Finding a cave to spend the night, Cormac placed some seaweed upon the floor. It might not have been much of a bed, but it was one. Turning to Melusine, he saw her sitting outside of the cave with the same distant look still upon his countenance. She had barely spoken at all since having met the Sea Bishop.
Swimming out to the Surface-Born Merrow-Maiden, Cormac sat next to Melusine and asked: "You want to talk about earlier?"
"I… I don't know." Melusine answered, looking Cormac in the eye. "Maybe… It is just… Hard to believe. How can my dad not be my dad? How can my mom not be my mom? I remember my mom, she looked like me and now this Sea Bishop seems to think I might be some long-lost princess of the Deep?"
"It could just be coincidence." Commented Cormac. "Look at yourself! Your entire body isn't golden, yet chiefly scarlet, so that seems to be all the Sea Bishop has to go on, your tail being chiefly a shade of red, where you originally come from and how old you are."
"We don't know how mermaids of that kind should look, Cormac." Said Melusine, looking at her tail for a moment. "How do we know I don't look exactly like how one of those mermaids should? I might look like this Emperor of the Deep's empress!"
"That doesn't mean you are their long-lost daughter, Melusine." Cormac gently took the Helena of the Deep by the hand. "You could just be the double for this princess, your parents could have been the Surface-Dweller counterparts, the doubles of this Emperor and his empress. We don't even know what had happened to the baby girl this Emperor of the Deep had to give up!"
Melusine remained quiet for a while. Staring out in to the Deep, she wondered if what Cormac said was true. Was she and her parents truly just the doubles of an Emperor of the Deep, his empress and their daughter? Or had she just been placed in the care of two parents who looked as if they could have been her biological family?
"What about you, Cormac?" she asked. "Still wondering about Ronemun and you being related?"
"Sometimes." Cormac honestly answered. "Though, I must admit with merrows being real, I sometimes find myself wondering about my own family, if I have some merrow blood in me. My maternal grandmother's maiden name was O'Flaherty and my mom's maiden name O'Sullivan and it is said such families are descended from marriages between human men and merrow-maidens. But I have no scaly skin, no membrane between my hands and toes, so I don't know, maybe those features just became less prevalent over time until they ultimately just vanished."
Giving the Young Egan, her friend a smile, Melusine said: "It doesn't matter if you have merrow blood or not, Cormac. You are still you."
Returning the smile, Cormac replied: "And it doesn't matter if you are a long-lost princess. You are still you, Melusine… Though if you are not, we still don't know what happened to this possible double of yours."
Laughing, Melusine gave him a light slap on the arm and said: "Cormac, you will have us up all night discussing what could have happened to her if she and I are not one and the same."
Laughing as well, Cormac nodded and added: "And we do need our sleep. We still have a long journey ahead of us."
A long journey indeed. The Atlantic was behind them, but they still had to get through the Arctic to reach the Pacific and then they had to make their way down Mariana Trench to reach Pacifica… Where they would meet Ronemun… And after that? What would come after that? Would they just stay in Pacifica or would they be able to explore more of the Deep?