Looking out into the sea from the lighthouse afforded him an excellent view. It seemed at times when the skies were clear and the breeze was crisp—but not sharp—there was something almost pleasant about this arrangement. Relius lived this way for many years now. He was questioned little and indispensable to a portion of the population. Running the lighthouse gave him privacy and space to carry out his experiments. Keeping the bright guiding light up above running was a simple matter with alchemy. Altogether he considered it decent deal except when winter came through and the salty sea air was less enjoyable.
This was fine too of course—it kept away more prying eyes and visitors. But when they did come through with neighborly nosiness or sailors looking to spread news of the sea his way, he did his best to tolerate them. Really the seamen were the least troublesome. They brought rare supplies he needed for his work and also interesting news.
He had heard the rumors this way. He heard all kinds of little snippets and claims. It wasn't often he visited town or dealt with these visitors to his home, but the news was starting to get out of hand. Each time it sprang up the stories grew more and more exaggerated. Something about that irked him. There was no way it was true after all.
Just two months prior a fisherman in town said there was some kind of big fish—one big enough to knock a small boat over. And that was the story for awhile. But before too long it shifted—people who had gone out to the seas or had friends who did came to say, no, this was no simple large fish—it was a monstrous octopus. The beast grew telling after telling but it had stabilized now: they said this was a true ancient sea monster.
As far as the data he could collect from the shore showed him, Relius could find no trace of sea monsters existing previously in this area. Just legends and superstition like always with humans. He would work with the next best thing—weeding out the lies. On his trips into town for supplies he spoke with more reliable sorts and over the course of a few weeks he was able to narrow down a few things.
This entity hadn't been around until around those two months ago or so. Where it struck was fairly consistent. It wasn't within his natural view at the lighthouse but a bit further out. Just far enough that perhaps the eyes in the crow's nest might call out that land was distant but in sight. The monster struck with irony and did not generally leave survivors. Ships in short distances of each other would have a tale but always it was one ship usually crossing the wreckage of another. No ship's wreckage was like another: one was ripped to pieces, others had a giant hole or two punched into them and left to sink. There was an anomaly he noted, a ship pulled far off course and run into a reef and ultimately to their deaths after sinking. Whatever was doing this was intelligent enough to work that out.
Relius caught himself on that thought. There were no monsters left in the sea—this was all the talk of ancient times. Surely humans had evolved beyond such childish explanations for the world? Or perhaps not. It was precisely the sort of thing to vex a man of science such as himself. There was an explanation somewhere he could make sense of. There was magic or alchemy involved—some sort of trap in the sea perhaps.
The idea remained that—an idea to consider from time to time. It wasn't his problem. Not that second anyway.
Within a few weeks of settling it as that he'd received word some very particular and difficult to acquire supplies he'd ordered from across the sea had sunk. The whole shipment and crew were now at the bottom of the sea at the hand of this terrible sea monster.
That was just personal enough to light a fire under him. His research shifted to a new full time subject: Fishing.
He planned to catch this thing or stop whatever could do this himself. It wasn't worth killing himself over—he was well above throwing himself into a dinghy and adding his name to the lost. No, Relius was far more clever than that. From the lighthouse laboratory he started to develop something to lure this thing out. And if it were just some sort of magic trap or anything else, the item aimed to disrupt that energy.
Relius hoped the answer laid in some kind of magic field or trick. Then he could take apart that spell or chunk of alchemy and study it. Who would create such a thing however? He had low expectations in that regard. Some kind of creature under the sea likely developed enough cells to rub together to work out ships were full of dinner. There wasn't much he could do with a sea creature. That and his tank would likely not hold anything too large for study. This didn't stop him from expanding the tank down in his lab a little. It didn't hurt to be prepared.
The day came that Relius prepared enough to launch his plan. The device itself he could hold easily between two hands—like a large dish—the inner workings sealed water tight so to avoid any water damage. It would send out a pulse to disrupt any magic or alchemy running out a certain distance from where it would be dropped. The range on it was long and it had the additional effect of attracting anything smart enough to sense it. Relius took a small boat out to drop the item out into the water—making sure it landed right near his trap to capture whatever this was. If it were small enough it would shoot the monster right into his care and alert him—otherwise it would only tag the beast before it likely broke free and would make it easier to track. All and all, Relius rated the plan as decent. Not his best. He was no fisherman by any stretch, but he was just irked enough to try something outside of his usual comfort zone.
