Because it's a new year and I'm nice and because you petted a cat with your face. Well played, reader, well played.

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Chapter 10

Grandmother explained to her what she could over dinner, which was the first underwater meal Mai had ever had (and eaten in the royal kitchens and away from prying eyes, no less, so Mai could learn how to eat without everyone laughing at her). It was some weird stew poured into a coconut, and then speared with a sort of one way straw thingy. Guess it made sense, as anything fluid would probably float away and blend with the water.

She sucked on it as her Grandmother set down the rules Mai was to live by:

1. Mai was not to go outside until she learned the customs or accompanied by her grandmother.

2. For no reason whatsoever was she to go near the surface.

3. Other than those who her grandmother brought to her, or vice versa, Mai was not to be in contact or socialize with any males.

At this, Mai choked a bit on the stew, which tasted not unlike clam chowder, if just a mite more fishier.

"What's wrong with guys? Don't tell me," she thought back to how kind the 'rescue' team had been to her—even going as far as to bring down a globe of jellyfish she had shown interest in—and got a really nasty squirm in her stomach.

Grandmother's raised eyebrows didn't help. "I'm sure even you should have noticed on your decent that there are quite a bit more males than there are females, by their coloration, that is. Dark, duller tones for males, the bright light colors for females."

Mai tried to think back, but it didn't take much. Her grandmother was right. Even looking over the city the spots of color had shown out in the moving specks of fishtails. Now that she thought about it, there hadn't been that many women who greeted her at the end of her decent either.

"So, they're all not, you know…rapey, are they?"

Mai did not appreciate the look of amusement that came to the elder's face.

"Not exactly. We are a, what's the term…goodness, it's been so many years. Matriarchal society? While men and women are created equal it is through the woman's line that the family name is carried and it is the woman who take executive positions. Men take charge only in times of war or similar circumstances. Men are also expected to provide for their wife. With this being said, I highly doubt any man is going to risk forcing himself upon the only royal princess, but…" the wry smile spread, exaggerating the lines of her face and giving her a somewhat ghostly appearance. "You are far from unattractive, not to mention you can have multiple husbands."

Mai really did choke this time. She ended up hacking clam chowder to dissipate in the water ahead of her. The lone cook and scullery boy looked over in concern.

Her grandmother, on the other hand, laughed.

"Was waiting for that," she snickered.

"So you were just joking?"

"No. I was being completely serious. I was just looking for an excuse to tell you so I could see your reaction. Humans don't work this way, so I wanted to see how you took it."

Mai blanched. "So I'm going to have to…have to have multiple—"

"Goodness, no. Do what you like, dear, just know it isn't like a free ticket to adultery. There's specific customs you need to follow, and you can only have two."

"You sound like a tour guide. Have you had to, um, teach lots of human raised humans?"

Her grandmother folded her fingers together. "Not for a very long time, but at one point, yes. It is one of our duties family's duties."

Mai sipped out the last of her chowder, letting the conversation fall there so she could take a closer look at the 'oven' the Chef was using. What part she could recognized comprised of a volcanic vent, with curious adjustments made to the middle, where she had watched the cook make the chowder using something that didn't look unlike a one holed bowling ball. Even as she watched the cook opened the clamshell and crystal door with a 'pop' and slipped in a skewered and season stuffed fish into the boiling water within. After hooking the skewer onto sort of rubber looking grabber stuck to the side of the chimney, he closed the door and slipped off the fluffy oven mitts. They were the first furry thing she had yet to see.

'It's like being sucked into a fantasy novel, or some weirdo rpg,' she thought.

"So…can I ever go back to the human world?"

The stiff silence that followed drew Mai's attention back to her grandmother. The white lipped, bug eyed look she was giving her startled her enough to drop her coconut, which, since it was nearly empty, floated up and out of her reach.

