Negotiation

Prince Eric was pacing back and forth in the small cave-like room that had been given to him. It was too low for his height, his head almost bumping against the ceiling if he were to raise it a slight bit higher than his natural height. He couldn't just sit there and wait for that peculiar creature to lead him with her own plans. He needed to do something about it, fast. There was no time to waste. His father needed the cure as soon as possible.

Determined, he came out of the room and slowly started walking onwards to the front from where the girl brought him to this room. He was carefully looking around for any unnecessary presence that might have needed to be dealt with but strangely enough, no one was present around.

'How strange,' he thought. 'They have an enemy walking openly in their home and they didn't even bother putting some kind of caution around him, fools!' he rolled his eyes.

Like he had seen earlier, none of the rooms possessed doors to them so he could easily see that all of them were empty or at least those that passed by his line of sight. Where did all of them go? He was sure he had seen girls there earlier.

He remembered half of the way and then came the part where he was busy stupidly admiring that flower girl. He was lucky that Victor wasn't around and saw him doing that otherwise…he didn't even want to think about it further. Coming to a halt at the end of the corridor, he stood there confused whether to turn right or left. He wasn't sure but allowing his instincts to narrate, he had decided that it must be the right side. But he took the left way instead, which was slightly darker than the right side. That was the very thing which sparked his curiosity.

There was such deep silence around him, even his own footsteps felt too loud. The aisle was getting darker and narrower as he was approaching further into it and that made him even more curious about what might lay at the end of it. Soon he came to stand before the end of the aisle and as expected it ended up in a room, a room with a metal door that was strictly closed with a lock.

'Finally a room with a door, interesting.'

His anticipation had spiked up when he raised his hand towards the handle of the door but suddenly long, snake-like black fingers curled around his wrist, halting his hand and his intentions. He would be wrong if he said that he wasn't taken aback by the sudden intrusion although, it was another thing that he dont let it show on his face.

"Must have lost your way, Prince Draveric?" He heard Xobaria's voice and in the darkness he could only see her gleaming red eyes.

"Of course, my Lady. Or how else could I end up here?" He smirked, clearly amused at how she chugged the card he was about to play. So she wasn't as foolish as he thought after all.

"Allow me to court you back to your room so that you don't end up spying anywhere else, I mean lost anywhere else." She let go of his hand and gave him a sickening smile.

"Sure, lead the way." He let go of the intention of checking that room for some other time and got along with the creature.

"Seems like you haven't made yourself at home yet." Xobaria commented, looking at him up and down. She must be referring to his cloak and his dirty shoes which he hasn't removed yet.

"I don't make myself comfortable around my enemies. If you know so much already then you must know about this as well." Both of them knew the truth about each other so there was no need to keep pretending anymore.

"Then it is time that you stop thinking of us as enemies." She stopped as they came out in the illuminated corridor from where Eric had previously stepped in the alley. She turned around to face him. "It was us who have been wronged and mistreated all these years. Our fault is only that we tried to protect ourselves and our treasures that belonged to us and this sea, not the humans."

Eric had his arms crossed over his chest as he silently listened to her, his eyes narrowed at her face. It was hard to tell where she was coming from or what was her agenda behind all of this.

"As a human man it must be hard for you to accept all of this but you are more than welcome to stay here for some time and see it all with your own eyes. I am sure you aren't a fool to blindly believe what is told to you."

"Certainly I am not," Eric chuckled and raised an eyebrow at her. "And this applies to you as well so cut this unnecessary rant and come to the point. Why do you want to marry your daughter to a human man if you hate us so much in the first place?"

Xobaria was more than prepared for this moment, thus she started, "Because I don't want them to rot on this island forever and burn in the fire of revenge, like me. They are hybrids, half humans because I had them with a human man. They deserve to live a normal life and their well-deserved recognition in human society. I want you to take an initiative because you are a powerful man. I believe people will listen to you."

Xobaria had acknowledged that this man was sharper than she had initially thought him to be, combined with the fact that the call of Sirens didn't affect him. This only pointed towards one reason and that was that he wasn't an ordinary man.

"Oh so you are the legendary unfortunate sea creature who had been betrayed by a man. I see, I see. I thought it was all rubbish. You look quite young for your estimated age though." he took a step back and looked at her up and down. Then he leaned slightly closer as he asked, "And more importantly, why do you think I would do that for you?"

She was silently waiting for him to ask that so that they can come on proper negotiating terms, "Because let's not forget your purpose of being here. You need my daughter to save your father."

This time she felt satisfied upon seeing Eric's face as it looked like she had finally hit the bull's eye.