“You know you really should have brought me to her first, Azul. This could have been so much easier than it is now. So much less pain.”

  Nerissa Ashengrotto had descended on her son the moment he returned, panting and exhausted from the distance swim, Yuu still in his arms. He had refused, however, to provide his mother with any verbal responses until he’d tucked Yuu away in his room—the only quite one in the cavern—to sleep off the after effects of the memory potion. He didn’t know what effects, exactly, it would have on her, but whatever it managed to unlock, she would need time to process it, and he knew from acute, painful experience, that some things were more dignified to face alone.

  “Well, boy?” Nerissa bombarded him, white hair floating behind her like a threat as she bore down on her son. He only just managed to close the door before she added: “Why did you not bring her here? This whole problem could have been over and done in a trice.”

  “Oh? And what possible reason could I have had for staying away?” Azul snarled, folding his arms as he barred the way between his mother and the door to where Yuu now slept.

  Nerissa huffed a shocked sort of laugh.

  “Sarcasm? With your mother? Here, I thought that life on land would have softened you. Seems it’s finally given you some bite.”

  He cringed. Was that pride in her voice?

  “Unfortunately, it seems you’ve also learned how to stoke a grudge. Best be careful, my son. That trait will bite you if you don’t watch it.”

  “Like it did you?”

  She folded her arms, glaring at him in the way that never failed to make him feel like a petulant child.

  “You know, I don’t have to help you, Azul…. I could let you climb out of this mess for the sake of lesson.”

  A feeling of panic had just started to pool in his stomach before she added—

  “No, no, you’re right. I’m sorry, that was too far,” she sighed.

  If anything, that was what disarmed him. He was right?

  When the silence between them turned uncomfortable, Azul decided to allow his mother that victory. After all, it was a victory they would share, and he liked this feeling between them. It wasn’t entirely rare, but he would never take praise from his mother lightly.

  “So, how long do you think it will take?” he asked quietly.

  He didn’t have to explain. A quick glance at the door, and his mother knew exactly who, and about what, he was asking.

  “Hard to say,” she answered. “Memory is a fickle thing, particularly where land magic is involved. Depends on how much has been lost. Depends on her with a spell like this.”

  “On her?”

  “Mental fortitude, boy,” Nerissa dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. “From what I’ve seen, you’ve nothing to worry about it. Has she flown into a panic on you, yet? Has she failed to grasp anything she should?”

  He shook his head, unable to recall a single moment when Yuu had failed in anything—except perhaps decorum.

  “Two more days to remove the venom,” he huffed. “I can’t get started until she wakes.”

  His mother only rolled her eyes. “You’ve known how to pull on your own magic since you were seven. You don’t need her help. Is it not kinder to do it while she’s unconscious?”

  “It would not be kinder to descend on her while she sleeps. I’ll give her as much of a choice as I can, considering the circumstances.”

  Azul was beginning to wish his mother would move further down the hall. Their voices, though quiet, were right outside Yuu’s door, and there was no telling when she could wake. Still, something in him was unwilling to leave her door unprotected.

  “Now he’s a gentleman?” His mother rolled her eyes. “She had a choice, boy, or the venom would not have stuck in the first place.”

  He only grunted.

  “Why is it, I can’t help but wonder…” Nerissa eyed him, tapping a finger to her painted lips. “What deal did you make with her that you could not simply keep? If she asked for something you could not afford, then surely that would have been an easier ask than… well, than all of this trouble you seem to be willing to go to.”

  Azul winced, cursing the fact that his reactions seemed to be on such easy display.

  “I could not,” he said simply. “What she asked for would have been… counter to my aims.”

  “The aims of your profit margins, you mean?”

  “No,” he said simply. “My more… long-term aims.”

  “My, my…” Nerissa sighed, a slow smile creeping up her mouth. “She asked for something almost selfless, didn’t she….”

  Azul remained silent.

  “Curious,” Nerissa carried on. “You know, Azul, all this time I’ve told you to settle down, and the first time you get serious, it’s with…this?”

