face when you helped her was terrifying.

But...you're asleep among a dozen healers arguing about what might be causing your fever in low voices.  It's more than enough to feel unseen.

Not that Lae intends to stay unseen.  She has no intentions of giving up on Stunner Blue.

She just needs to build her nerve back up. 

Chapter Text

Dapple, Marri and Elti enjoy a bit of a week together with their surrogate family.  It helps that, between Marri's group bringing back just about a feast of lobster and the reeds and bamboo Dapple brought, just about the entire bluff is doing well for now.  Elti happily learns how to make a rack shellfish bed from Bower and her mother.  Marri and her group discuss plans on Laviet island.

Dapple is relieved to see how...relaxed Marri is.  Between the lobsters the group gorged on before coming back, and the ones they brought home to their families, there's no longer an argument to be made against starting another nocturnal road at Laviet island.  Their efforts to sew new coral could fail, but no one would criticize them for trying.  More supplies are voluntarily being packed into their boat by the day, to the point that there's even talk of maybe finding them a second boat.

It's still just talk, of course.  But it's wonderful to see her little sister confident that efforts will continue. 

But...it's interesting; the lobsters the group hauled in means...it may be weeks late, but it's the first year in a while the community got a First Moon feast.

As hibernants, the sisters have never been to a First or even Last Moon feast.  The ebb and flow of food on their island would never have supported indulging mid-winter even if they had been awake for it.  

So, sitting among a bit of a party, Dapple can't help feeling a bit like an outsider.

"Of course, the Palace got their First Moon Feast right on time," says the old Mermadame.

"Mother," says Bower in a hard voice, as she passes out mussel meat her family won't have to rely on because of the lobster.  "Not today."

Marri laughs and leans close to the madame.  "We'll rant at length when we get to Laviet, alright?"

Dapple pulls her sister close.  "You're sure you don't need more from me?"

Marri shakes her head.  "We brought plenty of rocks to start the work, and Laviet should have its own bamboo growths.  The bails of reeds are more than enough."  She watches the antics of some boys nearby, clearly trying to flirt with...someone, before leaning closer to Dapple.  "We...we might have grown seagrass along with the reef."

"What!" Dapple checks her volume and tucking in close.  "Really?"

"Maybe.  It might just turn out to be a patch...but it looks like it's the rough currents out there keeping the meadow from coming back.  We had to block our work from the currents, anyway, and...in the blockage...well, it looks like seagrass."

"I always thought meadows slowed the current themselves..."

"Could be both; the meadow, when it's thick, slows down the currents, but when it's thin needs protecting from the currents."

"Can you see?  Is there even a way to check if you're right?"

"I mean...Laviet island is in a different direction...supposedly the way there was all meadow before the elven war, too, so..."  Marri shrugs.  "We'll see if it happens there, too...no promises."

Dapple nods.  "I wonder why no one ever tried..."

"Didn't need to," says the mermadame.

"Really?"

She shrugs.  "I mean...it would always have been useful, obviously, to have done it...but when the authentic residents of the city were all that needed to be fed...there was enough hunting close enough to the city for all of us to be fed.  Now, that same hunting has to support an army, the palace, the forced laborers...There are a lot more mouths to feed around here for the last few decades.  And, sure, we could...should, always have been working towards building back things like the nocturnal roads...but so should have the islands, which weren't as done in by the war as we were.  Besides, we had enough to do building our gardens, building our basking beds.  A full quarter of what my family eats every year comes from our mussels, so, as you might imagine, our biggest worry will always be new mussel racks."

"...Fair."

Bower sits next to them.  "I'm thinking, though...next time you bring in supplies, I'm not building another mussel rack."

The mermadame barks a laugh.

"Really?" says Dapple.

"Just the way Marri is sick of lobster..."

Dapple glances sideways to see her sister mostly nibbling at mussels and some flounder provided by a neighbor.

"I'm never enthusiastic about mussels.  I'm thinking we should have something else...maybe a snail rack.  We have enough space to grow a bit of kelp, and that would feed a few snails.  Or maybe some urchins."

"Our papa grows urchins on vegetable scraps from momma's garden," says Elti.  "I think Dapple has some in her boat you could get started with."

"I can save them for you," says Dapple.

Marri perks up.  "There are some nymphs in our group.  Some of them are bound to forage while we're on Laviet; we can bring scraps back when we come back."

"Sounds like my snails will be well provided for," says Bower.  

Dapple relaxes into random conversations, enjoying antics, agreeing with her sisters that Vert, who comes over to flirt with Marri, isn't much special.

It's...fun.

And that comes with an edge of guilt.

She knows that...fun is alright.  It's not a betrayal of her values to be having fun right now, especially in that agreements towards Marri's nocturnal roads are being made, and plans are formed for what to do with supplies that will let her bring more to the scrappers.  It is okay for her to be having fun right now.

It's just...

She can see the palace in the distance.  

And she wishes she could do something for you.

*

For about two days, Stunner was ecstatic. 

Your belly was distinctly bigger, he insisted.

No one else was sure they could see it, but everyone was quick to agree when asked.

Then...you stopped waking up.

Your fever is stronger, even with the medicines.

The healers try keeping you in the basking beds until your scabs open, trying to clean out sickness.

They check your mouth for a parasite and find nothing.

A dozen medicines are tried.

Everyone agrees that it almost looks like you're hibernating, but...

That can't be.

You're under water.

Chapter Text

Tigress is almost entertained when a harried healer begs an audience in the middle of her taking reports.  She accepts the nymph with grace.

"Your majesty..."  The nymph gasps for water and it's a long moment before they can find words.

But the empress is patient.

"Ah...his Highness, your brother..."

"I believe his little mate is sick?"

"Yes..."

"She still hasn't woken?"

The nymph nods.  "We're doing what we can, but his highness's temper is becoming a problem..."

Tigress passes a hand over her face.  "Of course he has."  

Loz pops her head into the room.  "Awe!  It sounds like baby brother's in looOOOooove!"

"Loz, please," says Tigress, rising from her lounger.  "Right...call for Thunder and a few other guards.  I'll deal with this."

Though...of course, Tigress very much wants not to.

*

In Aurora Deep, Tigress Blue never had a use for stray tempers like Stunner's.  A powerful mer?  Maybe.  But undirected power...that's just a liability.

Luckily for her little brother, she raised him from toothy moppet.

The last child their parents abandoned.

At least, in Stunner's case, it wasn't like their abandonment of Tigress and her older sisters; she could hold a grudge over that, but she could hardly fault them for Stunner in dying.  

What mercy in her soul drove Tigress to keeping the little boy?  Weeks earlier, Golden, last of her sisters, had been killed at the hands of a rival pack.  Golden wouldn't have kept him.  Golden would have seen yet another mouth to feed, another child she could fall in love with only to watch whither and die.

Like all their other sisters.

Each one who had kept Tigress, youngest of them, fed most, allowing her to grow big and strong.  Each one who had built their pack to scour the thin hunting of Aurora Deep for possibilities.  

The sisters who raised her.

The sisters who loved her.

The sisters who kept her.

And who, one by one, died and left her alone. 

The pack they built scattered without Golden.

And Tigress finally tracked down her mother, only to find an emaciated bit of scavenger feed and a little boy.  

Why did she keep him?

Was it loneliness?

Was it something to drive her to survive, rebuild the pack?  Wouldn't revenge for Golden have done it?

Shouldn't revenge for Golden have done it?

And the others, too.  Her sisters should have been all the drive she needed to build her empire.

Not the one child their parents favored enough not to abandon.  

Whatever it was, all those years ago, the instinct has faded.

Sure, she still loves Stunner.  That's almost as uncomplicated as loving her children.  It's just...

*

Tigress enters Stunner's rooms silently, followed by Thunder and some of the largest tiger shark mers in the palace.

None as big as Stunner.

And, because they're not as big as her brother, they're certainly not as big as Tigress.

A group of healers cowers away from him as he yells about incompetence.

Tigress lifts a hand.

The guards swarm Stunner and force him to the ground.  

"Problems, baby brother?" asks Tigress.  

There's a moment when she can see it in his eyes; he's too angry to recognize her.  Not in his right mind.  Just fighting against the guards.

If it wasn't for Thunder, he'd probably break free of them.

Tigress stares him down until he stops struggling. 

A moment passes.

A second.

"Tigress..." he breathes.  

She hums and turns to the crowd of healers, huddled in the corner of the room.  "Is she well enough to move?"

One, perhaps the bravest, nods.

Tigress barely acknowledges the response, sweeping towards the den.

You're lying right at the edge, unconscious and still.

"Captain...take him to the stadium.  He can stay in the cage until his anger has cooled.  She will be in my quarters for the foreseeable future."

Stunner thrashes against the guards.  "Tigress..."

Tigress scoops you up, cradling you like a child against her.  She can feel the fever burning.  She can feel how your chest barely rises and falls with breath.  "Stunner Blue, healers are precious.  I will not have you lash out at them.  Your mate will be in my rooms until she's well and you're calm.  Do we understand each other?"

*

Quartz wakes in the middle of the day, mostly because there's a lot of movement from the guards.  They're looking for...volunteers among the scrappers.

Strong ones.

Healthy ones.

Trouble makers.

Not really volunteers. 

Well, Quartz certainly qualifies.  

He keeps just out of sight of the guards while trying to get an idea of what's going on.  

The rumor among the scrappers is pretty certain; anyone who goes into the fighting cage isn't likely to come back.  

Stunner Blue's been sent to work off his temper.

Quartz thinks very hard for a minute, then starts a petty fight with another scrapper.

Titus.

Under normal circumstances, maybe if they grew up in the same community, or if they met for a hunt, Quartz wouldn't have a single problem with Titus.  Friendly enough, good company, strong enough to get the work done.

But stupid.  Careless.  Reckless.

Exactly the kind of scrapper that can't be tolerated if Tigress Blue's efforts to divide the scrappers is to be curbed.  

As expected, the guards instantly grab Titus and Quartz.

But Quartz, having timed it, got a hit to the jaw at the right moment to get Titus blamed and pushed to the front of the line, while Quartz is comfortably in the middle.

Quartz resolves himself to watch, even as Titus is ripped to pieces.

Not just to get to know his sister's abductor.

Also...to face the truth of what his decision will cause.  

Chapter Text

Thunder hauls Stunner along though the twists and turns of the palace, using better technique to keep the larger merman under control.  The other guards helping this along are mostly wrangling his tail or making sure there's no one in the way.

Secretly, Thunder is...relieved.  

Tigress has put him in charge of deciding when Stunner is calm enough to be let out of the stadium's fighting cage.

He's never had such a clear invitation and authority to keep the Empress's brother out of the palace.

Away from the servants.

Away from the vassals.

Away from the royal children.  

It's as if the weight of a mountain has been lifted from Thunder's chest, like he can finally pull in breath after almost two months.  It makes fighting all the way to the stadium easy. 

And yet...there's guilt, too.  Wasn't Stunner Blue once his friend?  Didn't they once wrestle on the plains together?  Dream about the future together?  Imagine Tigress's empire together?  Tease each other and make up over a hunt?

Thunder finally slams the gate of the cage closed on his old friend, whispers the right words of encouragement, of soothing to his old friend, but turns away without a second thought, trying very hard not to track what's changed.

Because he's fairly sure that Stunner isn't the one who's changed in all this.

*

Stunner Blue doesn't see scared young men just doing whatever they can to survive.

He just sees targets for his rage.

*

It's very lucky Quartz has absolutely nothing in his stomach.  Watching the first fifteen scrappers forced into the fighting cage with Stunner Blue...

Well.  

The best that can be said is, though they may not drain his anger, they do drain his energy.  

Titus was lucky enough not to be ripped to pieces, but the broken neck and the slowing blinking as he fades away do linger in Quartz's sight for a long time.  

As does...the next.  

When Titus is cleaned up like refuse.  

In the fear of his turn, there's no room for Quartz to grieve the merman he doomed.  In his ultimate fate, there's no funerary rights.

The young man, and all the others fallen around him, will simply be...disposed of.  Probably somewhere they can be useful to hunting, like the tuna fields.  

