"Look out!"

Zafrina and Bay looked up, startled, at the shriek from above. They only saw Melody for a brief moment before a spear swung out of no where, swiping Melody clean from the water above. She went flying, luckily only the wooden handle had been used; she frantically swam herself straight, but then the glaive-wielding figure went to strike again.

Zafrina heard a whistle as something sailed by, very close to her ear, and when she turned, the arrow was in the sand. She spun round, to see a cloaked mermaid melt out of the shadows. Her heart leapt into her throat, for the mermaid was already reaching for another arrow. But she was looking up at Melody, who was frantically trying to claw her way out of reach of the glaive. The merman advanced, glacier poised. "Melody! Swim!" She shouted, before hearing another arrow fly, and and she had to duck. Bay went rushing to Melody, grabbing the merman from behind to stop him from following her. He shouted over the merman's struggling form.

"Get help!"

"I can't leave you both!"

"Just go!" Zafrina shouted, not out of frustration, but because she was desperate to keep Melody out of harm's way. Thankfully Melody realized she wasn't to be argued with, for she suddenly turned tail and went racing to find Finn. The larger merman went to follow upon breaking free of Bay, but Zafrina blocked his path, determined not to let him reach Melody.

He laughed and rose the glistening glaive blade, and she briefly froze, noticing how sharp and long it was. "Zafrina!" She heard Bay shout, and he threw the staff. Zafrina, snapping out of her paralysis, dived to retrieve it. She rolled along the sand, aware that the merman was chasing her, before throwing up the staff to block the blow. There was a loud clang as the glaive came into contact with the ancient metal. Her arms shook as they took the force behind the strike, the blade trembling inches from her face. She looked up into the hood, and suddenly her eyes widened in shock. She recognized him.

At first she struggled to pinpoint who it was. But then she remembered, all at once. His name, what was his name? A taunting voice came from underneath the hood, and then she knew.

"Remember me?" He sneered. Bay didn't need to see under the hood to know who it was; he knew the voice. It was very clear now in Zafrina's memory, throwing spears, barking orders to merpeople trapped by Nia's spell. The merman threw the hood off, not needing to hide his identity any longer.

"Icarus!" Exclaimed Bay, in shock. "What are you doing?" Icarus, one of the mermen who Nia had tasked to track them, was here. He was tall and lanky, thinner than they remembered. He was heavily tattooed with pale skin and jaw-length black hair, with darkness around his sunken eyes. His face was scarred on the left side, his lip was split from a recent brawl. Narcissus and Ravenna had said he was one of the few they hadn't heard from - there was an escape from the Delorea prison... and he'd been with one mermaid in particular. Zafrina felt sick as she looked over her shoulder at the other mermaid, putting two and two together.

"Where is it?" Icarus hissed, glaive pointed at Bay.

"Where's what?" Bay shouted, in confusion.

Zafrina spun round to face his companion as Bay tackled Icarus. Don't be her. Don't be her... but she was shooting arrows, and the purple tail was familiar. It had to be her. Zafrina grabbed a piece of shipwreck wood off the ground, using it as a shield, for the slim staff wouldn't do her any favours against arrows. Then she heard a shout abruptly cut off, turning in time to see the wooden handle of the glaive hit Bay in the side of the head.

Bay was out for the count. He lay unconscious, a bruise blooming on his temple. Zafrina looked on in horror as Icarus dived on him, her throat locking so no words could get out; but he wasn't stabbing him. He was searching Bay's bag, frantically, turning it inside out so the contents rolled across the floor. "He doesn't have it!" Icarus reported in frustration. Zafrina was slowly beginning to realize what they were looking for, but didn't think, for the attackers had turned towards her, ignoring Bay now.

"Hand it over!" The hooded mermaid demanded, but Zafrina didn't have anything to give. Terrified, overwhelmed by the memories of these two merpeople, she turned and made a break for it, knowing they wouldn't harm Bay, for they were hot on her tail. The mermaid eventually turned to Icarus, a hand on his face. "She's mine. Make sure I'm not interrupted."

Finn was just swinging the bag over his shoulder when he heard the screams, of his name. His fingers slipped and the bag nearly slid off, as he whirled round to see Melody coming over the hill, her face flooded with terror. She reached him, her hands desperately pulling on his arm. "Finn! Zafrina and Bay are being attacked!"

"What?"

"Come on! There's no time!"

