When Sevan awoke he found that he was still quite groggy. His head pounded and his right shoulder felt as though someone had taken a baseball bat to it. His vision was blurry and seemed to be pulsing in time with his headache which attacked in waves. He was lying on his stomach with his left arm twisted at an odd angle beneath him. He did not think it was broken as he could still feel and move his fingers, which was helpful as he discreetly reached for the knife he had hidden beneath his shirt tucked into the waist band of his shorts. His fingers wrapped around the handle as he blinked several more times, attempting to focus his eyes if only for a mere moment. He had to escape this grotto, he now saw that coming here had been a grave miscalculation on his part. When he could make out the image of two feet beginning to move towards him from across the grotto he sprung to his feet, ripping the knife from its sheath in the process. A sharp stinging around his stomach caused him to wince and he instantly knew that his dulled reflexes had caused the knife to cut across the flesh of his abdomen.

"Stay back." He said, his right hand going to his stomach and, unsurprisingly, coming back coated in the crimson of his blood. The pain had the unintended effect of sharpening his senses once more and his vision returned to its normal clarity. He stood with his back to the wall his knife extended towards Weilan, Evie, and Ondina. All three of the mermaids had their hands extended towards him, Moon Rings glowing brightly. "Or you will regret it."

"What's going on down here?!" Rita asked, taking the stairs two at a time and coming to a halt between the confrontation. "What happened?! Sevan, why are you bleeding?!"

"Don't act like you didn't plan this." He snarled in return, turning the knife on Rita. "You knew this would happen!"

"Don't be stupid." Rita said dismissively, raising her hand and sending the knife in Sevan's hand flying away with a flick of her wrist. "Girls, calm yourself. Sevan is here as my guest."

"You invited him here?!" Evie asked incredulously. "To the grotto? Why?!"

"Well I would first remind you that this grotto belongs to me." Rita said coolly, slowly and warily approaching Sevan even as he began to slowly back up. "Sevan we need to take care of that cut, it is bleeding rather badly. And I assume that crashing sound I heard was you being launched via magical methods. Judging by how you are favoring your right arm I think it would be best if I checked you for other injuries as well."

"I can take care of myself." He snapped, not at all willing to let a mermaid tend to his wounds particularly when they were caused by her kind to begin with. "Leave me be."

"You have already seen what my magic is capable of." Rita said warningly, pointedly glancing to where the knife now lay on the floor. "Do you really think it wise to test my patience?"

"I can't believe you let him down here!" Ondina said, clearly not sharing Rita's concern for his injuries. "He could-."

"He isn't the one who initiated this conflict, is he?" Rita asked coldly. "In fact if I were to guess, he was attacked quite without cause. Isn't that right?"

"You can't blame Ondina for that." Weilan argued for the blonde mermaid's behalf. "We came in here to find him sitting at the table reading one of the books and holding a Moon Ring in his hand."

"My Moon Rings." Sevan said, suddenly remembering them. He patted his chest down and found two of them safely resting on his chain, intact despite his impact. He looked desperately for the third and his eyes quickly came upon it, resting peacefully on the same book he had just been reading. Apparently Ondina followed his line of sight at the same moment and was a bit faster, her hand closing around the Moon Ring just before Sevan's did. He had launched himself across the room in the attempt and fell hard against the stone, a snarl on his face. Ondina quickly stepped backwards and out of his immediate reach. He jumped to his feet, his abdomen wound protesting rather painfully against his movements. "Give it back!" Sevan demanded.

"It doesn't belong to you!" Evie answered, stepping defensively in front of Ondina.

"The hell it doesn't!" He snapped.

A loud bang caused them all to jump and stare at Rita who looked positively livid. "That is ENOUGH!" She barked, advancing on them. She pointed a finger at Sevan and he staggered several steps back until the stone couch forced him to a sitting position. She held one hand out to Ondina and narrowed her eyes. "The Moon Ring. Now." She commanded, an authoritative note in her voice.

"It doesn't belong to him!" Weilan protested. "It belongs to the mermaid he took it from!"

"That is neither here nor there for the moment." Rita answered firmly, "Now give me the Moon Ring and sit down."

Very slowly, and even more so unwillingly, Ondina did just that. Rita promptly dropped the Moon Ring onto the table before Sevan and then stepped away to some of the hanging plants that lined the room. The three mermaids slowly took sweats directly opposite of Sevan, watching him just as warily as he was them. The silence only grew between them as neither of the parties was willing to be the one to break it. Only when Rita returned with an off-orange salve in a green bowl did the tension somewhat diminish. "What is that?" Sevan asked as Rita put some on her fingers and made to place some of his wound. He caught her hand and sent her a warning glance.

"As if you would know even if she did tell you." Ondina said under her breath, just loud enough for Sevan to catch. He paused to glare at her before taking the bowl from Rita and examining its contents. "I told you-."

