The group spent their day rexing within the underground area that made up the fort, the soft gentle glows of the o fauna lighting their way. Adam sat on the wall beside Vonda, their pinkies iwined as their eyes gazed out towards the floating jellyfish in the distance, kept behind a thi within the ke. A handful of mermen swam through the ke every so often. The mushrooms upon the ceiling glowed faintly, though most of the light within the cave was brought by the glowing stones within the wall, which glowed not quite as brightly as daylight, but not quite as dimly as a ntern.

  “It feels a little hard to breathe,” Adam admitted, shuffling slightly closer to his wife, ing an arm around her waist, the pair cuddling closer.

  “It is,” Vonda admitted, leaning in towards Adam’s shoulder, resting her head against his. She could smell the faint smell of his soap against his skin. Though she had never smelled him when he hadn’t taken a bath within at least a day, the tales of how difficult it was for fae to sweat and smell was well known throughout the nd, pared to the dwarves who always smelled of earth in some way.

  They remaiop the fort walls, the pair embrag one another, while the guards stepped around the walls, gng up towards the pair.

  “Do you think they’re married?” a guard asked another in the merman tongue.

  “They might just be…” The guard narrowed his eyes towards the pair. “She wears an amulet of Life’s Rose.”

  “They said she was a Ray, but doesn’t she look too young.”

  “How am I meant to know? All humans look alike.”

  “Here here.” The guard shrugged, the pair tinuing their rounds.

  Lucy tained herself within her room, not wanting to give the mermen any reason to kill her. Mara remained beside her, the pair trying to work the wood Jurot had brought them, each carving their wooden pieces slowly, doing their best not to cut themselves.

  “We should have stayed in the Iyr,” Lucy said.

  “Do you miss them?” Mara half joked, defleg Lucy’s thoughts.

  The young demon smiled a small sad smile. “I do miss them…” ‘No… I ’t stay in the Iyr just because everyone wants to kill me. How would they feel ohey grew up?’ Lucy tio whittle away at her wood, blowing the dust away, clearing her own mind and her resolve, though she knew she’d o speak with Mara more often to engrave the feeling within her heart.

  The m, the young ander brought pieces of silk, each about a palm’s size, and a look of annoyan his face. ‘To think I had to requisition more…’

  “Living sea silk…” Morkarai said, before pg the silk against his throat before wing, the silk beginning to uself against his skin, kitting itself within, and then the side of his neck, the silk slig up his neck before revealing lighter flesh beh. ‘I hadn’t expected you to have this mufluence.’

  Adam pressed the living sea silk to his throat, before the silk swiftly unravelled, slig against his neck as though threading itself against his nebsp;

  Health: 91 -> 90

  As it opened up his flesh, Adam shuddered, the hairs on his body standing on end as the alieion began to invade his body, before suddenly, the air cleared around him. He reached over to touch the sides of his neck, feeling the sore skin against his fiips.

  “The gills are near perma,” Morkarai informed. “They will be removed once we are upon nd once more. You may still struggle to breathe uer, but you will not drown. It feels better than a Potion of Water Breathing.” Morkarai winced as the recolle of the potion.

  The group then passed through the fort, towards the end of the cave, where a ke awaited for them. The ander bowed his head towards Morkarai, before leaping in, followed by the Prince, fnked by a pair of soldiers, before the st two soldiers remained, motioning with their pink tridents towards the ke. Jurot leapt in first, quickly followed by the rest. Adam and Vonda swam in the middle, feeling the water against their skin. Though Adam held his breath, he could feel his lungs pumping as the air filled his gills aered his lungs, allowing his breath to st for much lohan he expected.

  Eventually the group swam through the tunnel and emerged at the open o, where they could spot small unities of mermen all around, the light illuminating them, though much of the distance was dark, unseen. Adam shuddered at the thought of the dangers beyond.

  “e,” Jurot’s garbled voice called, the bubbled taking much of the sound with them, while the Iyrman half walked and half swam towards the carriage which awaited for them. The carriage was made of wood, as far as Adam gathered, with bits of metal and coral all along it. Adam gnced aside, noting the ck of a creature pulling it, though the reins fell downwards, beyond the cliff.

