Zale was not handling things well. He had to keep up appearances until the deep-sea merfolk left with a mermaid who worked in the palace to pay off her parents' debt. The debt was considered cleared now that she had been sold off to Chief Indra.
Once that was over and done with, no one cared what Zale was up to anymore so he immediately set to work feverishly trying to speed up his plans. The problem was that he had always known this was a long game so speeding things up was more difficult than anticipated.
"You are overworking yourself," Beck pointed out. "You need to get some rest."
"I won't rest until I see Tali again," he replied stubbornly.
"Then you will waste away. Your brain needs to be in peak condition for any of this to work and you know it."
Zale sighed. He did know that. He was the mastermind behind their whole revolt and if he wasn't in peak condition, they would never succeed. That knowledge didn't make him feel any better.
