Ariel laid there, what else was she supposed to do? There was nothing else to do, there was no one to come save her. She fought thoughts of Eric, her imaginary dark haired prince that she now knew to be too good to be real. She had hoped he wasn't just a dream, just some sort of coping mechanism, but that wasn't the case, and it was time for her to face reality. Eric wasn't real. He was just a wonderful dream, that had taken her far, far away from this home.

She could remember why she had married Devon, but there was a ring on her hand and no one else seemed put off by her being here. And if there were any issues, her family surely would've have let her leave. Maybe things were better than she thought. Maybe he locked her up in here because she was crazy, talking about boys who didn't exist and sulking the day away.

But, still, she did not trust him. Ariel couldn't quite put her finger on why, there just seemed something off about Devon. He was somehow assured and unassured at the same time, and the unease of his existence could be felt almost tangibly. He always looked too intently, held her as if he was grounding her, and behaved as if she was going to swim off any minute. He loved her, as he so often insisted, and he wouldn't let her go. Ariel knew this.

So she dared not ask to leave.

Ariel also knew that she had to see her family if she was ever going to right herself. Maybe, somewhere deep beneath this confusion, Ariel really did love Devon, and this dream had dragged her into a realm she didn't belong in. Maybe this Dream Eric had pulled her head above water and disoriented her enough to make her forget about her actual husband and actual life. For goodness' sake, Ariel could barely remember more than a few thing with Devon!

She remembered their meeting, at a ball, but in a simplistic and one sided way, like she only recalled it as it had been told to her. She remembered his appearance at her party, and their brief interaction. Was that before or after they got engaged? Time hardly seemed real anymore either. She had fading memories of Eric. Going sailing together, sitting in a library. But for all of these memories, the true her wasn't there either – Dream Ariel had legs!

It just didn't make sense, it couldn't be real! Ariel knew that! Devon wouldn't have spent all this time, telling her stories, sitting with her, if he actual husband was somewhere else! Ariel knew she had dreamed this up, but there was only one issue left.

She didn't want it to be a dream.

Ariel wanted, more than anything, to have that be her life. To have Dream Eric and Dream Ariel be an actual couple, and to spend her life as a human, up on the shores. Running free, dancing, living her life the way she always thought she was supposed to. Of course it was a dream, it was too beautiful to be real.

And although logic told her this, Ariel didn't want to believe it. She had to go see her family, she had to find out the truth. If they told her that Devon had always been her husband and that Eric wasn't real, then she'd return back to the manor and relearn how to be a happy wife. Ariel figured that would be what would happen. But she had to be sure.

Devon was drugging her with something, to minimize her spells, but Ariel knew that it was also holding her back. All of her strength had been sapped from her and ground up, and there would be so escape attempts while she was feeling so low. So she had to forego food entirely until she'd be able to build up the strength by offgassing the potions or powders or whatever it was he was giving her.

Not too long, for the lack of food would also make her weak. There had to be a sweet spot. Two days, maybe three. She'd have to gauge it well and give it her best effort, because Ariel may have be sure of very few things, but she knew she'd only get one shot at this.

…

Eric stretched out his fingers, marveling at how strange it felt to be fully one with the sea. He noticed the water still, but he didn't think Ariel's sisters did anymore. They must've become so used to it over the course of their lives, like how he had been desensitized to air or walking or anything typically human. It seemed infinitely more understandable why Ariel always took extra time to let the wind push her hair off her shoulders, or feel sand run through her fingers. It had struck him as odd when he found her sitting in a chair one day, running her fingers through her hair, for she still wasn't used to how it felt fully dry. Eric himself continued to rub his fin, excited by the bumps of the scales. It was foreign, but beautiful.

"Eric!" Andina snapped her fingers. "I know this is a rough time, but we all need to be together and fully present.

"I am." Eric nodded, folding his hands in his lap.

The whole family – well, minus Ariel obviously – had gathered in an informal dining room, spreading plans across a table. It had taken quite a bit of time to get everyone to agree on the best course of action, but at long last, it had been found.

"So do we all know the plan?" Attina asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Okay, we're gonna break into groups and go in shifts. We don't want to raise attention this time, because if people know that we're searching, then anyone who has something to hide will do just that." Alana said. "Artista, Eric, and I will go first."

The plan was to search the kingdom, every inch, looking for eerie and off-the-beaten path places where a mermaid could be properly hidden. They had no more clues, and would use only their gut and instincts. But they knew that would be enough. Maybe they didn't know. But they didn't have the luxury of acknowledging doubt right now.

"Let's swim." Artista smiled, and the three swam off.

They went through the offshoots of town – alleys and backways, checking for little ways to break in, checking for anything that could be a tunnel, a cabinet, a place where a petite mermaid could be hidden.

"We gotta go a little further out." Alana insisted. "We've checked the town, and I feel like someone would see her if she was just in someone's cottage."

"Not necessarily." Artista countered.

Alana shrugged. "Very true. But we've done more canvassing in town than out, and we've gotta look new places."

"I can't believe there's so much down here." Eric shook his head. "Ariel had described Atlantica to me, but I had never pictured this. Her descriptions do it justice, but I don't think I could've ever understood without seeing it for myself."

"We're glad you're here." Artista said kindly. "Though, we would've of course preferred different circumstances."

"You and me both." Eric grumbled.

"Look!" Alana pointed. "There's a cavern, and it's the perfect space for a mermaid to fit in."

"Do you really think whoever took her would hide her in a cavern?" Artista said doubtfully.

"Can we afford to not find out for sure?" Eric offered, and though the two girls said nothing, they both clearly agreed and swam forward.

There was a stone that could've been rolled forward to obstruct the entrance, but it was not positioned to do so. Maybe this was the kidnappers' fatal mistake! Maybe this would lead Eric back to Ariel! He swam excitedly in, and was overwhelmed by what he saw.

There was only one true source of light – overhead, where the cavern opened, looking only large enough for one person to fit through. Around him, was wreckage of a thousand different things, fallen into piles and most broken in some way. Smashed bottles, soaked books, paintings that had landed on candlesticks. A collection gone to waste.

"It's…Ariel's grotto." Alana breathed.

"She had kept it for years, we all knew of it, but never where it was." Artista shook her head. "We knew daddy ruined it, but never where it was…or how much their way."

Alana picked up a box of corkscrews. "She must've spent a lot of time putting this all together. She must've really loved these things."

Artista lightly lifted other things. "It's a shame it all fell apart."

Eric hadn't spoken, and he gulped, looking around at everything that was Ariel, before he could ever call her his. She had always loved the human world, that much was clear. Though the items were now mostly destroyed, Eric could see a system of arrangement, see how much work it must've been to find these treasures and haul them back, to place them all around this grotto. He could feel how hard it must've been, both in the physical sense of moving them, and the emotional sense of keeping it a secret. He picked up a small pocketwatch, cracked, probably from impact. She deserved to have it back, to have everything back that had been taken from her.

She deserved to see her grotto, to see land, to be wherever she wanted to be, whenever she wanted. Eric knew now how much both land and sea meant to her, in a way he hadn't been able to understand before. Ariel was not just human, and she was not just a mermaid. She was both, she was everything, and he was going to find her.

He trailed around, letting his fingers just barely graze over the treasures. He wanted to remember every bit of this.

"Eric, we've gotta keep looking." Alana waved him down.

Eric nodded, and although he knew it was mostly symbolic in nature, he felt as if he had found her once more. And that would sustain him until he saw her again.

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