I had to wait longer than I'd hoped. It felt like my chin would fuse into my palm.
Brigitte came back, but she ignored me and hit on guys. At least she had good taste; she moved on the guy who'd flashed me a smile earlier…
The brown-haired bartender returned with a short, grey-haired woman. The shorty climbed atop the counter, sniffed me, and said, "She's human?"
The bartender grabbed her under the armpits and pulled her off the counter. "I told you." She puffed, putting her supervisor back on the floor.
"Are you sure she said the password correctly?" The shorty asked.
"Yes," I replied. "I did."
"Hmm…"
"She did!" The bartender shouted.
"Okay, don't shout. I believe you." The short one said, patting her ass. "I just wanted to double-check."
"You didn't believe me."
"I did. I did." Turning to me, she asked, "So what do you want? How did you hear about us?"
"Do you take orders? I'd like to talk to your boss. I need jelly."
"Jelly… What do you need it for?"
I leaned closer and sarcastically whispered. "I didn't realise I was playing 21 questions." Then, straightening myself out, I said, "Let me talk to your boss." They exchanged glances. "I'm a paying customer. I doubt your boss will be pleased to learn that you turned down a new client." This was getting annoying. Was it this hard in the game? I couldn't recall.
"Let me go talk to the boss." The shorty said and walked off to the back of the bar.
"You'll have to wait," said the brown-haired bartender.
"Okay."
"Bartender, two glasses of beer!" Someone shouted.
Slowly tearing her eyes away from me, she went to assist other customers.
***
Under the water, in a stone room, sat a fat mermaid. She sipped on a bubble of wine and looked at the young lady in front of her.
The young mermaid slammed her scaly fist on the stone table and shouted, "Aren't you mad, Avra!" She flared her gills. "Little boys are being taken, and goddess knows what they're doing to them!"
"Go petition the queen, Melie. She has the power. You have the power to speak to her. What do you want from a fat old fish like me…" She tiredly asked.
The young mermaid snarled. "I tried. She won't listen to me."
The fat fish threw up her scaly arms. "Then what do you want me to do about it!?" She exhaled, exhausted, shaking her head.
"Help me catch them, Avra." She hunched over the table, webbed hands flat on the stone surface, scaly breasts dangling. "Work with me."
"Princess, please don't ask the impossible." Avra shook her curly hair. Melie frowned; she hated being called princess. "I'm just the owner of a small bar. I wouldn't even know where to begin."
"You're not helping them, are you, Avra." Melie narrowed her eyes.
"Wha- What!? What are you accusing your aunt of, Melie!?" Her shock turned to rage. "How dare you!" She slammed her purple fist on the stone table.
"Hmm…" Melie leaned back in her seat and crossed her blue arms. "Okay."
With an exhausted sigh, she explained, "Look, Melie, it could be anyone. It could be the Squids." The Squids was a mermaid criminal organisation. "They could be selling them to the humans for a profit. Or it could be one of the human gangs. Who knows. But it's best to leave this to the authorities."
"Leave it to the authorities?" She cocked her chin and voiced a fake laugh. "That's hilarious coming from you."
Avra frowned. "Melie, go back to Atlantis. Coming here alone…" She shook her head in disapproval. "I can only imagine how worried your father must be." Melie lowered her gaze, avoiding her aunt's eyes. She felt guilty about leaving Atlantis without telling her father. "The human queendom is dangerous for a young mermaid."
"I see plenty of young mermaids around." She pointed her thumb at the door, alluding to the underwater bar outside. She then swam from her seat to the liquor cabinet and opened it.
"It's dangerous for a princess."
"Don't call me princess." She flashed her a sidelong glance before examining the bottles of alcoholic beverages in the cabinet.
The door opened just as she reached for a bottle of rum, and a short green mermaid swam in, flapping her webbed feet.
"What is it, Pav?"
"There's a human…" She slowly spoke. "She wants to see you…"
Melie's suspicious eyes shifted between them. Avra gestured to her not to say anything and asked, "A human? Not a human we know…"
"Yes, boss. She wants to order jelly."