When you and Quartz laid your grandmother to rest...there'd been time for grief.  You'd both folded the old mermadame into the deep roots of an old mangrove tree, marking the tree with charms wishing for life from death.  Then, as a community, your sea fold celebrated her life with a great hunt and a feast.  

Quartz swallows.

And he finally sees a helpful shift in the fights.

Callo is hit over the head and jerks back into the bars, dazed, but he doesn't die.  Stunner's already moved on from the man, motioning for another.  

There's no way to know what the Empress's brother is thinking, no sign that he's even thinking at all, really.  Is it just that he's not interested in something not fighting back?

No one bothers to pull the stunned Callo out of the cage, though, simply pushing in the next victim.

Quartz taps the scrapper ahead of him on the shoulder, hissing urgently in his ear.

The scrapper listens hard, then sets his features and nods.

What choice does the man have?  At least Quartz has an idea how to get through this.  

*

At Tigress's order, her lounge is hastily reorganized.  Her personal lounger is left alone, of course, but other seating is pushed apart, and a large basket nest is moved in. 

The structure of the basket is mostly in a large bowl, padded with flat sponges, with a hood that can be pulled all the way over.

Usually, this is used for young children, so their parents can tend to them without struggling to get the child in and out of a den, but with the protection of the hood.

As this one was made for young tiger shark mers, it's just about the perfect size for a little thing like you.  

Tigress frowns a little, then uses one hand to pull the basket just behind her lounger so the healers can work at you without distracting her.  Then, she gently lays you in the sponges.  

You really are pretty but...as far as Tigress can see, that's all you are.  A pretty little nocturnal, now covered in healing bruises and scabs.

She settles on her loungers, waving the healers to get to work.  "Oh, and chamberlin...I assigned two servants to her..."

"Yes."

"Ah...and there was some red tailed mer Stunner assigned to her.  Call her and the other two here.  I'll not have my servants clogged up with her."

"Of course, your majesty."

With that, the empress's attentions return to reports, completely ignoring the quite chaos behind her.  Every once in a while, though, she reaches back and strokes your face.

*

You feel like you're just...floating.  Maybe at the surface of the water, breathing open air.  Rippling waves carry you along as they will.  

Every once in a while, there's a little pressure of an unfamiliar presence.  Not really an attention, too small and fragile to be considered sentient, but...there. 

Maybe it's growing.  It could be growing.  If it is, it's slow.  It barely has your attention, though.  Instead, you can't help but stare upwards.

But...what are you looking for?

You don't really remember.

Grandmother, maybe?

No...that's wrong.

It's been a few years since she died, so that's absolutely wrong.  

Your brother?

No...no, you've found him.  Recently, at that.  

And there's this pain in the back of your neck, tiny and sharp and all over...

And...something touching your face.

But...there's nothing touching your face.

All like that, you realize you're dreaming.  

But...you're alone.  

There's no one else here, dreaming with you.

Chapter Text

During the usual Stadium bouts, there are spectators in the seats.  Most of these will be bored soldiers on their days off.  Sometimes, a resident or a palace stray.  Sometimes the spell forge workers.

During the usual Stadium bouts, hungry scrappers fight each other for very little.  Both will be fed after it's over, the winner more.  As, otherwise, there's very little aside from chum to look forward to in the Stadium Prison, and not that much at that, the scrappers internally manage how often everyone gets to fight.  

During the usual Stadium Bouts, it's not that uncommon for a spectator to demand to enter the cage, fighting some scrapper they've taken an interest in.  Usually, it's ego.  Trying to match the opinion of buddies, or measure up to an insecurity, or even best an old foe.  Sometimes, it's malice.  These not rare enough incursions tend to be the way scrappers most often get badly hurt or even killed.  

Today, none of the same applies.

There are no spectators.  Just a few palace guards.

The scrappers aren't expecting a meal after the fights are over.  At best...they're expecting to become some of the sickly scrappers in the isolated corners of the prison.

Today, Stunner Blue is the end all be all.  

They either subdue Stunner, or they die.

Most of the scrappers have entered, sincerely fighting their all right up until they're scrap meat.  

But...Quartz noticed the one who didn't die so quickly.

He crashed into the bars and, dazed or despondent, didn't attack again.

And Stunner just left him, looking to the next opponent. 

And so, Quartz mentioned it to the scrappers around him, suggesting what might be the only strategy available to them.

Everyone agreed.

Of course they did.

What else could they do.

*

Every time Stunner thinks he might just calm down, some thought returns to him and brings the rage right back.

How dare you hide your pregnancy.

How dare you fall sick.

How dare those healers fail to bring you back.

How dare Tigress keep him from their necks.

How dare the guards separate him from you.

Deep in his skull, maybe in the place where he makes plans, predicts what people will do and acts, he understands it all.  

You don't like him.  You hate him, fear him, resent him.  Whatever your feelings around him, they're all negative.  Of course, you were never going to tell him news that lit up his day and made him smile so much it hurt.

You didn't intend to fall sick.  Whatever thoughts are going through your head, whatever you might be planning, it all requires you to be conscious enough to act.

The healers are trying.  Whatever is wrong with you, they don't know it yet, either.

Tigress built her rule on a few "pillars".  Her own persona.  Her army, of course.  The Stadium.  The spell forges.  Many more, obviously, but...also the healers' corps.  Mers and nymphs who can bring a battle ravaged wreck back into a lively soldier.  She loves Stunner, but he's not a pillar of her rule, so she's not going to let him tear into a dozen or more of them.  

And the guards owe far more loyalty to Tigress than anyone else.  Of course they were going to follow her orders to remove him.  

None of that knowledge quells his anger.

The part of Stunner that so dearly loves a fight is intrigued by the rather healthy, large but not massive merman with a sandy tails and articulated fins that comes in, but, dissapointingly, he goes down just as easily as the rest.  Stunner can't be bothered if there's not going to be a fight and tears into the next nymph instead.

*

The blow legitimately left Quart'z head ringing.  He clutches at the bars of the cage, just so, desperately watching.  He makes eye contact with the two others he can see have done the same.  He puts up three fingers with one hand, then four with the other.

Both the others nod, subtly.

Unfortunately, the next scrapper through the gate is a foolish nymph, who can't stick to the plan and just fights like his life depends on it.

Failing to save his own life in the end.  

Quartz can't help it, and closes his eyes to the other scrapper's fate.  With his head pounding, the stench of gore and death in the water, and the sight of the scrappers who haven't...been cleaned out of the fighting cage...it's hard to keep his resolve.

The next scrapper keeps his head and now clutches at the bars.  Three more to go.

But...Quartz wants to see you again.

Not in the stands.  Not watching him with those huge eyes from the royal box.

No.  He wants to talk with you.  Hug you.  Tell his sister he's so sorry he couldn't protect you.  Promise you he won't fail again.  

Another scrapper now lies on the floor of the cage, just shy of a mass of...former scrapper.  He turns himself over, slowly.  Two more to go.

Quartz wants to get you away from this hundred times damned city.

Powerful dreams of home...even though he knows, deep down, that "home" can't be the same thing it was before anymore.  There can be no more innocent sea fold with playing otters and a funny little octopus that leads the hunt for sea urchins in hopes for a little help getting at the meat.  

One more scrapper to go.

Quartz swings himself over, staring at Stunner Blue's striped back.  He watches the last scrapper enter the cage and get struck down.  He holds his hand up, signalling to the other scrappers to wait.

Then, as the gate opens to let in the next victim, Quartz closes his fist and launches himself at their foe.

Along with everyone else.

Chapter Text

Thunder frowns for several minutes.  So many of these scrappers are just...going down.  He can't fault them for doing the smart thing; stay down rather than fight it out and die, but it does rather...defeat the purpose.

And...he needs to exhaust Stunner.

So, he gives the order.

The Stadium guards are sent back into the prison to look for more...volunteers.  

Palace guards are sent to patrol the outside of the stadium, make sure no one witnesses a royal behaving like an uncontrollable liability, and most of the staff is gone already, seeing to the...disposal of the bodies.

But...he catches something.

Most of the downed scrappers are all turned, ever so slightly, to look at one already in the cage.

That fighter is counting down on his fingers.

Thunder clamps his jaw tight and looks around the seats.  There's just two guards.  No one else.

Easy enough.

He goes to them.  "Hey...we may have some survivors.  Go get some lot from the healer's corps to patch em up."

"What?  But...they're just scrappers..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Thunder sees the count drop to two.  He needs to get rid of these guards.  "Call it sentiment.  Go."

One guard looks to the other.  That guard shrugs and they both leave.  

There's at least two dead bodies inside the cage that haven't been cleaned out yet.

Perfect.

*

Stunner Blue is massive.

There is no getting around it.

Even for a tiger shark mer, he's an impressive specimin.

More than that, he's healthy.

Well fed, well cared for, well maintained, and well trained.  

There are a few giant mers and nymphs, just like the tiger sharks, in the Stadium prison, but not many.

The majority are simply...large.  A few can be classed as medium and four or five are small.  

In the fighting cage, now, most are large.

Quartz, when he was living on the sea fold was probably midway up the large scale.  Not skeletally big enough to be considered a giant, but comfortably big.

He can see the other scrappers moving just behind him.  He aims his forearm for the back of Stunner's head.

*

In his rage, all of Stunner's attention is on the prisoner's gate.  It takes probably three seconds for him to realize that, from every direction, the boring scrappers are coming at him.

And then, something collides with his head.  

For a moment, he's dazed.

When he blinks away the stars from his vision, he realizes there's a strong arm around his neck, hands all over slowly forcing him to the ground.

Finally, a fight.

Stunner thrashes, shedding some of the weakest off his tail, but it doesn't free him from the bulk.  The three wimps are right back after him in a second.

Stunner lashes out with his tail, bringing a direct blow to one of the wimps before they can grab him again.  That blow either stunned or killed the fool, who cares.

But the sheer weight of the other scrappers is slowly forcing him down.

*

Quartz knows he's probably the strongest scrapper in the prison, right now.  The gorging meal is still recent enough that he's just lean, but he has enough of his weight back that he can hold out.

The others, though...

Straining with everything they have to hold down the massive merman...

Hollow patches in their tails...

Prominent ribs...

Sunken cheeks...

They're all holding out with their fear and their drive to keep living.

But it won't be enough.

And...once they fail, he'll be little more than another one to be ripped apart. 

Quartz knows it's a risk.

There could very well be severe punishments for this.

Still...he has to try.

Because nothing else might keep any of them alive.

And it might keep Stunner Blue off of you, at least for a while.

Maintaining his hold around Stunner's neck with one arm, Quartz reaches down the length of Stunner's back, gripping the massive merman's dorsal fin about halfway up, where it bends for turning.

Quartz closes his eyes and yanks.

*

In half an instant, Thunder is at the spectator's gate for the fighting cage, chasing the scrappers off of Stunner and back into the prison.

Stunner is howling, and who can blame him?  His dorsal fin...

It's limp from the bend, flopped down until the tip touches his back.  

With some monumental luck, it will, hopefully, just turn out that the joints between each bone in the fin is dislocated, but that...that would be miraculous skill on the part of that scrapper.

More likely, more than a few of the bones and rods are broken.

It's going to be long, delicate, chancy work from the healers to restore Stunner's fin.  

Thunder bites his lips, thinking hard.

He can't fault the scrappers, but...

His eyes land on three corpses and a other less recognizable debris that was once scrapper flesh.

Well...it's not like Stunner's going to remember who all he killed.

But...appearances.

Thunder pulls in breath and curls low over his old friend.  "Stunner!  Stunner, can you hear me?  The healers are on their way!  We'll get you help!"

*

Stunner is clenching his fistss so hard against the unspeakable pain that his own nails draw blood from his palms.   His jaw is so tightly closed he can feel teeth crack.  It's everything he can do to not thrash to try and get away from the pain, even though all that will do is cause him more pain.  He can hear someone, Thunder, maybe?  Someone's yelling at him.

And yet, he forces his spiteful will to the surface.  "Get me the creeping slug that did this!"

Thunder pauses, pushing him back to the ground with one hand on his shoulder.  "Stunner, Stunner, you already got him!  Look, see?"

Stunner's vision is blurred with pain, but he follows Thunder's finger to a vague mass on the ground, right nearby.  He can't tell what it is.  "What?"