"Has nothing of your situation gotten into you yet? Didn't you just tell me you were held captive by a group of humans who tortured you for opals?" As she said this she gave a violent shudder, but kept her bug eyed look on Mai, who couldn't help thinking could have passed for a crazed witch glare from a fairytale.

"Not all humans are bad! I got rescued by one too—he was even bringing me here!"

"As is good and all, and I'm grateful, but if most humans were like that, do you think our kind would be hiding away near volcanic vents and courting with extinction? Mai, we are the largest city out of only five in all the oceans, and even then we barely come up to twenty thousand." She let out a heavy sigh through her teeth, closed her eyes, and rubbed her forehead, as though attempting to smooth out the wrinkles there. "Mai, please, trust me when I say I understand that humans aren't all bad. In the beginning we were made to live besides them, but after a thousand years of…mindless slaughtering and being the victims of their greed…"

But Mai had stuck to the sentence before that. "We were made to live besides them?"

Her grandmother lifted her face to give her a look above her limp hand. "Tell me, Mai, why do you think there are almost little more than twice the amount of mermen then there are merwomen?"

Mai looked at her grandmother blankly. She hadn't really thought about it.

"Um…hunting? Mermaids are the only ones who can produce opals anyways." Unless mermen had a pregnancy equivalent.

The queen shook her head. "While mermaids were more often the ones lost to hunting, it isn't just because of their gender. For whatever reason, when merfolk mate amongst themselves, there usually comes up to be two males for every one female born."

Mai wrinkled her nose. "That doesn't sound healthy. Um, evolutionarily speaking." Was that even a word?

"It does cause its fair share of problems. Free males are not only unable to reproduce, but since they have natural inborn instincts towards violence and ambition, civil unrest and criminal activities are harder to suppress. A bored young man is a greater danger to a society than many outside sources could ever be."

The cook behind her reopened the vent-oven and took out the fish, with eyes melting up from the heat. The merman flicked off the excess fins and eye-drippings with a short bone knife and set the fish inside a flat, wood-looking box. Guess cooked fish would float away as well, wouldn't they? Not to mention get cold.

"So…what does this all have to do with living with humans?" Mai asked.

"Well, for whatever reason, if a mermaid mates with a human, the child is almost always female."

Somehow, rather than surprising Mai, it made all the hanging loose ends in her head start to click. It was why the Triple A never mentioned mermen and why they always brought in human males for the mermaids. They never had to worry about boy babies.

Grandmother smiled as she recognized the comprehension on Mai's face. "I'm sure, during your soujourn on land, that you noticed most myths about merfolk were about mermaids luring young sailors into their arms. This isn't so far from the truth. When I was a little girl, every ten years merwomen went to the surface to meet with traveling humans. Of course, even then the tradition was dying, as the missing humans didn't go unnoticed."

A chill went up Mai's spine. "You drowned them?"

Her grandmother shrugged. "Our foremothers did not, but I never went with the few mermaids daring enough to go to the surface, so I don't know. Humans were outlawed even then, so they went in secret, and some may have in order to protect their families. I do remember, however, how many mothers kept their girls from even going near the surface, for if their father's were human, they would change once their fins dried."

"Not all merpeople swap into humans?"

She chuckled. "'Swap,' I've never heard that term. English has changed much since it was taught to me. No. Only those with a parent who is human can change. It isn't something like hair color or scales that is carried down through the generations either, as the next generations have not that ability either. It is all quite curious, but I'm sure you'll understand in time. God has his ways of keeping everything in balance."

The cook, after adding some relish and another coconut of chowder, slipped the meal in front of the silver woman with a bowed head. She gave him a curt nod and slipped out the fish from its box to nibble on daintily. Mai watched her with a frown. Something didn't quite add up.

"If we need more girls and mating with humans is suppose to be how we survive, why is it so bad if I go back to Na—my human friend?"

The fish was lowered with a deep, dimpling frown. "You love him?"

Mai blanched. "I-I didn't say that! I'm just saying—"

"Good. I wouldn't want you to go through that heartbreak. Humans cannot be trusted, Mai. I'm sorry, but I'm sure you can understand."

