This whole celebration thing just feels so shortsighted. It's the council's way to adhere to a plan, to look like they're doing something instead of facing the actual problem or admitting that they're doing nothing.
It seems that lately the council has been getting more and more callous, more aloof. Maybe their age is catching up to them.
You sigh. It doesn't quite make sense. More and more, you suspect that there's something else, some other reason they didn't send you, beyond the fact that you broke the rules when you brought back a human. Maybe it's something you can't remember. Maybe long ago you did something terrible up on land, and the rest of the merfolk don't want you reliving that horror. Or maybe it was amazing, and you had to be dragged away. Sometimes it's hard to remember everything, and it's usually more polite not to stir up the past.
You look around you. Usually, being out in the ocean feels centering, but with everything going on, it's much more difficult to just enjoy being out here. You push yourself to refocus on your task.