"Not much is known about the deepfolks - merfolk and aquatic therians who live in depths where the water pressure alone would have crushed a regular merfolk to paste. What few glimpses we have of how deepfolk live came from when their representatives visited to trade every year or two." -Scaemille Avudnia, Elven Water-affinity Archmagus and long-time dweller in Gtou'rergh.

As the group approached, Scaemille used her magic to help relay sound for the students. Silas introduced the two deepfolks as Ur-Go'rath and Baerdu'sai Fwur'gh, who had not just come by to trade, but ideally to meet with their newest neighbor as well.

Since they already planned to meet Ragiula themselves, Scaemille volunteered to bring the deepfolks along. An offer Ur-Go'rath - the one with the gigantic jaw - accepted, while his partner stayed with Silas as they did business.

Like during their trip to the settlement, Scaemille formed constructs that looked like translucent dolphins out of the water around them. One for each member of the group, and they took off at high speed once everyone had held on tight to theirs. The distance between the settlement to the uninhabited island where the imperials left their tribute to the ancient kraken was much further than the trip between Al-Shan and the settlement itself.

Whereas a merfolk would have taken half a day to swim the distance - a distance Scaemille's constructs easily covered in two hours -, it took them nearly thrice that long to reach their destination this time. When they crossed deeper regions of the sea, the students hugged their constructs tightly with apprehension, which just elicited a chuckle from Aideen, who hung off the dorsal fin of her construct with just one hand.

A couple times during their trip some large predators approached them, but Scaemille just physically shoved them away with her magic until they gave up in frustration. A feat of strength that impressed Ur-Go'rath as he offered her a nod of approval.

When they were close to their destination a particularly large specimen of deepmaw swam their way, a beast nearly twenty meters in length. It was too large and powerful a beast for Scaemille to shove away like before, so she went for a more subtle approach instead. As it entered a certain distance from the group, the creature suddenly found itself stopped in place. No matter how vigorously it pumped its fins, the water refused to give it any purchase as it just parted seamlessly in the wake of its fin.

It remained stuck until the group had gone further away, before it gave chase once again. Once it got too close, the same phenomenon repeated itself, over and over again as the creature kept its chase out of stubbornness. Scaemille was rather annoyed by the stubborn creature when this problem solved itself all of a sudden.

Without prior warning, a massive shadow rose from below, and as the group watched in awe, four massive tentacles wrapped themselves around the colossal deepmaw. The creature was unable to resist as the tentacles dragged it towards an open beak that awaited it.

When the beak snapped shut, half the deepmaw's body vanished with it. Cal guessed immediately that the monstrous kraken before them must be one of Ragiula's brood. The kraken was smaller, its bulbous head probably only as wide across as Silas's ship, whereas its broodmother made the ship look small. She noticed how Scaemille user her magic to vibrate water in a certain way to reproduce the underwater speech that merfolk used and conveyed her words to the kraken.

The younger kraken seemed to have understood her as it extended one of its tentacles gently towards the group. At the same time, Scaemille dispelled her constructs and grabbed onto the tentacles as she allowed a couple sucker pads to hold her firmly in place. The students and Ur-Go'rath looked on with trepidation clear on their faces but followed suit after Aideen and Cal followed Scaemille's example.

Before the kraken took off, it gently moved the tentacle where the group were carried closer to its bulk, where they would be partially shielded by its form as it swam. With the rest of its tentacles, it pushed away and swam rapidly towards the uninhabited island it knew its broodmother was at.

Speedwise, the kraken swam nearly twice as fast as Scaemille's constructs, and in less than fifteen minutes or so they saw the uninhabited island they were headed to. Next to the island was the gigantic figure of Ragiula, whose size actually dwarfed the island used as the tribute deposit location.

The gigantic ancient kraken had risen halfway out of the water as it enjoyed the - for its size - tiny bites of delicacies and sips of good alcohol the imperials had offered. Ur-Go'rath's massive jaw hung open in awe as he laid eyes on the ancient kraken. The deepfolk therian had seen krakens before, but even for him this was the first time he saw one of such a monstrous size. It was quite a comical look for someone with such a fearsome appearance, really.

To their surprise Scaemille just rose out of the water and hailed Ragiula out loud. The ancient kraken turned an eye to the elf, and Cal saw as a shade of pleasure tinted its skin. She wished more creatures and people showed their moods so openly like the kraken did, to be honest. It sent the tip of one tentacle to the elven woman, which Scaemille hugged as she allowed it to carry her over to the kraken's pile of tributes.

Another tentacle waved Cal and the rest over and they made their way to the tribute pile as the ancient kraken invited them to dine with it. What little they ate would have been miniscule anyway, as the tribute sent weekly to the kraken had enough foodstuffs and booze for an entire medium-sized city to eat.

Cal added a couple urns of good wine to the pile, as she and the rest of the group partook of the feast. Scaemille chatted excitedly with the kraken - not much of a surprise, since she told Cal that she had known the kraken for centuries already anyway - in fluent merfolk tongue, while Ur-Go'rath extracted a small pile of tribute of his own to add to the kraken's pile. Ragiula spotted his gesture and returned him a gesture of approval, to which Cal thought the anglerfish therian had swooned in gratitude.

What surprised Cal somewhat was how Aideen seemed utterly unsurprised to witness the colossal kraken, but she chalked that up to the unliving woman's long life experience. She probably already saw bigger ones in her lifetime.

Her students looked a bit wary at first - a natural reaction, considering her own first reaction to Ragiula - but quickly warmed up and joined the feast with the rest, and they partied on the uninhabited island until the sun had set.