"But if we're dying off without—we're part of the human race! If what you're saying is true, how can we just cut ourselves off? Can't we just keep doing what our ancestors did with sailors?"

The hard look her grandmother quailed Mai enough to shut her mouth, but not the hot twist of confusion and a curious aching fear she didn't quite understand. The elderly woman sighed, her face relaxed, and she once more raised her free hand to massage her forehead.

"Please, try to trust me and understand. If we are a part of the human race, as you say, then I can say that no one deals with those different and those who bring on sudden change." She hesitated, biting her lip as though reluctant to say what else was on her mind, but after taking a glance into Mai's eyes, she sighed again and put down her fish. "Humans…humans have the benefit of fire on land. For centuries we have watched their tools of war grow from beneath the surface. Don't repeat this too lightly to others, but…we are…weaker, in a way, to humans. We cannot build their loud tools of fire and thunder. And even in a day and age where we traded and mingled with the sailors who passed through our waters, we were distrusted, we were…creatures from another world. Frightening. We are too little now to risk being discovered, especially with how powerful human society has grown."

Even the cook and scullery boy seemed to have caught up on her weary, dropping tone. They exchanged glances and the cook slid over to put a hand on her shoulder. Neither probably understood English, but the weary smile she gave him reassured him and he went back to preparing more fish for the vent.

Those sad eyes turned back to Mai, whose stomach had dropped to her toes with the force of a cinderblock, and it hurt. She couldn't fight against that logic. She couldn't fight against the need to protect what little they had.

But—she opened her mouth—but her grandmother stopped her with a hand.

"I know what you're about to say," she said, wearily picking up her fish. "We need the humans to survive. You think we might die out. But this isn't the case. And," a dry twitch of a smile crocked the side of her mouth. "I am sure there are still those among the desperate and the wild who sneak up to the surface to court with humans. They either make it back, or end up as subjects to the stone buildings of opal harvesting humans."

Mai looked up sharply. "You know about those?"

The queen took a bite of her fish. After swallowing she said, "Of course I do. It's a matter of state security."

She had acted rather unsurprised when Mai had told her about escaping the Triple A. But that was besides the point. "You know about the mermaids trapped there? You know where they are?"

"More or less."

"And you've done nothing? You've just left those girls in there?"

Her grandmother looked to the ceiling. "Yes, because I'm a cruel heartless seventy-five year old politician who thinks nothing of young women being raped and tortured for their tears."

The harsh sarcasm worked as effectively as a slap. Before Mai could think of anything to say to that, the queen snorted and went back to her fish. "Honestly, how do you think those mermen were able to find you? They were probably following you all the way out from that—" she said a grumbled clicking phrase Mai couldn't understand. "Each kingdom is only allowed to have a team of 4 or less monitoring each discovered bunker, but only to rescue those able to first get out themselves. I hope you can at least understand that, having been in one of them yourself."

And Mai did, even though she didn't want to. Triple A had an electric chain barrier from it to the sea, but if there were more places like it, they might not even be connected to the ocean. Not to mention constant monitoring, spotlights, and God knows what. They had even gone as far as to sending a team to sneak onto Naru's ship in hope he'd discover where the rest of the merfolk had gone. They probably even expected some merfolk to try and rescue the others.

But then Amanda and her unborn baby came back to Mai's mind. She hugged her arms and squeezed them.

When a cool hand touched hers, she looked up to the sad, old, silver coin eyes that said they knew what made Mai's fingers dig into her arms.

"If any of them reach the sea, Vovo will be there. Those four were set apart and have dedicated their lives to standing watch, undiscovered. They will never marry, and they only come home when a daughter has been rescued as well." Her hand slipped away, but her sad, comforting expression did not. "And, I hope you meant it when you said you didn't like this man, because...the means used to rescue daughters atop a vessel often does so by capsizing the boat. It is more likely than not that your boy has drowned."