Once Relius returned to his lighthouse he settled back to his usual. Getting nervous or worked up about a plan in motion didn't suit him. His device would work and eventually he would see results or at least hear of the sea monster mysteriously disappearing. Ships would come through and he could get back to what he initially intended to get done. It was fine either way. Relius was a patient man and a man of many projects.
Days passed. Relius thought little of it. In fact, it did not take him long to simply ignore that little undertaking. He'd gotten himself caught up in a new subject uncovered in a process he didn't often try. This kept him up in his lab for many hours at a time. Just before passing out one night he had the strength to send himself to bed for once. It was only when he'd finally slept just long enough to really be comfortable that his alert went off.
The trap was sprung. He dressed and hurried back to the lab, hoping to have caught something. He could tell from the noise outside that the seas were terribly rough, but that alone was not enough to set off his trap. Unless this beast was truly that large. The thought was pushed away. There was no way something of that size could really survive in this age. That reminder was constant through his mind as he worked out steps for any situation within his head. Each step brought him closer to the lab below—where he could feel through the walls a reverberation of sound and crashing. It was small enough to be pulled into his tank?
He passed through the main labs with light, rushed steps. He would not run—that was no refined way to carry himself—and nor was there reason to rush. The tank was deeply reinforced. It would not fall.
Relius threw open the last door and turned the lab lights up. Lights bore into the subject in the tank, causing it to snake back in an attempt to avoid it, but the beast had nowhere to escape.
Relius might use the word "beast" more lightly now however. Now that he drew closer to inspect it was not what he expected. Not at all. They sulked in the back of the tank only for a moment longer as their vision adjusted. Within a second they were up aside the glass right in Relius' face. A lesser man might have jolted, but Relius had faith in his work. And for good reason of course. It held up, even as this "sea monster" bashed his fists into Relius' tank.
"Interesting...Not precisely a sea monster, but certainly a creature of that mythical caliber," Relius mused aloud, watching with calm attention on him.
Merfolk were usually classified in the same way as sea monsters—something either fake or long exterminated from the seas. And yet here Relius stood before one or at least one that paraded convincingly as one. It was hard to make out the details of his features, but from there Relius could see he had a mess of green hair and a very dark scaled tail. It was after one slap of said tail aimed at his face that Relius could confirm that it was a jet black color. Everything bounced harmlessly against the glass so Relius was not especially concerned. He got so caught up in studying this creature that it took him a moment to recognize he was likely trying to communicate. At least with the way his mouth was running Relius could assume rather safely.
Relius set one gloved hand to the glass and run the adjustment to let sound pass between them. He almost immediately regretted it as a balled fist banged into the surface. He needed to calm this thing down first.
"Alright...you should be able to hear me...Don't you think it's about time to stop? It's clearly useless."
Relius' voice stalled the other only temporarily as he slapped his hands up against the glass and pressed his face closer Relius' way. There was nothing but rage on the face of his trapped beast. Perhaps he was not prepared to talk. Or he couldn't.
To Relius' surprise a moment later, he broke his silence.
"Who...the hell do you think you are? You're going to let me out of here right now...Not even now, yesterday. Do it now," the fish man snapped at him through the glass.
Relius noted to dock a few points off his guess of this creature being fairly intelligent. "You're the one causing the shipwrecks, aren't you?"
"I'm not telling you shit! You listen to me first. I want out. And I want to know what the hell you had hit me in the back with before you forced me here."
It seemed he was too worked up to really have a conversation with. Relius considered just walking away but that seemed like that would only upset this creature more. "Very well. The device automatically tagged you when you were caught. I can now follow your movements as I like and prevent you from destroying any more ships. And I'm not putting you back until I'm done studying you. I would suggest calming down and simply putting up with it. I'll release you if it seems reasonable."
For a second Relius saw his eyes—a sharp gold in color. That second didn't last as the merfolk floated back a short distance in the tank. There was something uncomfortable about his presence there. He couldn't hide in a square so small under lights so bright, but Relius sensed something off about him still. It put him on guard.
"You'll let me leave right now or I'm going to break your little cell here," he threatened. There was something about the tone of his voice that made Relius find it difficult to doubt him. He at least thought he was very capable of doing such a thing.
The standoff between them was brief. Relius couldn't help but study this creature. His frame was so thin and yet he was the one somehow toppling ships? Punching holes clean through them? It didn't seem possible. Relius caught the hint of something more powerful within him, that only until that moment was hard to see. Now that his guest was hiding nothing he quickly recognized what he was doing.
"This sort of magic..."