"You thrashed when he pulled your fin.  You killed him that way."

Stunner tries to understand the words being said at him.  He tries to remember if he thrashed first or if the scrappers scattered first.

Impossible to say.

What isn't impossible to say is that his gorge is rising, and it's harder to see.  There's...shouting around him.  He can't follow what's happening.  In moments, there's nothing at all, nothing of past, present or future but the pain of his limp fin.  

Chapter Text

Fussing guards and healers take Stunner up to the royal box, where they can treat him without revealing an ailing royal to the public, leaving Thunder, briefly, alone in the fighting cage.  

If there are eyes on him at all, it's a scrapper or two, but those have likely all fled into the depths of the prison.

Thunder sellects one of the more...in tact dead scrappers still left in the cage.

It's hard to tell age.  Like most of the scrappers, this one has clearly not been well fed at all throughout his time in the Stadium; Thunder can easily count the ribs just by sight.  There are several scars from a cookie cutter shark all over him, one still healing.  The life this mer lived in the Stadium was hard.  

Thunder saves all those details for later, instead taking up the mer's hands.

Tigress, upon hearing that the perpetraitor is dead, probably won't do anything more so long as she doesn't think there were outsider witnesses, but there's one thing she might have checked.

One thing every mer under the sea knows damn well.

Tiger shark hides punish would be attackers.

This corpse's hands are rough, but the palms and finger pads aren't rough enough.

Thunder slides them along his sides, hard.

Little scrapings of skin float up through the water.  The mer is recently enough dead that there's even a little blood.  

Thunder sighs in relief.

He'll have longer, even, than he expected to keep the princes and princesses away from Stunner Blue.

*

Deep in the depths of the prison, in a corner where Quartz hides certain necessities, he lets the wrasse swarm his left hand.  He grits his teeth through their attentions but, when he's sure his palm and fingers are clean, he pulls back, rubbing the tiny bead of sealing cream into his raw flesh.

There's still some discomfort, still a likelihood that he'll be found...but...it's better than nothing.  

Then, he settles in his corner, leaning back and listening to the deafening silence.  

The youngest and smallest have crammed themselves, two to a den.  The emaciated sickly are whispering in their corners about how they might take the fall, both willingly and un. 

No one is exactly...angry with Quartz.  

Sure, there will almost certainly be a harsh backlash against everyone over this...

But everyone knows what it feels like to be facing death like that.

They know.

That doesn't mean they're not scared.

*

In Tigress's quarters, there's not much for Lae to do.  

Occasionally, she takes a whispered instruction from one of the healers, but mostly she sits in an out of the way corner with the other two servants assigned to you.  

And...she can't help but notice...

The healers pick at you, turn you, lift your arms, test your joints.  They look to make sure the gills on both sides of your neck are moving.

Always one side, then the other.

A vague curiosity is building in her head when an urgent message is whispered in Tigress's ear.

The empress lets out a sharp whistle, selects, then sends away eight healers on some other task, to be explained by the guard who brought her the message.

Lae leans back to be out of the way.  

The swarm of healers around you has eased, and the remaining are sat together, whispering theories at each other.

No time like the present.

Lae rises and goes to the basket nest. 

For just this moment, you're lying on your back, but your head is turned to one side.

Lae frowns, but turns your head to line up your spine, and watches your neck.

Sure enough, both sets of gills are moving, but...

The left set is moving much more than the right.

It occurs to Lae that the healers were only bothered to check that both sets were moving, not that they were moving equally.

Lae presses her thumb into the skin just above your topmost right gill.

For a long moment, Lae isn't sure what she's seeing.  She's so rarely even looked at her own gills, let alone someone else's.

Between the hair fine, feathered filaments that filter oxygen out of the water, tangling around them from their roots...well, it looks almost like webbing.

Then, the recognition lands, and Lae gasps.

The empress turns sharply, focusing on Lae's face, then following the younger mermaid's eyes to your neck.

It takes the empress considerably less time than it took Lae.  "Algae infection?"

The healers look up from their own whispering and swarm everyone else out of the way.  

"Yes...that's an algae infection...it's all in her right side gills...it's just...a little strange."

Tigress rises from her lounger, her face stormy.  "Search the palace for the source.  Pay particular attention to Stunner's quarters...And send someone to check Stunner!  That stuff's white...bring lights and absolutely search!"

"Your majesty...I don't...this has been here for a while...it's dead."

"What?"

"The infection's been dead for a while...days at least, it's just that it's still strangling her gills."

The empress stares down the healer.

A different one pipes up.  "Algae needs sunlight...it looks like this got into her gills at some point, may even have gotten some treatment, but wasn't entirely killed off...then...I don't know, maybe it grew but...well, she's a nocturnal.  Even out on her own it wouldn't have gotten enough light to survive."

"Is it why she's unconscious?"

All of the healers glance at each other before nodding.  "She still had her left side gills working, but she wasn't getting enough oxygen, so her body dropped into hibernation...probably."

Tigress frowns and folds her arms, quiet for a long moment.  "Is it possible she got this before she came here?"

"Yes.  Especially with it only in one side."

"Alright.  Still, no need to take chances; search the palace, hell, the city.  I need to know there's no bloom around that's going to kill off soldiers."

Three guards leave to obey.

"How will this affect the little one?"

"The pregnancy was already stable before she got sick," says one of the healers.

Tigress nods, then utterly dismisses them to argue about how to clean out your gills.

Instead, the empress's eyes land on Lae.

What a terrifying attention.  

The beautiful monarch, her unwavering black gaze, right on Lae.

How aware is Lae how...big the woman is.   How glorious...how absolute.

Then...she smiles.  "Well done.  You've saved your master."

Then it's over.  The empress's attention has moved on.

Lae shivers and retreats back into her corner, hoping never to have that kind of attention from Tigress Blue ever again. 

Chapter Text

The folding fans that conceal the royal box from view are tightly closed, limiting the light but making the frantic work to restore Stunner Blue's fins much less fearful.

It's something everyone knows, deep down.

All the vassals.

All the soldiers.

All the spell smiths.

All the healers.

Everyone knows Tigress, her brother, many of her mates...

None must ever be seen in weakness.

The many million forced laborers, the survivors of conquests, the scrappers, none can be allowed to think there's a chance, even a little one, of a successful rebellion.  

A scar is fine.  An open wound is disastrous.  

Everyone feels this like a pressure at the back of their necks.  

This shapes their work on Stunner's fin.

Most soldiers with a dorsal fin injury would be sedated before the vast majority of the damaged fin was cut away.  The bones would be spared carefully splinted, of course, but the rods in a fin will grow back, given enough time.  

But, more often than not, they grow back...different.  Often a little...over bent, a little stunted.

With Stunner Blue, this mustn't be allowed.  

So, the healers slice the flesh of the fin, giving them direct access to the bones and rods.

One by one, very carefully, they push the separated and broken rods and bones back into place, before, as one, they raise their voices in siren magic.  The most senior of the healers, alone, doesn't join the song, making hasty gestures to quiet or raise the voices of her fellows, breaking and reassembling bones as they heal right or wrong, forcing everything to go well.  

When she's sure all of the rods and bones are in order, she gestures again, calling for her fellows to continue in a different song.   A handful of tiny wrasse from the senior healer's pocket go along, picking at spots on the flesh, anything to prevent infection later, as she slowly, carefully lines the flap of skin she had to cut away back up with the rest of the fin.

Finally, all that's left is to stitch the edges and put sealing cream over top.

The work of several hours.

And it'll take a week or longer of careful monitoring to ensure that it's gone well.  

The healers eye each other, knowing someone has to say it, but also knowing that being the speaker may mean a lot of pain.  

The senior healer turns to the inner entrance into the royal box, relieved to see Thunder, already there.  "Um...we...we can't let him move...even when he wakes up."

Thunder nods.  "Shouldn't be too much, bringing in a restraining board."

"It would be best if we could bring him back to the palace, but..."

"Absolutely not.  We can't let him be seen."

The senior healer bites her lip.  "I understand, but...I mean...this room isn't..."

Thunder considers for a moment.  "Tigress had the stadium built back when she was still nursing her eldest...I believe..."  The merman goes to one wall and pulls aside a panel.

The healers are surprised and relieved to see a midsized room, probably small from the perspective of the massive tiger shark mers, but perfectly comfortable for them to work in.

And plenty of room for a tiger shark mer-sized restraining board.  Two holes in the wall, at either end of the room, are hastily tested and found to be fully functioning flow tunnels, bringing in oxygenated water and out depleted water.  A massive, decorated lounger is built into the side of the room, along with a hooded nest big enough for a healer to rest.  

Thunder acts as the go between for supplies brought in, keeping even the guards from seeing the downed Stunner Blue.  

Along the way, he takes a message, then stiffens.

As soon as the messenger is gone, he gives the order.  "Check him for any sign of algae infection."

The senior healer isn't entirely sure she's heard right.  "What?"

"His mate...that nocturnal has an algae infection."

"That can't be right...there was no...we'd have seen it blooming from her gills if that was what's going on..."

Thunder purses his lips.  "Apparently, it was killed back."

"Oh...so the bloom happened some other time...yes, that would do it..."

Very carefully, fearful of damaging them, the healers open up each slit of gill in Stunner's neck.  There're definitely signs that algae has been there, little strands that are quickly cleaned away, just in case, but no cause for alarm.

Still, they relay the information.

If there is an algae bloom anywhere in the city, it's cause for quite a bit of alarm.  

The senior healer sits back for a moment, covering her face in her hands.

Stunner Blue needs an experienced healer on hand.

An algae infection bad enough to strangle a mer into hibernation needs an experienced healer with a steady hand, or else the damage to the gill filaments will only compound.

She nods.  "I'll stay here until he's strapped onto a restraining board, then I'm going back to the palace."

Thunder nods.  "I'll post guards in the royal box, but they're not to enter this room under any circumstances.  Call for me if you need muscle."

The senior healer gives him a quizzical look.  "What about the royal children?"

"I'll be here until he wakes up, so he'll have an explanation from me.  Aside from that, there's nothing that will be so urgent that you can't send a messenger."

*

Thunder accepts the restraining board at the inner entrance of the royal box and brings it into the side room, keeping anyone from seeing anything before the panel hiding the Empress's side room is firmly closed.  

He doesn't bother with the healers, simply strapping Stunner into the board by muscle memory alone.

It's amazing, what skills are left over from his soldier days.  

He can remember long stretches where he'd do nothing but train and hunt for months before short bursts where he strapped a dozen comrades and...and friends in to these blasted boards an hour.  He even remembers being strapped into them himself or, more distressingly, waking up strapped into one.  

It occurs to him that he should probably teach Princess Periwinkle how to do it.  And...well, probably Prince Azure, too.  Thunder, at least, still holds out hope that the boy will find some passion.

*

Dapple and Elti were supposed to leave today, and Marri with her group tomorrow.

But...seeing all the fuss around the Stadium, while seeing everyone kept away.

It's caught her curiosity.

She wants to know.

But the guard patrols are too thick.  It's not even wise to approach the prison windows as things are right now.

She'll just have to wait.

Chapter Text

"I guess we're leaving before you," says Marri, hugging Elti tight.  

Dapple nods and steps forward to receive her own hug.  "You have enough traps?  I heard Laviet Island is pretty rough waters for active hunting..."

"We'll be okay...we're probably gonna be there a while longer than we were at Mt. Cavier, so hopefully we'll get more done."

Dapple glances at the two boats the group has packed high with supplies.  

Everyone who's joined the group, growing coral, is going this time, and it's now some three dozen mers and nymphs along with the older teachers.  

Because, with the rough currents around the island, it's been decided that the best way to build the nocturnal road is to circle around the north of the island to get into the calmer bay.  A much longer spiral rather than the straightforward road planned from Mr. Cavier directly to the city.

But the island waters should have plenty of good hunting for mid-sized fish and less to worry about with predators and a lot of bamboo probably growing on the island itself.

Good place for a community, really.

It's not the goal, but everyone's clearly thinking it.

A sheltered bay where few large predators swim, close enough and far enough from the city to get little attention...

Oh yes.  It would be a great place for a few caves, maybe a village on the island...

