Rue came home feeling completely swamped. Work sucked, but it was either work or live with dear old papa… the choice was pretty clear. Of course her mind was where it usually was after work that she didn't notice her brother waiting for her playing with a piece of paper in his hand.
After she plopped onto the couch, Fakir cleared his throat.

Rue snapped her head towards him. "Hey bro, something wrong?"
Fakir was taking another look at the note as he walked up to her. "Is there something about Ahiru that you aren't telling me about?"
In Rue's mind, everything came to a halt. Did he find out? Was Freya onto them? Rue swallowed before speaking. "What do you mean?"

Fakir shoved the note in his sister's face. Rue stared at the strange symbols, then noticed Fakir's translation at the bottom. Rue stuttered for a moment. Quickly realizing that her brother needed an answer, she got a hold of herself and turned to her brother. "Fakir, do you remember those stories our mom used to tell us?"
Fakir only pulled the book from behind him, "You mean the ones from here, which I used to translate that note?"
"There's a reason for that."

Fakir pondered his sister's remark.
"No… you can't be serious…" He said flatly, "You think she's a mermaid?!"
"She is!" Rue protested, "How else could she have known how to write like that? Why else does she act so differently? How else- wait a second." Rue ran off and came back to grab her wedding plans book, "How else could she able to do this is one night?"

Fakir shook his head. This was just ridiculous! He took another glance at their mother's story book. He sighed and flipped through a few pages. No way could any of this be tru- wait, what was that?
There sketched onto one of the pages, was a necklace that made a striking resemblance to Ahiru's…
Fakir gaped at the picture. You can't be serious…

He looked back at his sister with a mix of confusion and wonder. "This is… Ahiru's necklace?"
Rue peered over the page and nodded. Fakir looked back at the page, "Why didn't you tell me anything?" It was unclear who Fakir was saying this to whether it be himself, his sister, or that faded memory of Ahiru that was forever trapped in him mind. But it seemed like only his sister could answer.
"Ahiru was scared what would happen if she told you…" Rue bit her lip, "Because somehow, Freya knew and threatened her."
Fakir's head shot up quickly at hearing that last part, "She knew?! And she did what?!"
Rue silently nodded, "We're not entirely sure how she knew, but she does. And for some reason she has it out for Ahiru…" Rue tried to be gentle with that last part. She knew how mesmerized he was by Freya, and tearing her down like this wouldn't be easy for him to accept.
Fakir ran a hand through his hair, "This… this is insane…"
Rue patted her brother's shoulder, "I know how you feel. But one part I don't seem to understand is why she couldn't say how she left."

Fakir snapped out of his trance, "I don't know if this will help, but I found something strange, if you want to take a look."

After meeting up with Mytho, the trio climbed up the rocky path where Fakir pointed out his findings. Of course this was after Fakir had another freak out as to why Mytho knew and he didn't until now!
Mytho knelt down next to the dried sliver fluids. "Is this… blood?"
"That's what I thought," Fakir noted, "but what blood is silver?"

"Actually…" Rue interrupted, "I think mom's book said something about a mermaid's blood being the same color as her tail."
Fakir and Mytho looked back at the stain, "So… is Ahiru's tail silver?" Mytho asked.
"I think Ahiru mentioned that." Rue answered.

"Great," Fakir said sourly, "So we know she was here last night and she was probably attacked by whoever's foot prints those are!" In case you couldn't tell, Fakir was pretty upset. Why did he always have to find out about anything when things got difficult?! How much more useless could he be in this situation?

"Fakir," Mytho began, "calm down. We'll figure this out. Let's look at what we know so far." Fakir sighed as they listed off what could be said.
"Ahiru left us last night, possibly because she turned back into a mermaid…" Man saying that out loud made it all the more real and yet… bizarre. "There's her blood along the tracks, and there's another set of foot prints that followed hers."

"So whose foot prints are the other set?" Mytho began, "It'd have to be a grown man judging by the foot size."
"What grown man would follow a petite girl up a rocky cliff?" Rue asked flatly.
Fakir shrugged his shoulders, "A stalker, maybe something worse like a-"
Rue quickly threw her hand up, "I don't even want to think of who could have followed her if we go down that direction!"
"Okay, okay. Why don't we head back to the house and check the book to see if there are any other answers we can find." Mytho said.

Drosselmeyer looked over the unconscious mermaid laying on his daughter's bed. He wondered to no end what could have possessed this young girl to take her own life like that. He knew his kids were terrible, but were they that bad?! It was all garbled mess to him. And the only one to possibly make any sense of it, was the one still trying to keep a hold on living.

Drosselmeyer looked at his watch, it was probably time to give her more medicine. He got up to where his late wife kept her merfolk possessions. The ingredients for the counter spell had to be here somewhere. After taking a few minutes of scouring the shelves he found the next dose to give the mermaid. He found a clean needle and dispenser and filled it with the medicine. He came back to the girl, still hadn't moved at all. But the rise and fall of her chest was enough to know she was still alive. He carefully injected her arm with the medicine into her blood stream.

Once the fluid was completely given, Drosselmeyer carefully plucked the needle out of her arm. At that moment the girl let out a small yelp and jolted up. Drosselmeyer turned his head to see her face. She was wake, and she looked petrified upon seeing him.

"Ah," He said, "Good you see you're finally awake." The girl still said nothing. Drosselmeyer continued, "You have nothing to fear, my friend. I know what you really are."
"Wh-what are you talking about?" She finally said in a small voice.

