Hi there! Here I am again!

First of all thank you to Dan for PRing this chapter for me! I really appreciate it!

That said, please enjoy and let me know your thoughts as usual! Thanks for helping me improve my writing and story, I love you all! XD

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Dr. Stevens was shaking the hands of the student volunteers, greeting each one by their name and thanking them for wanting to help. Quickly getting to the point he then briefed each one on what task he assigned them for.

“Finally, Cross, you’re with me. You’ve had some experience in surgery and I need another hand. Everything clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Off you go then.”

Daniel and Darren thus made their way to their first surgery of the day. But before they entered he stopped for a moment to talk to the student.

“Darren, do you know we had to send Robin home for a bit?”

“Dr. Stevens, with all due respect, this is hardly the time for me to be concerned about my sister.”

“I see, let’s go then.”

He could only shake his head to this family. It seemed like Robin hadn’t been overly dramatic when she had told him about her family…

”Why don’t you visit your family for a few days on Christmas, Robin?”

His shift had just ended and he had decided to spend some time with the small girl under his care. He had only started working here recently but somehow she had caught his attention and he had befriended her.

“…” The girl cast down her face and pressed it into her plush bunny that had proofed inseparable from her the whole time he had been here.

This reaction was unlike her. She wasn’t flustered or embarrassed or looking for words to say but… she seemed sad.

Just as he was about to swtich topics a quiet and sad voice came from the girl.

“There… is no place for me there.”

After that she had slowly told him about what happened with her family. But somewhere deep inside he had still doubted her words. As pathetic as that was, only now with the cold words of her brother did he truly believe her story.

The mermaids’ palace, deep in the sea

Queen Nereida was staring down at the humans before her with cold eyes. She had received the report from her guards and had arranged for the water to be drained from her throne room for the questioning of the intruders.

The hall had been built especially for occasions like this. It was a bit mossy and slippery due to being submerged for a long period of time, but corals and other plants had been cleaned out regularily, giving it a touch of the surreal in this underwater world.

When submerged the room was like an underwater coliseum with about the size of 100 meters in diameter. You could swim in and out freely and they often used it for plays and other events that the whole capital could attend. The floor was made of marble tiles and very smooth. The whole space was round and 10 rows of benches had been built around it, serving as sitting opportunities.

The arena only opened up to an entrance in one direction except for above and facing the exit the throne of the ruler was located at the opposite end of the throne room.

Below ground there was a magical device that allowed the queen to construct a transparent bubble around the arena, the size stretched up to half a mile in diameter, allowing the whole area to fit into it, including seats as long as she wished it. The bubble would automatically drain the water in the arena, successfully separating it from the water outside. Nothing could come or leave through it until the bubble had been destroyed by her, not even sound. It could even serve as a shield as long as it was supplied with Mana.

The Queen had willed it to span a 10 meter radius for this occasion. It was enough to hold her and the 4 human intruders. This would be a private questioning, not even the guards were present. The queen was confident they couldn’t hurt her. If they tried anything she would simply destroy the bubble, causing tons of water to crash upon them. Unlike her humans could not survive that without serious injury.

So she leaned back in her intricate marble throne and relaxed.

The guards had just left them through a tunnel she had opened below. They had simply swum up as far as the water reached and pushed the humans outside. Sadly communication through hand signs hadn’t worked with them, so they had had to use some force.

The humans seemed shocked for some reason and were looking around in wonder. It seemed the architecture of the merfolk was a new experience for them. She herself took a look around. The arena had been built to fit the sea floor, disguising the walls quite well from outside. It was situated in what you would refer to as a hilly area on land.

The colourful underwater plants gave the place an unique atmosphere unlike any other, not even considering all the sea life swimming around them in swarms, playfully poking the bubble with their noses, curious as to what their queen was doing inside.

They had grown some Aqualight Corals to provide natural lighting all over the area, causing it to be lit up brightly, enough for even humans to see normally.

Finally they seemed to have gotten back to their senses and stared at her.

She was a Lyretail mermaid. Her tail was of a gorgeous orange red colour. The scales on it sparkled like pearls every time light reflected off them. Her back fin ran all the way up to her shoulder blades and flower down like silk. Her golden hair was long and curled like seaweed, as it was not used to be on the air, accentuating her red fin-like ears that spiked out of her head similar to a dragons wings.

Her crown was carved out of pears and its simple but gorgeous design made it seem like a part of her body. Her piercing green eyes were staring down at them as if searching for something in their eyes, as if she could look right through them, despite her young appearance.

Then she opened her mouth and addressed them in a common human tongue.