Mers and nymphs have probably thought that about Laviet island since the Elven war.

It would explain why so many supplies have been volunteered for this.

"When are you two leaving?" asks Marri.

Elti shrugs.  "I'm on Dapple time."

Dapple sighs.  "I'd like to leave today, but...well, I really need to know what's happening in the Stadium."

Marri glances towards the distant structure.  It's not quite visible from the residential bluffs, but...She shakes her head.  "Be careful."

Dapple forces a smile.  "I know."

Marri gives both her sisters another hug, then darts off to join her group.  

Bower calls Elti to help with her brand new mussel bed, as the art of getting mussels to decide it's a good place to anchor is...not as friendly as Dapple would have suspected.  

It leaves Dapple alone for a solid minute, thinking.

In truth, she knows she has to move on.  Elti needs her own boat, she needs to get another load of supplies.  More than anything, she needs to stash or trade her treasures before they make her boat into a target. 

One nymph on a boat isn't exactly a threat to boarders.

But...

The sight of the normally boisterous Stadium, silent...

It's tempting.

Even though the patrols of soldiers are a great deterrent.  

For now.

*

You lie, on your side in a dry room.

Your top, right side gill is lightly taped open.  

Tigress's senior healer leans over you with delicate tweezers and brushes.

Three other healers crowd around you, watching, learning, ready to help.

Singing.

The light in the room already makes everyone nervous, what if it revives the algae, but...well, none of them are nocturnals; they can't see as well as you can in the dark.  

Indeed, the senior healer is wearing human made goggles, designed for clockworks, to see into your gills enough to work.

Each strand of algae must be carefully de-tangled from the filaments in your gills, oh so carefully so as not to strip the feathering.  It's tedious, nerve-wracking work in turns.  

Every so often, the healer flushes out the gill with water, both to give her hands and eyes a rest from the aching delicacy and in hopes that it will help.  Sometimes, it does.  Sometimes, the water drains away with no visible change.  

The medicines and methods normally used to get rid of an algae infection won't work here; the infection is already dead.  Instead, the rare state of this infection, dead but still strangling, has her doing this.

She tries very hard not to think of all the times she might have swum right past something like this.  How many times, under Tigress's authority, she's ignored or dismissed such cases.  How, if you weren't Stunner Blue's mate, pregnant with his child, she might have been tempted to just leave you to wither away and die.

Because...well, it would be far easier.

The healer doesn't like that about herself.

She remembers, when she first took up the craft, apprenticing herself to another, her goal was to help others.  Anyone could be saved, she believed.

And...those first few years, she saved far more than she failed.  She always took pride in that.

Then, her island surrendered to Tigress Blue.  She was picked up into the army.

There, she was always to heal the soldiers first, anyone else second only if it didn't clash with her duty to the army.  It was like trying to survive the never ending hurricane; always someone dying, always the need to choose life or death not for one or two, but for dozens and hundreds, every day.  Rare moments of rest were too little; certainly, if someone approached her for healing on her leave, she turned them away...because she needed rest.

And...that's become her pattern in the years since.  Heal when Tigress or her vassals tell her, rest otherwise.  Because...at this point, she doesn't know how else to survive.  

The healer shakes her head and straightens.  "I need to breathe water for a bit...Soto, will you flush out her gills, continuously, until I return?  Don't be afraid to be a bit rough, the filiments are designed for water."

The youngest healer heaves himself over and runs the pump to wash at your gills.  

The senior turns back to the lip of floor.  "Once we're done her right side, we should check the left more thoroughly...just in case."

Everyone nods and continues.

Following her instructions.

She swallows, trying not to imagine the years, maybe decades that will pass before any of them is dedicating this much work to a patient again.

Chapter Text

Once upon a time, Laviet Island didn't exist.

Every little mer and nymph knows that.

It wasn't an island.

At most, it was a traitorous run of jagged seamounts and deep gorges that never broke the surface of the water.

Good hunting...but only for the largest and strongest mers, really.  The shapes of the peaks and canyons stirred up storms and blasted most would be reefs to sand.

When the elven empire rose, and their emperor turned his eyes on the seas, particularly Current's Rise, a base of operations was needed.  

The roiling waters and the steep peaks were too tempting to pass up.

To the mers and nymphs, uninterested in the conquest of the continent, the fort the elves on the largest sea mount, the docks, the lookout towers on the outer mounts...it was all surely the greatest achievement the elves could boast in their war.  

But...it wasn't without its folly.

The towers and fort slowed the currents of the waters.  Not a lot, not enough to be safe hunting, but enough that, at certain depths, it didn't take the largest, strongest mers to navigate the waters.  Sand built up around the fort, at first just a sand bar, but as trees and bamboo grew, it became a proper island.  Their docks, necessarily reaching beyond the chop and spray, became the long arms of a crescent bay, allowing far more than the massive elven ships to make berth. 

The fort had been meant for a staging ground, a resupply, a shipyard for the elves.

It rapidly became a battleground between elves, with their human allies, and the peoples of the deep.

The elven conquest failed, and they left.

Laviet Island remained.  

Alone.

Generations of mers and nymphs now have seen the island, the rich hunting, the protected bay, and they've dreamed.

Dreamed, but never acted.

No one can exactly explain why, except...

*

"I feel like ghosts are lookin at me."

Marri nods.  

The group had to circle the island in a wide arc just to protect the boats.  

The towers on the outer most mounts are crumbling at the top, but still sturdy enough that no one thinks they'll collapse.

But...it's hard not to feel seen by them.  

Also, the closer they get to the crescent bay, the colder the water feels.  

And it's rich with cold water hunting.  

"We're going to need to hunt more often," someone mutters.

"I can do it!" says Vert.  

Most everyone rolls their eyes.

The youngest of the group, actual children, tuck closer to their parents.  Keeping those five fed enough to keep warm is going to be a chore, and Marri already thinks hard about how to build a shelter that can do the job.  

But...that may indeed be the intent. 

Two whole families came along.  Sure, they'll be involved in building and maintaining the nocturnal road, but they've got to be whispering.

Why not try it?  Why not try for a permanent settlement at Laviet? 

Good hunting?  Decent protection?  Sure, they'll have to live with a box of wrasse while a basking bed establishes, but...isn't it better to try and build a life here in the quiet than stay in Current's Rise?

The point of the crescent bay comes into view and Marri wonders if that will be easy; Laviet island is as deeply caught up in winter ice as anywhere she's ever seen.  

"Our best bet, is to build a cabin that extends into the water," says one nymph.  "That'll give us the most protection the fastest."

"That's summer work," someone says.  "We can't spend that kind of work out in the open air with how cold it is."

Marri waves both of them down.  Neither members of the argument went to Mt. Cavier.  "Our first job is exploring; looking for somewhere we can anchor our boats.  

*

Thunder has long been in a soldier's doze when Stunner wakes.

The first sound of pain and stress is his sign to move.

"Stunner.  You're in a restraining board."

"Why!"

"Your dorsal fin."

Stunner stills, no longer trying to escape.  

For a moment, Thunder listens to the other merman's harsh breathing.

"I can't feel it."

"The healers used a lot of analgesics.  You shouldn't feel anything unless it moves."

Stunner is trying to twist his neck to look at his fin, but the restraining board won't allow it.  "Well?  If it's just my fin, I shouldn't need most of my torso bound."

"You'll wait until after the healers have looked at you."

Stunner hisses but stops straining.  "Maybe if they looked after her like me..."

"Oh...that's right.  I meant to tell you; your mate has an algae infection."

"What?  Really?"

"Yeah."  Thunder glides over, planting himself right in Stunner's line of sight.  "You know how she got that?"

Stunner frowns.  "The only thing I can think is that I chased her through an algae bloom...but that was months and months ago."

Thunder feels like a young soldier again, looking at a peer who's just copped to something stupid.  "I should smack you."

"If she was gonna get an algae infection from that, it should have been months ago!"

"You didn't say anything about it to the healers?"

"It was months ago!"

"You can't get mad at the healers over not knowing what was happening when you don't say things either!"

"Alright, I was stupid!  Happy?"

"No, cause I gotta go tell Tigress Blue that her brother chased a pretty tail through an algae bloom then got mad at healers for not figuring out the infection!"

Stunner exercises some of the little movement the board allows him, tilting his head and cocking a smile.  "You wouldn't be so cruel to your buddy, would you?"

"Without hesitation."

Thunder can feel the corners of his mouth curling.  It's easy.  With Stunner bound there in front of him, admitting to his own foolishness, it's easy to fall back into the old friendship.  To stop pretending and really be friendly.  

But it won't last.

Sooner or later, Stunner will do something, say something, or the royal children will want to play with their uncle, or some pretty little palace servant will flee his rooms crying, and Thunder will find himself resenting the other merman again.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

The friendship was supposed to be a source of ease, not...not this time bomb of irritation.  

Still, as the healers check over Stunner, finally releasing his arms and upper torso, Thunder laughs and jokes, and hands over a set of playing sticks before going off to other chores.

Because there is one thing about Stunner Blue that's always been easy; that damned smile.

Chapter Text

Playing sticks serve much the same purpose underwater as cards do above...just...different.  

A healer's assistant shakes the box to scramble them, than deals four of them to Stunner and four to himself.

Stunner places his first stick, marked at both ends with a 3, then two more sticks, one marked 3 and 4 and the other marked 4 and 2.  Having no other 2 marked sticks, he pulls another one out of the box and waits.

The assistant goes from the other end, placing a stick marked 3 and 1 and then another stick marked 1 and 4 and another marked 4 and 5 before drawing a stick.

Having no sticks marked 5 or 2, Stunner draws a stick and waits.

The game goes on like that, both players putting down as many sticks as they can before drawing one.  The deal was small, so of course the game goes fast, but it's just one game they could play.  

There are a ton of games they could play with the sticks, but most only stave off boredom.

For Stunner, it's almost shocking how...calm he is right now.  

Out in the wilds?  He'd be panicking frantic to learn you had an algae infection.  Here?  What's to worry about?  A thousand healers won't let you come to harm lest they come to harm at his hands.  

His own fin, halfway maimed?  Well...nothing's slowed him down this much in a while.  And...it'll make his reunion with you more special.

Stunner considers his sticks, but, really, he's contemplating what he should do in the week or longer when he gets you back from Tigress.  Check the scars of his teeth around your breasts?  Decorate your belly and drag you out on a date?  See if he can get his whole hand into your hole?

His lips curl.  Or, he could drag you along as he torments the chamberlain about the nursery in his rooms that's not done yet.

Oh, there are so many possibilities.

*

Quartz tries very hard to remember what it takes to get wrasse to spawn...mostly because he desperately needs to ignore the fear.

It's easy to cordon off a small corner, sculpting a wall out of hardening cement with his fingers, building it up a little at a time, little holes just big enough for the fish to swim in and out, little tunnels through.  A large opening just about the size of his head as the spawning chamber, but otherwise keeping the wedge of concrete solid with tunnels boring through it. 

The real idea is to steal one or two wrasse every time that child brings a fresh box.  With any luck, eventually, they'll have their own population to draw from.  Keep their own boxes of trained wrasse to clean from.

But in order to do that well, they'll need this wrasse wedge built and ready to hide before that nymph comes back with something they can hide with a stack of sponges.

It's something else to think about, something else to work at.  

Anything to avoid shaking in fear. 

The guards have been through, asking pointed questions, looking for specific wounds.

Luckily, every scrapper knows better than to admit they know that Stunner Blue's been injured.  They know to push those who were actually there to the middle of the group, not the back or edge.

They know that, if the guards recognize them, to say they were in line to go into the cage, but never got their turn.  

Still, there's been some backlash.  Three days without bouts and the reward food means that now that they're starting back up, there's more desperate for a place in the fights, more likelihood that the crowd will get bored.

"Hey!  Quartz, hey!"

Quartz turns his head to see the nymph, Dapple, at the window.  "What?  I didn't expect you back yet..."

"Haven't gone yet...what's happening?  The Stadium was surrounded by guards everywhere for days!"

Quartz shakes his head.  "Look...that's something that can't be known."

"What?"

"Look...if it gets out, they might do loyalty bouts to punish all of us."

