The damage done to the region was well handled and reduced thanks to the efforts of many. There are still plenty of prisoners at large, but the undead outbreak was suppressed succesfully. The cause for this is believed to be closely tied to your special project. Logs indicate she had a necromancer as a neighbour who was most likely freed in the proccess. I will endeavor to personally correct this mistake.

-Report from the warden of Barthol to Kyla'th the 14th lord

Organizing a retreat from Rivka was trivial considering this is technically the first time I'm swimming in this body. What wasn't trivial was the sheer amount of garbage being pumped into the sea through the river. Apparently, many magical factories located along the river dump their trash into the river to get rid of it, creating a sort of magical pollution which is mildly poisonous for sea life and also the one of the reasons mermaids never even thought of properly joining the war. Luckily, even with the greatly weakened mermaids, we only lost about six mermaids of seventy. As we make it out into sea, one of the healthier mermaids with red hair and a determined look swims up to me.

"My lady, what should we do now?" This won't do, not anymore.

"What's your name?"

"It's Lychta my lady."

"I'm Esstrey pleasure to meet you, with the pleasantries done I need you to tell me as much as you can about mermaid life but to start off start by telling me what counts as mermaid shelter."

Lychta proceeds to give me a general idea of the situation. Mermaid nests are apparently a lot like ant nests but underwater instead, with farms on the bottom of the sea meant for cattle, as all of us are carnivorous. The type of cattle apparently depends on which enclave of mermaid you generally belong to, their own enclave got raided by human scuba raiders equipped for dealing with mermaids. Most of the warriors died with few escaping, while most civilians surrendered, Lychta being one of the soldiers that stayed behind to organize the surrender.

"Before we try to build shelter we need to get further away from the coast, I notice we have a great deal of speed under the water and need to make full advantage of that, can you get a mermaid over that can draw me a map of the area?"

As Lychta excuses herself and the mermaids all slow down and start settling in for the day, even if this is not going to be a place of shelter this will be camp and I start making a quick patrol and assign a watch rotation. The watch will mostly be there to wake me up and if I cannot handle the problem alone it is deemed too hard to handle and we leave early. Despite having been on the brink of never seeing the sea again, the mermaids look to be in high spirits and greet me cheerfully as the kids start to doze off.

"Lady Esstrey, I bring a former cartographer by the name of Pakar who said he knows the local area well and can draw you a map."

An older merman makes a small bow to me and starts drawing in the sand. "Here is the river we just came out of and around here is where we should be, if we head westward we can meet up with the mermaid enclaves, to our southeast lies more coast belonging to the Dalkans while to the southwest lies Mazurio and her coast. There is also a free port full of pirates on an island called Quintillius Landing to our north, while to the east and northeast lie the western edge mountains and the empire."

"Excellent, you are dismissed. Lychta have the hunters returned yet?"

"Not yet lady Esstrey, but they should arrive any moment now."

"Once everyone has rested, I want them ready to move, sleep well."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As I wake up, I notice Lychta moving towards me.

"Lady Esstrey it is good to see you up, I was just coming to wake you up. A ship was spotted sailing nearby."

"What kind?"

"The merchant kind, milady."

"Looks like things are looking up for us, I was looking forward to making some purchases. Get all combat capable mermaids up and organized, let's go shopping.

It doesn't take long for breakfast and organizing a raid, as both are done in the same timeframe. I assign a single soldier to escort the mermaids northward while the rest of us go on an errand.

"I don't think it's safe to move with only one capable guard."

"That is because it is not safe, but it is needed since we need the supplies this ship is no doubt carrying and the more supplies we have the faster we can move and the faster we can settle somewhere."

Despite me not being very reassuring, I don't get any further complaints, not even any questions on why we are not moving westward. I think Jimmy did mention something about Mazurian culture practices in prison once. And here I thought he was simply babbling like a madman again. The trip to the merchant vessel is predictably short since we are a pack of combat ready mermaids traveling through water.

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As the ship comes into view, I signal for the mermaids to come closer, briefly forgetting we can talk underwater and explain the plan. We approach the ship and stalk it from below for a short while before climbing up the side. Getting closer to the deck I start to hear the voices of disgruntled sailors, all the mermaids are on one side so we can more easily sneak in. I start chewing away at a piece of wood to get a grip and repeat the process until I have a climbing wall all the way to the back of the ship, specifically the part with the captain's quarters. As we all hang underneath the windows, I initiate our attack by bursting through the window into the captain's quarter and immediately go for the nearest man to hold hostage and take his sable. My mermaid team following soon after.

