Chapter 3: Sneaking Out

Talori knew she wasn't supposed to leave the safety of the coral palace. Her brother Zale was such a worrywhale but she couldn't fault him too much. They had already lost their mother to the schemes of Queen Nerida and the coral palace—entirely staffed by Zale's mermen—was the only truly safe place in the ocean for her.

He worried too much but she could also acknowledge that she wasn't a schemer like he was. Everyone thought she was a little crazy and not worth much notice. It was the only reason she hadn't been married off yet like the other mermaid princesses.

Zale encouraged her not to hide her interests because they were what was keeping her safe. He pretended to be stupid, which was as far from his true personality as possible. The stupid prince and crazy princess borne from a mere concubine weren't worth killing. At least that was the image he tried to portray to keep them safe.

They both knew she wasn't crazy. She was just…more interested in the surface than a mermaid was supposed to be.

Talori longed to be the ambassador to the witches but that role already belonged to one of the king's advisors. No one would ever let someone who was actually interested in other fae interact with them for fear it would mess with their way of life.

They were all so backwards! Trading protection magic for tears with the witches had been revolutionary. No one in their kingdom had been killed by humans since. Why couldn't those old suckerfish see that being more involved with the witches would be a good thing?

Zale agreed with her. If he succeeded in his plan to win the fight for the throne he had already promised that she could be the new liaison.

Talori looked forward to it. She believed in her brother. With how brilliant he was there was no doubt he would be able to pull off his plan. Which meant she needed to know as much as she possibly could about the surface beforehand.

She frequently snuck out at night to go collect lost things from the surface-dwellers that ended up at the bottom of the ocean so she could learn more. Napping during the day was easy since she had little else to do. There was a cave where she liked to hide her treasures away from her brother's overprotective smothering.

She snuck out the usual way, moving a chunk of loose abalone shell wall hidden behind a piece of furniture. She grinned and tossed her hair, feeling accomplished as she always did when she managed to pull this off. Sneaking past Zale's mermen were no small feat.

His right-hand merman Beck was especially vigilant. It was amazing Talori managed to accomplish anything with him around.

She knew her brother only did it out of concern but it was still stifling. She was a free spirit and always had been. She was born to explore, not be locked in a glistening cage!

Once she was far enough away from the city not to be overheard she began to sing a wordless version of a song she had heard from a passing boat once when she snuck to the surface as a child. It had stuck with her all these years.

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If she ever managed to meet a witch she would have to ask what the lyrics were. Surface songs were quite different from the songs of the sea.

Talori scanned the dark water, using a jar filled with bioluminescent algae to see her way forward. She was deep enough that she couldn't feel it too much but she knew the ocean well enough to tell that a storm was raging up above. Storms were always excellent for tossing items around. Her best spoils usually came from storms.

She swam forward eagerly, hoping to find something new, but not expecting to see a pale figure sinking through the water. A human! A real live human!

Well…she assumed it was alive. She knew humans couldn't breathe underwater so she needed to get him somewhere safe. She knew just the thing to help it but she would need to get it some air first.

Merfolk could breathe air and water so she brought it up to the surface and used her powers over water to still the waves surrounding them so it had the chance to breathe. She also compelled the water in its lungs out so it began to cough but remained unconscious.

That was fine. She could deal with unconscious but not dead.

Talori found a rock for the human to stay on once the waves subsided a bit and hurriedly swam down to her cave to get the item she had in mind to help it. It had blown away in a storm and was in perfect condition, ready to be used.

She hoisted herself onto the rock after making sure the coast was clear before blowing up the artificial bubble and sticking the human inside it. Since it wanted to float it was rather difficult to get the bubble back to the coral palace without anyone seeing but she couldn't leave the human alone in the cave. It might panic if it woke up and she was gone and unable to explain things.

She knew she wasn't supposed to get involved with surface-dwellers but Zale was going to have to deal with it. She couldn't leave anyone to die even if it was a human.

Explaining this to her brother would not be pleasant. She wasn't sure how well explaining it to the human would be either. She had no idea where it came from or she would have sent it back.

Humans couldn't live underwater indefinitely but Zale should know what to do. Her brother was capable of coming up with a plan for anything. She just didn't want to deal with how much trouble she would be in for keeping her sneaking out from him.

Maybe Talori could pretend it was the first time. Or better yet, she could try to keep the human hidden until nighttime when it probably woke up. She could talk to it and take it back to where it came from then.

That was a much better idea.. Keeping her hobby-related activities from Zale was a must.

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