"Oh...are you okay?"

Quartz shrugs.

Suddenly, even though he knows he shouldn't, he wants to tell her.  He wants to tell her about deciding to sacrifice Titus to Stunner Blue's temper, he wants to tell her about damaging the empress's brother, he wants to brag about getting away with it.

But...he knows he can't.  Because there's always the possibility that they could still be held to account.  

He gestures at the wall.  "Look...we've used your reeds to make proper dens.  It's not enough, but it's helping."

"I'm glad...Are you alright, though, you look rough...what, did you go up against a tiger shark?"

Quartz can't resist the smile.  "Please don't repeat that."

"Okay..."

Suddenly, another possibility occurs to him.  "Did you know she's pregnant?"

"Who?  What?"

"My sister...a merchild who comes around from the palace said she is."

"Oh...oh no...Quartz, I'm sorry..."

Quartz shrugs.  "I mean...at least if it's his, she'll be safe and taken care of for a while, it's just...I wish it wasn't happening to her...to anyone..."

Dapple reaches through the window and grasps his arm.   "We'll figure it out..."

Quartz raises an eyebrow.  "I'm sick of empty promises, you know."

She gives him a sour smile.  "I'm sick of feeling like I'm making them.  But...well, I've got to go today...I'll be back as quick as I can with as much as I can...you think there's anyway you could get me in contact with that child you said comes by from the palace?"

Quartz hesitates.  "Ah...that child...well, I think their father is a scrapper around here...it could be big trouble if someone at the palace makes the connection...They've done it a few times, you know, held someone's pup against a scrapper."

"I'll figure out a way they don't have to meet up with me here.  Please?"

Quartz considers it.  He has to.  He has nothing else to hope for.  But...  "Come up with a plan first, then I'll see about making it happen...if it's good enough."

Dapple grimaces, but nods.  "Sure...Okay...I'll see you in a few weeks, I guess."

And then she's gone.  

Quartz sighs and goes back to his cement.

He really hates having to wait on everyone else.

Chapter Text

Marri frowns.

They've been on Laviet island for a day and a half and they already have a big problem.

It's the sand.

They can't dig a hole without it filling back up with the fast moving sand.  They can't build out a cave without it filling up with sand.  They can't anchor in because it's all sand.

It's dangerous, and it leaves the group out in the cold, with limited options.  

The island is a little better...for the nymphs, anyway, but only once they get past the extensive, icy beach and into the woods.  

For the interum, to protect their supplies and give themselves more room, they build a few rafts, anchoring them and a their boats to the old docks.  With their supplies spread out on the rafts, they use the boat cabins for rest, even though it's not perfect.  Still, the young mer children immediately dropping into hibernation isn't unreasonable in the circumstances.  

Marri finishes setting out all their traps, because food is going to be critical for a while, and thinks hard about what to do next.  

Going back and picking a different location for the next nocturnal road would likely be the best idea, but a waste of resources.  And...the island waters are already so full of hunting; she's already caught several rock fish and a massive cod.  Their biggest problem is the sand.

Back at the boats, having eaten her share, she tucks into one of the boats to sleep, even though it's not ideal when she doesn't want to hibernate.  Her mind swirls, looking for a way to attack the problem.

*

Your eyes flutter open, then drop closed again.

In the moments before you dropped back into hibernation, your impression is of being soaked through with water in the open air while someone messes with your gills.  You briefly wonder why before falling back into swirling dreams.

*

Four days just to get to the bottom and most complicated tangling up of your gills on the one side.  

Every once in a while, the senior healer sees some of your muscles flexing, or your eyes flutter open and shut.  That's good.  It means, hopefully, your gills are working more efficiently again.

It's also a problem, though, one that makes it hard to be patient.  If your body is coming out of hibernation, you need to eat.  It's an imperative forced on the bodies of all mers and nymphs; rise from hibernation, eat.  If the body doesn't eat within a few hours of rising, various organs will start shutting down.  It doesn't matter how much stored fat the body has.  Nymphs have lost their feet, mers their fins, over it.  

And there's one thing your body could very easily reject without long-term damage if it comes to it.

Your belly is distinctly bigger, now.  In your hibernation, it's eaten at your fat stores more than normal, leaving a hollow patch under your scales.  You don't just need a meal once you wake up, you need to gorge.

The senior healer passes off the task of cleaning out the gill to another for an hour.  "Don't flush them out with water anymore.  We want her to stay in hibernation until we're ready for her to wake up."

The other healer grimaces, but nods.

"And, before you decide it's done, check her other side gills.  I don't want to go through this again."

The senior healer slips into the water, and decides to focus on something else. 

That mermaid.

*

With you removed even from Tigress's quarters, there's even less for Lae to do.  She offered to check if Stunner needed anything, but was rejected, rather forcefully.

Everyone in the palace knows what that kind of rejection means; they don't want people to know something.

Frustrating, to think they'd suspect her of being loose-lipped about Stunner Blue, but she's not so caught up as to be stupid enough to object.  

So, she spends most of her time with the other palace servants, polishing windows, mostly.  It's not that she wants to, it's more that she needs something to do with her hands before she goes crazy.

"Ehem."

Lae turns to see the senior healer.  "Oh!  Hello.  Is she..."

"She'll be well soon, I hope..." the healer grimaces.  "I wanted to speak with you...you noticed what we didn't...I was impressed."

Lae shrugs, uncomfortable.  She's not sure how to handle praise that has nothing to do with her appearance.  "Oh...I just noticed that...it didn't seem like anyone actually looked..."

The healer nods.  "Yes.  A sign of our ingrained habits and our fear of his highness, I expect.  Most of us, here in the palace, used to work battlefields more than anything.  Unless we knew of an algae bloom, we had minutes, maybe less, to check over a patient before we had to decide whether they needed or were worth the work of healing.  Check each side gills; if they're moving, look for something else.  It's been my habit for a long time."

"I just noticed that one side was moving less than the other..."

"Don't let that drift off to another shore, dear.  I know you're assigned to his highness's mate, but...if you have time, I'd like to see what else you can do.  I believe polishing windows isn't the usual work of personal servants."

"What, really?  I mean...alright...I just need to tell matron..."

"I've already spoken with the matron.  She agrees that, where it doesn't interfere with your other tasks, you should spend your time with me."

Lae feels dazed, but follows along, mostly out of curiosity.

It's strange.  Absolutely twisted.  That anyone...anyone in the world would see anything but her pretty face and gorgeous red tail...

Absurd...

So...why can't she stop smiling?

Chapter Text

The number of guards around the Stadium have reduced, but Reed still feels anxious about trying to trade wrasse boxes with the scrappers.  

Even though they know that if the wrasse get too much bigger the little fish won't fit into their wall tunnels.  They might even spawn in the box, which would make all sorts of trouble.

But...they're anxious.

They don't want to be caught.

*

Everything is twisting up in Lae's insides and turning her halfway sick.

Aside from the senior, the healers might make comments about her around corners, but they're polite and helpful when she's in the room with them.  As easy as the Matron with praise when she does well, but not nearly so sharp when she makes a mistake.

And it comes to be known that Lae is actually pretty good with the little things; like de-tangling dead algae from someone's gills.  In fact, rather than find it tedious, she finds it meditative; an easy way to let a few hours go by, knowing she is making progress, no matter how slowly.

But...

Up close, doing the work of carefully uncoiling tiny strands from the filaments that allow you to breathe, she can't easily ignore just how many scars you have.

Recent scars.

Scars that don't make sense.

Like the rings of tooth-marks around the base of your breasts...

By now, almost all the bruises and scabs are gone, but...your skin and scales still tell stories.

Stories Lae doesn't want to hear. 

Just like she doesn't really want to see the proof that you really, truly are pregnant.  Not big, yet, but distinct.

She far prefers going with the healers to learn how to extract useful toxins from living sponges, or jellyfish, or cephalopods.  How to safely handle them, how to refine them into medicines that are good for use or trade.  She likes learning to treat burns from the spell forges, wounds from the soldiers.

And yet...she can't just fall in with the healers.

She has no idea why, but when she goes to clean Stunner's rooms, even in his absence, she can't give him up.  Her lesser free time is still spent tatting lace more than it is studying techniques.

She still clings to her ornaments and jewels...

Lae pricks her finger one evening and stares at the little dribble of blood.  She now knows a dozen things she could do instead of staring at the little float, the dissipating red in the water.  Things to dull the pain, make it heal better, patch it up...

And yet she doesn't.

A choked laugh escapes her, heard by no one else in the confines of her room and she hugs her head.  "There's something so very wrong with me..."

*

"If we want to control the sand, our best bet is to root a kelp forest."

"We have to wait at least a month before we do that; it won't work in this cold!"

"That's assuming that it's only a month before we can."

"We're not on anyone's timeline but our own, and it's not like we're lacking for food."

Marri listens to the argument go back and forth in twisting circles.  

In a week, the group has built a few more rafts to give themselves room, but it's not enough.  Everyone is chilled half to the bone, all the time, and that chill makes everyone ravenous.  Fighting the sands to try and get any work done makes everyone exhausted.  And, just making everything a little worse, everything feels grimy and gritty.  

Marri's trying to treat it the way she does her bickering sisters at home; decide what to do without them and let everyone realize on their own time that a path has been made.

As far as she can tell, the problems are as such.

Their lack of proper shelter.

The sands swallowing up their work.

Never feeling clean.

Not being able to see progress.

Mt. Cavier, despite having no source of bamboo, little shelter from rough waters and no native food source, was ideal for the work they've come to do; all it took was hard work to make progress.  Maybe skilled hard work, but that really was all they needed.

Laviet island is different.  

It needs them to be clever. 

Adaptable.  

She's already set the youngest nymphs to cutting bamboo poles and curing last year's dead grasses.  It's hard work, digging out the snow to find old, dead grass, then bringing them out into sunlight, but Marri's already assured them she's not worried about them rotting.

The youngest mers, meanwhile, she's set to weaving rough baskets.  Large, mostly flat.  Easy enough to fill with sand.

The finished baskets now hang from their strongest rafts in columns, filled with sands and young coral shards.  

Because it seems to Marri, that though Laviet isn't proving the easy, obvious next place to build the nocturnal road they all hoped, it is the perfect place to birth their coral shards.

A large, sheltered bay.

Plenty of sand to give the coral starting material.

Yes.

But that still leaves other problems.  

At a signal from one of the older children, Marri leaves off her screen and slips away from the argument between the adults.  She follows the boy to one of the abandoned watch towers, where the children have been using the decent shelter from the wind to do a bit of work.

Marri smiles.

It looks like a massive gourd basket with an opening in the belly.    

Mostly because that's exactly what it is.  

The children are just finishing sealing the surface with clay they accidentally dug up.

One child looks anxious.  "You're sure?  It'll burn up all the work we did."

"It's fine.  Just...stay out of it once you light it," says Marri.

The whole thing is filled with charcoal.

The children had found a huge stash of it a day or two ago, and it's perfect for their purposes.

And so, to set the clay, they light it.

"We won't be able to move it on our own," says one of the children.

Marri shrugs.  "I'm hoping some of our big strong men volunteer."

The children nod and start building the next basket as Marri watches the burning carefully to make sure it goes well. 

Chapter Text

Dapple sails up the coast for quite a ways before she comes to the little mixed port town of Ole-Sha.  She and Elte pay a pearl to dock, then go with a belted pouch of treasures to the warf master to find out if there are any boats for sale that suit Elti.  

The sisters keep close together.

Not because Ole-Sha has a bad reputation, that's not it.

It's because it's one of the few places either of them have ever been where there are elves.  

They've seen centaurs and fauns before, of course; both groups tend to like river basins for rich growing grounds, even though they have slightly different diets that seem more distinct to nymphs that eat more vegetation than Dapple or Elti.

They've even seen humans before.  Find a random trading boat out on the water, it's an even bet that it'll be a human boat.  The fearless things will trade with anyone.

They've seen half-elves before.  Not many, but certainly more than elves.  If a mer and a nymph have a child together, that child will be either a mer or a nymph.  If a human and an elf have a child together, that child will be a half elf, something that is neither human, nor elf but is somehow still both.  Half-elves are rumored to be more comfortable in human or mixed communities and are often said to avoid the elven cities all together, where they can.  

