Syryn had Levia tear open the mountain which was connected to the mer palace. The King's throne was removed from the throne room and placed out in the open for Syryn to sit on.

He wasn't interested in becoming the ruler of Silisia but Syryn was most certainly interested in snatching away what was dear to the previous king of Silisia. Wasn't it what he had killed Syryn for? The mage vowed to make the mer suffer a similar fate that he had suffered through.

Levia and Syryn soon got to work setting up the fallen lunar crystals that were responsible for lighting up Silisia. The overall damage to the mer kingdom was significant but not irreversible. There was a section of the ocean floor that had been destroyed by Levia during her violent escape from below ground. It caused the ground to collapse into a sinkhole and Syryn decided to leave it untouched. The gaping hole would be a reminder to the mers about the magnitude of power that the mage commanded by proxy.

Several hours of work later, Syryn surveyed his ramshackle kingdom with some pride.

"Levia, we've done a good job, haven't we?"

The leviathan was a clumsy thing whose feet did more damage than her hands were fixing. She was careful about avoiding the areas where her big legs could stomp more holes in the already broken mer homes. Still, there was no helping the little steps of destruction that followed her path. Levia's water locomotive tail was tucked securely between her forelegs to avoid more clumsy destruction.

"Perhaps you should scale down," Syryn told her. "We're done moving big objects, Levia. Scale down and come here!" He patted the seat of the throne. Syryn was already sitting on it but there was still more room for Levia if she could reduce to Syryn's size.

___

"Captain, Rowan is missing," a crew member informed the worried man who hadn't seen hide nor hair of the anti mage since the sun had begun to set.

Daylight had faded and the ship was bereft of their leader. The captain didn't want to alarm his crewmen. He believed that the blond was taking a swim in the ocean as was his habit since they'd arrived. Even so, Rowan hadn't informed anyone about his impromptu swimming plans.

"He-" the captain's jaw fell upon.

A blonde head had just surfaced from the water, hauling a bound and struggling mermaid. The white pearlescent tailed mermaid was a beautiful creature with long blonde hair. Like other mers, she wasn't clothed enough to cover her assets from the human men.

The mermaid's wrists were bound together with rope. A hand around her bicep prevented her from swimming away. The sailors noticed that the mermaid looked tired while the human appeared as energetic as he always did.

"Lower a net quickly," Rowan instructed the men onboard the ship. In the moon's light, Rowan himself appeared like a mythical creature bobbing in the waves. Wet hair swept back over his head, the man could have been a merman accompanying his pretty mermaid wife if she wasn't giving him such a hateful look.

The men on board reacted to his words with efficiency. Catching hold of the falling net with one hand, Rowan rolled the mermaid into it like she was a fish. It took several men to pull up her thrashing body.

"Sir, why have you kidnapped this lady?" The captain asked the blonde who was leaving wet puddles on the mopped deck. He was afraid of repercussions that could come for them if the other mers found out that a kidnapped mermaid was on their ship.

"She attacked me while I was swimming," Rowan replied as he took off his wet shirt. The blond had a beautiful musculature that was the envy of all the men looking at him. The sailors nursed some grudges in their hearts. They were also men who worked hard so why was he more well developed than them??

"Pull the cloth out of her mouth," Rowan instructed the captain. The mermaid was caught off-guard by the display of his upper body. Under his folded arms was a flat stomach, his abs sharply defined with the divot of a belly button underneath, and below that was a line of fine blonde hair that disappeared into the waistband of his dark cotton pants.

The captain tugged at the edge of the cloth that was stuffed into her mouth. Mouth free from encumbrance, the mermaid hissed at the men that were standing too close to her.

The anti mage walked to her and placed his shirt over her chest. Used to leaving her chest uncovered, she was surprised by the human's actions.

"Take it off!" She hissed at him.

"I don't think I will," Rowan answered. There were several men ogling her and it made him uncomfortable to have her body displayed so openly. "Human customs," he told her. "It's not considered proper to have a man see your breasts if he isn't your husband or your lover. So you'll have to forgive me for covering your modesty."

The mermaid stared venomously at the gorgeous human. She had intended to drown him when she had seen him swimming. Humans were disgusting, murderous, and barbaric. They caught and killed mer children for sadistic pleasure. That's why the king had forbidden them all from interacting with humans. She had been told all of these things by her family. So when she had seen the human swimming by himself, the mermaid had allowed her hatred for humanity to take over her good senses. She had attacked the man and was overpowered and kidnapped for it.

"Why have you kidnapped me?" She asked him. "If my people come to know about what you've done, they'll tear you to pieces and feed you to the sharks."

"I intend no harm upon you. All that I seek from you are some answers. After that, I promise to let you go," Rowan answered.

"Liar! Unhand me right now! Do you wish to violate me?! I can see the way you're all looking at me! You're just as horrible as told in the stories!"

Rowan glanced at a few of the more lecherous ones in his crew. The look he sent them had the men turning away in fear.

"If you can't keep your roving eyes to yourselves then you should probably stay inside your cabins till I'm done questioning her," Rowan said it lightly but the warning was unmistakable. Several of the guilty men took a walk towards the other end of the deck.

The mermaid frowned at the anti mage. "Is this a ploy to have me to yourself?" Her heart skipped a beat when Rowan smiled.

"I'm already in a very loving relationship," he replied. "My lovely wife is missing and I'm looking for him. I think you can help me, miss."

The mermaid's disappointment made her feel bitter. She had heard stories about mermaids kidnapped to be used by human men. She thought that if it was this blond man taking her, she would maybe enjoy it. Alas, he already had a partner.

"What wife? If he's a man then he's your husband," she snapped at him.

The anti mage nodded. "True. His name is Syryn, by the way. Have you heard of him?"

The mermaid reacted with a slight widening of her eyes. Snuffing out any further reactions, she shook her head at Rowan.

"Who?"

Rowan would have been an idiot to miss the signs in her body language. "Syryn," he repeated. "You've heard of him so don't try and bullshit me. When it comes to protecting my partner, I find that kindness and patience are trifle things that only make life more difficult for me. I am willing to inflict as much pain and suffering upon anyone that gets between me and Syryn. And there are no exceptions to this, not even a mermaid who thinks she's being smart by hiding information from me."

The mermaid saw the neutrality leech from his eyes. The amicable human who was concerned about her just moments ago was now a ghost fading away to be replaced by a man whose frigid gaze lacked any empathy.

"Tell me about Syryn." The words stung her with their coldness. The mermaid shivered. Not wanting to let him know about her people had kidnapped and executed the human, she had intended to lie to him. Now she felt like a fish on the chopping block, a sharp knife hanging over her neck.

Summoning her courage and the arrogance that so often served her well, the mermaid lifted her chin and answered coldly.

"He was executed for daring to murder Silicia's honoured oracle. Your partner is a murderer and a lair! He deserved what he was served!"

"Executed?" Rowan asked. A deep-rooted fear inside him told the blond that the Syryn he had seen was a mirage; that his desperate desire to find his mage had forced his mind to make up a scenario so unbelievable and outlandish that it couldn't be real. If the Syryn he had seen was real then why hadn't he already come to Rowan?

"Can your wife breathe underwater?" The mermaid smiled maliciously at the anti mage. "His transformation amulet was taken off a month ago. I didn't see his dead body but I most certainly saw him gasping for air as he drowned in the abyss."