Finn raced after Melody, a terrible feeling overcoming him, as they approached. Melody realized with horror that she no longer heard Bay and Zafrina shouting; all kinds of horrific thoughts entered her head, and when they came into the clearing, at first she thought half of that worst fear had come true. A merman lay on the sand, head bruised, eyes shut with his bag laying a few feet away, belongings thrown everywhere as Icarus had ransacked it.

"Bay!" Finn exclaimed, noticing his motionless best friend on the floor; but then relief crashed over him like a wave as he saw Bay move a little at the sound of his name. He muttered and his eyes flickered open. Melody reached him first, trying to help him sit up. "What did they want?" She asked, frantically, worriedly examining his bruise, as Finn helped Bay to sit up. Bay clung to Finn in his delirious state.

"They wanted... they wanted..." Bay struggled to speak. Finn thought for a moment, but then he looked down at his bag, which held the stone. Bay looked him dead in the eyes. "Finn... it was Icarus." Finn looked up, stomach lurching in horror; memories flooded over him of this particular merman.

"Icarus?" Melody stared at him in shock. "That's impossible..." but there had been a prison break. Then she saw the arrow in the sand, and she put two and two together. "Bay, who was with him? Not... not..." Melody desperately didn't want it to be true, so she didn't say her name. "No... where's Zafrina?"

Finn looked up in horror, hearing Zafrina's voice in the distance. Without really thinking, Finn put a hand on his bag, before he shot after the sound, aware that Zafrina was on her own with two of the most dangerous merpeople he knew. "Finn, come back!" Melody protested, but Bay, struggling to rise, meant she couldn't follow. She frantically tried to help him come back to his senses.

Zafrina raced on, desperately looking over her shoulder; where had the mermaid gone? She'd seen her in the corner of her eye, following relentlessly, but now she had disappeared. Zafrina slowed to a stop, thinking she'd lost her pursuer. She crouched in a small ditch, trembling, looking for any sign of movement. She peered through some seaweed, her lips quivering; she jolted. Pfft. Pfft. A quiet sound repeated itself, distances apart - there was a flash, and Zafrina jumped back as a cloud of purple smoke manifested out of nothing, with the mermaid appearing with it. She blinked in shock, as there mermaid suddenly disappeared again; then the smoke appeared above Zafrina's head, and she couldn't hide.

Zafrina plunged through the smoke, out of hiding, feeling a pair of fingernails claw for her arm in the process, but she just about slipped free. Zafrina fled across the sand, looking frantically over her shoulder. She turned around a corner, and it was there she heard it; a whistle through the air, right past her ear. Then she cried out as pain sliced into the left side of her neck. Zafrina crashed to the sand, hand clinging to her neck, before she scrabbled backwards, frantically clawing to press her back against a boulder.

She pressed her hand to the side of her neck, feeling the tear in the skin, feeling it bleed. Her breath came in ragged gasps, as she realized how close the arrow had come. She clenched her teeth, trying to stay silent through her pain, eyes screwing shut. The deadly accuracy, it had been shot to only graze, to hurt and scare her. There was only one mermaid who shot with such accuracy. Her eyes frantically tore from one corner of her vision to the next, desperately looking for where the arrow had been released. Then there was the same pfft sound, and then she was eclipsed in shadow. Zafrina whipped her head up, eyes glossed over, flooded with a look; it was like that of a fawn faced with a wolf.

The hood was off. Ontari loomed over her, arrow drawn and pointed at her face. "Remember me?" Ontari echoed Icarus, a sinister smirk on her face. Ontari, Nia's right-hand mermaid, who had loved ordering Zafrina about. Ontari, who had ordered Zafrina to drown a shipwreck survivor. Next to Otan, Ontari was her worst nightmare.

"Not you..." Zafrina moaned, her hand still pressed against her neck.

"Yes, me." Ontari came forwards, and Zafrina frantically crawled backwards, struggling on one arm. Prison had not been good to Ontari - she had lost weight, she was covered in scratches and bruises. Her skin looked paper-thin, her face tired yet restless. Her brown hair was longer than Zafrina remembered, in layered braids now - much like how Nia wore her hair when she was alive. Her eyes were a murky brown, on the reddish side, like rust. Zafrina noticed a necklace around her neck, a tiny glass bottle filled with purple sand or powder - she thought she had seen it before, in Nia's lair. It was the same colour as the smoke. "I see you lot got off lightly after Nia. A couple now, are you? You and Bay? So sweet. You're positively glowing."