"This is a raid! Drop your weapons or be annihilated!" Turns out I have taken the navigator hostage, but he is hardly my main bargaining chip, as we outnumber the captain and the single crewman guard nine to two.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

"I SAID DROP YOUR WEAPON!" I shout while cutting the navigator across his shoulder with his own sword. The captain, still caught up in a stupor, doesn't notice Lychta using her tail to launch forward and tackle the man to the ground, the guard tries to do something but gets cut off and taken down by a swarm of mermaids instead.

"Take their weapons, this is about to get fast, and captain if you wish to see any of your men alive I recommend telling them to surrender. I am not here as a Mazurian, but as a pirate. I am sure you can figure out what that means."

The captain only gets enough time to widen his eyes further in fear as the other two men are knocked out cold while the mermaids rush out of the cabin. As we rush out, we are greeted by sailors going about carrying around cargo and talking idly as five men instantly get blindsided and killed by the mermaid tide crawling on their deck and launching themselves on the unsuspecting victims.

"W-w-we are under attack! Mermaids on the deck!"

"We have their captain! Victory is ours! Kill all who don't surrender!" Lychta yelled it as she raises the captains' saber into the air. Some of the men who recognize it surrender, as two more are killed in the meantime. The captain rushes out of the cabin behind us and starts commanding his troops to surrender. Some don't still but are cut down without problems. As the sailors all start going to the deck to be disarmed and sit in a line, I start with my demands of the captain.

"We will be taking everything we consider of value, bar the personal belongings of your crew and what is needed to make it back to port. Co-operate with us, and we will be out of your hair quick." It wouldn't do to needlessly destroy the lives of people who so graciously offered us their cargo.

The captain however has one more offer to make as my girls start looting.

"My sword is a family heirloom and important to my sponsors, can I at least bargain for that back?"

"It depends on what you have to offer at this point captain, after all your own life isn't exactly yours to offer right now."

"Would the location of a recently sunk pirate ship be good enough?" I give the captain a bright smile, All teeth of course.

"Why that sounds like a lovely trade captain, do tell me more!"

Having made out like a bandit with gold, silver and weapons, we head back to our caravan of refugees, victorious and fat on victory.

There are cheers as we get back with the goods, our caravan helps us carry it as I direct it toward the location of the destroyed ship.

"My lady, why do you think the man wasn't lying?"

"Simple, the destination he set was too close. At this distance, we could still go back and kill them." I am sure there is no love lost between pirates and merchants.

A few kids start swimming around me excitedly.

"Are we pirates now?"

"Yay, princess is a pirate!"

I would say morale is at an all-time high, but that isn't exactly hard with how things have been going for them lately.

When we arrive at the wreckage there is a shadow looming over it, I also spot multiple men picking through the wrecked ship with odd bubbles of air around them and wire connecting them to the shadow above. It's another ship, and as the men spot our caravan approaching they start tugging the wires and ascending.

"My lady, should we hunt them down?"

"Go swim near them to prove a point, but don't kill them. I think these are pirates and would like to scare them a bit"

As we swim around the ascending men like sharks, the men are extremely nervous and many keep tugging their wires out of panic. The first men to make contact with the surface scream out.

"Mermaids! There be a whole enclave of mermaids down there!"

I gesture for the others to stay behind as I move up to the surface, my suspicions are confirmed as it is easy to see the men carrying clearly non-standard gear. I decide to surface and give a good first impression on the water-bound protection racket.

"What brings you boys so far from land? Got lost in a storm somewhere?" I give a nice big smile to really sell what I'm here for. A man dressed more fancily than the rest of the men responds.

"Why ill be, if yer aren't a pretty face if I've ever seen one. I'd ask ye what such a lovely face be doin' round these prime huntin' waters, but a birdie told me bout' a slave raid on merm' waters. If ye be wantin' vengeance for the actions of landlubbers, ya came to the wrong place. This naught me and me humble salvage crew 'ere." If his getup wasn't a big enough hint for the lack of respect for authority figures, the lack of respect for the language he speaks would do it. Just the types of men I was looking for.

"Your guess is good merchantsbane, but I did not come for ill-suited vengeance. I would like to lead my caravan to less hostile waters, but my supplies run lower than I wish them to be and the pockets of our quarry are full. What say you of hiring a small contingent of oceandwellers for the time being?" I have known these types of men enough times to know that nothing defuses a situation like some humorous stage play.

"Why I'll be, that be some of tha' best news I 'eard all week. Come aboard for parley, and let it be known tha' cap'n Nosk neve' leaves his guests to dry." I board safe in the knowledge that I have units in a position to strike, and the captain has nothing to win from attacking me. I am sure this will be a fruitful relation until we reach our destination.