Zale had known something was wrong from the moment he spotted the deep-sea merfolk. He knew exactly what the merking was up to but couldn't react because it would go against his carefully-crafted persona.
Everyone was under the impression that he was too shallow and frivolous to care about his sister when nothing could be further from the truth. Talori was his only source of happiness after their mother's death and, as such, was his greatest weakness.
He could still remember the day she was born. She was so tiny and helpless cradled in their mother's arms.
He had promised her then that he would never let anything happen to his baby sister. And he certainly wasn't about to break that promise now.
The best course of action was to send her away somewhere safe and fake her death but where could he possibly send her? He didn't have any connections in neighboring kingdoms and the nearest one was quite far from here regardless.