"Jelly… We'll have to order it. We don't have any in stock." Avra said, and Pav nodded. "A human… Alone? There's no friend with her?"
"No. No, friend."
"Hmm…" There was an unspoken formality at the bar when it came to new humans. "How did she hear about us?"
Pav shrugged with a saddened expression. "I don't know. She wouldn't say."
"Hmm… someone's been babbling." The fat fish frowned. "Well, bring her in."
"Yes, boss." Pav swam out the door.
"Who's the human, Avra?" Melie asked as soon as the door closed.
"I don't know." A deep frown grew on her fat face. "Someone's been talking without permission… Well, some humans are bound to find out… Maybe she's part of the squids."
"You've been working with the squids!" Melie accused.
"No, dammit. Not like that." She spat out. "Oh goddess, I can't deal with this. Melie, you better go out. Have something to eat. Let me talk to the human."
"No, I'm not leaving. I'm staying right here until you give me an address."
"I don't have an address!" She clenched her fist.
"You must know something. You must have a name. Someone I can track down."
"I don't. Go talk to the 3 circus freaks; maybe they know something."
"I already did. They don't know anything."
"I don't either!" She groaned. "Ask them again!"
"Maybe I will."
"You should."
They stared at each other. "I'm not leaving."
She shook her head and tiredly pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine, do whatever you want."
Melie extracted a bubble of rum from the bottle and sucked.
"Should you be drinking? Last I checked, you're still 18." Avra's weary eyes lingered on her niece's rum-sucking lips. The drinking age in Atlantis was 21.
"We're in the human queendom, Avra." She stated matter-of-factly. "You only need to be 16 here."
"If your father sees you-"
"Well, he's not here to see me, is he?"
She sighed. "My brother has it tough."
She sipped rum and ignored her.
***
I was slumped over the counter, tired of waiting, when a finger poked me. It was the shorty supervisor.
"Come, the boss'll see you."
"Finally," I thought, rising from the stool.
She led me to the back and held open the black door for me.
As I stepped in, I muttered, "I don't remember the secret door, being so non-secretive…"
"You don't remember?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Ah, never mind." I shook my head. "I mean, it looks kind of… I thought someone could walk in accidentally."
"It doesn't open for just someone." She shut the door behind us.
"Oh, I see." I nodded. Magic lock.
The interior of this particular room was made of stone, unlike the rest of the bar.
She undressed and hung her clothing on the hooks that crowded the walls. A flight of stairs led underwater. In the time I had turned my head and had taken in the room, she was already in her panties.
"Wait!" I exclaimed and quickly undressed. She submerged her feet and turned into her half-mermaid form.
Mermaids had three forms: the mermaid, the human, and the half. In their mermaid form, their legs fuse into a tail fin, large fins appear on their arms and back, gills appear on their necks, scales cover their bodies, the eyelids disappear, their noses flatten, and their hands become webbed. Only a portion of their lips and cheeks remain human. In the half-form, parts of their arms and legs become scaly, their gills form, and their hands and feet become webbed, but they otherwise stay human. And in their human form, of course, they appear entirely human. With each metamorphosis, their speed and mobility improve.
Stripped to my underwear, I quickly put on the magic snorkel and stepped into the water. I could see the magic lights shimmering from down below. I followed her into the water…
I heard gaggles of fish giggling and chuckling as I descended the aquatic stairs. And the view became clear as we entered the underwater bar. The shorty nodded to a fish in a suit as we passed through the entryway. I followed her webbed feet past the laughing mermen and mermaids… They plucked fishes from the water and ate them alive… For many small fishes swam about. The vibrant fish were like the complimentary bread at a human restaurant…
The shorty took me to the boss's room. After knocking twice, she opened the door and let me in.
"You can go back up, Pav." The fat purple mermaid sitting comfortably on the stone sofa waved her off.
"Alright, boss." The shorty closed the door behind her.
By the liquor cabinet floated a familiar mermaid, the 4th princess. I could never mistake that shiny blue in the game or in real life. I was shocked! What's she doing here? Why's she here? She was sipping on a bubble of rum.
"Sit down, human. I'll hear you out." The fat purple boss gestured to the stone sofa across from her.
