Ocean Love | A Laurroth/Zanvis/Vylante FF

XX - Schemes

| Vylad's PoV |

I take a few hours of my day to throughly clean every room, making sure not a single speck of dust remains on any floor. I don't want mother to have to interrupt our meeting to tell me I missed a spot somewhere. We're going to really need to focus if we are to bring Zane up with us. I don't know Opal on a personal level, but what I know from Zane is that she is a strict follower of the rules. She's probably going to be our biggest obstacle.
   I finish rather quickly and get to my room, pushing past the stone rock that doubles as my door easily. My room is pretty barren, so it's no use to attempt to clean it at all. I've usually been out of the spiral, so I don't really decorate much. Either way, the cluttering of things on the stone walls would just make more for me to clean.
   I take my satchel of drawings from inside my shell out, and sprawl out all of the sketches I've made of the world above. They may be able to help in the plan, or maybe just help me remember where everything is and what it looks like.
   After a while of making my room the best place to scheme and plan escape routes, I hear a faint knocking on my rock door. The face that greets me is Garroth's.
   "What have you gone and gotten yourself into," he clicks, but not in a serious way. More of a joking way, which doesn't happen too often, but I've been seeing more of each day.
   "I just want my big brother to see the world above." I answer back, "He's never seen much of it. Plus, I think he's definitely earned his right to go after saving Travis."
   "I still can't believe he did that." Garroth wonders aloud, then elaborates," I mean, we've been taught our whole life that humans are evil. He's the only one who has never been with a human to contradict all the stories he's been told."
   "I just wanted to take a closer look and perhaps help the only scrap I have of the world above not die." Zane enters, answering to Garroth's thoughts. He closes the door behind him and continues, "yet, since Opal was there, I couldn't study him long. She still caught me in the act, though." He makes a sour face with the last sentence.
   "Now, Opal is going to be probably the most difficult part in all of this. She's linked to you, so she knows if you're in the spiral or not." I click, initiating the meeting.
   "Is there any way we can unlink you two?" Garroth asks, to which Zane gives a hopeless face.
   "Both parties have to definitely want to unlink before it can be done." Zane explains, "I can wish to unlink all I want, but if she doesn't, the link will still go strong."
   "Okay, then any way to sever or weaken it, even if for a little?" I ask. Zane thinks for a moment, hand on his chin. Then, his expression changes to a happier one.
   "There is one way, but I don't think she'll fall for it." Zane clicks, still somewhat happy." Basically, you need to put so much space in between us that the link has trouble being as accurate."
   "That's perfect!" I smile, "we just have to separate you two. Garroth and I can try to get Opal as far away as possible, and we get Kim to show you the way out."
   "A few problems with that," Zane interrupts my plan. "No matter how hard you try, Opal is not going to leave her station. I know her, she's extremely stalwart. Another thing is that the space between us has to be very large in order for the link to grow weak."
   "Then..." Garroth trails off, thinking of a plan as I do the same. The room becomes quiet for quite a while, before Zane physically slumps. His eyes lack the excited gleam they had when he first showed up.
   "There's no way we can shake her off our tails, huh?" He looks down with a face that is close to giving up. I curve my eyebrows upward, a pang of sadness for my older brother erupting in my chest. I can't imagine living life without knowing what the stars in the sky look like.
   A fresh wave of determination overcomes me. No brother of mine shall sit in this dark abyss wondering of the world above. I'm going to get him to the surface.
   "Hey, we can't give up too quickly," Garroth clicks sternly, as if reading my thoughts.
   "But how can we--"
   "I may have an idea." Garroth interrupts Zane from going any further. His focused face is on, and with that I know he has something good. "I was told that the royal family -- our cousins and uncle -- are going to a western city as a diplomatic trip. And it's not one of the closer ones -- it's one pretty far out."
   He pauses, as if to gather our opinions on his plan. I have an idea of where he may be going with this, but I'd rather hear more.
   "Continue," I nod after he doesn't keep explaining.
   "So, the journey there is pretty dangerous, so they'd probably want a good amount of guard there to make sure they go and get back safe. Opal is one of the best animal guardians we have, so it'd be logical they take her, yet not some of the lower-level mer-guardians. They'd leave them here to protect the city, as it's unwise to leave it unguarded. Opal would leave, the link would get weakened, and you could go with us, even if only one time." Garroth finishes, and Zane and I are left almost intimidated. Since he is going to be leader of our family -- as he's the oldest -- he's had classes on how to plan out strategies and think of possible factors and outcomes. He has to train the body and the mind if he is to adopt the name of Captain of the Royal Guard as he's supposed to.
   "There's our captain." Zane and I smile, complimenting his planning skills.
   "We just need to find out what day and for how long they're going -- which I can figure out by asking some of the higher-ups I train with -- and we need to make sure they take Opal. Along with some other factors, of course." My eldest brother thinks aloud.
   "I can try to convince Opal, but I'll try not to be obvious about it. She'll be suspicious if I push too hard." Zane adds in his part.
   "I'll tell Kim and the human group about it, and try to teach Zane how to get out of the city best way." I confirm my role as well, and we continue to assign roles until we've been through the plan at least three times and have it completely fleshed out. Each person knows their parts and all put our hands in the middle and do a small cheer.
   I see Zane smile slightly out of the corner of my eye, and I feel the last little bits of the previous sadness in my chest fall away. We're all going up to the surface for once, and I couldn't be happier.
   My eyes look out of the small circular window I have, and I see the day has slowly become closer and closer to dusk -- in a few hours the sun will set. I remember what I had promised and swim to collect my satchel, leaving the drawings out for Zane and Garroth.
   "Well, I do believe the plan we have is going to work, so I'll be on my way." I chirp to my brother from where I pack fresh seaweed to sketch on.
   "Where are you going?" Garroth asks, "It's still too early. Dusk hasn't even fallen yet."
   "Well, I kind of promised one of the humans I'd meet them around this time." I smile sheepishly, expecting an earful of how it's much too dangerous to go now from my eldest brother. I know he would especially disagree with me going alone. I still don't think he completely trusts te humans.
   "Right now?" He inquires.
   "Yes." I shrug back a little. Here it comes.
   "Well, if you're going right now, please be careful. I don't need you being caught." He sighs, giving me a soft glare.
   I look up fully, a little surprised. I then smile, chirping back:
   "I will, don't worry." With that, I swim out of the window and down into the crowded streets.

1457
Wow it's been quite the while
I won't try to explain myself I took a huge break from Wattpad but I'm finally feeling motivated to continue this book so
I know not many people will read anymore for the few who do, here's your well-deserved update
~Liv