There aren't many mers in Ole-Sha, none past the docks at all, but there's probably a more extensive community in the bay, so that's no surprise.

Local nymphs seem to be more port-side residents than anything else, which makes sense.

But the elves...

Dapple tries to school her eyes into not following every elf that walks by, tries very hard to focus on her task.  They need to find a boat for Elti, not obsess over an old grudge that was, officially, dead long before even their grandparents were born.  

But she finds herself noticing things.

Like the way no elf ever seems to walk alone.  They're always either with another elf or a half-elf.  Most of them seem stiff and overly formal, as if unsure of the rules in a way their half-elf companions clearly aren't.  Also, their clothes...well, the humans and half-elves seem to be better equipped with their clothing to move through the mostly nude mixed crowd.  In fact, it seems very like many of the half-elves would be taking their queue from the others if it weren't for their greater susceptibility to the cold.  The elves' clothes, at least where they tend towards what seem to be actual elven fashions, are flowy and floaty in a way that does not work with the tight moving crowds.

Some of them visibly flinch when they get too close to a nymph.  

Dapple notices that, but then realizes it's not just the nymphs.  They seem to tuck their feet whenever they pass close by a centaur or faun.

Dapple watches her own feet and realizes that she tucks her feet, too.  Is she afraid of the hooves?  Maybe.  Maybe it's just not as dramatically noticeable as it is with the elves.

Dapple and Elti stop at a cafe, where they trade a sand dollar to a pretty human woman for an excellent breakfast, and Dapple watches the crowd some more.  Over time, she's sure she can see a difference between people who've been in this town for a long time and those who are newcomers like her. 

New comer centaurs and fauns seem overly attentive to where they place their hooves, moving quite a bit more slowly then their habituated brethren.  

Nymphs new to this crowd, just like the elves, seem to tuck their feet a little.  

The server drops a little object on the table between Dapple and Elti.

Dapple looks up.

"Ma'am said your sand dollar was too much for some pastries and tea.  Said to give you two this."

Dapple looks at the little compass.  "Oh...thank you, but..."

"Even you swimmers can use a little help with direction, sometimes," shrugs the server.  "Seen it before.  Plenty come in thinking this is Kai-Tore instead of Ole-Sha.  Causes all sorts of trouble.

Dapple smiles.  "I'll bet.  Thank you."

Elti sits up in her chair.  "Anyone selling a boat around here?  The wharf master didn't know."

The girl thinks for a moment.  "You cut up the coast to the edge of town, you get to the drydocks and ship launchers.  They always have some pontoon riggers you can buy right off."

Elti bites her lip.  "How well do they steer for one person?"

"Well enough.  Occasionally, we take a couple of kegs up the rocks and drink it out with the mers; there's rarely more than one left sober enough to bring the whole thing back."

"Thanks."

The servers leave and the sisters tuck their heads together.  "You want to see?  We can go somewhere else if they don't have one good for you."

Elti wrings her fingers a little bit.  "I...um..."  She glances around.  "I think this might be a good place to get rumors, Dapple...if they don't have something, I can probably commission something and wait for it to be done..."

"That would take months or longer...I don't want to leave you here that long...Papa would be all kinds of mad if I did that."

"Um...Dapple...you remember it was my idea to come here?"

Dapple feels a touch of irritation.  The kind of irritation that generally comes with knowing she's about to be pulled into trouble that's not hers by one of her sisters.  "Yes..."

A pretty, willowy half elf drops into the empty seat next to Elti.  "Hey.  I missed you."

"This is Winter," says Elti, ducking her head.  

Chapter Text

At last, the senior healer has you brought back to Tigress. 

All of the healers can feel the weight of the empress's gaze as they watch your chest move up and down with your breathing, as your gills fan and flutter with the movement.  

A minute, maybe two passes by.

Your eyes open just a bit before dropping close.

Another second.  

Your eyelids flutter again.

Huge black eyes stare up at the ceiling for a long moment.

You frown.

*

For a moment, you think you're looking at a very bright night sky.

Then you realize that's not it.

When your eyes adjust, you realize that the ceiling of the room is a mosaic of intricate glass tile-work.

It really does look like a clear night sky. 

It's enough to tell you that you're still inside the royal palace.

You shift your shoulders first, then your arms, fins.  You go along each muscle in your body, gently flexing and unflexing and hauling yourself up from a basket nest to look around.

"Oh, good..."

A strange mermaid is on you in half a second, and you flinch away from prodding hands.

"Enough."

It's a testament to how...normal this has all become, that you don't flinch away from the sound of Tigress Blue's voice.

You turn to her, your expression as clear of any emotions as you can manage.

"Come, dear.  Join me for a meal.  Let us see if there's more to you than my brother's pet."

*

"Okay, so...it's not exactly like we want mates of each other," says Elti.  

"Really," says Dapple.

"It's just...occasionally...we want fun together..."

Dapple stares at her little sister's special trouble-dodger smile and feels a long day's headache settling down on her temples.  

Winter leans back.  Dapple wonders how the half elf can stand all of those clothes.  Granted, it's not as bad as the elves in the crowd, but...how?

Though...it's probably good with the cold.

Maybe there is some sense to it in that respect.

No, the trouble is that Elti has made her own trouble, things she should have talked over with their parents, into hers.  Dapple pushes back her hair.  "And...how long have you been...sometimes seeing each other."

"Well, we haven't, yet..." says Elti.  "You know, cause..."

"Cause you're not an adult yet?"

"Neither am I," says Winter.  "Also, I'm not that kind of friend."

"Really?  Then...why didn't you at least tell Momma?"

Elti bites her lip and turns her head to one side.  "I...I didn't want Papa to go making rules."

"About a friend who's just a friend?"

"Not that...about the idea that I might not want to stay home forever."

"Oh.  Yeah, that makes sense."

"Obviously, I didn't want...I didn't want 'not staying home forever' to look like...this...I didn't want it to be this important, I mean...but...Well."

Winter sits up.  "Little highwind tune, 'this important'? That's not what we've talked about."

"I know, Winter...it's complicated."

"Complicated like...like what?  Like you've got your rigging tangled on the rocks or like the ships caught up there too?"

"Complicated like...like a friend of ours got caught with Tigress Blue."

Winter's face goes blank and she stares at Elti for a long moment.  Then she turns to Dapple.  

"Tigress Blue is..."

"I know damn well who Tigress Blue is," says Winter.  

"Winter runs a bar out of her boat.  Gets sailors, mers and nymphs," says Elti helpfully.  

"Occasionally, I get sorts like Tigress's thugs, too," says Winter.  "I've been lucky, so far.  I give 'em a few drinks for nothing and they generally wash on to some other shore.  Other sailors...islands...  Other people haven't been so lucky."

"Ah..."

"So...explain what's happening."

So...both sisters do.

Once they get past explaining about how they came to know you and how close Dapple came to being lobster food, Winter waves them quiet, watching the crowd with a sharp look.  Then, as the trio grow in anxiety, she leads them up the street to a small loft apartment.  Clearly somewhere Winter lives whenever she's on shore, and it's clear that Winter isn't on shore very much at all.

Inside, Winter has them lay out everything they saw and did in the city very carefully.  Especially the Stadium.  "I heard that before, but I wasn't sure what to make of it.  Prisons are usually elves or humans, and only if the city is big enough.  Don't usually see them with anyone else," she says.  "Can you tell what sort of people they're putting in there."

"Mers...nymphs?"

"Nah...I mean...why they choose the person who goes in.  You know..." Winter grasps around.  "So...when a human goes to prison it's usually cause they broke a law, stole something, killed someone, things like that.  When elves go to prison it's cause they embarrassed their clans."

"What...like...like how I embarrass my sisters?" asks Elti.

"Nah...you're thinking small.  Think more...you did something that your mother had to explain to your entire island...and it wasn't a good thing."

Dapple thinks hard.  "I really don't follow."

"It's fine that you don't understand why elves and humans do it, so long as you understand that there is a why.  What I want to know is why is a mer doing it.  Why send some people to the stadium prison at all?  Most of the rumors I heard told that Tigress Blue has forced laborers.  Thousands of 'em."

"Probably millions."

"See...that makes it even stranger that, among so many, so few would be singled out."

"Few?  There are almost a thousand in the Stadium!"

"Nah.  Even if she has a thousand, that's one thousand out of how many million?  That's not a lot.  So...why them?'

The sisters think.

"You've seen more of them, Dapple."

"Yeah...Quartz didn't say much about it...he just told me he couldn't let me give him a knife because of the loyalty bouts."

Winter's eyebrow goes up.  "What's a loyalty bout?"

Dapple describes what she remembers of Quartz's words.

"I...I see..."

Chapter Text

Servants have placed themselves at the edge of the room, silent, sweet and still.  They are not to be the objects of your attention.  

A plate of split oysters.

A stack of perfectly cut squares of squid head.

A terrine of roe.

A bowl of cracked urchins.

Quite a lot of food for two mermaids.  

And yet, though your body is adamant you must eat, you find the idea of it...difficult.

Mostly because you have the undivided attention of Tigress Blue. 

*

You've impressed her.  Not a lot, of course, but...

Well, Tigress knows there's not a single person under the water who's not a little afraid of her.  

So, a little thing like you and the only sign of nerves is that you haven't reached for any of the food in front of you?  You're not visibly staring at her or avoiding staring at her, you're not fidgeting or visibly tense.  That's impressive. 

And...up close, facing her, you really are pretty.

"Eat, dear.  I'll not have Stunner come back to his beloved mate halfway starved."

That flash of anger in your huge eyes is gone so fast she almost doubts it was ever there. 

Almost.  

Still, she watches you select one of the squares of squid head.  Tigress approves.  You seem to be more nibbling at it than really eating it, but it's a start, so Tigress picks an urchin and uses a small eating hook to pull out the meat.

The delectable morsel chewed and swallowed, Tigress considers you for a moment.  "Did you know you had an algae infection?"

"Did I?"

"Apparently it was already dead, but still strangling your gills."

"I see."

More entertainment.  Most mers, even most nymphs, would be alarmed at the thought.  You manage an indifferent mask.

*

The rich meat from the squid head, just the right amount of resistance between your teeth, it would make anyone sick to simply devour, so you chew thoughtfully at it while waiting for Tigress to make a point.

Hearing that you had an algae infection?  That...that should alarm you more than it does.  A lot more than it does.  Maybe you're just going numb to more stressful news.  

"Eat that, dear.  I would meet my brother's child."

Your eye flicks down to your belly.  Right.  You pull a piece free and chew it properly.  Too rich to eat more than a bite at a time, but...decadent.  You set the rest of the square aside in favor of the clams.  You remember being sick of clams and similar.  Well, how things have changed since then.  Now, it's like clarity after the clogging richness.  

A sharp tap at the wall draws both of your attention to the entrance.

How strange.

Objectively, you know this merman is huge, but...well, you're so used to Stunner that...

"Ah.  Thunder.  How is my baby brother?" asks Tigress.

The merman shrugs.  "Well enough.  I'll have him away for two weeks longer, though."

Tigress frowns.  "I see.  Well, darling, it seems you'll be at my side for a while, then."  She gives you a once over.  "Ask the senior healer when she gets back if those cuffs will be safe through the pregnancy.  I believe my arms swelled a bit last time I was pregnant.  Now that I think about it, Ranni's tend to swell up too."

"I believe the midwife thinks Ranni will give birth soon," says the merman.

"Good.  I miss her liveliness."

Your aware, that Tigress's attention is still on you even as her conversation turns to other things, but...well, you can't help running your fingers over the cuffs around your wrists.  If the healers are willing to say that they'll be too tight...

*

Lae often practices her smiles in the mirror.  She feels no shame in this; she can't be the only one.

It is this practice that lets her keep smiling through watching you.  Through knowing you are safe in the presence of the Empress.

She almost wonders if you know.

Three servants, just this morning, have been removed from the rolls.  Sent to vassals.  Pretty ornaments to be shared around at the whims of the royal family.  

She knows she should envy her own rising position with the senior healer more than you.  A position apart from being pretty.

