I allowed the little mermaid to once more do her telepathy thing, having let her stew over my words for a bit. She seemed upset, a tight frown on her face and defiance in her eyes.

As she placed her hand on my forehead, I actively tried to emulate the feeling of telepathy through my aura, attempting to do a similar spell to her own. It didn't work, obviously, but that might just be because of a lack of practice.

"U-um... Are you... Are you sure you didn't see my father?" She asked, eyes threatening to burst with tears. I stared down at her for a bit, refusing to answer. Finally, I turned away and went towards the entrance to the cave.

"H-hey! Wait! Where are you going?!" The mermaid yelled, quickly following after me. Compared to me, she was painfully slow, and so, so very small. Hence, I had to both slow down and also be careful that I didn't accidentally squish her.

I ignored her yet again, and instead, I brought her to the huge hole in the ceiling, where the entire ocean rested above. She seemed a bit confused at first when I stopped, and she was squinting hard, unable to see. Then, as if reading my mind, she got to work casting some sort of spell.

When she was finished, a small ball of bright light came out of her hand and floated nearby, illuminating the area. She gaped at the sight.

"... What..." She murmured, eyes wide and such a hurt and abandoned look that, had I still been a human, I might have comforted her. However, I had neither the means nor the will to do so now.

"Dear," I called out to her through the link she'd by now abandoned but that I was keeping up though my messy use of aura. "I do not know what happened to you, nor even who you are. And, frankly, I do not care. I have far bigger problems to worry about. However, I can tell you from personal experience that... things... can happen. However, no matter how bleak it may seem now, as long as you try your hardest, things will improve eventually. You may die during the process, but at least you'll die knowing you've done your best."

I knew I wasn't really talking to her. Perhaps I was projecting myself onto her a bit, but... Those words just kind of came out.

"... I thought... I thought daddy sent you to be with me..." She murmured, ugly tears running down her eyes yet again. "But, if daddy didn't send you... who did?" She asked me, trying her hardest to stop herself from breaking down into another sobbing fit.

I've never liked crybabies. However, I do suppose I can tolerate her weakness. She didn't look much older than 9 or 10 years old, and her whole world had just been ripped away from her. Oh well.

"Nobody did, dear. I stumbled into this place by accident while I was searching for some food. You're quite lucky I was the one to find you, and not literally any other creature living within this abyss."

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"..." She didn't answer me as she continued staring up into the seemingly endless ocean resting above her head. Even as her light spell began to run out, she didn't stop, seemingly lost in thought.

Then, she tried to reach out to it, touch the waters above. I was quick to stop her, however. I didn't exactly need to since she obviously couldn't reach the water that was quite a bit too high up for her to reach, but it was still better to inform her of the danger.

"Don't touch it. Although this cave is exempt from it for some reason, the waters above are heavy enough to turn you into a little cube." I said casually.

She bit her lips so hard blue blood came out. "Then... What am I supposed to do!?" She screamed/cried out. I was taken aback at her sudden change in mood but didn't have the opportunity to say anything as she continued.

"I don't remember what happened! My mom... my dad... my brothers... I don't know where they are! Where is Oceania!? I just want my family back! And now I can't even get out of this stupid place..." She broke down in tears yet again at the end.

I could only look at her with a vague sense of surprise. Finally, I decided to just go ahead and tell her.

"Dear," I called out through our telepathic link to get her attention. "You are not the only one to have lost everything."

She stopped her sniffling and looked at me. "I, too, have lost everything. And by everything, I mean everything. I was lucky enough to get a second chance, however, my odds were never good. Nonetheless, I survived. Then... why can't you?" I told her.

She was looking at me a bit weirdly. 'Wow, thanks, I know my speeches aren't that good, but you don't have to make it obvious' I thought to myself.

"Look, what I'm trying to say is... Even if you're still too young and weak to find the answers to everything, what's stopping you from becoming stronger and searching out your parents?"

She seemed pleasantly surprised at my words. She turned her eyes and looked at me with hopeful eyes. "Y-yeah! You're right! But... W-will you help me?"

"No."

She looked down, her eyes that had been filled with so much hope now looked like the eyes of a ghost. "Don't take it the wrong way, dear. I don't know you. I don't care about you. To me, you are nothing but a convenient partner in conversation in what has been months upon months of nothing but loneliness and slaughter. Still, I do not mind helping you out right now."

She looked back up at me, now a bit lost in my reasoning. "But you just said you won't help me?"

"I won't help you. I will only give you an opportunity if only to take away some of my boredom. However, I will not follow you in whatever you wish to do. I have my own path, just as you have your own. Now, enough dilly-dallying. Go back to your room. I have an idea."

"B-but..." She tried to say, but I collapsed our mental link before she could say anything more. She looked vaguely surprised when she felt her own spell fall, and a quick look from me sent her reluctantly on her way.

Perhaps I was being a bit harsh with such a young child, but... My brutal honesty was, in my opinion, a far better option to ignorance, or worse, the false promises that everything would be good and okay.

I was going to make her suffer. Perhaps she might even come to hate me, but in the end, it would be for her own good. As long as I did what I felt was enough for her, that would be enough. I do not truly care about her feelings towards me, although I'd prefer they remain positive.

And so, I entered back into the ocean, constantly keeping a mental note of where the cave was. When I found an appropriate target, I would begin the little girl's training.

... Who still hasn't told me her name. Oh well. It's probably going to be some dumb name stereotypical of mermaids, so I probably shouldn't even want to know it.