Concubine Shaye was seated within a pile of soft cushions in her royal chamber. Pearl beaded curtain drapes hung down over her cosy nest. The concubine was nibbling on a slice of apple, a luxury in the mer kingdom that few could afford since trade between the two species had stopped completely.
Whatever human items that the mers could get their hands on were sourced through shipwrecks and attacks on merchant ships that strayed too deep into mer territory. Such instances were uncommon but they still happened when bad weather and storms swept the ships off their charted course.
"Mother, do we forgive the human? It doesn't seem to be his fault that brother died." Grifan's younger sister, Shali, asked her mother, the concubine Shaye. The little purple mer was sitting beside her mother on the nest of cushions.
