Chapter 10

I cried and cried until my emotions ran numb and dry, until I felt hollow inside, until there was nothing left inside me to cry over. Finally I lifted my gaze and looked up into the eyes of the man who had been standing infront of me, staring as though I would disintegrate if he were to look away.

"You must be happy," I spoke with a sardonic tone.

"Now that you know I'm stuck here for God knows how long, what are you planning to do with me?"

He blinked as though realizing for the first time that I could speak. Then his expression changed to that of confusion as he looked between me and the surface above. "If you're thinking that I had anything to do with hindering your escape, you are wrong."

I scoffed, "You expect me to believe that?"

"Yes," he said, simply and glided towards me, making me fall back a step or two. "I wouldn't lie to you, Chloe."

I just stared at him dumbstruck, his emerald eyes shining bright with innocence. I swallowed and looked away, trying not to let them convince me. I felt as if I looked into those eyes long enough, I might end up trusting him despite my better judgement.

"T-Then who do you suggest could do that?" I asked, abruptly.

"Someone with a grudge perhaps."

"You think the person that tried to kill me did that?" I looked back at him, baffled by what he was implying. "How is that even possible?"

"Anything is possible, Chloe. You just haven't realized it yet." He held my hand before I could react and said, "Come, let's return before someone notices your absence."

I frowned and tried to free my hand. "I'm not going anywhere until you explain what-"

"All in due time," he said as he pulled me with him and waved his tail, propelling us in the direction of the castle. "Right now you need a change of clothes and something to eat. Regain your strength and once you have calmed, ask me anything, I shall answer it for you."

Now that he had mentioned it, I realized for the first time what I was wearing and I blushed deeply. I wore a thin revealing night dress that ended just above my knees. It wasn't something I had worn when I fell in, which made me even more embarrassed.

I didn't want to think about how ended up in these clothes but I did want to crawl into a hole where I could cringe in embarrassment.

But since I couldn't do that, I remained silent and let him pull me all the way to the castle. Once we were back on the balcony of the room I woke up in, he told me to wait for a maid to bring me some comfortable clothes and food. Until then he had something to take care of so thankfully he left me alone.

I waited for the maid to come and as I did, I pondered on the prospects of living underwater. If I'm going to be staying here for a while, I might as well try to get acquainted to this strange aquatic life. I whirled around and looked out the window, gazing at the underwater city.

There was so much to think about, so many questions as to how my predicament was even possible but at the moment, the one thing that concerned me the most was: how do I pee?

Do I just do it like they do in the pools? As discretely as possible.

No, no, that's just wrong. I ruffled my hair in frustration which only got more tangled.

This was going to take a while.

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The door to my room opened after two quick knocks and a small, petite young mermaid floated inside the room with her brown hair swaying in curls behind her.

"My lady, excuse my intrusion, I brought food." She was wearing fronds of seaweed around her entire torso in a criss cross manner and her tail was shinning brown as she flapped it to swim across the room with a tray carrying my food.

I know I've seen a tail on Oeric and had been expecting the same exotic deformation on the other members of this world but it still shocked me that something as bizarre as a half human and half fish actually existed.

I maintained my poker face as she set the tray on the bedside table. From behind her another member of the merfolk entered with the same attire as her but with short straight hair that was so brown that in the darkness of the room, I could almost mistake it for black. She was carrying a grey plastic bag which I guess held the clothes I was supposed to wear.

"Good evening, my lady" she said as she left the clothes on the chair by the vanity and turned to me. She momentarily glared at the girl beside me who was oggling me up with curious eyes from top to bottom as though I was some fascinating creature she had met for the first time.

I found the situation strangely funny considering the fact that the one who should be oggling was me not her. But she had that curious glint in her eyes whereas I only had fear. Fear of what the unknown could do to me if I wasn't careful.

The girl with the short hair cleared her throat in an irate manner to snap the other one out of her trance. She hurriedly went behind the short haired girl and bowed her head slightly.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, my lady," the short haired one that seemed to be incharge addressed me politely. "Before we start, let us introduce ourselves, I'm called Mia and the one behind me is Jenny." Jenny looked up briefly and gave me a hesitant smile before quickly bowing her head again. "We serve under the king of Pterois tribe and under his orders we shall cater to your needs."

"Ah, yes. Um," I paused, not sure of what to say or make of the information just revealed to me. "I'm Chloe."

Mia smiled but something about it seemed off. "Yes, we know."

Jenny quirkily said to me, "You must be hungry. Please help yourself." In the blink of an eye she was beside me lifting the lid off of one of the dishes she had brought.

I couldn't help it, just as fast as I had laid my eyes on what was on the platter, I was already halfway across the room. Sticking close to the wall, I stared wide eyed at the so-called food they had brought me.

"What the hell is that?" I sputtered in dumbfounded astonishment.

Jenny just looked at me, perplexed by my reaction. "Why that's your meal, my lady."

"The best our scavengers could find," Mia added with a nod.

I shook my head at their indifference. "No, I get that that's my meal but why is it alive?" I stared at the dish and saw a plenitude of shrimps wriggling inside. My skin crawled with a thousand goosebumps.

"You don't like shrimps?" Jenny asked looking slightly surprised.

I don't hate them but I most certainly don't like them alive.

"Do you like lobsters, perhaps?" She said, hopefully, as she was about to lift the lid off from another dish.

I immediately stopped her before she could. "Wait! Is it alive too?"

She looked at me like I grew a horn on my head. "Well, yeah. They taste best alive. You wouldn't want a dead one would you?"

Ofcourse not. I scratched my head finding it hard to put my thoughts out more clearly and said, "What I mean to say is, don't you cook it?"