But...when some errand of bringing a message to Stunner Blue is called, she's the first one to move to accept it.

The reality of it squeezes at her throat.

Yet, she still puts on the smile, accepts the message and darts off.

Like a good little ornament destined to be used as barter for the empress's advantage.

*

Stunner is no longer bound to the restraining board, and he's starting to test his dorsal fin by swimming gentle circles around the oh too small chamber.  A twinge every once in a while, but nothing too serious.

Still, he knows he can't leave yet.  If Tigress hears any rumor of him being in any way weak, she'll make him prove his strength to all.  Mostly, using her army.  She can stand him injured, so long as she only hears of it from a trusted source like Thunder.  She cannot stand the thought of any part of her court being seen as weak.

Still, he's bored.  Healing, at first, was exhausting.  By now, it's dull.  He can at least swim around in the box, when the fans are spread, tomorrow, out of any potential sight.  Being stuck in Tigress's side room is irritating.  A sharp tap at the wall leads him to opening the pannel, just a bit, to the healer.  "The empress has a message for you."

Stunner nods and accepts it, frowning at learning that you are awake, alert and not at his side.  Still, he'll follow Tigress's orders.

As the healer is turning away, an idea occurs to Stunner.  "Who brought the message?"

"What?  Um...a servant?  A red tailed mermaid."

"Gold fins?"

"...Yes..."

Stunner grins.  Maybe he's found some entertainment after all.

Chapter Text

When Stunner was a pup in Aurora Deep, he had quite a number of friends.

Oh, not that Tigress collected random orphans.  No.  An orphan who wanted to join her hunting pack had to already know enough to be useful back then, so those children were mostly years older than her baby brother.  No, the children Stunner played with were mostly the children and younger siblings and other wards of people who'd already proven themselves useful.

People who made themselves so useful it was worth looking after their dependents to keep around.  

Loz, the daughter of some trusted partner of their vaunted older sister, Golden.

Thunder, the brother of Tigress's trusted lieutenant.  

Capable, nephew of the best tracker in Tigress's pack.

Hail, the son of a healer.

There were more, of course.  Probably a dozen children who lived in that mountain of caves Tigress claimed for her pack.  A useful place; most of the cave systems were too small for a healthy adult tiger shark mer and too hard stone to break apart.  Also, it was close to the deep trenches, some of the only good hunting, and had a little island at the top, where Tigress had her pet nymphs build a little fort and cook their food so that everyone could get every calorie a kill had to offer.  

Intellectually, Stunner knew damn well that the children growing up there were lucky; they had some of the few full bellies in Aurora deep, but he never remembers being worried or scared at all; they had Tigress.

And...Tigress would always make sure her people were fed.

He remembers the day she had everyone pick up and move.  It wasn't a conquest, that time.  They simply took over an uninhabited island because, though Stunner never parsed it as a child, they were desperate; Aurora Deep was starving.  The island was rough, more stone than soil, but it was rich with greens, full of nesting birds and ravaged by boars.

The boars were Tigress's targets.  A giant boar could feed her whole pack.

Mers are poorly suited to hunting land beasts like boars, which was why such a close island was still covered with such meat, and it took almost a week to catch and kill one.  Due to an infected wound, the efforts ultimately killed Loz's mother, several months later.  But...that first, tender bite of the slow roasted meat was enough to make all the adults relax.  The thing was enough for everyone to gorge, giving them more time to find more solutions.

And...with a boar kill every few weeks, coupled with regular, normal hunting, the pack had enough to recruit more.  

But...it was still just an island.  They couldn't hunt all the boars they wanted forever; at any given time, there would only be two or three dozen truly "giant" boars.  And, the damn pigs were dangerous.  And, prone to parasites.  Hunting the birds and bird eggs wasn't an endless source of food, either.  The nymphs could grow a bit of vegetable foods, which certainly eased their hungers, but it didn't ease the mers' hungers.  

The reality was that, with what the Elven war had destroyed and had never been rebuilt, Aurora Deep couldn't support so many massive mers as lived there.

Which made it hard for Tigress to recruit mers from...elsewhere.  People who might have the expertise to build back what was lost.  

Every time Tigress had to make a choice of how to feed her pack, it was easiest to move on.  Every time she needed to recruit, it was easier to pull in the hungry mouths of Aurora deep than it was the skillful hands of other islands.  

Stunner was not old enough to be part of the first conquest, the first time Tigress needed skills too much to accept a refusal, and he certainly doesn't remember anything about it.

*

But Lae does.

She was not a skillful hand, obviously; small children aren't.  Her vague memories from before the conquests involve swimming at the side of...someone, her mother or an aunt, through rich seagrasses.  She remembers this was common, the grasses rolling with the waves, waters rich with sunlight and life.  Sometimes, she thinks she remembers having a younger sibling, probably a sister.  

But that child she hugged tight through the chaos might not have been related to her at all.  

A home of basalt caves was suddenly in chaos and confusion.  Something shattered and an adult pulled her free of the home, fleeing to the island's surface.  She and the other child were hidden among the shoreline rocks as people broke out in hideous shrieks of pain and fear.  

In the angry noise, it took her a long time to realize the other child was already dead.  A shard of basalt had struck them in the temple.

By the time Lae understood the other child wouldn't move, things were already silent and it was nearly night.  She couldn't keep quiet, shrieking for the other to wake up.

And then...her sobs were interrupted by a massive mermaid who couldn't have fit inside Lae's home.  The first time Lae ever saw a tiger shark mer.  

That mermaid was kind to Lae, and held her through the shocked grief before bringing her to the other survivors.  She remembers recognizing them, but not really knowing them.  It would be years before she fully understood that the mermaid who'd taken her to this group was not her rescuer, though she was always grateful for the thin compassion.  

In fact...it stayed hard for Lae to think of herself as a victim of Tigress's empire.  Every once in a while, she heard the whispers of Witch, and she always wanted to tell off the whisperers.

Even as she grew into the expectations of being used for Tigress's advantage, it was hard to parse it as...wrong. 

If it was stressful to wonder who she'd eventually be traded for, it wasn't the idea that being offered as a bartering token that struck Lae as wrong, it was the idea that she might be traded to someone unworthy of Tigress's regard.

That's why she still looks towards Stunner Blue, somewhere in the next room.

Chapter Text

Lae waits patiently in the anti room to get instructions after the message.  After all; what if Stunner needs something?

*

From his side of a painted screen, Stunner knows he can see the red thing but she can't see him.  

The little red thing that never looked like sport.  She always looks like...petty entertainment to him.  

He tells the healer to wait an hour before giving the mermaid any instructions, to go find him some food.

Then, he settles in is throne in the royal box, well out of her sight.

Tigress does insist on being able to see anyone coming before they can see her.  It works well for the Empress.

And now it's working well for him.

Stunner tilts his head and raises his voice.

*

There's an art to waiting around bored, as a servant.  

It's something of a waking sleep, letting personal dreams circle around the room as a body waits for further instructions.

Lae is an expert in this skill.

Suddenly, spinning wheels of nothing vibrate into nothing with the sound of a glorious, bone rattling voice.

"Little maid, drifting along the current, how lovely, what beauty,

Your scales flash in the moonlight, come join me darling.

Your nightsong binds me in glorious sea, won't you sing just for me?"

It's a minute, maybe quite a bit longer, before Lae can even process the words; she's too caught up in the baritone.  She could spend the rest of her life fully submerged in that voice.

Then the words catch up with her.

Nightsong.

The realization is crushing.

The nocturnal. 

Lae passes her hands over her face, trying to push back any real feelings into her normal smile before anyone can see her. 

Not knowing someone already sees it.

*

Stunner could laugh at the silly little red thing. 

Oh, she's pretty, but does she really think she has something to offer him that you don't?  Why, the only thing he can think to do with her is...

His smile drops a bit.

What would you think?

After all...across from your cell is another.

He never really worked through his feelings at your continued defiance, after all.

And...it's something to do with the red mermaid.

*

Dapple waits three days in Ole-Sha for a delivery of dried reeds and other dry goods to arrive from inland, partly so she won't have to stop at quite a number of islands on her way back to Currents Rise.

Partly to keep an eye on Elti and Winter.

Winter goes with Elti to look around Dapple's boat, and the two of them make quite a few adjustments.  Some of them involve tools.

First, Winter replaces the lock-box, carving out a gap under the bed frame so that she can properly anchor the new, larger one, under the bed.  This is actually a disguise, though.  Mostly, Winter replaces the bed frame so that Dapple has a fairly large booty box under her bed.  Strong hinges connected to the hull can lift half the bed-frame from the center, hiding a compartment that most won't look for.  It's not quite as wide as the bed, but considering it was originally made for centaurs, that's not going to be a big problem.

Winter explains that most thugs know to look for a booty box somewhere, and she almost instantly finds the one original to the box, a small compartment in the ceiling of the cabin that's filled with old liquor bottles.  Winter claims the bottles, then suggests putting a decoy box in the floor, where a nymph is more likely to think of putting one.

"You can store the really nice sand dollars in it."

"Doesn't that mean I'd lose my sand dollars if I'm raided?"

"I don't expect you to smuggle sand dollars," says Winter.  "Or you can put a flintlock in there.  Even the witch's soldiers'll feel like they're doen their jobs if they take up all yer weapons."

Dapple thinks about that for a long moment.  "What does that make out of the speargun and extra spears you hung on the outer wall?"

"Everyone has a hand speargun like that.  You wanna see the one I've got on my boat?  It's all just tools.  Not like you're lugging around cannons.  Most won't bother with it."  She uncorks one of the bottles, sniffs, and turns her head.  "Whoof.  No wonder a centaur didn't want their elders finding this stuff.  Burn the hairs off if it hits that sort's flanks."

"Can I smell?"

"Sure...Just be careful.  This isn't stuff to start with."

Dapple accepts the bottle.  The smell of it makes her go cross eyed and heaves at her stomach.  "That's..."

Winter laughs as she takes back the bottle.  "Yeah.  Kind of stuff you poor over wounds, not stuff you drink without watering it down."

"Do people really drink that?"

"Sure."

"Momma makes mead sometimes," says Dapple.  "Plenty sweet and I can get why people go for it."

"You stole a bottle?"

"Once or twice."

"Gotcha.  Nah...people been drinken for decades before they touch something like this...except some young stallions like to show off with it sometimes.  Problem is, they get nasty burns off it if they over do it, and it's usually a nasty kindo drunk. 'S why centaur elders try and keep it out of their villages."

"Flamable?"

"Oh yeah.  Blue flames on seawater."

"Hey, can you keep that bottle safe for a while, instead of trading it?  Or...at least one of those bottles?"

"Hmm?  Oh, these won't go any time soon.  Might trade two of the eight in a year, and serve three glasses in three."

Chapter Text

Lae has no idea how long she's been there, stalk still, listening, hardly breathing lest a gasp make too much noise.

She could live her entire life on that baritone voice.  

It fills the water, vibrates through her bones, sets her teeth shivering.  

A sharp tap at her shoulder just barely breaks the spell.  She turns to see Thunder.  His mouth is in a thin line, and he's glaring towards the next room, but he motions for her to leave.

Everything about Lae doesn't want to.  All the water in the ocean, if she could listen to it for a minute more...

But she knows better than to refuse Thunder.  Every cell aching to stay, still, she turns away.

*

Thunder knows that Stunner is watching him.  Sure enough, the aria cuts off mid note the moment the mermaid is gone.  He draws in as much water as he can, bringing in oxygen.

There it is.  The moment he has to pretend to like Stunner again.  

*

It's fascinating how much of Laviet Island is right at the surface of the ocean.  The vast majority of it underneath is just...water.

Oh sure, the seamounts are there.

But between the seamounts is nothing but heavy, fast moving water, filled with the grit that's formed so much of the sand island above.  

Marri hugs close to the rock surface of the mounts, both to keep out of the heavier currents that are more likely to sweep her away and because she knows by now that the best hunting is doing the same.  

Close to the mountains, she enjoys the shelter of strange sponges and tube worms, which root in the protected stone and eagerly grow towards the fast moving water, filtering everything.

Over time, these growths will, theoretically, slow the currents and provide more shelter.