“Can you comprehend my words?”

Their eyes glowed for a moment as they heard her words as if they enjoyed the sound of her voice. Then they looked at each other and shrugged. Apparently it only sounded like glibberish to them.

“Lieutnant… what’s with this situation… What should we do?”

“…”

The queen had tilted her head curiously at those words. They were speaking a language she had never heard before.

“Lets go along with this for now… be quiet and wait.”

“…”

The queen sighed. Time to experiment. She addressed them in any language spoken on land that she knew, but they always just shook their head, apparently comprehending she was trying different languages to talk to them. They didn’t understand anything.

Nearly at the end of her rope she tried the youngest language she knew of.

“How about now? Can you understand my words?”

They looked stunned for a second, then one of them stepped up and nodded.

“Yes, we can understand English.”

She sighed in relief and then continued.

“I see. It is good I am capable of speaking your language. Then let us get started.”

“Please wait a second. Get started with what?”

“I am the ones asking the questions here, intruders.”, she coldly said, confirming to them that this was an interrogation. “What were you doing in the territory of the sea horse tribe? And you dare attack their guardian on top of that? Surely you know what happens to those who disturb the peace of the seas?”

“Why do I have to answer to you? That aside, with what authority do you confine us on our own land? Whatever the hell you are, monster!”, one of his subordinates didn’t manage to hold back his fear and confusion anymore and snapped at her before he could try to stop him.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop and fury replaced the coolness in the queens eyes. Suddenly the man that had spoken flew through the air and crashed against the bubble shield, coughing up blood. She had executed her magic so fast they hadn’t even seen it happen.

“IMPUDENT! You dare trespass into my kingdom and call it your own! This insult isn’t a small one, humans! As the 352nd queen of the sea I shall not forgive you for those words.”

Quickly catching the implications in her words the lieutenant quickly stepped forward and bowed deeply towards the queen. He didn’t have any idea how they had gotten here, but this was obviously not earth. The oceans had long since been explored and an existence like a kingdom of merpeople would have easily been discovered long ago. He didn’t know anything about their culture but rulers always demanded respect. And they had just insulted the whole kingdom.

Cold sweat was running down his back as he opened his mouth.

“Y-your majesty, please forgive my subordinate’s words. Please let me explain our situation to you before you judge us for our impudence.”

Especially nations with a single ruling power required one to use a delicateness that bordered on a high wire walk when negotiating. He had quickly realized that they had somehow or another managed to act in a way that would require the queen personally to interrogate them.

The situation wasn’t good. They could not afford to offend her before even explaining their actions. He thus decided to concentrate on the situation at hand first before trying to find out where on earth they were and how to get back. He didn’t want to dwell into it yet, especially why no back-up had arrived yet. The recording should still be going…

“…so you are their leader. Very well. I shall overlook it for now, however be warned, I will not excuse any further disrespect to my people or myself.”

“of course. I will vouch for my subordinates from now on.”, he shot them a look that spoke for itself. Be quiet and let me do the talking, is what he said. The other two also seemed to guess just how much trouble they had somehow gotten into and simply nodded.

“May we check on him?”

“Go ahead.”

The one who had been injured underwater quickly went to check on the now unconscious man.

“Thank you.”

She simply nodded and then asked.

“Now tell me why you have intruded into our land. Do not lie to me. If your answer does not satisfy me you and your comrades will lose their lives here.

The lieutenant swallowed hard and nodded that he understood. Then he started his explanation. He had decided to stick as close to the truth as possible, without revealing anything he was not authorized to.

“We are with the human army and only doing what we’re told. You are probably aware that many dangerous creatures life in the sea. One of them had come to shore and killed all residents of a peaceful village close to the shore. Therefore we were sent to investigate its origins…”

The temperature was sinking again as he continued before he was cut off by the queen.

“I thought I told you not to spout lies, human. All the creatures in the sea are under my rule and would not attack without a reason. Do not dare to accuse us of breaking the treaty unjustly.”

“I am telling the truth, your majesty.”

Anger flared up in her eyes again. “It would seem you need some time to think.” she waved her hand and 8 guards appeared from the tunnel below the arena. “When I call you the next time you#d better tell me the truth, human. Don’t be mistaken, I can kill you any time I want without consequences. I will make sure one of your subordinate dies a very slow and painful death the next time you lie to me. I shall even have you watch.”

Hate rang clearly in her voice as she spat those words at him before commanding her guards.

“Take them away.”

They were bound with magic once more and pulled back underwater by the mermen

While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here

I've also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters

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