"You think so?" Zafrina asked, through sarcasm and gritted teeth. "What about you and Icarus? I heard you were getting comfortable in prison. You look a bit rough."

"We heard about granddaddy's death." Ontari snapped, turntaking the conversation. "How tragic." Zafrina filled with pain and anger at the mockery in Ontari's voice.

"Missing Nia, are we?" Zafrina retaliated, despite the arrow held inches from her face.

"Stop stalling." Ontari hissed, the arrow coming closer, but Zafrina couldn't move any further, trapped against a boulder. Her voice was deadly as she spoke. "Now, where is it?"

"I honestly don't know what you're looking for!" Zafrina protested through tears, trying to reach up a hand to push the arrow away, but Ontari shoved it right to her skin, so she felt the tip on her throat.

"The stone!" Ontari snapped, and then it dawned upon Zafrina. "That's right, that stone. We saw the beam in Belixia."

"It could have been any beam..." Zafrina said weakly, desperate to stall Ontari.

"Its a bit of a coincidence, that Triton, the former owner, suddenly dies and you lot go on a road trip to here of all places, where it came from. I'm waiting, Zafrina."

"I don't have it!" She didn't. Finn did, but she wasn't going to drop him in it. Ontari didn't believe her.

"Lies!" Ontari threw the bow to the sand; there was a glint as she reached into her cloak. Then a knife. Zafrina covered her face as Ontari drew her arm back, but then a blur crashed into Ontari and sent her flying. Ontari and Finn went flailing out of view, leaving Zafrina alone on the ground. She shook, her breath coming in ragged gasps, as she saw the knife on the floor, seeing her eyes reflected in the blade. After a few moments, Melody came speeding round the corner. Behind her, Bay followed, a little slower but gaining speed as he recovered from the strike to his temple. He came to entirely when he saw Zafrina.

"Are you okay? Did she hurt you?" He searched her eyes and looked her over for injuries, but her hand covered her neck still, so he couldn't see what Ontari had done. Melody saw the knife and the bow and arrows on the sand. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of darkness - Icarus, ignoring them, going to the sound of shrieking. It was there Melody realized it was Finn and Ontari shrieking. Finn... She saw Icarus disappear over the hill, and it dawned upon her: Finn, alone, with Ontari and Icarus.

"They don't have it! I do!" Finn shouted, out of view, and Melody went cold. What is he doing! Melody snatched up her staff, ignoring Zafrina and Bay, yelling at her to wait. Bay seized the dropped weapons and went to help Zafrina up. Over the hill, Ontari and Finn fought.

Finn had forgotten his battle training. Ontari was better trained and faster, and easily had the upper hand. Another knife appeared out of no where, and Finn grabbed her wrist to stop it from plunging into his shoulder. They struggled dangerously over the knife. "Give it here!" Ontari screeched, a fire blazing in her eyes, which were fixed on his bag that contained the casket. Her fingernails raked into his arm, and he cried out but didn't give in. He didn't even know why Ontari would want the stone, but he didn't want to find out.

"Come and get it!" Finn tried to, but he couldn't hide his fear. Ontari looked as though she were about to murder him, an unhinged look in her rust-coloured eyes. Of course she'd want to kill him. He'd killed Nia, taking away Ontari's power over others. She'd been torn away by Attina's soldiers, spitting and screaming that she would find and kill him. He was the reason she'd been imprisoned for a year. All he knew was that he had to keep her away from Melody, Zafrina and Bay.

Icarus came crashing in like a tsunami wave, knocking Finn away from Ontari, and he fell to the stone floor. Finn hit his head, and then he was on his back, sprawled on the ground, his head spinning. He felt a wound somewhere beneath the back of his hair. Finn shook his head slightly, dazed, but then it cleared immediately as he saw Ontari was above him. Icarus tossed her the glaive, and she pointed the blade down. Her eyes were filled with flame, her every intent was clear, her knuckles white as she clutched the glaive handle.

She uttered the words: "This is for my queen."

Finn realized, too late, what she was about to do. The realization slowly appeared on his face, his eyes darkened with pleading, to Ontari's - what Melody would call - humanity. He rose his hand, as if to protest.

Melody came over the hill in time to see Ontari drive the blade down.