The thought came a touch too late. In an instant fish man had a mass of chains coiling out from around his form—each tinged with an unearthly green—the head of some sort of serpent at the end of each chain. The heads all crashed into his glass at once—teeth sinking in and starting to crack through. Relius only had time to take cautionary steps back before the tank broke entirely at the first pane.
Emergency measures kicked in instantly—pulling and draining the water away safely before too much of it covered the lab. Most things in this section were still given a heavy splash and the initial impact still knocked Relius back. The sea water drained fast from the bottom of the tank and nothing seemed to be too badly damaged. Relius picked himself up carefully around broken glass so as to avoid further cuts. A few little scratches here and there weren't too bad everything considered. He was more upset about his equipment getting wet than anything else. Most of it would be fine—some would need some more serious repair.
It was only after he'd taken a quick look over the equipment that he bothered with looking to his guest on the floor. Relius got the feeling he'd not planned out this portion of his escape. He'd landed himself in glass and unable to do much besides try to crawl at himself through it. Overall it didn't seem to be going well for him.
"Are you quite finished?" Relius asked, standing over the fish man.
The guest's shoulders tensed as he tried to pull himself up, but even that seemed to be something of a strain. "You...you bastard..."
"Blaming me? Ridiculous. You broke the tank. You have no one to place blame on but yourself. However, I see you likely won't realize that. I'm tempted to leave you there. You did seem to want to join me in the lab so badly."
There came a strained groan from the floor at that. All Relius could stand to do was look down on this pitiful creature.
"Ancient sea monster indeed. It was all of course overblown nonsense. It always is," Relius mutters more to himself than to his visitor. With every intention of leaving, Relius turned around and got a few paces away. His walk was interrupted by a grasp at the very edge of his cloak.
"You're not serious are you? You're just going to leave me here? What the hell is wrong with you?" The guest managed to raise his head enough to look up at Relius. He didn't look desperate—he was clearly too proud of a creature for that—but there it was: just a touch of concern. Maybe not fear, however close.
Relius yanked his cloak out of the fish man's hand and returned to face him—looking down on him like he was the troublesome item he was. "I'll help you on the condition you behave and accept the study I need to do of you before releasing you. You'll answer my questions as well."
"That's...not exactly a fair trade."
"Your life for that little? I think that's more than fair. It's forgiving even. Perhaps I'm being too kind."
"No, no. I get it...Fine, you have my...cooperation."
Relius grinned down at him. That was much better. For such an angry creature, he had seemed to have been humbled quite a bit by his trip to the floor and perhaps by the glass lodged in parts of his body. The darkness of his scales and the fairness of his skin seemed so much more obvious with little trickles of red seeping out through his cuts. Perhaps he was a less ugly creature when not marred with anger, but it was difficult to be a judge of him just yet.
"Very well. To begin, your name. If you call yourself anything," Relius commanded less than asked.
"Not helping me out of this first...? You're cold I see...It's Hazama," the guest answered with some pain clear in his voice. For all his efforts, Hazama didn't seem able to move much at his lower half, tail twitching and straining but ultimately not moving under him as he was apparently trying to do. It was a pathetic thing to watch.
"Hazama...You may call me Relius. Now I'll be bringing you into the other part of the lab. Should you raise any trouble I'll cart you into town and let them know you were the one crashing their ships."
Hazama gritted his teeth briefly before finding his reply. "That shouldn't be necessary. You just...Hell...Out the glass here, please?" he asked more urgently, sounding more peeved than he had previously.
From Relius' cloak came two large mannequin arms—his fill in for a lab assistant as he designed them anyway—which for now lifted Hazama from the ground and carried him gently by back and tail as Relius walked for the doorway into another portion of the large underground lab. There came an unpleasant yelp out of Hazama at the move, but once the fish stopped flailing he seemed to do a bit better. The trip over was done before Hazama could complain too much more.
The artificial arms set Hazama down on a cold table better suited to operating than resting. It was at that moment that the gravity of his situation started to weigh on him. "H-hey, I know you said studying, but I didn't agree to be thrown around like this."
"Do you ever stop speaking? I'm treating your wounds before I do anything else," Relius explained, removing his wet cloak and gloves and replacing the latter for time being. When he turned back to Hazama he went right to carefully removing bits of glass. His guest was less than helpful, hissing in pain at each wound no matter the size. The major positive was at least he could briefly inspect Hazama's body. Up close he could see his skin was not unlike a human's surprisingly. The scales on his tail shone under the lab lights in such a way that made Relius curious of the texture. He could find out later. Any unnecessary touching would have been rewarded with more whining from Hazama who was laying it on terribly thick. He couldn't tell if it were honest or not.
