Plurk paste

One day, when you are 16 or 17, Lan Xichen was gone. After his patrol he didn't return home. It was unlikely for the responsible, kind crown prince to run away, so you all rule out he turned tail on the clan. Search parties are formed, and you look up on your own. You see no signs of fights with predators or other merfolk clans. An urgent letter was sent to the ruler of the Murky Realms, the neighbor territory of the seal fae, in case he had gone to visit his best friend. He had not, and the young chief joined in with his own men as well.

You swim and you call and you sing your mother's song, hoping Xichen can hear you and sings back. The water around you is turbulent, a storm reflecting your family's heart. You don't give up; you're so exhausted you fall asleep floating in the middle of nowhere, and your throat is raspy and sore.

Four days later, your brother appears again, carried on the back of an enormous brown seal. He looks exhausted and famished and dim, and it breaks your heart, but you're relieved to see him safe again. Your uncle is so upset he doesn't know whether to cry or to yell, so he just takes Xichen from the seal chief's protection and hugs him tight.

Thank you, da-ge, your brother bows to the big, buff seal fae, who nods back. Please stay for dinner and for the night if you want. You must be tired from the journey.

Look who's talking! the seal transmits with a deep mental voice. You can barely float upright, Xichen!

Hahaha, I guess you're right.

Xichen!! your uncle cries. You better have a good explanation for this!

I do, but may we please eat first, Uncle? This nephew can tell the story at the table.

And so you all gather around a round table. Xichen looks less pale now, and he explains what happened five days before. He saw a dolphin calf trapped in a fishing net and he felt sorry for the little fellow. But as he freed him, a second net was cast and trapped him in. In his surprise, his trident had slipped through his fingers and fell somewhere in the depths, leaving him unable to free himself.

The seal is now a burly young man in gray robes, wearing his brown skin over his big shoulders. He intervenes and says that he and his seal men had found the trident and used it to track his friend. He removes a part of his headpiece and at first it looks like a big fork, but now you see the prongs are arrow-shaped. It's a shrunken trident. The knowledge in these memories tells you that this is the way sea fae carry their weapons around. For you, the human inside the merman, suddenly a certain hilarious incident during a breakfast comes to man.

Xichen continues his tale. Human fishermen caught him thinking he was a white adult dolphin, but they seemed rather excited to find a teenage merman. He tried to plead with them, but the greedy men ignored him and took him to land between nets of dead fish in their dingy boat. Out of water and unable to use a weapon, he felt lost.

Xichen was kept in this building beyond the docks, inside a tub of water and chained. Even if he could control the liquid around him, he wouldn't know how to reach back to the sea. So he stayed there, trying to find a way. He heard the humans talking about how they'd become rich if they sold him. He didn't like that one bit, considering the horror stories about humans who kidnapped mermaids and mermen. There was no point in killing the humans, he thought, since he would just be stuck anyway.

Then a golden ray of sunshine appeared in the shape of a young human. Xichen's narration became more chipper as they told them of this boy who worked for his captors. While he did his menial tasks and chores, he would stare at the merboy even at the cost of screams and kicks. At night, the boy sneaked back in with a fish wrapped in cloth. He figured the merman was hungry.

Lan Xichen and him talked for a while that night in secret.

Another day passed the same way. Some possible buyers passed by to check the living merchandising. The boy did his chores with a smile, but it only looked real when he glanced at Lan Xichen. He waited until the night again to bring him food and the new friends talk about their lives.

The third day, they had found a buyer. They would move the merman with tub included the next morning. But in the evening, after sharing a meal of a lumpy dish of human cuisine that Lan Xichen had never seen in his life, all the crew fell asleep like magic.

The friend was awake, waiting for this chance. He hurried to Lan Xichen.

"We have to take you out of here now!"

With difficulty, they managed to get Lan Xichen out of the water and to the ground. The boy covered his body with a long cloak he had ready. Since the fish tail was still visible, he took a blanket to hide the rest. The boy struggled to carry him outside where a small wooden contraption that looked like a 'chariot with round rings' was expecting them.

Xichen tells you that it was one of the most stressful situations of his life, because he feared not only for himself but for the little human, who got in troubles to help him. Somehow they managed to get to the sea without being caught, and after saying their goodbyes Xichen jumped back into the ocean.

For over a day, Lan Xichen wandered around, lost and tired and hungry, trying to look for his home. The seal people found him first, almost on the verge of fainting. Once again a friend had saved him.

To say your uncle didn't like the story would be an understatement. He ignored the kind human and remarked on the cruel and shameful attitude of the other ones. From your brother's faltering face, you understand that his impression of humanity is the exact opposite. Xichen politely tries to rebuke that we cannot judge all humans the same way when there are good ones, but Lan Qiren points out in rage that Lan Xichen was naive for assuming the boy had good intentions and going with him so willingly.

You start to wonder who's right and who's wrong. This is the point where your curiosity awakes and you decide to find your own answer.