𝔐EMORANDUM

ℭECAELIA

 It'd been a day or so since you'd last seen Adrien. You hadn't entirely been keeping track of the time, but you knew it had been over twelve hours.

 You told the prince to return to you in two days or less, and while you trusted him enough to not totally forget, he did seem like the type to let these types of things slip from his mind.

 It wasn't a particularly pressing issue, so you let yourself relax, despite the uncertain nature of the situation. There was zero guarantee that Adrien would actually return with your payment, a thought you typically found stressful. But there was something about the waters that soothed you. Its calming waves made you feel infinitely better.

 "Well, I suppose if that boy isn't back by tomorrow, I can simply leave." You weren't one to quit a job so soon after accepting it, yet you were technically on a time limit here. Once that spell ran out, you would be unable to remain underwater any longer.

 "Actually...maybe I should have informed him of that little detail..." Whether he was just oblivious or actively chose to ignore it, Prince Adrien had never commented on your apparent humanity. It was rather obvious that you weren't a merperson, and you didn't possess any fish-like characteristics. The spell simply served to allow you to breathe underwater for an extended period of time—not make you blend in with the merfolk.

 None of his siblings brought it up either, but perhaps that was to not appear rude. They all seemed to be a rather polite bunch, with maybe the exception of Solomon. (You hadn't met Phillip yet, but if you were correct in your assumption, as the oldest, he was surely the one who cared most about formalities.)

 On the subject of his siblings, your mind drifted to their argument. They were right, in a sense. Adrien truly knew nothing of the human world (at least, that's what it seemed like to you. Who would willingly choose humanity, after all?). His wish was fueled by some inane desire to escape the ocean. But the ocean was a kind captor, in your humble opinion. Sure, maybe the merfolk were part fish, and potentially prey to the sharks, but from what you had seen when you had your talk with Caspian, they didn't seem all too interested in biting into some helpless merperson. Chained to waves as he may be, you really couldn't see many problems with Adrien's ocean prison.

 In contrast, you knew all too well the pains and horrors of being human. For one, not every human knew how to swim—something that certainly couldn't be said for merfolk. Should some idiotic human venture into the waves, they'd be prone to drowning. Humans were also marginally slower than merfolk. It was incredibly hard for you to keep up with Caspian's pace, and while Adrien's was much slower, you still had to use all your might to swim right next to him. And not to mention the other physical restrictions that came with humanity.

 So, in short: humans sucked.

 While you mused over humanity's misfortunes, you failed to notice the chuckles coming from behind you. The ominous sounds went unnoticed as you favored to mull over your thoughts. Had you been paying more attention, maybe you would've felt the cold, slimy tentacle that grabbed hold of your arm. Maybe you would've been able to fight it off before it dragged you down into its dark cave.

---

 Where...were you?

 Darkness, pure darkness. Not even the tiny wedges in-between the rocks could give you the tiniest ounce of light. It was impossible to see anything besides yourself.

 There was only your shadowed form, and of course, the glowing, bright yellow eyes in the corner of the room (was it a room? You couldn't tell).

 "Oh, so you're awake." The person in front of you scoffed. "Took you long enough. Holy carp, you'd think someone had just knocked you into a coma. Who stays knocked out for over three hours..." He grumbled, and though he clearly intended to appear threatening, there was only one thing you could focus on.