  “It’s hardly serious,” he retorted, doing his best to keep the offense from his tone, and failing. As per annoyingly usual, his mother seemed to see right through him. She positioned herself on the wall across from him, still smiling, but no longer amused. If anything she seemed… concerned.

  “Boy, when I say this relationship is cursed, I’m not being metaphorical.”

  “I am aware of your feelings towards humans, mother,” he responded, keeping his voice bland.

  “Bah! You think it’s just my opinion on humans? Although I do have a point, boy. I’m not sure anyone from decent or indecent society underwater would have the audacity to scold a bounty-hunter crab-kin.”

  Azul drew in a sharp breath. “Scold a—Have you been spying on me again?”

  Nerissa only shrugged. “Oh, a mother looks in. All good mothers do. And if I hadn’t, I never would have known you as the sort to get caught by an unmoving, practically dormant clam.”

  “I appreciate the help…” Azul grumbled. “So, we really were safe the whole time. Mummy looking in on us.”

  She crossed her tentacles in front of her, ignoring the current that picked up between them in the hall for a routine cleaning.

  “I know you disagree with my methods, but the tides are turning, and I want you to be prepared.”

  Azul nearly yelled, his anger piqued so sharply, but for the sake of the sleeping mermaid at his back, managed to keep his tone even.

  “You should be able to see this whole thing is your fault, mother…” he said, his usual businesslike smile plastering itself onto his mouth as a form of self-defence.

  Nerissa put a hand to her chest in faux-shock.

  “My fault? What do you mean my fault?”

  “Asking the Banejaw heir to let cecaelian sea witches back into Atlantica? What were you thinking, mother? It will dissolve the Banejaw monopoly, yes, but what about all the competition? Direct competition to you, I might add?”

  “And you, boy, should you ever choose to claim your place here.”

  “I won’t,” he promised quickly.

  “Then you’ll never know the thrill of this particular hunt. Yes, there will be other sea witches, but do you really think that anyone can actually… compete?”

  “As you said yourself,” he retorted. “The tides are changing.”

  His mother hissed through her teeth, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she switched tactics.

  “You might not want me around, boy, but you need a woman in your life. And I have tried. Oh, I have tried. What exactly was wrong with Salicia?”

  “She thinks that summoning sailors to their deaths is decent entertainment.”

  “And? What’s wrong with that?” his mother importuned.

  He glared.

  “Oh, fine. Humans. What about Capricia?”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Tried to enter a contract with me on the first date. I refuse to marry someone who tries to scam me, and can’t even do a decent job.”

  Nerissa shrugged. “Fair enough. Lecia?”

  “Had more tentacles than I do, and she is not even cecaelian.”

  “Meaning?”

  “No sense of personal space. I refuse to be handled like a plush toy.”

  His mother pouted. “Mecita?”

  “Is part shark, mother,” he groaned. “She tried to eat parts of me.”

  His mother rolled her eyes once more. “No relationship is perfect, dear.”

  He snorted.

  “Look at yourself, Azul! Pickiness will be the death of you and your business! Look at you! Look at your reputation!”

  “I am doing fine—”

  “You absolutely are not! Your reach is diminishing, boy. You’re practically a thug. Try as you might to create deals, all over, whispers of shady contracts and scams will dog your steps like leeches in a pond.”

  “My profit margins continue to be—”

  “What, boy? Stagnant?”

  Nerissa smirked as Azul floundered for an answer. His mouth opened and closed with no words for her—because she was right. However, it would only be temporary. After all, he was a student, and had other things to do. He’d once tried to renovate Ramshackle a second location, but that was not to be. All he needed was time, however. Time, and real estate….

  “I cannot tell you how much it vexes me, boy. Of all the trash you could have brought to me….she is everything you need.”

  His jaw dropped. “I beg your pardon? Yuu is what?”

  “Oh, don’t misunderstand me,” Nerissa waved a hand again. “You need a lasting partner, and here comes someone able to talk to people, who makes connections with everyone she meets. You walk into a room, boy, and mistrust follows, but a sweet little someone like Yuu? One who speaks languages, and comes with such natural openness, well….”

  “You see an asset in a magicless human?” Azul couldn’t help but scoff in disbelief.

