It'd been a long journey, but there she was.

Atlantica; the great city of legends. It had been years since a cecaelia had ever set a tentacle in this city, and now Absalon was one of the chosen few to reap the early glory. He could not help but feel a fire light up in his heart as he drew ever closer to the city. This would, no doubt, earn him great favor in his lord's court and set a path for his future ambitions.

I love it when a plan comes together. Absalon's thoughts raced with delusions of grandeur, all while he wore the stupidest grin, wider than a beached whale.

Absalon parted ways with the caravan on the outskirts of the city and made for the Eastern Gate. As he approached, he came across one hell of a surpise. It turned out he was far from the first cecaelia to come into Atlantica recently, as floating outside the gate were two cecaelian guards. The revelation made his heart shrink to his liver.

"So much for being unique...," he muttered to himself.

The two guards were both caecilian mermaids, and not bad lookers to be sure, but their eyes didn't suggest any sort of friendliness. They were hard stares that seemed strong enough to pierce stone and had an almost manic level of intensity that left Absalon somewhat uneasy. Their eyes darted back and forth, almost as if searching for trouble, or someone to start trouble with.

Otherwise, the mermaids looked normal enough. They both had rough skin around their octopus halves, (meant for camouflage in times of danger), reaching all the way up to their chests. (They were definitely from the west.) Their humanoid sides were well toned, and bore tough looking shoulder guards with spikes on them, as well as fish leather gloves. They also wore simple coral helmets over their heads over short brown locks of hair. In their tentacles they carried two short swords bearing odd symbols Absalon hadn't seen before, and in their arms they carried plain daggers.

He didn't get far towards the gate before one guard spotted him, and alerted her companion.

"Halt! Who goes there!?" The guard shouted with two of her blade outstretched.

But before Absalon could say a word, the guards quickly reinspected him, upon which their personalities made a complete turn-around. Their eyes softened to a completely passive state; their mouths flipped from scowls to grins; and they immediately sheathed their swords and daggers. They then humbly bowed towards him.

The right guard spoke, "We're sorry brother. We mistook you for riff-raff. Are you one of the new recruits for the city patrol?"

Absalon exaggeratedly rolled his eyes at the two, "Hardly."

In an almost comical display of bravado, Absalon reared his steed back and stuck his chest out in some vague attempt to look as important as possible. "I am Lord Absalon, representative of the province of Silmaria, and one of the great nobles of these waters! My coming was heard throughout the land in a perfect storm of excellence and pride, and now I grace this city with my presence! I was summoned here by the queen to-"

Having a seahorse rear for too long is not a smart decision, and often leads to your steed bucking you out of annoyance. Needless to say, Absalon got a perfect sized lump from the rock he hit when he tumbled off. On the bright side, he was far more straightforward after that.

"I was summoned for an audience with your queen. I wish to be taken to her." He muttered as he crossed his arms and two of his tentacles together.

The second guard swam towards Absalon, (stiffling a chuckle as she approached), and bowed her head. "We shall inform her majesty of your arrival sir. One of the eel brothers will come to pick you up. We just request that you stay here while my sister goes to retrieve him."

Absalon was fine with that decision, as it gave him perfect time to adjust to his new setting. Once the guard's sister left, he began to grill her with whatever questions he could regarding the status of Atlantica at the current moment. What he learned from her was very interesting indeed.

It seems the kingdom was in a state of utter disarray following the months after the former king's demise. When the queen took control, the populace was in a less than willing position to obey; along with most of the city guard who still retained strong loyalty to their king. Bribes and mere threats were not enough to convince enough merfolk to the queen's side, and drastic measures were taken to force stability.

The majority of the former guards were either sacked and banished, or executed; and those who didn't want to leave easy met fates worse than death. (The mermaid wore a toothy grin, and an uncomfortable glare upon relaying this part.) The citizens were practically in revolt at the time, but the more examples the queen made with her powers, the more they began to quiet down. It was an uneasy peace though, as dissention quickly began to spread throughout the underground, and this wasn't something that could easily be dealt with by one person. (Hostile takeovers usually don't go so well unless you have people backing you up, but it doesn't hurt to have magic.)

The queen did not take this peace lying down however. She immediately began announcing proclamation after proclamation, lifting old laws and writing new ones. One such law was to open immigration to all cecaelian people to the city, and guard positions were offered to all able bodied folk. (The big advantages cecaelias have always had to merfolk, is that there is no difference in power between male and female. Their tentacles were their greatest assets, and could crush any who stood before them.)

This was certainly met with praise from caecilians all over, but garnered mostly disgust from fish-folk. There were many eager volunteers up for the spoils, yet the paper work, and providing positions for these people proved to be a time consuming factor that led to months with a ramshackle government.

Now however, the kingdom was starting to show signs of stabilizing. A few months of working the kinks out were finally starting to show their results, and the queen's stern policies kept the merfolk in line just long enough to get some muscle in her ranks. Now the city guard was starting to grow to a respectable size, and were given a reasonable amount of freedom to do what they want with the merfolk as long as it kept the peace.

The queen was a crafty woman though, and made her power perfectly clear to even cecaelias that she was the reigning monarch, and traitorous acts would not be tolerated. (This proved a little unnecessary for the cecaelias who were happy enough to enjoy their newfound rights in Atlantica.) Needless to say, her rule was iron fisted.

"As for me," whispered the guard in a cool tone. "I'm living as good a life as any cecaelia can get. These flimsy fish-folk make for great sport, though their mermen are absolutely pathetic. I've destroyed several of them, sometimes in front of their families, and they show less backbone than I do."

She gave Absalon a childish smirk as they both laughed at some cecaelia humor. All the while, Absalon's head was brimming with eagerness for the future.

If these dinks were so hapless now, then it seems it would be almost trivial to exploit them for future labors. Their morale was so distraught after the loss of their king that it would be child's play. This certainly would need to be a subject Absalon would bring up on the day of the meeting.

Before long, the other guard-maiden had returned, accompanying her was a large moray eel with mismatched eyes. Absalon turned to this Eel and bowed his head, as he struggled to recollect a name he had heard from his Lord.

"Ah... greetings Lord... Flots-?"

"Jetsam, my dear boy. Jetsam."