"It's obvious to one who still whispers the secrets of your kind." He said calmly. The phrase rang familiar in Ahiru's ears. That's what Freya told her… so he's…?
"A human who knows mermaids still exist?" She mumbled. Drosselmeyer nodded. He went back to treating Ahiru's arm really quickly. "So tell me," He asked without looking at her, "Why did you try to kill yourself back there?"

Ahiru stared at the man in confusion. "What do you mean kill myself? My mentor told me to do that. She said it would bring me back home."
"It'll bring you home alright." The old man muttered darkly, "If you had inhaled more of that gas you would have gone to your eternal home. An old trick for some who wanted suicide the quick and painless way." Ahiru looked at him with horror. Was he suggesting that her mentor was trying to kill her? Her own family?! Drosselmeyer noticed the mermaid's fear surging within her, "I won't call your mentor out on anything. But you might want to be suspicious of who you talk to on your conch."
"But she's the only one I've talked to!" Ahiru tried to defend Ms. Edel. Drosselmeyer nodded, "Then it must have been your mentor who was talking to someone she shouldn't."
Ahiru looked at the man as even more fear raged up within her, "Then I have to help her! I have to-" she tried to get up but instantly felt lightheaded. Drosselmeyer helped settle her back down. "You can't do anything in your condition. Even if you were in full health, you can't go down there to help her. Remember your gills are gone."

Ahiru sunk back down. That last line was heavy on her mind. Her gills were gone, her tail was gone, her home was gone, Ms. Edel was probably in danger, and it all happened because of a choice she made. Drosselmeyer sighed, seeing the girl being entranced by her woes. But, what could be done? He had a room loaded with her kind's magic, but nothing in there could give the girl what she wished for.
Drosselmeyer began to look internally, was he… feeling pity for a mermaid? And for that matter, why was he so keen on helping her to begin with?

He made a quick glance to a picture hanging on his daughter's wall. The woman who made his heart melt, who took him back with all his problems and continued to cope with his mess until the day she died, looked down on him with that beautiful smile in the frame. It was hard to be better for her when their kids wanted nothing to do with him. But perhaps, that's why he was doing this now. To be better for her, since it's too late to be better with his children. He looked back at the girl who was still lost in thought.

"Hey," He said gently, "I know I won't be of much help, but perhaps there can be a way to know if your mentor is in danger." Hope began to glimmer in Ahiru's eyes. "Wait here." He said as he got up and left the room. He came back with a glass bowl filled with water and a glowing necklace. Ahiru watched as the man preformed the ancient ritual and watched as the water changed colors from the necklace. The man looked to her and said, "Now ask about your mentor."

Ahiru took in a deep breath and asked, "Tell me true, is Ms. Edel in any danger?"

The water began to shift within its bowl to reveal Ms. Edel in prefect health desperately searching for answers of some kind. "Strange," The man said, "She appears to have had no conflict lately. I don't even think she's touched her conch."
"But I heard Ms. Edel's voice when I called to her." Ahiru said. Drosselmeyer pondered this for a moment. "Then the question is, who did you talk to who sounded like Edel? If I still had that mermaid book, we might be able to find a clue or something."
"Mermaid book? You have one too?!" Ahiru sounded pretty excited at that word.
Drosselmeyer frowned. Right, she still doesn't know who he is. Well… better late than never.
"Actually, my daughter took it from me." He said, "She's your friend you've been staying with."

Ahiru was quite as she let that last line sink in. Did he say… he was…?
"You're… Rue's father?" He nodded silently in response. "But… Rue said you were a bad person. A displeasure to meet… but… you've been nice to me." The confusion in her voice was impossible to miss.

"Well, she has reasons to hate me. I was a bad father. I can't change that, but I can learn from it." His gaze turned back to the picture of his wife, "Being alone, defiantly makes one see how wrong you are. My wife was a saint for all she did. I never should have been the way I was. But seems all I can do now is blubber for my kids' forgiveness and help a mermaid they told me to stay away from."

Ahiru watched the man for a moment. She reached out and touched his hand. "Um… Rue's father…"
"You can just call me Mr. Drosselmeyer." He said.
"Mr. Drosselmeyer, I know I may not be able to do much, but you did help me. As a mermaid I owe you a wish." Drosselmeyer was quiet while Ahiru continued, "I know I can't bring back your wife, and I can't change your children's hearts, but… maybe I can still offer you something with this wish…"

The old man pondered this for a moment. "I'll have to think about that one. But thank you miss…?"
"Ahiru, sir. My name is Ahiru."
"Thank you, Ahiru."

A/N: My apologies for taking so long to update (scheduling issues and trying to write what comes next). I hope you can forgive me for taking so long! This chapter was kind of an odd one for me, but what do you think?

Thank you to:
Muffy3001 for following and reviewing (I really appreciate that! Thank you!)
AnimeaMari for reviewing (Yes I did. Maybe I'm just being hard on myself if you think it's that good. Thank you for the positive feedback!)
Ern Estine 13624 for reviewing (I hope so too. Drosselmeyer's not all bad, but that doesn't mean he's all good either!)
taco tree for following
mayuralover for reviewing (Drossel's pretty sketchy I'll say that much. Don't be fooled by this chapter, he's not perfect!)
And you for having enough patience to read this far with me!