It was business as usual managing the family pod. Matriarch Tristaline kept a close watch over her mer-subjects. Mostly, that they didn’t fight over the kelp, and that they never broke the surface of the water.

Since the generation before hers made the Rule, no mer-person is alive who had broken it. It was a matter of safety. There were all kinds of dangers up there, from the humans to the machines, and it wasn’t safe for any mer-person. Human magics were too alluring.

Tristaline gazed down into the depths. While she was musing to herself, her daughter Aqualina had gone with a group of friends down to hunt fish. She just barely could make out their fins quickly swimming off in the wrong direction.

Where do they think they’re going?

She called to her guard, Adron, to follow them and report back. Although she wanted to follow them herself, she had duties to the pod. If they never return, it was no business of hers. She can only protect them if they follow the rules.

Adron followed them to a sunken ship.