"Well, I think that takes care of introductions." Sevan said suddenly, rising from the table and smiling at each of the patrons in the café coldly. He rapped the table with the knuckle of his index finger and began to walk out saying, "I'll… be in touch. See you at work tomorrow, Mimmi."

The group watched as the blonde haired man strode purposefully out of the café, a smirk on his face as he passed Chris. "All finished up in there." They heard him say. "You can go in. I'll see you tomorrow."

Chris did just that, walking back into the café with a look on confusion that matched perfectly with the others. "Okay," Cam said slowly, rising from his seat and crossing his arms. He put a finger to his lips and asked, "What… just happened?"

"Rita's." Ondina said immediately. "Now. We have to tell her about this. Maybe she knows something."

The blonde mermaid swept out of the café and the others quickly followed after her. Chris grabbed Mimmi gently by the arm and asked, "Hey, what's going on? Did Sevan say something bad? What was that about?"

"Look, Chris, I can't-." Mimmi began apologetically.

"Mimmi, come on!" Ondina called urgently. "We need to go!"

"I'll explain later!" Mimmi promised Chris as she ran after the others.

When the café was empty save for Chris, Carly, and David he turned to the other two and spread his arms wide. "What did I just miss?" Chris asked, his face still covered in confusion.

"Why are you coming?" Weilan asked Cam curiously as they half-jogged to Rita's house. "You don't have a tail."

"I want to figure out what his deal is too." Cam explained quickly. "Besides, you might need my help. It wouldn't be the first time."

"Fair enough." Zac agreed, pushing open the gate to Rita's house and letting the others inside. They rushed through the door and made a beeline for the grotto, thoroughly startling Rita who had been petting Poseidon and reading a book. "Rita!"

"Is everything alright?" She asked, quickly registering the looks of panic on her students' faces. "Are any of you hurt?"

"No, we're fine." Evie assured her. "But…" And so he group quickly launched into an explanation of what had just transpired at the café, detailing every single thing they had remembered.

Rita listened intently as they spoke, her book now closed and resting beside her on the stone couch. Her face went from mild concern to grave interest very quickly as they spoke. Only when they finished speaking did Rita finally talk again. "This is not good." She said.

"Bit of an obvious statement." Cam noted, drawing a glare from the others. "Sorry."

"The fact that he knows about mermaids and mermen is troubling enough." Rita said, rising from her seat and letting Poseidon jump down from her lap. The fluffy white cat sent his owner a look of disapproval before scampering off to, presumably, find a new place to rest. "But you say that he identified you simply by your Moon Rings and your avoidance of water?"

"That's right." Ondina nodded vigorously. "How is that possible? Humans don't know about mermaids!"

Cam raised an eyebrow and Mimmi patted him reassuringly on the shoulder. "You don't count." She told him.

"Humans have always known about mermaids." Rita disagreed with Ondina, walking across the grotto to grab a book from the shelf. She flipped it open and turned back to them, flipping through the pages. "Otherwise there wouldn't be so many books on the subject. Tales of encounters, lore, descriptions, if you look hard enough there is actually quite a bit of information about us."

"But no one believes that stuff." Zac protested. "People think that it's just a bit of supernatural nonsense."

"Well, apparently that's not the case here now is it?" Rita asked brusquely, flipping through the book. She paused on a page and quickly read through it but then began flipping through the pages once more. "You said he had three Moon Rings? On a necklace?"

"Yeah, and-." Weilan began.

"And another trident stone." Rita muttered, "Or at least a smaller version of one."

"How did he get three Moon Rings?" Ondina demanded. "How does a human get his hands on three of them? If he had just found one that would be understandable."

"Well, it's not inconceivable that he did just find those three." Rita reminded them. "Mimmi, you said that he was recently hired by the Marine Park? In a Director's position?"

"That's right." She nodded. "It was so sudden. He just got there today and Dr. Ross already hired him on."

"That means that he must have exceptional people backing him." Rita told them. "Being so young, and holding such a position, generally means you have connections. Ah, here it is." She turned the book around and showed them an article from two years ago. The top read National Geographic in ornate font, and at the center of the page was a group of grinning scientists standing over what appeared to be a collection of blue seaweed.

"What's this?" Cam asked curiously, beginning to read through the article.

"Wait, that guy standing there…" Evie leaned in closer, squinting her eyes. "He looks… That's him! That's Sevan!" She placed a finger on the picture Sevan's chest and the others quickly confirmed that.

"Luckily for us, he has a rather uncommon name." Rita said. She brushed Evie's finger aside and gestured for the others to take a closer look. "Look at his chest, do you see something familiar?"

"That's a Moon Ring!" Ondina said, instantly recognizing the piece of jewelry. "But he only has one in that photo. Wait, why did you have this?"

"A few reasons." Rita said, turning the book back around. "The first would be, like you saw, that this young man had a Moon Ring in public display. The other was that the plant you see before you was previously thought to be extinct by humans. It's called a plant that only grows in very specific conditions. Before this article came out I had thought that only mermaids knew about where it still grew."

