Tavus pushed open the door and found his elder sister at her writing desk. Emzella looked up as the door creaked, her eyes were such a dark blue they appeared to be black. She was the only one of the three of them that looked like Roman, her hair and tail fin were a deep blue where Tavus and Aeryn’s was green like their mother’s.

“Wore her out have you?” She chuckled swimming over to gently peel Lyra from Tavus’ back, cradling the young girl lovingly in her arms and smiling down at her.

“What are Uncles for?” Tavus gave his sister a cheeky grin as he watched her place Lyra in bed, her little face so angelic in sleep.

“You’re so good to her, little brother, thank you for today, it gave me time to catch up on correspondence,” as she spoke she moved back to her desk without looking back at him.

“No need to thank me, you should see how disgruntled old Baldwin gets when we play in the garden,” Emzella tsked and smiled at her mischevious little brother, shaking her head a little.

“You should be nicer to poor Baldwin, he’s older than father!” she giggled all the same.

“He shouldn’t be so grumpy and easy to irritate,” Tavus countered, swimming over he graced her cheek with a kiss, “Good day, dear sister!” and out the window, he swam. It was considered bad etiquette to do so but Tavus had always argued in their world they could swim in a straight line wherever they wanted to go. So why would you take the winding and twisting halls when you could simply get from place to place by swimming through the windows. It annoyed his father greatly, he had been doing it since he was a young boy and allowed to venture out on his own, even escaping from his teachers when their backs were turned. Tavus stroked his strong tail fin quickly, speeding through the water and towards the tower he had claimed for his own.

Normally as a royal family member, he should be housed in the main portion of the palace but he preferred it here. Slowing down before swimming through one of the tower windows, the room took up the entire top of the tower, with windows facing the four directions. It was far enough away from crowded palace life it gave him peace and that’s why he liked it. Moving to the barnacle crusted trunk at the end of his bed, Tavus retrieved a small net he had made into a satchel of sorts, tying it around his waist. Lifting out his double-ended spear, he looked out his window, looking for anyone who might see him. Another reason he liked being so far from everyone else, it made it easier for him to slip away from the city.

Not seeing anyone around who could spot him, Tavus darted out his window and swam straight down, hiding against the lower walls of the palace. He was careful as he made his way to the rear wall, up and over and he would be gone before anyone knew it. Though he had to get through the coral garden before he got to the wall, and old Baldwin just loved to rat him out. Swimming slowly and listening intently for the sound of movement or voices, Baldwin liked to grumble to himself and so could be heard before he was seen. Tavus’ heart leaped in his chest when he came around a corner and saw Aeryn and Roman in the garden, quickly backtracking around the corner before he was seen. Last thing he wanted was to be caught trying to sneak out by his father of all people.

“Are you sure you won't go?” Aeryn could be heard.

“I was at the last wedding, who would think, Prince Larin would marry a fae,” Roman snorted, Tavus peeked around the corner to spy on the two of them.

“Cleon isn’t so bad,” Aeryn laughed, linking her arm with Roman’s as they moved down the garden path, “But this is different! Queen Lindsay and Daniel are finally getting married, I have been waiting for this day for three years!” Aeryn was grinning, clearly happy for her elvish friend.

“I cannot leave, there is unrest in the villages of the deeper seas, seems there is a wandering pod of willoce,” Roman sighed softly,

“An entire pod? How many?” Aeryn stopped and looked up at Roman with a worried look.

“We’re not sure, they seem to be attacking the villages at night, we are only certain that there is more than two,” Roman rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. “I will gather warriors over the next week and we will set out to hunt them down,”

“How many villagers have been lost?” Tavus could hear the pain in her voice and wanted to comfort her but stayed in hiding.

“Reports are still coming in, don’t trouble yourself, daughter. Go now and pack your things, you leave in the morning for Ionna,” Roman held her head in his hands and kissed her forehead gently.

“Will you be taking Tavus with you?” Tavus’ heart sped up with excitement for a moment,

“He’s too young, Aeryn,” Roman sighed

“He’s nearly seventeen, father, you must start trusting him with duties, he’s beginning to feel left out,” Aeryn squeezed her father’s hand before she turned and left to find her servants to help her pack and get ready to travel. Tavus waited until his father was out of sight before he continued on. Frowning deeply as he swam, not being as careful now as he had before. He was angry, swimming as fast as he could propel himself to do so, up and over the back wall. Once he was out of the palace grounds leaving the city was simple and that’s exactly what he did.

Lost in his angry thoughts, Tavus didn’t pay attention to where he was going, he needed to swim, the speed and freedom it gave him always calmed his turbulent mind when he felt this way.

“Too young!?” he snarled zigzagging through jagged rock formations, all he wanted was to help. Aeryn got to travel, not just to the farthest villages. She had been on land, Aeryn had summoned legs and walked on solid ground. Roman had gone with her a few times over the last four years, to weddings and birthdays, to the birth of royal babies. It wasn’t fair, even Emzella had attended the wedding of the elf and the fae. He had only ever seen the other races in pictures in books in the library, he wanted to feel the ground beneath his feet, he wanted to know what feet looked like.

“It’s not fair,” he slowed down and let his body sink down onto the ocean floor, turning over to lay on his back. Aeryn was again going to see the elves and she would come back with stories of her travels and the things she had seen. Roman was off to hunt down vicious, mer-eating sea serpents and he would be here, playing hide and seek in the gardens with Lyra while Emzella did all the important work of running the kingdom during the King and his heir’s absence. Tavus felt foolish for his anger once he calmed down, he was much younger than his sisters and the still saw him as a child. Even though he wasn’t one anymore, his father still treated him like he was ten.

With a sigh Tavus picked himself up off the ground and looked around, he had swam to furiously he hadn’t noticed he was on the edge of the old kingdom. No one was supposed to come here, it was ordered by his great-great-grandfather to be off-limits to everyone. Long ago there had been four kingdoms under the ocean, however, during Tavus’ great-great-great-grandfather’s rule, one of the other kings had become greedy and declared war on the other three kingdoms. He believed that the oceans should be ruled by one king.

The Mad-King as he was called now, had gotten his wish, one King did now rule all the waters, but it was not his descendants. The Mad-King had wiped out two of the other three kingdoms by raising and training willoce to attack merfolk. But when he had set the willoce on Azra, they had been ready and set up thousands of net traps, charging in with their double-ended spears. The old city of Azra had been destroyed and many warriors had been lost but they saw victory when King Airon had thrown his spear and struck the Mad-King in the heart. Without their leader the remaining warriors had retreated, some say they settled in the deepwater villages, content to live their lives in peace. Though some people said they fled even further and rebuilt a kingdom of their own.