And that's why, here, even though she knows it will struggle for lack of light, Marri has rooted some of her coral.  

In the weeks of bickering and in fighting, Marri has patiently gotten the group to bring hundreds of little shards to life and grow them as much as they could, for "practice".  Every day, she's come down here with a few shards and rooted them in a wide spiral around the mountain.  Once her shards are rooted and sung to, she does a little hunting and returns to the camp.  Sometimes, when she has a particularly large piece of coral to work with, some of the children come with her, and she knows they sing to the coral she's rooted when they can get away from the fighting.

ANd things are better.  Truly.  A few of the mers and nymphs went back to the city in a huff, sure, but they left the most dedicated, either to the cause of building the nocturnal roads or to trying to tame Laviet Island for seafolk.  

A large driftwood gather the group found has become the basis for most of their standing rafts.  Dugout floats made of the heaviest logs, kept in place with ropes and fixed to each other with bamboo rods provide the supports to keep Marri's gourde homes in place.

And the gourde homes...well, they took some getting used to; very few mers have ever slept in a floating home.  These, once filled with water and fixed beneath the rafts, were warm and sheltered and meant that sleep wasn't strictly hibernation.  By the point everyone first tried them, the universal exhaustion led to actual sleep.  Now that everyone is a bit better rested...well...they are temporary...if only because the rafts they hang from cannot be trusted to last forever.

Marri considers a sponge.  The inborn toxins many sponge species use to protect themselves from predation are good for medicine production, though Marri doesn't know how to do any of that.  From the way everyone's been acting, she doubts anyone in the group knows, either.

But...she knows other uses for living sponges.  

Much like sea grasses or kelp forests, large sponge beds serve to filter water and slow currents.  

So do shelfish beds...

Indeed, that might be the biggest source of their problem; they have options.  Many options.  But...everyone wants to pick the right one.

Here, in the depths, alone...

Marri can't help but wonder what the point of "the right option" really is.  They just need to make enough progress that they can leave and come back next year without having to fully start over.  

On a whim, she digs through the soft sands.  To no surprise at all, she comes up with a handful of tiny shells.

Mussels.

Or clams, maybe.  

Not worth cracking open; at this size, they're not even a snack.  Still, she collects as many as she can into one of her empty coral baskets and brings them back to camp in liu of a kill.  

The argument has broken apart to cool heads.  Marri ignores sulkers and goes among the children.  Some are set to gather old grasses on the island, a task everyone is sick of, while others are set to dig up more young shellfish, an idea so novel most everyone goes onto it just to see what Marri could have planned.

She ignores most everyone and takes a large rock and some small fish netting and sews a rough tube out of it.  She ties the bottom of the tube to the rock, then begins stuffing it full of the young shellfish everyone brings back.  As she goes, she sorts free anything that looks like it might not be a filter feeder, but she's not particularly bothered with anything else.

It doesn't take anyone very long to figure out what Marri is doing.  The children bringing back grasses immediately begin roughing them into ropes and other tubes are made.  A few of the stronger men begin selecting logs to use as buoys and muscling them into place.  

This isn't a very common form of shellfish farming among mers or nymphs, because it takes a year or longer for them to grow to any decent size.  More active shellfish screens tend to be the preference for families, because the shells grow faster and more reliably produce pearls.

But...if the group isn't going to be around all year, a wall of shellfish tubes between two of the seamounts will likely produce a great effect.  

Chapter Text

Should it be a surprise that the vast majority of Tigress's court revolves around boring routine?

At noon, when she wakes up, Tigress's children and mates arrive for a shared meal, one you're now expected to join.  Usually, it's a large kill shared among the group, with maybe a few clams or something to cut the taste, which is certainly a novel way to eat.  The children are posed close to Tigress and their conversation is generally quite happy and...normal.  Some of the mates eagerly join in.  Others, like the heavily pregnant Ranni, simply focus on their meals.  From what you can tell, the empress genuinely enjoys her children, but...it doesn't seem like the way your grandmother enjoyed her grandchildren, or the way you've seen other parents enjoy their children; with Tigress Blue, there are standards to be met, and each of the older children seems very aware of that.  And...the consequences of failing to meet those standards are...hard to follow.

Then, Tigress lounges in her basking bed as a fretful little courtier passes along information and receives instructions.  From what you can tell, she mostly dozes during this, only rousing based on the urgency of his voice.  She continues taking reports, somewhat more alert, once she emerges from the basking bed as various servants present different jewelry and belts for her consideration.  The reports are rarely directly about the forced laborers, more about the projects they're meant to be working on or supplies dedicated to their upkeep.  Very occasionally, there's an update on the general number, but it's not about individuals; you don't think you've heard a report that concerns the forced laborers that doesn't concern at least a few thousand.  Other groups, like the spell forgers, get their individual concerns answered.  The scrappers, too, have her tight attention, though more as a collective than as individuals.  

Cleaned and decorated, she goes to dismiss some of her army and welcome in others.  It shocks you to realize that, however big you thought her army was, it's at least twice the size.  Soldiers and guards are expected to be on duty for nine moon cycles, with four moon cycles of leave.  Four of their duty moon cycles are spent away from the city, on raids or conquests or touring Tigress's territory.  Those soldiers on duty in the city still spend a considerable amount of time hunting nearby reefs and islands.  At any given time, half or less of her army is actually present in Current's Rise.  If someone had asked you before you'd been brought here, you'd have thought an army consisted of the two or three hundred she dismisses or welcomes in each day.  Now...

By sunset, when she spends a bit of time with her dignitaries and such, many of them functionally hostages as they're air breathers trapped in the palace dry rooms, Tigress Blue must have addressed, on average, two hundred people, individually, and thousands as groups.  Consistently. 

The night is reserved for her public appearances and entertainments.  Night, when the forced laborers are locked away and all the general public comes out, either because they're nocturnals like you, or because they want to avoid facing the truer face of the city.

*

You spend much of your day with Ranni in her rooms and in the small nursery for the youngest royal children.

Mostly, Ranni has no duties, at least until she gives birth, and she always has her helpers.

You don't think you've ever met a more uncomfortable mermaid.  

Ranni is just about your size, but seems to be growing an infant inside her that ought to be in the belly of a tiger shark mer.  She's lost her independence with the size of the oncoming child, heavily relying on servants to help her between rooms.  One of the attendants asked if she was scared and Ranni just shrugged.  "I've given birth to a giant before...Smalt didn't kill me, so I don't see why this one should."

You're not sure you believe Ranni thinks she'll get through unharmed; to you, it seems that she's beyond caring.  Maybe she's like this even when she's not pregnant.  A lot of Tigress's smallest mates seem to be like this; so bone tired they've stopped even considering fighting back.  

Maybe that's why not one of Tigress's mates is bound up in chains.  

Another mermaid in Tigress's rooms, you've taken to trying to avoid.

Loz doesn't seem to take issue with you, but she does take issue with all of Tigress's other mates.  Every time they get a bit of attention she wants for herself.  Every caress and cuddle and question that is not directed at her meets with her scowl.  The other mates seem to expect it, but they seem to react very differently depending on a hierarchy that doesn't seem to start with size.  A gigantic nymph wilts a bit against the bullying, but a more mid-sized nymph hits back with snide remarks.  Oddly, Loz isn't always like this; on those rare occasions when she's in the rooms but Tigress is elsewhere, she's perfectly friendly with everyone.  

You, for the most part...

You are grateful for the time away from Stunner, but...well, you're hardly going to let the chance slip by.

Though you're careful to never draw attention to yourself that you don't need, you do your utmost to take in and learn about the palace servants.  

Particularly, one little merchild, with a pretty, colorful tail and a plain but pleasant face.  

Chapter Text

It's lucky Winter had a few adjustments and suggestions about sailing her boat alone, because Dapple isn't sure she could have managed without, but the half-elf's rerigging has made it pretty good solo sailing.

Still, she feels strange, leaving Elti on in Ole-Sha.  Oh, her little sister is plenty set, her boat being built in the dry docks, plenty of pearls and such to stay put as long as she can, and Winter promised to stay in shore as long as Elti is.

Even though it wasn't a particularly damaging promise for Winter; the half elf does very little sailing in the winter.  For her, accidentally falling into the water with things so cold is many times more dangerous than any other kind of sailing accident.  Apparently, drylanders can go into shock if they hit such cold water by surprise, and drowning is a pretty fast fate thereafter.  Dapple wonders if it says something about her that she only really trusts the half-elf with that explanation.  

She does feel safer and more confident with Winter's suggestions and alterations.

And...it's really an old grudge.

One that was generations dead, mostly, before Tigress raised her empire.

Except...it kind of isn't.

No matter what they pretend, it won't change that half-elves are tied to elven warfare.

Because elves don't have that many children and they really don't have them with the speed of humans, mers or nymphs, a soldier is a costly proposition for them.

But...human woman can pump out half-elves as she could human children.

Which is why, for all very few mers or nymphs know all that much about elves, they full well know the first sign of aggression is a whole lot of half-elves.  

Well...at least it was.

And for all the elven conquests of the oceans are over, the damage isn't gone.  

Dapple pulls a breath.  "I can't turn away allies right now..."  She tries to swallow strangling feelings and turn her attention back towards the horizon.

After all, her boat is filled with supplies of all kind, not just the bamboo and dried reeds she wants...mostly because there wasn't that much of the grasses and bamboo available for the time of year.  She'll stop at Laviet island, check in with Marri and see if she can't trade for more, before swinging back towards the city.  

And try to trust that Elti chose a good friend.

*

Reed, coming back from trading out their wrasse box with the scrappers is caught up by the matron.  She's distracted enough that they're not worried they've been caught.

No.

Reed hasn't been caught up because they're the right servant for the job, but because they're awake, alert and can move.

They try not to be alarmed when they're brought to the midwife, along with the senior healer and that red mermaid, Lae.  Instead, they try to be even plainer and more unnoticeable than usual as they're brought into Tigress's rooms.  

Reed ducks their head and tries to follow urgent instructions.

Because...standing out, here, now...

That feels dangerous.

*

The time of day was a little lucky.

Now, Tigress cradles Ranni against her chest, holding her through the worst of it.  

Ranni gasps and sucks for water, gripping the empress's arms so tightly her nails break flesh.

Not a lot.

Just a little.  

Tigress's other mates keep away.

No matter what, Ranni is just Tigress's mate.

Tigress tolerates people nearby when her darling little Ranni is so vulnerable because she has to.

She tolerates the midwife because the midwife is an expert in this tenuous moment.

She tolerates the healers because Ranni is in desperate, dangerous pain.

She tolerates these people having assistants because she knows this is complicated.

She keeps this tolerance, but everyone knows it's thin.

*

You're not exactly in the room, just a little outside, out of sight and out of the way.

You hear the pained, tired moans, the little reassurances, the urgent instructions.

You think you catch a glimpse of a little tail...well, little enough, thrashing as the little one tries to free themselves.

...No...

Not little enough.

It's going badly, and it's going badly for exactly the reasons everyone suspected it might.

This may not be the first giant Ranni's ever birthed, but that doesn't change the fact that her body is simply not made for it.  

You barely watch for the little one.

Instead, you watch Ranni, where you can.

Her silvery scales contrast with the nearly transparent, nearly blue scales of the little one still coming and against the vivid stripes of her much larger mate.  And...she's much more in scale with the little one than Tigress.  She was pretty enough, a few hours ago, but she was probably something truly lovely long before you met her.

Slowly, Ranni's cries become more exhausted, less vocal.  The healers debate medicine just outside the room and sing a bit of siren magic in the room.

The stench, mostly of blood, clings to your gills.

You watch.

But your hand never leaves your stomach.

You barely notice your nails cutting little scratches.

It's all to easy to worry about your own fate.

Especially in that, as Ranni's little one finally let's out their own cry, Ranni herself is utterly silent.  

There's no welcome in her face as she takes the fragile child, barely comprehension in her features.  Tigress Blue celebrates the child, but Ranni simply stares.  She makes no effort to keep her own child in her arms as the healers rush her out towards the dryrooms to try and induce hibernation to slow her blood flow.  

You stay back, trying not to draw attention to yourself.  

You simply whisper a mantra you'd almost abandoned.  "Please...please stay small...."