1 The Ocean’s Tear

It was a rainy day. When Lin Mei had set out that day to look for the pearl, she hadn't known it would rain.

As even the most ignorant human would be able to infer, mermaids are very fond of water, however, walking into this maze-like forest with trees that stood so tall she could barely see the sun, with rain pouring violently from the sky, Mei truly felt like a fish out of water.

After hours and hours dragging her poorly trained human legs through the countless muddy trails in the forest, trying to find the Dark Lagoon she had read so much about, she had finally succeeded. It was now nighttime and only the moon was illuminating the beautiful scenery, reflecting in the surface of the deep waters of the pitch-black lagoon.

Lin Mei had read that this was a special lagoon, so profound that no human could dream of reaching its bottom. Normal mermaids and mermen would also have a hard time finding something in the ink-like waters of the lagoon.

That is why she had decided to come herself, as a member of the Royal family of the Pristine Ocean. Members of the royal merfolk families were known to possess the most powerful pearls, which were able to shine even in the darkest of waters. And although her pearl had some fissures it was still almost as powerful as her sister's.

Finding the Ocean's Tear was of utmost importance. Humans and merfolk alike had tried to obtain it for years, failing time and time again. But a few months ago she had found an ancient book hidden in an eery corner of the royal library that pinpointed the exact location of the lagoon rumored to be hiding the pearl.

Now that humans and mermaids were finally enjoying the calmness of a peace treaty, it was the perfect opportunity to sneak into human territory and search for the Ocean's tear. She would determine if the old book was accurate.

She took off her human clothes, only leaving a thin piece of fabric that covered the skin from her chest to her thighs, and dove into the black water, her slim human legs turning into a long silver-green fishtail that matched the color of her eyes. An hour had passed when she finally sighted the end of the lagoon.

As soon as she reached the uneven rocky floor, she spotted a big scarlet oyster that began to glow in her presence. She touched its shell with the tips of her fingers and it instantly opened, revealing a small blood-red pearl. The pearl floated elegantly upwards, landing directly in Mei's hand as if compelled by magic.

Lin Mei looked at the tiny sphere curiously, wondering how such a small object could grant humans the ability to breathe underwater. Such a thing would be the most deadly weapon humans could have against the mermaid folk if they learned how to mass-produce it. Although extremely canny, humans were also very intelligent and their vast knowledge in magic could prove fatal to her kind if they were somehow able to reproduce the red pearl in her hands.

She couldn't fathom why her ancestors would have created such a dangerous pearl, but she was elated and relieved that she had finally found it. The book had been right, which also meant that it could be right about something else: her own family having forged the pearl in the first place. This would be a secret she would only be able to disclose to her older sister and father.

Pleased with finding what she had been looking for, Lin Mei swam upwards for a long time, getting closer and closer to the moonlight with every stroke of her scaly green tail. Once she reached the surface, she changed back into her human form and grabbed her clothes that were laying on the surface of a rock in the margins of the lagoon.

Unbeknownst to her, someone was observing her from the top of a tree.