  He knew that Yuu was an asset, but his mother seeing it… that was a new concept entirely.

  “We are an aging art, boy. We evolve or we die. I’m too old to change but you have a chance. And what's more, you found one who seems to be able to put up with you. And, despite your inane pickiness…. You seem to like her as well. Here I thought that was impossible.”

  Azul could only stare.

  “Unfortunately, as with all things, you are short-sighted. This can't work and it won’t work, my son…but perhaps you can find a woman like her.”

  “What?” he asked, dumbly disbelieving.

  “She doesn’t belong here, Azul,” Nerissa hissed. “I’ll give her memories back. She will return to where she belongs. You will stay where you belong, and now that you’ve proven you CAN catch the attention of someone, find a way past this bungling ball of potential that you are, and become the man you ought to be. It’s all a mother wants, after all.”

  “You want me to find a reason to return to the ocean more often.”

  “Accusing me of being sentimental?”

  “Never,” Azul struck down, quickly.

  Nerissa sighed, uncrossing her tentacles, and stirring the current beneath them.

  “This girl….she would be perfect for you. Ah, the tragedy. She doesn’t belong with you.”

  Azul grit his teeth. He would die before he found something to drag him back under the sea more permanently—and if he didn't, whatever reason he found would likely kill him anyway.

  “It was never that serious anyways, mother. She’ll leave me like all the rest,” he said blandly.

  He could hardly process what his mother had said. Every bone and muscle in his body longed, and had longed for several hours now for nothing but sleep.

  “She’ll certainly have the choice to, now won’t she?” his mother reiterated, mocking his earlier choice of words.

  A minute of tense silence passed between them, and Azul was nearly at the brink of abandoning this spot in the hopes of finding another empty bench, or even a bit of floor to rest on, when he heard a stirring in the room at his back.

  “Oh dear…” his mother said, smile widening. “It seems you may have to face this sooner than anticipated.”

  “The sooner the better, Mother,” he growled back, at the same time, dread pooling in his stomach.

  What had she heard? What had she remembered already?

  Time was moving so quickly around him. There was hardly time to think, and at the same time, he needed more information.

  It seemed that his guard’s position in front of Yuu’s door was for naught. His mother’s reach was slightly longer than his own, and in his exhausted delirium, he hardly noticed that she’d turned the knob until the door to Yuu’s room was swinging open behind him.

  “Welcome back to the land of the living,” Nerissa greeted Yuu, who was doing her best to pry herself upright in Azul’s childhood bed. It was clear that she hadn’t entirely gotten used to living with her tail, as all of the bedding was pushed to one side, and she flopped a lot harder than she needed to to escape, before finally just tumbling to the ground.

  Nerissa chuckled as Azul, who evidently still had the presence of mind for chivalry, helped Yuu upright.

  Azul noted that she was shaking.

  “What exactly was in that memory potion, mother?” he asked evenly, so as not to let Yuu know that something was wrong.

  “Oh, just a minor paralytic. Nothing that can’t be slept off. You never know how the mind is going to react.” Nerissa shrugged, as though those were the most normal words in the world.

  It explained why Yuu had collapsed on the way back, and while Azul agreed with the application, he certainly would have appreciated a warning. He swallowed his annoyance in favor of examining Yuu.

  Azul had prepared himself for this. He had calculated for this. The memory potion would take effect, Yuu would wake up, and she would remember. There would be confusion, certainly. Maybe fear. Maybe—if he was unlucky—a few misplaced accusations. What he had not accounted for was the way her breathing hitched, sharp and panicked, as if she were drowning in air.

  She was drowning in something. He could see it—see it in the way her fingers curled against the sheets, see it in the way her chest rose too fast, in the way her eyes, wild and unfocused, flitted past him like he wasn’t even there.

  Azul knew drowning. He had lived it. And this—this was worse.

  His fingers tightened around her wrist before he could think better of it. "Yuu."

  No response. He swallowed. Forced his voice into something even, something reassuring. "You're safe. The breathing potion is still working. You can breathe."

  That, at least, seemed to reach her. She turned her head toward him, slow and hesitant, her lips parting like she wanted to speak but couldn't find the words.