  “It should not take long,” Morkarai said, his voice dissipating barely beyond the group. The Pri within the carriage, awaiting his panions, while Adam waited for the others to enter first, before half swimming inside, hooking the pair of clothes up onto the hooks above, keeping him pio the seat. ‘They’ve already ied seatbelts?’

  Soon the carriage shifted slightly, before floating forward, making its way through the sea. Adam gnced outside to see the soldiers each riding their fishes, unsure of what they were, though some looked liked rge sharks with heads like hammers, though not quite like a hammerhead shark, but an actual hammer, while another was more dolphin like, like a spear.

  “We should arrive at the city by the day’s end,” Morkarai stated, gng out of the window himself, before quickly gng away. ‘I hope she will e live in the voloes.’

  “Am I the only one filled with a sense of dread uhe o?” Adam asked.

  “Adam, shut up,” Lucy said, also feeling the trepidation within her heart, keeping her eyes glued to the floor.

  “The soldiers will not allorio die,” Jurot said.

  “Yeah, exactly,” Adam said. “The only way we die is if the other nobles plot for it, or for any rebels to-,”

  “Adam,” Morkarai said, suddenly regretting taking this pathway to the uer city. ‘I should have followed through the official els.’

  Adam reached over and held Vonda’s hand. “Don’t worry, I’m here.”

  Vonda smiled, noting the look in his eyes, though she couldn’t help but worry. On the nd, she felt fortable, but now that they were within the o, a darkness filled her heart. She could feel the siess within her, having not calmed now that she was uhe o. ‘I was never sea sick, but I did not spend much time on sea faring ships, or in uer ships…’ She thought back to the other world she had slipped through with Adam and the others, and how she hadn’t felt si the uer carriage in that world.

  While the sea carriage made its way through the water, several eyes stared at the caravan in the distance, watg it from behind their rocks.

  ‘Boss?’ a raider sigo the other with a hand.

  ‘No. Too big.’ The raider eyed up the voy. Though there were only a dozen warriors at most, sidering their pink coral armour and ons, and the fgs atop the voy, that of the Emperor’s symbol, then a King’s symbol, and finally, a Princess’ symbol, it meant the voy would have ‘little treasure, much current,’ as they liked to say.

  Karza gnced over to the side, w if she should mention the various figures in the distance, but she decided against it. “You’re finally introdug your beloved to me? I’ll see if she’s worthy of you.”

  “I would rather never you two meet since you’ll only embarrass me as much as you embarrass your family,” Morkarai replied, his arms crossed, his eyes closed as he stilled his heart. “I’m only gd you aren’t amphibious like a bck old dragon, otherwise the amount of trouble you could cause…”

  “Speaking of trouble…” Adam begaing out a soft sigh, the bubbles filling the carriage. He remained silent for a long while. “Jurot, should I be ge?”

  “It is your choiake.”

  “Why didn’t we bring Lanababy along? She should have eet with her friend.”

  ‘Her friend?’ Morkarai thought, unsure of who he was referring to. ‘He did mention he knew someone from the Undersea Empire, but…’

  Jurot thought about the logistics ing Lanarot to the Undersea Empire. If the Rot family pushed for it, they could have forced the Great Elder’s hands, but it wasn’t good to rock the boat just because they could. It was then Jurot imagined Lanarot’s face lighting up upoing the Princess. ‘We afford the tribute.’

  Many hours ter, with the sea carriage passing by the vilges and towns, they finally came to a stop. Adam couldn’t spot anything oher side, but as they floated out of the carriage, Adam spotted the light in the near distance, revealing a yered city, with much of it uer, but the fourth yer and higher he tre free of water, still in the sea, but within its own bubble.

