★ The Prince and The Mermaid [Giant/Tiny]★

XXIV - The Start.

Kaine woke up in a cold sweat, his pulse racing. Mariana was asleep, her head on his chest with all her sisters and their kids on the floor, lying on mattresses and pillows around Mariana's bed. Something was wrong, he shouldn't be there.

He couldn't let Mariana be tainted by him like this. He lifted her head up off of him gently, laying it on the mattress as he swam over the mountains of sleeping mer royalty on the floor. Till one stirred, a little merbaby. She began to cry, a little wail breaking out from her. Kaine, feeling his fear in full swing, wasn't thinking straight; he picked up the infant, walking out into the hallway with it.

He rocked it gently, well as gently as he could. Usually he made sure to lock his doors,not allowing for anyone to see him in such a state. Weak. Open to anyone. Relaxed. the first night he had gotten Mariana's letter, way back when they first met, he was in this state.

He walked around the hallways, rocking the merinfant as it looked up at him with bright starry eyes. "Hello" Kaine murmured, rocking her back and forth as she stared up, but that's when a something flew past him. A spear of light. He looked back to see a figure standing there. The man was taller than him in this state.

The light spear barely missed Kaine's horns as it embedded in the coral wall.

He turned, protective instincts flaring, and held the merinfant tighter against his chest. She whimpered at the noise, her small hands curling into his collar. His breath came in heavy bursts.

Across the hallway, at the far end, stood a figure wreathed in celestial brilliance.

Tall. Ethereal. Winged.

The air around him was still, unnaturally so, as though the ocean itself bowed to his presence. His armor shimmered with silver, and a radiant crest glowed on his brow like a brand of judgment. His blade—if it could be called that—was made of condensed light and divine will. Even Kaine, felt its weight from across the corridor.

"YOU. Put. The child. Down." The figure's voice echoed like a bell in Kaine's mind, not loud but felt—resonating through his bones. He didn't know who this was, but the authority in that voice chilled even his cursed blood.

Kaine's snapped. "She was crying," he growled, cradling the infant protectively. "I was comforting her."

The man's eyes narrowed, glowing with divine fury. "You expect me to believe you, a demon—stole a royal child just to rock her to sleep? I shall strike you where you stand beast"

"I didn't steal her!" Kaine barked. "She's—" He stopped himself. She's Mariana's niece. But how could he explain that now?

"Enough." The man stepped forward, hand raised, light building. "You trespass where divine blood sleeps, cursed one. You've taken a child of the Tides—endangering the entire royal line. For that, you'll be tried by the Divine Assembly. And if guilty—"

The light flared, brighter than any sun. "—you'll be destroyed Asch."

Kaine barely had time to shield the infant as bands of divine light struck out like lashes. He snarled, trying to retreat, but the bindings wrapped around his arms, legs,—tight and unrelenting.

The merinfant began to cry again, her wails sharp with terror. Kaine grit his teeth, forcing himself to curl around her even as the light seared into his cursed flesh. "She's not in danger," he snarled. "I would never hurt her—"

But the figure wasn't listening.

A moment later, they were gone.

Kaine and the baby, taken in the same blinding pulse.

Only the spear of light remained, humming faintly in the silence. Then a little mermaid woke up.

Far above the mortal world, in a chamber of white stone and floating sigils, Kaine collapsed onto a cold platform, still wrapped in glowing chains. He clutched the infant to his chest, panting.