  And then—she looked at him.

  Not the way she usually did, with sharp-eyed amusement or irritation or that infuriating defiance he had grown so accustomed to. No, this was different. Unfamiliar. There was something raw behind her gaze, something fragile, something that made his pulse stutter in a way he did not care to analyze.

  "I—" Her voice cracked. "I remember... I think."

  Then, a few more breaths, and she did what he had seen her do a hundred times—seen, and never recognized it for what it was. She took the panic of the moment, and tucked it away for later, sinking it beneath an facade of composure and a smile. He knew it because it was the same thing that he did, himself.

  And just like that, she was herself again, no matter what turmoil she’d been through. Yuu was simply Yuu. Steadfast and optimistic, even when it was entirely inappropriate to have made herself so.

  “Memories coming back then, love?” Nerissa said, cooly, and Azul realized from the coldness in his mother’s tone, that he’d lingered too long on Yuu’s arms, and detached himself quickly.

  Yuu nodded, folding her hands neatly in front of her. “Yes, thank you, Madame Ashengrotto. Although, not all of them, I think…”

  Nerissa merely dismissed Yuu’s doubt with a wave.

  “In time, my dear. Give it a few days, a few dreams… my magic will return them quite quickly, you’ll find. Now—”

  Nerissa clasped her hands, leering down at Yuu with a greedy smile. Yuu’s tail caught the light as she squirmed under that gaze, forcing Azul to look away. His eyes were overly sensitive light on a good day, but underwater, with the sleep-deprivation making his ears ring, staring at Yuu was beyond him.

  “—Since your time in this world is now limited, you have only so much time to take advantage of skills like mine, my dear,” his mother was saying. “How do you feel about your figure? Your voice? Perhaps you’d like to be a little shorter? You seem rather tall to be living on land among so many male ruffians—”

  “No, mother,” Azul dismissed quickly. “I’m footing the bill for this. Yuu don’t agree to anything.”

  His mother only laughed.

  “Hah! It seems my competition is beginning already. Life is already more exciting…. Well then, if there’s nothing else you require, I suppose you two are safe to send back to the surface. You have two days to finish removing the poison. Now that the shell of truth has been applied to your wound, my dear—”

  She gestured to Yuu.

  “—By all means, now the removal should work.”

  “Should?” Yuu gasped.

  Azul nearly rolled his eyes.

  “SHOULD! Yes, ‘should’ is a wonderful word,” Nerissa cackled. “Azul, you have things under control here, I trust?”

  Then, in a billow of tentacles and whirling currents, Nerissa swept out of the room without a goodbye. Although, to him, she hardly needed to. Nerissa Ashengrotto had made her point quite clearly.

  It took a nudge from Yuu’s elbow to bring him back to the room.

  “Must you elbow me in the gills, Yuu?” he grumbled tiredly.

  Yuu glanced from him, to the doorway where Nerissa had just disappeared.

  “I can see where you get it from,” she deadpanned.

  Azul sighed—a deep, bone-weary sigh that he felt all the way through his gills.

  “You’ve never said anything more insulting to me in our three years of acquaintance.”

  “Don’t worry. I wasn’t that serious,” Yuu said flippantly. “So… are we swimming back?”

  “You heard us, then,” he said aloud. It wasn’t a question.

  “Or is there a mirror we can take into Octavinelle?” she continued, ignoring him. “Personally, I’ve done about as much swimming as I can take.”

  “If my mother says she will send us back, then she will manage it,” said Azul, privately hoping that he was right. He’d dragged Yuu and himself across to the city and back, and while he could feel, distantly, that something in this conversation had gone Wrong, he couldn’t find in himself the energy to care about anything except that the venom could now be removed.

  He only had to survive the next two days and this entire disaster would be over.

  With another small ‘pop’ of bubbles, his mother’s final scroll appeared on his desk. Azul gratefully took the chance to turn away from Yuu, and read it, only to be perked right back into alertness again by what it said:

  Venom removal necessary every 3 hours for the next 30 hours.

  His eyes bugged. He had to pull the venom, from Yuu, and then re-pull it?

  Every three hours?

  This was going to be the death of him.