"North China Sea Umber's Algae?" Sevan asked, sniffing the paste cautiously. He frowned and added, "Lion's Main Jellyfish extract?"

There could not have been more astonishment on any of the mermaids', save for Rita's, faces. "Close." The older mermaid said, impressed. "Those two are the main ingredients, but there are a few others as well that I doubt you would recognize as they haven't been discovered by humans yet."

"Interesting." Sevan murmured, rubbing the mixture against his cut. He expected some stinging, but the mixture did nothing more than smoke slightly as it touched his flesh. He glanced warily to Rita who gestured for him to continue. Deciding to take the risk, he did just that until the entire cut was covered in orange paste. The paste smoked for only a few moments longer before it hardened and began to fall off all on its own. When it was nothing more than a pile of orange pieces on the floor Sevan was shocked to see that the wound had completely healed, leaving only a thin pink scar behind. "Amazing."

"Isn't it?" Rita asked, pleased by the reaction. "I am sure you are aware that many plants of the sea have qualities that most people aren't aware of?"

"Of course." Sevan nodded, ignoring the shocked and skeptical looks from the other three mermaids. "I discovered a few uses on my own and read about others in some of the older books I have. The old time alchemists may have been stark-raving mad but they occasionally knew what they were doing."

"Occasionally." Rita agreed, sharing a knowing laugh. For a moment it seemed as though the animosity had dissipated, but it quickly returned with her next sentence. "So, you have met these three before it seems?"

"Unfortunately." Ondina sniffed, a superior expression on her face.

"Enough, Ondina." Rita snapped. "Whatever antagonism we may have for one another is put on hold. I accepted Sevan's offer of a temporary truce in order to deal with the dragon."

"You didn't!" Evie cried. "Rita he can't be trusted."

"For now, we will have to work around that." Rita answered immediately. "This dragon is a matter that concerns us all. Sevan, I assume that you wish to get rid of the dragon before it can catch the public's eye as well?"

"If at all possible, yes." He agreed. "The less people know the better it is for me."

"And the same goes for us." Rita confirmed, daring the girls to argue. "As we have already learned, the beast is attracted to magic. Especially that of mermaids."

"And how do you know that?" Sevan asked curiously, "I thought you haven't had any luck on finding anything in your books?"

"True, I haven't." Rita told him. She looked to Weilan in silent question and the Asian mermaid gave a small reluctant nod. "But we learned from Weilan that the beast hunts and preys upon mermaids."

"Hm." Sevan said, considering this. It sounded as though letting the beast have its way wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing but at the same time the beast could potentially be caught on camera at any time and that would be bad. Hunting mermaids was difficult enough without having to worry about humans meddling in his affairs. "As much as I approve of that, it doesn't change anything other than we at least know what it's after."

This seemed to surprise the three mermaids, Ondina in particular. "You aren't going to just let us fight it by ourselves?" She asked, suspicious still.

"I just said I wouldn't." Sevan said with an eye roll. "I'm… greedy. Don't like to share my hunt with others."

Ondina sneered at him but did not say anything else. "So do you have any ideas, Sevan?" Rita asked. "I understand that you had an encounter with the beast."

"Well, like I said we know what it is after." Sevan said, thinking as he rolled his shoulder and wincing as it popped rather painfully. "But that doesn't do us much good."

"Why not?" Evie asked, genuine curiosity in her voice.

"Because we don't know how to stop it." Sevan said simply. He noticed the guilty look that passed momentarily across Weilan's face and filed it away to be investigated later, but did not comment on it. "If you want to sacrifice yourselves be my guest but it wouldn't do anything. Until we have a solid way of actually killing this thing-."

"Killing it?" Ondina interjected abruptly. "Why would we kill it?"

"Because killing it is the only way to make sure this thing doesn't come back." Sevan answered dismissively. "As I was saying. Until we have a way of killing it-."

"There are ways of magically trapping creatures you know." Ondina interrupted once more. "Not everything needs to be about killing, you monster."

Sevan tapped his foot in an annoyed fashion and worked his jaw. "And, tell me, if these ways of trapping the dragon were so good why haven't you used them yet?" When Ondina didn't respond he continued on, "Let me guess: you already tried and failed. Alright, before you interrupt me again let me make something clear. If you want to get rid of this thing, you need to kill it. If you want to try and just trap it, be my guest. I'm sure that it will let you have all the attempts that you want. Probably won't go after your pod or anything like that. Hey, maybe it will even tell you how to seal it so that it will never escape again."

"Sevan, don't be so cynical." Rita scolded him slightly, earning a surprised look. "Mermaids are gentle creatures by nature. We-."

"I'm going to stop you right there. Because that is a bold-faced lie." He said abruptly, pushing to his feet. His expression, which had turned somewhat warm, was back to its icy polite façade once more. "I am afraid that I must depart for now. When you decide that you are actually ready to face this dragon seriously, come find me. I'll be around. In the meantime I am going to call in a few favors and see if I can find some actually helpful information."