"Why is that such a concern?" Mimmi asked. "So they got lucky."

"It's possible." Rita allowed. She flipped through the pages a couple more times and then showed them a new picture. The picture was in color this time, and it showed the same team of scientists standing around a tidal chart. "But, take a closer look at this picture."

"No Moon Ring." Weilan said, glancing immediately to his chest where the ring should have been. "So what? He just wasn't wearing it in this picture."

"Again, it's possible." Rita agreed. "But I don't think so. It is also possible that he didn't know about mermaids at the time this picture was taken. But, considering there was only a week between the two photos, I doubt it. He clearly is very attached to the Moon Ring in the other picture."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with anything?" Zac asked, clearly not following.

"You think that a mermaid was the one who was growing that plant?" Cam asked, his eyes lighting up as he made the connection.

"Exactly." Rita nodded, closing the book and replacing it on the shelf. "If they had found a small amount of it that would have been understandable. But that much seaweed, especially of a breed of that rarity, does not come to be without help. I think that he took that Moon Ring from the mermaid who was cultivating that garden."

"How?" Ondina asked. "Where was her pod? If they saw a boat above where they were growing plants they should have gotten rid of it."

"This expedition was in the Atlantic Ocean." Rita explained, glancing meaningfully to Mimmi.

Catching the sign to begin explaining, Mimmi did just that. "Northern Mermaids aren't as… pod-oriented as you southern mermaids are. They come together when they need to, but we don't have a Mako Island there. Nothing to keep us in one area. So a lot of them sort of go out on their own to do their own thing."

"Still, how did he beat a mermaid in the water?" Cam asked, frowning and rubbing his chin with his thumb and forefinger. "I mean, I've seen you lot in the water. There's no way a human in dive gear could catch you."

"Finally, something we agree on." Ondina muttered, looking to Rita for the answer to the question.

"I truly do not know." She said simply. "There is simply too much that we do not know about this Sevan character for me to make any accurate guesses."

"What about that stone?" Zac asked suddenly. "The one that matched the trident stone?"

"What about it, Zac?" Rita asked, gesturing for him to continue.

"Well, I mean, think about it." He said, "I've seen firsthand what it can do to mermaids. It drains you of your magic, and after that's gone you aren't in real good shape. What if he used that?"

"And we know it works for humans too." Cam added, wincing as he remembered this information. It had been him who had used the trident stone against the mermaids in an effort to get a tail. Zac patted him comfortingly on the shoulder and Cam continued, "If a mermaid tried to keep him from getting to her garden and he used that stone on her, she might not have had enough juice left to get out of there."

The others fell silent as they contemplated this scenario, none of them liking what they came up with. "What do we do?" Ondina asked finally, a confident gleam in her eye. "We obviously have to stop him before he tries to do the same thing to us."

"Hold on a minute." Cam said slowly, "If I'm right, why didn't he just take the mermaid with him to the boat? I mean, come on. If he wanted to do something big, exposing mermaids as actual being real would be the best thing wouldn't it?"

"Who knows?" Rita said helplessly. "But I do agree with you Ondina, we must do something."

"This could not come at a worse time." Weilan said heavily, placing her hands on her hips. "First the water dragon, now this."

"Hey, there's an idea." Cam said, his eyes lighting up as an idea dawned on him. "Why not let him and the water dragon go at it?"

"He isn't a mermaid." Weilan reminded him with a roll of her eyes. "The water dragon wouldn't be interested in him."

"But he has three Moon Rings." Cam shot back, the corners of his mouth twisting into a smile. "That should at least give the dragon enough magic to be curious, right?"

"You know, he might have a point." Mimmi said, warming to the idea. "The dragon is drawn to mermaid magic right? Those rings will be full of magic on the full moon. If we can get him onto the water, it might be enough for the dragon to go after him."

"Hold up, we aren't trying to kill the guy." Zac protested, raising his hands to slow the pace of the conversation. "We don't even know if he wants to hurt you guys-."

"You heard him at the café!" Ondina exclaimed, clearly upset that Zac would dare try to defend Sevan. "He is after our Moon Rings! He is a danger to the pod, a pod that you promised to protect, we have to deal with him."

"Look, I'm not saying he doesn't need to be dealt with." Zac answered with as much passion. "But I am saying that we can't just let the dragon have a go at him without knowing what his deal is. If we are going to do this, we at least need to know why he is doing what he is doing. Who knows, maybe there are more people like him."

"I'm actually inclined to agree with Zac." Rita nodded her head slowly, going over the idea in her head. "It would be an immense help if we had a better understanding of our adversary. Perhaps this can be resolved without the use of force."

"So, what do we do then?" Cam asked, glancing around at the others.

And so the group began to put their heads together, running through various plans and strategies that they could employ to counter their new foe.