  The buildings, carved from stone, marble, wood, and coral, numbered ihousands, heading towards the inner rings. There were many walls withiown, though each littered with archways, with an eveer number of towers. There were many mermen swimming and moving up and about, not just going forward and back, but moving up and down through various arches. Adam could barely spot a faint dome of thread around the city. Around the city, hundreds of mermen made their way about, tending to the fields of uer pnts, as well as uer beasts, whietimes floated up and around, kept at bay thanks to the faint.

  Adam gnced back towards the carriage which had brought them there, only to see a giant whale creature which the carriage y atop. ‘Yo!’

  The ander motioned a hand towards his soldiers, before saying something to the Prince, who nodded, while anroup of soldiers approached, led by a much rger merman, easily twice as tall as Adam. Adam wasn’t sure of their gender exactly, noting most of the mermen looked vaguely simir, with some built differently to others, but in a way which was far more varied than even humans, from the shape of their hands a, the webbiween their fingers, the colour of their skin, to the size of their shoulders and tails, to even their own size, being anywhere between as tall, or short, as Adam, and taller than even Karza’s half dragon form.

  Morkarai nodded in response, allowing this new set of soldiers to lead them within, each wearing a tabard with the symbol of their Princess, that of a trident, but it was the specific design of the trident, the specific design of the circle and the symbols within, which were familiar to the mermen, and easily distinguishable to them. Adam only spotted a trident within a circle, corals f from the circle, stretg their way to the trident.

  Adam he pink coral armour and ons, and how few the normal soldiers wore such ons. He spotted other ons nearby, eaade of coral or some kind of metal, but he wasn’t sure as they were all pastel colours, from blue to pink te, and more.

  They were led to a carriage, which ulled by six sea creatures, each like seadonkeys. They were pulled through the city, with the various peoples looking out to them, w what the strangers were doing here, and who was flying the banner of a guest of the Princess.

  The pace was rge, and was the most tral building withiy. It was building with the highest base floor too, t over some of the outer city buildings. Arches poked through the dome ceiling, allowing the mermen to pass through with ease, though several fais protected the yers within. The group were escorted through the open path, Adam noting various items made of silver and gold, even gems all about, from mps, to long ors that could have been mps, to statues upon small plynths. Their steps echoed as they stepped through the nd, their breaths no longer so boured, able to breathe in air freely once more.

  “Okay, I like these guys,” Adam said, beginning to strip out of his clothing. He and Vonda had been brought to their owion of a marble bathhouse, the pair bathing withier. Adam gowards his wife, who was looking fuller thahey had advehe previous year, though he wasn’t sure if that was true since he had only bee familiar with her body retly. Adam g his own body, w if he had gained weight too, especially since he hadn’t been able to work out in some weeks. ‘I should workout more often while I have the ce…’

  “Hey, now,” Adam said to the attendants, quickly dismissing them with a hand. “I’ll hahis.”

  “Adam…” Vonda said, flushing slightly. She had already begun to clothe herself, and though she had grown up with attendants assisting her as a child, it was rarer within Life’s Rose, and after giving up her family name, she had no oo assist dressing her, save for her overly eager husband.

  “I ’t bme you since my wife is so beautiful, but this is my role as the husband!” Adam half joked, while the attendants gave him a quizzical gaze.

  A servant spoke up, and though Adam was about to reply he didn’t uand, the neckce the servant wlowed with every sylble. “We must get you ready for the Princess.”

  “What?” Adam asked, blinking. “We’re going to meet the Princess?”

  “Yes,” the amulet glowed faintly, a moment after the servant had already stopped speaking.

  ‘Uh oh,’ Adam thought. He could feel Vonda’s gaze upon his back, and though he normally would feel so eager to show off his strong back, the gaze upon his back was that kind of gaze.

  After all, Vonda knew Adam’s pent for killing nobles, and his annoyance when dealing with most royalty.

  “I know,” Adam said, gng back towards his wife. “I’ll try not to kill anyone.”

  The servant with the neckce blinked, head snapping towards another servant, their eyes full of shock. ‘Did it trahe words wrong?’

  When they ask Adam's kids how their father died, we know.

  Bro o shut up.