"I'm delicate...! Be gentle on me, seriously," Hazama continued as Relius dabbed solution over his skin to clean the wounds.
"Quite the sea monster...truly fearsome," Relius muttered, his nose too in his work to care much for Hazama's whining. He at least knew better than to kick and flail around at this point.
"Let's try putting you underwater instead and see how well you handle being out of your element," Hazama grumbled back at him. He could weather the clean up—he figured anyway—it was the bandaging that was difficult. Relius had picked something somewhat water resistant so hopefully his general dampness wouldn't be an issue. He doubted he could get away with trying to dry him out. Not that he could avoid that eventually.
"You are in no position to make that happen. I'm nearly finished however. Stop squirming until then," Relius directed, very willing to force him down if he had to. However, Hazama seemed to understand the reasoning and let Relius finish without too much more of a fight.
Once Hazama was properly treated he tried to sit up a little to address Relius. He did at least look a touch more calm than he had been previously. "Great, it's over with. Can you just finish with this so we can move on with our lives? I have things to do you know."
Relius ignored most of that. "You've woken me up in the middle of the night and ruined some of my equipment. I'm returning to bed." Not one to lie or make idle threats, Relius started to do just that; removing his gloves and starting for the door.
Hazama shot up the rest of the way so fast he nearly toppled off the table. "Wait a damn minute, you can't just leave me here! You're joking, right?"
"I never lie, Hazama. You can stew in your own mess for the rest of the night."
"Wait wait wait!" Hazama blurted more urgently. "You can't just leave me here! I'll dry out, I'll seriously start dying here."
"But you won't die completely? That's acceptable then. You'll survive," Relius said coldly. "You broke the tank as it is. I can return you to it, but there won't be more than a few drops of water."
A second of desperation crossed Hazama's face. "That's not enough! You have to have enough water somewhere!"
Relius wished he'd not considered it, but it was rare his mind would miss any opportunities. "Very well...There is one place." The mannequin arms reappeared from the device at his back once more and Relius returned to Hazama's side. With a bit of Hazama's help, the arms were able to get a hold of him and lift him off the table once more. This time Relius started for the stairs back up to the portion of the lighthouse that he lived in.
"Are we returning me to the sea by any chance?" Hazama asked, just hoping for the best.
Relius didn't legitimize that with an answer right away. Nor did he reply when Hazama rephrased and tried that question again. When Hazama opened his mouth a third time did Relius finally answer.
"It's within my home. You'll stay there until I decide what to do with you."
It was not going to be comfortable and it would score a lot of whining, but it was the best he had. Hazama didn't argue too much the rest of the way—at least not until Relius stopped in front of the bathtub. Hazama looked down at the tub and then back at Relius.
"You can't be serious."
"I am." Relius gave him a crooked grin. "Consider it my guest room."
With that Relius lowered Hazama who immediately latched onto the arm tightly. "No no no, I'm not staying here. This is no way to treat me! This is all your fault for dragging me into your stupid trap. What the hell kind of person builds that anyway?! How do you not have more back-ups? This is cruel! I don't deserve this!" The whining was so rapid Relius couldn't respond to it all even if he wanted to. He simply dropped Hazama the rest of the way into the tub, retracted his mannequin arms and turned the faucet on.
"You have water at least. That's what you asked for, isn't it? I am not going to pamper you here, Hazama. You put up with it for a day or two. It's fairly restrained considering what you've done." Relius pulled away and stepped out of Hazama's reach before he could grab onto him. Hazama uttered a terrible curse under his breath before withdrawing his arms to the slowly filling tub.
"You'll regret this decision," was really the only thing that was clear.
Relius didn't take it too seriously. At worst he could cause a little water damage maybe. He seemed to be in no shape to do very much as it was. "Goodnight," Relius said and left it at that. He kept the door ajar so he might hear anything from Hazama. He doubted it would be anything of value, but there was no telling with this creature.
Once in his own quarters, Relius stripped of his wet clothes, dried himself and dressed warmly with the intention of maybe sleeping a few hours. It seemed unlikely. Even with his pessimism and hearing slight splashes in the tub through the night, Relius managed to get a few extra hours out. By morning he'd completely forgotten the night before—drowsily heading out to shower only to find his new guest still in the tub.
Hazama didn't really react to Relius entering. Now that he looked closer, Relius recognized he was probably sleeping. Maybe he got bored enough to finally pass out. Relius didn't want to risk the bastard waking up and having another fit just yet. Enjoying the momentary silence, he backed out and returned to his room to pace once or twice as he weighed his options. It was going to be a long few days.