"Ah… Yes. Right." I cleared my head of the brewing questions and focused on the task. I floated over to the offered seat and somehow managed to sit.
"How did you learn about my bar?" She cut to the chase.
It was a question I couldn't answer because the person who told me about this place was standing right there, the princess. But of course, she didn't know that. And that was for a different route, one I wasn't going to take in this lifetime. "Does it matter? I could've heard from any one of them." I gestured to the lively underwater bar. "I'm a paying customer, and I know that's all you care about." Though I had first learned of the code from the princess, I had used it many times without meeting her.
"Hmm… Well, you certainly do know me." She smirked.
"Don't you do business with humans?" I asked, knowing the answer.
"I do. But…" Of course, she works with humans. If I had to guess, she's thinking, there's a form to this… I was just a new and unfamiliar face. But she'll get over it.
"Then what's the problem?"
"Nothing…" She scrutinised me. "But it does make me curious… Was it Fili or maybe Stef…" She made guesses. I shrugged; I had no idea who she was referring to. "I'll have to look into this later… Hmm…" She looked into my eyes… then sighed. "You're right. I'm not one to turn away customers. The bar needs a new tank, the old one's starting to leak. And the fish farm could use some work, but are you sure you don't want to help me? I'm willing to give a discount…"
I shook my head. "It was just a friend. There's nothing to say."
"Is that so…" There was doubt in her eyes. Perhaps I'm the friend of one of her important clients. Perhaps I'm not… I smiled, confident I had read her mind correctly.
"Was it the squids!?" The princess butt in.
"Stay out of this, Melie." She spat. Then turning back to me, she said, "Ignore her."
"Nice to meet you," I said to the princess. The princess was great for quests if you played against the TLC, but unfortunately, that wasn't the route I was taking.
"Hmm…" Avra was annoyed that I didn't listen to her.
"Who are you working for, human!? You know something about mermaid trafficking, don't you!?"
"Oh…" That's why she's here; that makes sense… Before the game even started, she was going around searching for the mermaid traffickers… "Mermaid trafficking…" The words slipped out of my mouth.
"She knows something!" The princess shouted, turning to her aunt.
"No, no, no." I waved my arms. Things could get really bad if I don't clear this up. And I wanted to become friends with these people, not foes. "No, no. I just thought about Fallen Mountain."
"Ha." Avra nodded.
"But she enslaves all kinds. When you mentioned people trafficking, that's the name that came to mind."
"Hrrm…" The princess clenched her fist. "Mother should do something about her."
If only she knew what her mother's been up to, I thought and shook my head. "I came here to buy 500 millilitres of jellyfish syrup." I wasn't expecting the princess to be here, but talking about mermaid trafficking won't help my cause.
"So I heard from Pav. But we don't have it in stock."
"When will you get it?"
"We can order some, but you'll have to pay a deposit."
"Alright. How much."
"30 gold, and another 20 when we get the product."
"Hm…" Jellyfish syrup was an artificially rare product like Rainbow Wood. I could get it for a sliver if I went to Atlantis, but I didn't have time to waste on such a long trip. So I had no choice but to agree. "Alright. How should I transfer the money?"
"Melie, bring me the box on my desk. And the notepad too…" She stared at her aunt. "Don't embarrass your aunt." With a disgruntled frown, she did as she was told.
"Thank you." With a smile, Avra took the little box from her hand. From within the box, she tossed me a card. It was a business card for a health charity. "It's a charity I run. You can transfer the money in there."
"Right, a charity…"
She smirked. "As soon as we confirm we've received the 30 gold. I'll put in the order through my channels."
I nodded. "Alright. How long will it take?"
"About 2 weeks." She shrugged. "But you can give me your address, and we'll deliver it." She passed me the notepad and the bone nib. The notepad was made of a special kind of leaf that darkened when milkfish bone was pressed against it. It was the way to write underwater.
"I'm staying at the Boudica… I guess I'll have to wait." With a sigh, I wrote down my hotel number. "Terrie's going to think I'm a liar," I mumbled as I returned the notepad to her. Well, the end of the week was too optimistic anyway.