The mage inside the prison fort heard the choir-like singing of a merperson. The haunting sound comforted his lonely existence and filled a hole that eroded him steadily from the inside. Silence and solitary confinement he could deal with, but the loss of his memories was a dull ache whose yawning chasm got bigger and wider with every passing day. It was an emptiness that nothing had been able to fill. Syryn wanted to find the merperson whose singing it was that he was hearing.

The sweet voice was androgynous. It lulled him with its hypnotic melody and gave him a semblance of peace he hadn't found since the fateful day at the ship.

____

When the door opened again for a second time, several days had elapsed since his confinement. Without sun or moon to tell him how long it had been, the human had felt the time drift by with the tiny aquatic bits that floated in the water passing through his prison.

Food had been slipped in for him once a day but it wasn't filling enough. He was hungry and weary but never thirsty. His gills filtered water for his body. As grateful as he was for the gills, he feared that he would never be allowed to leave the ocean and become human again. It wasn't so bad if he had nobody waiting for him on the surface, he thought. In that case, he could stay here forever.

"Syryn,

" his guard was back. It was the same man that had captured him.

'Syryn' faced the stern merman. Green with an orange sheen over them, his scales were bright like summer. The guard's tail had a few scars where the scales were chipped away but it added a certain character to him. As for the rest of the merman, he was armoured over his torso and much of his face. The human could see a serious mouth, deep-set eyes, and a nose that had been broken at least once.

"You are free,

" the guard solemnly informed him.

"I am free?

" The human tilted his head and asked. There had to be a catch right?

"His majesty has ordered for you to be accommodated in the left wing of the royal palace. You are no longer a prisoner, but a respected guest of Silisia.

"

"Oh,

" the human said. He didn't sound excited or happy at the prospect of living at the palace. The guard blamed it on the human's foolishness that he could not understand how life-changing this opportunity was. Whether it was life-changing for good reasons or for the opposite was still up for debate. The guard had no illusions about what palace life could be like.

The subdued mage knew he wasn't really free. His prison had changed. That was all there was to it. One beautiful cage to the other. At least he wouldn't eat seaweed anymore.

"The King desired to know if you were a threat to Silisia. This is why you were locked up here as a measure of precaution,

" he said almost apologetically. Was the mer-guard feeling sorry for him because he was a fool? Syryn wondered.

Syryn, he was starting to think himself that, was not angry for what had happened to him. More than his captivity, he wanted his memories back. That was where his anger was currently directed towards. Strangely enough, he felt completely at ease in Silisia. He was lonely but he wasn't afraid.

_____

The royal family of Silisia lived well. Their imposing Palace was constructed out of basalt and gold. A deep oceanic trench separated the front half of the high rising palace from the continuous ocean floor. The visible structure of the palace melded with the enormous seamount behind it. Within and under the sharp ranges of the seamount was a vast network of chambers supported by alloyed reinforcing.

At the corners of the palace that jutted out, there stood massive lunar crystals that gave off a blinding light incomparable to the weak glow of the others he had seen thus far.

"Come, Syryn. This way.

" His guard led him to the wide walkway that connected the palace to the other end of the trench. Large stone arches were perched atop pillars on both sides of the walkway. Lunar crystals were embedded underneath the arches to light the way to the palace.

"What do we have here?

" Silver blue said when they met in the middle of the walkway.

"It's Syryn.

" The merman wasn't accompanied by gold and maroon.

He received silence from Syryn.

"I am called Drevin,

" he said to the mute human. When Syryn did not acknowledge him, the merman turned to the guard.

"I'll take him to his quarters. Carry on with your other duties, Arhak.

"

"His Majesty bid me to personally deliver the human to his palace quarter. Pardon my rudeness, prince, but it would be considered treason to disobey my king's direct orders.

"

The prince was unable to refute the guard's rebuttal. His long tail swayed in the water like a pendulum. Syryn could make out silver-blue scales shimmering down the skin of his sides.

Externaloblique. The thought arrived and disappeared with the suddenness of a lightning strike.

What was that? What was an external oblique? Syryn stared at the bare torso of the prince as he tried to puzzle out what it meant.

The guard behind him cleared his throat.

"Prince Drevin, we must get going.

"

Drevin wordlessly moved aside and watched the beautiful creature get led away by the guard. He wondered how long the human would last in the palace before he was eaten, figuratively and literally, by the royal pain in the tails that were his family members. His father was being secretive about why Syryn had been brought to the merkingdom. Aside from the rumours about the human liberating Silisia, which he could not believe despite his sincere attempt at suspending his disbelief, Drevin wasn't sure what role Syryn would play in the days to come.