"How do you cook it?"

Mia, who was silently watching our exchange decided now was the time to speak up. "Ofcourse. How could I forget. Humans prefer to have their fish cooked to crisp rather than having it the way they are." She sounded slightly bitter but she quickly covered it up with her politeness. "I've also heard humans eat raw clams and oyster. Maybe you would prefer those?"

Raw. Right.

Now that she mentioned it, they obviously can't cook anything up for me while we're still here. While I was still underwater. Well at the very least clams and oysters don't wriggle.

I glanced back at the tray Jenny had brought me and shuddered. I don't think I could even touch something with that many moving appendages, much less eat them. So without saying a word I nodded.

"Very well. Jenny go ask the scavengers to bring fresh oysters and clams. Also tell them to fetch some edible aquatic plants"

Jenny twirled a strand of hair around her finger nervously and looked at me shyly like a maiden in love. "Say, if you aren't going to eat any of this mind if I—"

"Jenny!" Mia reprimanded.

"Fine." Jenny sullenly grabbed the tray and left the room, pouting.

"I apologize in her stead. She's young and new at this so she isn't quite familiar with the proper etiquettes of a maid yet. As her superior, I will teach her to the best of my abilities."

She was so formal that I didn't know how to respond so I just mumbled, "I don't really mind."

"Now then, how about I dress you while we wait for the food."

Mia clapped her hands and glided to fetch the plastic bag from the chair. She opened it up to reveal a long, sleeveless dress of deep red.

I pulled off the nightdress and she helped me put on the vintage beauty. It fit snuggly around my chest and shoulders and the back was nothing but a bunch of straps criss crossing all the way up to my shoulder blades.

The entire fabric from my neckline to the shoulders was made from delicate netting and from below it flared and puffed around me as I span in front of the mirror to survey my appearance.

The dress was beautiful, complimenting my red hair as it twirled behind me in waves. But despite how pretty it made me look, it was too long. And not to mention the water it soaked made it profoundly heavier than it looked.

"It's heavy, Mia." I whined, not being able to support the weight and dropping to my knees.

Mia looked at me in the reflection. "Is it? But I thought you humans enjoyed wearing these inconvenient things."

Was that racism I just heard? Or maybe, technically, it's called speciesim.

"Don't you have something that's a little shorter? I can't move in this."

"I'm sorry, my lady, but the dress room only had clothes similar to the one you're wearing. Maybe there's another solution," She said, rubbing her chin in deep thought.

"Why not cut it off," Jenny casually swam back in through the balcony. "The food is going to take a while and I was bored so I came back," she grinned widely in response to the acid in Mia's glare when she saw Jenny return so quickly.

"Is it okay to ruin the dress like that? It's not even mine," I asked, worried about whom I might offend if I did what she was suggesting. I don't want to make any enemies here during my (hopefully) brief stay.

"Don't worry about it. It's not like it's ours. Merfolk don't wear dresses, you see," Jenny said, gesturing at her kelp attire.

Mia sighed, dropping her glare from Jenny to look at me, "These belonged to the humans that might have lived here." She pointed her forefinger towards the floor.

"You mean this castle doesn't actually belong to you?"

"No. This is not our creation and neither is this our home," she spoke, her bitterness again revealing itself in her tone of voice.

Jenny cleared her throat in an attempt to lighten up the atmosphere and right then I decided she could be one of the few people I would like to have around me while I was stuck here in this place. "Umm, their might be set scissors here but I doubt they won't be rusted by now." She said then smiled as she held out a sharp stone dagger between her fingers. "Will this work?"

I was speechless.

I don't even know how she procured that considering her lack of clothings. Where could she hide it? Was it in her hand this entire time and I just failed to notice it until she held it out to my face.

I couldn't think up an appropriate response at the moment so in my stead Mia made an evidently loud gasp and grabbed Jenny's wrist. "Jenny, you incurable nit! What do you think you're doing bringing that in here?"

I shook my head to snap out of it and decided I could really use that dagger. And as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I spoke absurdly loud, "That'll work perfectly!"

They both turned around to look at me, a little surprised. Maybe that came out louder than I intended. But I didn't care, I just held out my hand and asked, "May I?"

The two in front of me exchanged a knowing look and Jenny handed the dagger to her superior without a word. Mia turned to me, the dagger in hand as she took a steady step in my direction. There was a bleak look in her eyes that made me gulp.

I think I should've covered up my enthusiasm when I saw the dagger. The way Mia stared at me, made me realise things weren't exactly looking good for me right now. I tried to scramble of the floor but only stumbled back down with an- "uff".

She stopped right in front of me and for a moment I thought I saw the corner of her mouth rise into a smirk. Right then, I could literally see it in her eyes and knew that she wouldn't hesitate to use that on me if she wanted to. But then she surprised me by offering me her hand instead.

I stared at it for a while before deciding my life wasn't in danger so I grabbed it without further ado. She pulled me back on my feet and dropped down, bending to look at the hem of my dress with keen eyes.

"You won't be able to cut it off by yourself. So why don't you just stand here and let me do my job, my lady," she said as she worked up the length of the fabric she was going to cut off.

All of a sudden, I didn't care about the dagger anymore. I don't even know why I thought it would help my situation in any way. Right now, I just didn't want to offend her so I quietly nodded in compliance.

For some reason, I detected a silent animosity from this person in front of me. As I thought this, I saw her preparing to use the dagger on my dress. A dress that closely adhered to my skin.

My insides twisted in discomfort. I don't know where that hate was coming from, it was subtle but I could feel it pent up inside of her and going against someone like that wasn't something I should do.

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